1Early 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. 2So 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.’ 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes. 11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and 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. 13They 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.’ 14When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus 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.’ 16Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17Jesus 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.” ’ 18Mary 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 love a good mystery!
And there is one of incomparable worth for us this Easter morning! “Behold, I tell you a mystery!” St. Paul proclaims about the very meaning of the resurrection for us and for our salvation.
In your bulletin for this morning, you’ll find a dialog about this mystery. It suggests not only what was at the heart of the Easter mystery, but also its promising solution. Let’s try it out, shall we?
P Where’s Jesus?
C He is risen!
P He is risen, indeed!
C Alleluia!
The mystery is about the body of Jesus. It’s missing!
I saw this in spite of the recent showing on the Discovery Channel that would begin to suggest the contrary. James Cameron, the filmmaker who produced The Titanic, has claimed that he has found the tomb of Jesus, and that his bones are decomposed in this tomb. If you believe in claims from one who produces stories of sinking ships, this is one that might want to spell the sinking of the ship that is the church. As St. Paul once said, “if Christ is not raised, that our faith has been in vain.”
Yet this kind of claim, believe it or not, is nothing new. And it is not simply the numerous DNA samples and testing of ancient languages that comes to the aid of the church. It is the very account of the risen Lord himself that does.
Like sleuths or detectives who are on the trail to solve this mystery, let us delve into the clues.
Even on the very first Easter, there were clues. There was what we would call evidence of resurrection. Yet it did not change a thing about those who minds were darkened by death and tombs, those like you and me who continue to believe that dead people stay dead. Mary was the first to tune in to this discovery channel. Arriving at the tomb early in the morning, she notices that the stone has been removed. She does not bother to look ask why the stone is removed. Instead, she runs off to the disciples to have them tune in to the discovery channel with her. They do. And as they do, they discover more clues: the linen cloths were lying all around, the shroud left in the place where Jesus’ head once was. They come to a conclusion: the burial clothes are still there, but Jesus’ body is missing. It would suggest, wouldn’t it, that somebody went to a lot of trouble to undress the corpse from all its burial clothes? But why would they do that, and risk the possibility of being caught? That does not occur to these disciples. They go home, still not understanding the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Yet one thing they know. The body of Jesus is missing!
Fellow detectives, if you will:
P Where’s Jesus?
C He is risen!
P He is risen, indeed!
C Alleluia!
The mystery thickens. Mary comes back to the tomb a second time. This time she is weeping. Why is she weeping? Because she has seen too much of this morning’s tragedy. She is weeping because she is now convinced that not only in Jesus dead, but that his body has been stolen. Here you would think that a claim that of Cameron’s would bring at least some comfort—but not really, and that is the greater surprise. That is, the fact that the body is missing is actually “good news.”
As she weeps, she peers into the tomb. And as she peers in, there are more clues, more evidence of resurrection in regard to this mystery: two angels are sitting in the place where Jesus’ body once was. What’s more, they speak to her, and ask her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Now that’s something you don’t see or hear every day.
Maybe for you and for me seeing a couple of angels talking to us, asking us sympathetic questions, might be a bigger deal than it is for Mary. But notice how Mary responds almost matter of fact, almost ho-hum, as if she sees angels every day, and then has the audacity to speak back just as matter-of-factly. “They have taken my Lord away and I do know where they have laid him.”
But maybe Mary’s response is very much like ours. For perhaps each day of our lives there are angels, messengers that speak to us the resurrection evidence, that question us in our sorrows, that call us to a greater light than the light we seem to have which is so dim. They see us weighed down in our grief and sorrows, and call to us not so much to call us into question, but to call us out of those very grieving sorrows. Yet we do not hear them, we do not pay heed to them, even though this is evidence of resurrection.
For the angels at the tomb are bursting with the joy of Easter, even as they burst for us in the lives of fellow Christians calling us to new life. Can we see that, fellow detectives, even through all our tears?
P Where’s Jesus?
C He is risen!
P He is risen, indeed!
C Alleluia!
Yet no sooner do these clues come to Mary but another One soon appears. This time it is the body of the very One we are seeking! It is Jesus himself. He asks her the same question that the angels ask, “Woman, why are you weeping?” And He then goes on to add a second question, to clue her further in her search: “For whom are you looking?” He’s right there!!!
But Mary cannot see that here is the very thing she is looking for, the very body of Jesus. She mistakes him for a gardener. And this gets to the heart of the mystery for Mary. Remember, she’s not looking for a live body. She’s still looking for a dead one. “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
Comes now the final clue: He calls her by name, and she hears his voice. So it is for us, fellow detectives of the mystery. We hear it most personally when it is so personal addressed to us, by name. That is what this Eastering Lord does for us. He calls us each and everyone of us by name, to claim us in his name, to claim us from any and all darkness that would try to hold power over us. Calling us by name he turns us around to himself. How does a child hear the voice of his mother in a crowded and noising playground when the voice of the mother calls out his name? When we are baptized, as we rise from the waters, we rise as those named by Christ’s voice, and with his claim upon us as God’s own claim upon us.
This brings Mary to the fullness of Easter joy. Easter breaks in on Mary’s soul, and the mystery takes a new turn. No longer does death and bad news and tears end up being all that life is about. There is new life! There is life for her and for us all! And if there are any tears now left on her face that has been stained by the marks of death and distress, these are now changed to tears of joy!
P Where’s Jesus?
C He is risen!
P He is risen, indeed!
C Alleluia!
Yet now the mystery comes back to whence it started. When Mary comes to cling to Jesus, there’s a sudden strangeness in his response, one that may even take us detectives off guard. Finally, the body of Jesus has been found, and it has been found alive and whole and well for us. Yet Jesus tells Mary “do not cling to me now.” Why? Who among us wouldn’t! Here is the risen body of Jesus!
But there is more joy to come in this mystery, fellow detectives. There’s more work for this Eastering Lord. He must now ascend to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God. He does this so that Easter can be complete not only for Mary, but for everyone—and fully complete, so that no one is left short of having the joy of Easter to have and to hold for all time.
And his ascension to the Father and our Father is such that his body now, as we confess in our faith, is at the right hand of the Father, the hand of power—as one of us who has made it not only beyond death, but to the very favor of God’s side for us and for our salvation. The body of Jesus is still missing! All other bodies can be recovered in this life, their DNA tested and squared away. But not the body of Jesus! His is at the right hand of the Father, so that there he as the Human One risen from the dead makes appeal for you and for me that we may all—all—share in the full joys of Easter!
Mary gets it now, gets it by faith, and goes to the disciples who are still asking:
P Where’s Jesus?
C He is risen!
P He is risen, indeed!
C Alleluia!
Another story about death and resurrection surfaced recently. David Adkins, more commonly known in the acting world as “Sinbad,” was presumed dead on March 10, 2007. Hundreds began calling in, even his own distraught daughter. Lo and behold, there he was at home, even as all his family and friends began to morn. Sinbad himself treated it with a sense of humor: “I wish that people would’ve called me back like this when I was alive. I gotta die more often.”
We’ll all get our chance, fellow dectectives, to die. Garrison Keillor once said that when he hears all the nice things that are said about people once they are dead kind of wishes he could be around a few more days to hear them for himself. Yet there’s a fullness to Easter’s mystery, brother and sisters, yet to unfold. For all of us, like Mary, like Peter, like all the disciples of Jesus, get to die more often already now—we get to die to our despair and distrust and clinginess, to take in the clues that lead us past the grave, even the greatest clue of all on Easter morning, the risen Lord. But in so dying, we get clued in even more fully to the joy of the mystery of faith, the joy which Paul proclaimed when he first lead us on this pilgrimage to “Behold the mystery”: “We shall not die. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed at the last trumpet!” I haven’t been to a funeral yet where I haven’t had the privilege of speaking or hearing those words. Then in the final resurrection of the dead, with all the saints gathered in the fullness of the throne of glory, we get to see the mystery in all it’s joyful brilliance!
P Where’s Jesus?
C He is risen!
P He is risen, indeed!
C Alleluia!