Easter Vigil, 03/31/2013

Sermon on John 20:1-18, by David H. Brooks

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.' Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?' She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.' When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?' Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.' Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!' She turned and said to him in Hebrew,‘Rabbouni!' (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." ' Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord'; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

I am not one that believes that Hollywood gets it right very often. As storytellers, the masters of Hollywood tend to hold up to acclaim that which is less than noble. But I remember a scene from a movie called Grand Canyon that got things right. A lawyer leaves a Lakers game, and in an effort to avoid traffic, winds his way into one of the more unsavory sections of Inglewood. His fancy sports car stalls on one of those streets whose self-appointed teenaged guardians adorn themselves with expensive jewelry, sneakers and guns. He phones a tow truck and sits down to wait. As he passes the time, a group of street toughs take notice of him and threaten him with bodily harm. Just in time, the tow truck shows up and its driver, a genial man, begins to work. The gang steps in to prevent him from taking away their prey. So the driver takes the leader aside and attempts a five sentence introduction to philosophy. "Man," he says, "the world ain't supposed to work like this. Maybe you don't know that, but this ain't the way it's supposed to be. I'm supposed to be able to do my job without asking you if I can. And that dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you rippin' him off. Everything is supposed to be different than what it is here."

To which Mary Magdalene, Peter and the disciples, all those who were a part of the life of Jesus might say AMEN. It should not be like this. Jesus was a good man, a kind and gentle person. There was no reason for the authorities to take him, there was no reason for the crowds, those who had heard him preach, who had experienced and benefited from his power and mercy to turn against him, there was no reason for Pilate to hang him on a cross. There is no reason that we should be standing here, in this garden with bundles of spices and linen wraps. Everything is supposed to be different than what it is here.

How many of us, during our lives, have had those words cross our lips, or at least our minds? We have all though about it. We have thought it staring in the mirror while we brush our teeth, we have thought it hunched over our desks during the day, we have thought it at the lunch tables after class, we have thought it in the car, we have thought it in our backyards, we have thought it on vacation. Everything is supposed to be different than what it is here. And maybe, not usually, but just maybe we have allowed a second thought on the heels of that first thought: this is what sin is like. It is more than just a spoiler of creation, where people adulterate a marriage, or destroy a stream, or bully someone weaker, or defraud unsuspecting pensioners. These are only symptoms. The Bible presents sin in an array of images: the missing of a target, a wandering from the path, a straying from the fold. It is a heart that is hard, a neck that is stiff. It is both the overstepping of a line and the failure to reach it-both transgression and shortcoming. Sin is a beast crouching at the door. Sin is that thing where people attack, evade, ignore, or neglect their divine calling. These and other images from the Scriptures suggest deviance; even when it is familiar, sin is never normal. Sin is disruption of created harmony, of all that is good, and then, resistance to divine restoration of it. It is not supposed to be like this.

AND NOW THE BODY IS GONE!! And Mary, weeping from grief and frustration, throws down her burden of spices and ointments meant for a grisly task, turns to the stranger in the garden and cries out Dear sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will take him away.

And the stranger speaks a word, a name: Mary. It is her own name, a word she has heard who knows how many times before, but in this stranger's mouth it sounds fresh and new. And suddenly, everything: the spices and ointments and the messy business they represent; the tomb and its strangely open, gaping-mouth entrance; the birds in the trees, the sun in the sky; everything is shifted; nothing occupies the reality it did before. He Is Alive! It is not supposed to be like this. And yet there he is, speaking. Which means nothing is the same.

I say it again: nothing is the same. The first witnesses to Easter knew full well that something had happened to them and to their world. We tend to think that those who lived long ago were ignorant; no, we are the ignorant ones. They were acquainted with death; they saw death on a daily basis; it lived at home with them and they rubbed shoulders with it in a way that we do not. They knew death, and they knew that Jesus came off the cross dead and yet now he was not dead. Nor was he simply resuscitated, new breath blown into old lungs and heart. He was different, alive in a way they could not explain; only appreciate, because they knew it should not be like this. If Jesus was alive, then the possibilities stagger the imagination! The very world has been shifted on its foundations; it has been entered, encountered, reformed, transformed. Easter wasn't God saying: hey--let me get you out of this terrible, deadly, tear-filled world. Easter is God saying: let me give you a glimpse of what I am doing to you and your world. In the raising of Jesus, God showed us the world according to God, a world where sin is overcome by love and mercy, And we may say, it's not supposed to be like this, and God whispers and shouts all at once, oh, yes it is. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. David H. Brooks
Cary, NC

E-Mail: David.Brooks@ChristtheKingCary.org

(top)