Easter Sunday April 17, 2022
Sermon by the Rev. Bernadette Hartsough
Jesus filled the tomb with his body and now the tomb was empty. The tomb was empty. The earliest account of the resurrection is just a two verse synopsis in First Corinthians. First Corinthians sums it up as: he was raised and he appeared. Each of the gospels have a narrative form of the resurrection story. All of the gospels have these details in common; an early Sunday morning visit to the tomb, the presence of Mary Magdalene, the stone removed from the opening, and the appearance of an angel or angels. After these common details each gospel uses different traditions to tell the story.
In today’s account in the gospel of John, we have three characters who appear at the tomb. We can see each character as a representation of various aspects of the Christian disciple and how they viewed the empty tomb.
We have the Beloved Disciple. This disciple is not named or gendered in the Gospel of John but is described. The Beloved Disciple is known by his/her relationship with Jesus. We do not know if the Beloved disciple was a man or a woman. The Beloved Disciple is described as the one Jesus loved and the one who was faithful. The Beloved disciple saw the empty tomb and believed. The Disciple believed that Jesus defeated death. The Disciple did not need to know how it happened. The Disciple did not need a full theological explanation. The Beloved Disciple believed without having to explain it and without a full understanding.
We know people like that in our church. They are the people who believe in possibilities-good outcomes against all odds. They are the ones who believe in us when we are having a hard time. They are the ones who expand our faith and our hope. They don’t know how God will turn things around. They just know that God will.
Peter spent the last few days running away from the scene of Jesus’s death. Now he runs toward the tomb. There is an element of competition between Peter and the Beloved disciple. Who will get there first? Is Peter trying to prove that he is just as beloved as the Beloved Disciple? Is he trying to wipe away his guilt for denying Jesus? Maybe Peter runs because he is curious or wants to confess. Peter goes into the tomb and sees the linen wrappings from Jesus’s body. The cloth that was wrapped around his head lying away from the other wrappings. I am not sure how Peter knew that the one pile of linen wrappings was from his head. Maybe it was the size or type of cloth or the sweat and blood from Jesus’s face. Peter knew that grave robbers would not unwrap the body. Jesus was freed from the wrappings just as he was freed from death. The wrappings proved to Peter that Jesus was not dead.
Peter represents that Being a disciple of Jesus makes us feel a whole range of emotions. At times, we may follow what God wants us to do and then feel scared and back away from it. Sometimes we need more proof to believe. At times, we run to Jesus with excitement and then back away when life gets hard.
Mary goes to the tomb to grieve and to remember Jesus. She comes to mourn, to weep, to grieve. She is shaken. Her grief consumes her. Mary questions where Jesus is-where has he gone? Did someone take his body? Mary felt alone. She needed to be close to Jesus.
When Jesus calls her name, she is woken up. She calls Jesus Rabbouni, which is a term of endearment for a teacher. Mary was focused on the past and on Jesus’s death. Jesus woke her up so that she could focus on life.
Then Jesus reveals his destiny and her destiny. She is to let go of him and of the past so she can tell others. She is to offer the bread of life to all. Jesus and Mary have different paths to take now. This is just the beginning. The story of Jesus’s identity is still unfolding.
Jesus tells her to go to my brothers, (the term brothers here means men and women and in some translations says so), and tell them that I am to go back to my father and to your father, to my God and to your God.
Jesus must ascend so that Mary and all disciples can be a part of God’s beloved family.
So here we have it-an empty tomb and three different witnesses. Will you be like the Beloved disciple and believe without fully understanding the mystery of the resurrection? Will you be like Peter and feel conflicted about believing and following Jesus? Or will you be like Mary who needed to let go of the past in order to share Jesus? Maybe you are a bit of all three of these witnesses. The alleluia today is that the tomb is empty, Jesus is risen, and we are share in Christ’s victory over death. It is now up to us to bring others to the tomb.