The Vigil of Easter 2021

The Vigil of Easter, 03/04/2021 | Sermon on John 20:1-18 | by Paul Bieber |

John 20:1-18 Revised Standard Version

20 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. ² 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.” ³ Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. ⁴ They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; ⁵ and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, ⁷ and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸ Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; ⁹ for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to their homes.

¹¹ But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; ¹² and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. ¹³ They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴ Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” 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.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

also

The Vigil Readings

Romans 6:3-11

Now things are different

Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed!]

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

In yesterday’s Passion reading we heard Jesus’ word from the cross, “It is finished.” There is a sense in which the cross finishes the task the Father has given him; he loved his disciples to the end. But the story of the disciples is not resolved. They misunderstood Jesus, they scattered when he was arrested, and Peter, their spokesman, three times denied that he even knew Jesus. The mother of Jesus and the disciple whom he loved were there at the foot of the cross, but Jesus’ task, and Jesus’ life, and his movement look to be finished, even though he said that this was the hour of his glorification. Is there a bright and glorious future—is there any future —for these disciples?

Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea emerge from the gathering gloom as the Sabbath is beginning, for Jesus’ burial. They are obscure, unlikely disciples to demonstrate that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early, while it is still dark. Seeing that the stone Joseph and Nicodemus had placed at entrance to the tomb to secure it, has been removed, Mary Magdalene comes to the most probable conclusion: Grave robbers have been at work. And she runs to tell.

She goes to Peter the denier and the Beloved Disciple who had stood at the foot of the cross, and they run to the tomb. The Beloved Disciple, John, looks in and sees the grave cloths. Peter, typically impetuous, enters the tomb, sees the grave cloths and also the napkin that had been laid over the face of the dead Jesus, neatly rolled up by itself. Grave robbers would not treat the grave linens like that. But these two disciples of Jesus’ inner circle still do not understand that the Father will not leave Jesus dead. Yet when John saw the empty tomb and the neatly left behind linens, he believed. The empty tomb was enough for him.

But not for Mary Magdalene. Peter and John leave the tomb, both still puzzled about what the empty tomb means, one of them believing even so. Mary stays behind to weep. If it wasn’t grave robbers, then who has taken the body of her Lord away? It is her turn to look into the tomb, and now things are different. Not just burial linens, but two white-clad angels are in there; they ask her why she is weeping and she tells them of her puzzlement.

Then she turns around and encounters the gardener—as she supposes—who asks her the same thing and receives the same reply. But now things are different, as the risen Jesus calls her by name. At this, she recognizes him. She embraces him, or at least tries to, but he tells her not to hold him. Mary Magdalene was one of the women who attended Jesus and his disciples during the Galilean ministry and provided for them out of their means. Jesus had cast seven demons out of her. She was an eyewitness of the crucifixion. Recognizing him in this garden she calls him by his Aramaic title with the first-person possessive suffix attached: Rabboni—my teacher, my master. And he says, “Do not hold me.”

Now things are different. Even those who once knew the historical Jesus according to the flesh know him that way no longer after his rising. The risen Jesus is bringing together those who were near to him during his earthly ministry—no matter how scattered and puzzled they were at the hour of his paradoxical glory, together with those who were far from those events long ago, who have not seen and yet believe—bringing all of us who believe into his relationship with his Father and God.

Now things are different. Jesus’ grave linens are left behind. He does not come forth from the tomb like Lazarus, still bound up with the clothing of death. The risen Jesus has put aside the napkin that lay across his face. That is what John, the Beloved Disciple, saw with the eyes of faith. The lifting up of Jesus on the cross was not the only hour of his glory. When he ascends to return to the Father who sent him, his work, his life, and his movement are not ended but fulfilled in new beginnings.

Here we are in this holy night, obscure and unlikely disciples to carry our candles in the darkness, proclaiming the new beginning, the light of Christ. We gather in this darkness and hear the Easter Proclamation, the prophecies of the Christ, and the acclamation that Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed!] In the light of these events, light in the darkness, the testimony of the scripture becomes clear to us.

“Whom do you seek?” Jesus asks Mary Magdalene, just as he had asked Peter’s brother Andrew and this same Beloved Disciple at the beginning of the story. Just as he had asked those who came in the night to arrest him. Out of the darkness of this night comes a new beginning in our story with Jesus as, in word and sacrament, we encounter the One we seek. Our Good Shepherd called us by name at the baptismal font, and he calls us by name as he offers us his body and blood, given and shed for us. He gives us power to become the children of God and bestows on us the Holy Spirit to remind us that now things are different.

The cross was the end of Jesus’ task of loving to the end, but it was not the end of his life or his movement. What begins with the Beloved Disciple at the empty tomb when, with the eye of faith he sees more than Peter saw, and continues with Mary Magdalene in her encounter with the risen Jesus—and will continue in John 21 with the rehabilitation of Peter—begins the resolution of the disciples’ puzzlement. In the darkness of this light our misunderstanding and puzzlement begins to dissipate as we are again assured that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Coming out of the darkness of unfaith into the light of Christ, we have a future. Our God will not leave us in the darkness, will not leave us dead. Dead and buried as we began this Liturgy—baptized into his death, crucified and buried with him in Baptism, we are raised with him into new beginnings, into a future, into faith. Now things are different. This indeed is the night. We, too, indeed have something to run and tell.

Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed!]

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

—

The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber

San Diego, California, USA

E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net