I Have Seen The Lord!

A sermon delivered by the Rev. Roger Scott Powers at Light Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, on Sunday, April 12, 2006

John 20:1-18

Happy Easter! That's how we usually greet one another on this special day. Easter, after all, is a happy day -- a joyous, Christian holy day, when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise of new life that Christ brings!

Of course, when we look back at the Easter story, we do so with post-resurrection eyes. We know how the story turns out in the end. We have the benefit of almost 2,000 years of hindsight. We know from the beginning of the story that there is cause for celebration, for we know that Christ is risen!

But what was it like for Mary Magdalene on that first Easter morning? When she awoke early that morning, before dawn, she did not know what the day would bring. She knew nothing of the momentous events that were about to unfold that day -- events that she herself would witness. All she knew was that Jesus was dead, she was grieving, and she wanted to visit the tomb where Jesus' body had been laid. The scene she would encounter at that tomb, far from being a cause for celebration, must have been a horrible, shocking, gut-wrenching experience for her.

Think about it. Put yourself in her place for a moment.Imagine that a dear member of your family or one of your closest friends has just died. He or she was buried in a nearby graveyard late in the day on Friday. You are grieving over the loss of this loved one, who meant so much to you. And as it is now Sunday morning, you make your way to the graveyard to pay your respects, to say a last good-bye. Perhaps you've brought some flowers to place on the grave.

You round the bend, and there before you is a sight so dreadful, you can hardly believe your eyes. Your loved one's grave has been disturbed. Not just disturbed. It has been completely dug up! The casket has been removed, opened, and left to one side. And worst of all, the body is gone! Imagine how you would feel! Violated? Hurt? Angry?

That was the situation in which Mary found herself. Granted, Jesus' body had not been put in a casket and buried in a grave. His body had been laid to rest in a rock-hewn tomb. But when Mary arrived that first Easter morning, she found that the tomb had been disturbed. The stone covering the tomb's entrance had been removed and Jesus' body was gone. Now, not only was she stricken with grief, she was overwhelmed with desperation. Who would have done such a thing? Where would they have taken his body? And why? Why would anyone want to steal Jesus' body?

Mary ran to tell two of Jesus' disciples -- Simon Peter and another disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. Emotionally distraught and out of breath, Mary told them what she believed to be the only possible explanation: someone had taken Jesus' body. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him," she said.

The two disciples couldn't believe their ears. They had to see for themselves. So they ran to the tomb and both looked inside and saw that it was true! The tomb was empty! Jesus' body was no longer there! All that remained were the linen cloths in which Jesus' body had been wrapped. That was a curious thing. Why would anyone moving a corpse first unwrap it, leaving the linen burial cloths behind? It didn't make any sense. What had happened? Where was Jesus' body? Why would anyone have taken it? They did not yet understand that Jesus must rise from the dead.

Simon Peter and the beloved disciple returned to their homes. They were confused and frightened. Was it not enough for Jesus to have been executed by the Roman empire, nailed to a cross and left to die an agonizing death? Was he not even to be given the courtesy (in death) of being left alone to rest in peace? And was this a sign that the disciples should expect further persecution themselves, because of their association with Jesus? Their heads were spinning with questions for which they had no answers.

Mary Magdalene did not go straight home. She lingered outside the tomb, and finally broke down in tears. As you can imagine, she was deeply distressed. Not only was she mourning the death of Jesus. Now she was grieving over his missing body as well. "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. "The angels asked her why she was weeping. And she said to them what she had said earlier to the disciples: "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."

At that moment, Mary turned around and saw Jesus standing before her, but she did not recognize him. It couldn't be Jesus. Jesus was dead. This man was very much alive. He asked her, "'Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?' [And,] 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.'" And then, Jesus called her by name: "Mary!" With that, she turned and she suddenly recognized Jesus. "Rabbi!" she cried, "Teacher!" She could hardly believe it! Was it really him? Jesus was standing there before her! It was impossible! And yet, there he was, calling her by name! It was too good to be true! But it was true! Jesus, somehow, was alive!

She embraced him, or was just about to, when "Jesus said to her 'Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to [God]. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

So, as the gospel of John tells the story, Mary Magdalene was the first to see the risen Jesus. And it was Mary who would go and tell the disciples the astonishing news: "I have seen the Lord!"

What are we to make of this? From our twenty-first century perspective, the Easter story of Jesus' resurrection strains credibility. It is so far removed from our everyday experience, many find it hard to believe. But I would argue that the same was true for Mary Magdalene and the first disciples. The resurrection was just as foreign to their everyday experience in the first century as it is to ours today. The resurrection of Jesus is a unique event in all of human history. It had never happened before, and it has never happened since. But it is our Christian hope that at the end of history, in the Last Days, God will create a new heaven and a new earth and will raise the dead to new life. And then we will all experience resurrection as Jesus did.

I dare say that were it not for Jesus' resurrection, we would not be here today. Without the resurrection, we probably would never have heard of Jesus. He would have been little more than a statistic -- just one more Jewish peasant in first-century Palestine tragically killed at the hands of the Roman empire and forgotten.Had historians noticed Jesus at all, he would have been relegated to a mere footnote.

Without the resurrection, Jesus' disciples would probably have disbanded in despair. How could they go on without Jesus there to lead them? Without the resurrection, the Church would never have been born. Without the resurrection, the writings we know as the New Testament would never have been written. No resurrection? No Christianity! It's as simple as that!

In the end, we must admit that the resurrection is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. I really can't tell you exactly what happened on that first Easter Sunday. All any of us has to go on are the conflicting reports from the four gospels. Nor can I tell you exactly how it happened. I can't explain it. But I can tell you that something must, indeed, have happened -- something so extraordinary that it transformed the disciples in profound ways. Before the resurrection, the disciples were huddled together, hiding behind locked doors, afraid for their lives, worried that they might be next to be arrested and crucified. After the resurrection, the disciples went out from Jerusalem and willingly risked their lives, boldly preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. The resurrection, whatever it was, moved the disciples from doubt to faith, from fear to courage, from despair to empowerment, from passivity to action.