The Easter paradox

Preached 4-12-09

John 20:1-18

¹Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ²So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

³So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. ⁸Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

¹⁰Then the disciples went back to their homes, ¹¹but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹²and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. ¹³They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." ¹⁴At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. ¹⁵"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." ¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). ¹⁷Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' " ¹⁸Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Sermon:

Earlier today at the sunrise service we began with death, and now we celebrate!

It is similar to last Sunday when we celebrated Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and then mourned his impending death.

Our faith is full of paradoxes.

We mourn but rejoice, we grieve but have hope.

And if we think this morning’s bible passage is full of paradoxes, we must wonder what it was like for those in the story.

For those that didn’t have all of the information yet, those that didn’t know Christ was going to rise, and were simply in chaos- their savior crucified.

All throughout Lent, the 40 days of fasting and remembrance we have been preparing for this day, much like Advent we have been looking forward to our Messiah, however instead of his birth we have been waiting for his resurrection.

So as we try to understand how those we read of in our passage today experienced the first Easter, we must remember the preparation we do for this celebration every year was not what Mary, Peter, and the other disciples did.

What they came from was a very raw, agonizing, confusing time.

We can sympathize with them.

We have all experienced the death of loved ones.

We have all found the place when questions go unanswered and the plans we thought were solid crumbled.

We all have had the experience of feeling lost, confused, frustrated, interrupted.

There are a lot of interruptions to our daily life.

There are changes in plans

There are sicknesses and accidents.

There is death and grief

We don’t really like any of these things.

They can be a nuisance or a complete overhaul of how we thought things should go

We may find ourselves wondering if God truly has our best interests at heart,

If we is going to help us, if we are to blame for the situation, or if God is.

For the disciples in our passage there was a major interruption in their life.

It started when a man named Jesus called them away from their professions to follow him, they left their families, their jobs, and watched a man who amazed them again and again.

Who performed miracles, who preached with astounding authority, who persuaded them and countless others that he was the Messiah they had been waiting for, then they saw him betrayed- many of them betrayed Him themselves, and then they saw him crucified.

The Son of God who was supposed to save them, was gone.

I’m sure most if not all of you know the all-encompassing feeling of grief.

No matter what the circumstances around death were, you still hold out hope, and when the person is truly gone you still find it hard to accept.

You might find yourselves experiencing an event and want to share it with that person, only to realize once again that they are not there.

The disciples are experiencing grief, a major interruption to how things were supposed to go according to them.

But our story doesn’t end there of course, this is Easter!

There is an interruption to their grief…

At first Mary thinks it is only more heartache.

She finds the tomb empty and thinks the grave of her savior has been vandalized.

The angels aren’t enough, and if only that gardener knows where the body has been taken…

We can imagine the overwhelming Joy, amazement, and disbelief that Jesus is truly alive.

The grief of the Disciples is interrupted, Jesus is alive!

There is hope, their savior has not been defeated by death, he has conquered it!

This is the time for the overly emotional and dramatic scene in a movie.

This surely deserves a beautiful reunion.

And it is, but not quite the way we would imagine.

Mary is overcome with joy, but what is Jesus’ response?

Do not hold on to me

Wait…what?

If a loved one came back to us, how could we not hold on?

Why would Jesus ask Mary not to hold on to him?

It is not a simple request he asks of just Mary

This is something fundamental, something so important that we really can’t understand Easter if we don’t get this.

You see Jesus is not here to stay, not to Mary- and as our Savior he does not stay in one place for us either.

Jesus is not confined to our passage today, or any other scripture, or any one bible character.

All throughout the bible we it tells us of the God of Abraham, the God of Issac, the God of Jacob, it is not redundant.

It is telling us that each person had their own experience with God.

Jesus tells Mary she cannot hold onto him because 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'

It is a weird way of phrasing it, unless we understand we all have our own experience with God.

That’s why coming together is so valuable, your experience with God will be different from mine, yet we worship the same God.

It’s why Easter is never done.

Our story may have an end, the book of John may end, but Easter is not finished.

In the Christian calendar we have a season of Easter, so Easter continues after the actual day of Easter is over, yet what I am referring to lasts all throughout the year.

God is available at all times, and although our circumstances and situations may change daily, his schedule is always open.

He is always available, our personal God.

The same God that resurrected Jesus will save us from death as well.

The loved ones we mourn may be gone, but we have hope that they are not lost to us forever.

We as Mary may try to cling to Jesus, or to millions of things in our own life.

To our fear, to our doubts, to our plans, or to our idea of how things should be.

But none of the disciples anticipated Jesus’ resurrection.

Their plans were no where near as spectacular as God’s

I was told in CPR class that if a person is conscious they must be asked if they want to helped.

If they don’t, you have to let them go- you will only make it worse to try and save someone that doesn’t want or doesn’t see a need to be saved.

(I’ve heard the same of lifeguards, a flailing person will only take you down with them)

But, the minute if they struggle long enough to become unconscious, then you help them.

It’s only when the person lets go of trying to control things that they can be saved.

Mary could not keep a hold of Jesus, we cannot confine him either.

If we trust him he will lead us down paths we didn’t expect, he will take us places we never planned, and he will introduce us to people and situations we never thought we’d encounter.

But he is not avoiding us, or running from us- he is taking us along, so that we may find ourselves being pulled farther and farther from the things we cling to- from the things that we think will save us, and closer to the only true Savior.

We all have, will, and will continue to face interruptions to our life.

Some of them will be pleasant, many will not be.

If we chose to follow this risen savior we celebrate today there will be few guarantees.

It will involve letting go of a lot of comfortable and safe things and feelings.

It will require us to understand that we cannot save ourselves

It also will mean that when you walk out of this building Easter is not over

That at 12 tonight Easter is not done

That when things get tough and you might question the wisdom of an unpredictable God, Easter hasn’t ended.

Easter is the promise that we have, that God will never be defeated, and his children will never be forgotten.

That neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Romans 37-39)

That Jesus conquered the grave, so that we may too.

There can be no better way to celebrate and remember that than coming to God in Holy Communion.

Many times we view this time as a somber time of sacrifice, but today of all days let us rejoice in what Christ has done for us.

That our savior could not be confined to a tomb, and all those that trust in him will never be either!