I Have Seen the Lord

This account of the Easter story comes from John. Matthew's account emphasizes that an earthquake rolled the stone away. The other two gospels spend more time with the disciples' reactions, but John helps us spend time with Mary at the tomb as she encounters her own emptiness and ours.

The name Mary Magdalene is one shrouded in scandal.
She came from Magdala, which was known as a wicked city. She was reported to have had seven devils cast out of her. How do you translate "demon?" Did she have seven major character flaws? or seven major vices? Any way we look at it, Mary was a woman with a past. Finally, donr't forget that Mary was a woman. You have heard of some of the challenges of women in the New Testament. Mary would never be fully regarded as an equal, and her voice could never carry the weight of the male disciples.

Some say that she was the "sinner," who at the home of Simon the Pharisee washed Jesus' feet — you remember the account. If you were really a prophet, you would not allow that kind of woman to touch your feet. From this passage, some think that Mary's "demons" may have included prostitution.

Alhough Mary belonged to another time and another place, she represents the emptiness that many of us, both male and female, encounter when people just don't understand who we are or what we need. If people could see beneath the surface of our lives, what surprises would they find? What despair, what remorse, what emptiness, what struggles would they find? I believe that, for Mary, losing Jesus was more than just losing the great teacher because he was, perhaps, the first person who had ever understood her jaded journey and had accepted her as she was. Mary had learned firsthand that she would never again encounter a friend like the lowly Jesus. He had healed her of her issues and had accepted her as a friend. He had validated her very existence; and now he was gone.

Why did Mary go to the tomb?
Did she go to verify her beliefs or to confirm her worst fears? Peter and John saw the empty tomb and ran away believing. Mary, by contrast, lingered at the tomb, not knowing what to believe. When she looked into that same empty tomb a second time, she saw two men dressed in white. John tells us that there were angels. To these heavenly beings, she conveyed her worst fears: "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." Her mind was already made up; Jesus was dead. From this, is it clear that she did not come to the tomb to verify a belief that Jesus would rise again; she came prepared to express her grief and to mourn his untimely death.

Are we any different? Have we already made it up in our minds what God will and will not do? Do we approach the difficult situations of our lives looking for a confirmation of the glory and power of God; or do we approach them looking for a confirmation of our worst fears?

Do we go to the empty tombs of our lives
Where things are fuzzy and unclear
To celebrate a victorious resurrection?
Or, is it our mission to verify the existence of dead bodies
While we wish for things the way they were or
The way we wish they had been?

Mary was so disoriented that she could not recognize that Christ was present.
First, Jesus attempted to make himself known to her in a quiet way,
Why are you crying?

During one of our recent visits with our grandson, I was most impressed with the way his mother and his father handled his fears.

"What's the matter?"
"Why are you crying?"
"Momma's here — It is all right. You don't have to cry."

Jesus spoke to Mary much as we would to quiet a fretful child.

"Woman why are you weeping"
"Whom are you looking for?"

Still, Mary could not see that the Risen Christ was with her. Can you remember a time when you heard from God, but it was a long time before you realized that you were heard from God? How many times have you found yourself running around in circles, looking for an answer to prayer, only to find that it was right there in front of your face all along?

Mary did what we often do, she responded with a well-rehearsed response: If I have an opportunity to ask a question, I am going to ask where the body is. So, standing there, with Christ attempting to comfort her, she went into "auto play." "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away (verse 15)."

Finally, Jesus called her by name as he had done so many times before.

Mary!

With a tone that said stop looking for a dead body!

Mary!

Stop looking for solutions inside a closed box!
Stop acting as though limited perception limits outcome!

Mary!

Her response? Teacher?

Finally she heard and understood.

The same Jesus who had fed the 5,000
The same Jesus who had walked on the water
The same Jesus who had opened the eyes of the blind
The same Jesus who had outraged the Pharisees by being seen with
tax collectors like Matthew and sinners like her
The same Jesus who had raised Lazarus from the dead after four days when all hope was gone
The same Jesus who had healed her of her afflictions

Had risen from the dead — just as he had said he would!

This morning when we encounter the empty tomb, what does it mean?
There is a mountain of difference between he's not here and he has risen. When Simon Peter and John saw the empty tomb, they believed. Mary stood at that same empty tomb and wept at her own emptiness.

The good news for us today is that God does not leave us to our own thoughts, even when we are full of doubt or despair. The lesson Mary teaches us today is to persevere until God's voice breaks through the fog of our lives.

Two of the disciples ran back to town
with a believing conclusion,

Mary stayed where she was
until Jesus cleared her confusion.

Will God do anything less for us?

Amen and Amen.