Sunday 1 April 2018

The Resurrection not mildly important

To Shamelessly borrow and alter a phrase from C. S Lewis (he wouldn't mind at all) The resurrection if false is of no importance, and if true of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is mildly important. On this the whole of Christianity stands or falls but even more than that, if true then we have a hope beyond our wildest dreams if we trust in Christ.


In John's Gospel we are told that before it was light Mary Magdalene was at the tomb, ready to dress it some more. Mary is still following, not at a distance but as close as she possibly can. Early in the morning in her grief and bewilderment she comes to the tomb and she has some expectations of finding the tomb exactly as it should be with a corpse and the stone rolled in place. That is the way it is for all of us, our tomb could say, no exit. Death up until this point had always been very final. Even when Jesus raised people from the dead- it wasn't expected they had beaten the grave, just delayed the inevitable.   Did Mary expect to meet an armed guard? We don’t know but they have seemed to have fled the scene already. We know that she and the other women are wondering how they are going to get access to the tomb if they cannot roll away the stone. Yet when she gets there she finds the stone rolled away and she flees the scene not in worship at the empty tomb but in horror. Now I have probably watched all of the Jesus movies from the 50’s up until the 70’s. The one that best conveys the empty tomb is Franco Zepherilli’s Jesus of Nazareth. In the movie in one of the final scenes one of the leading Jewish scribes rushes to the empty tomb on hearing that Jesus body has gone and we see what he sees. An empty tomb with grave clothes on  a stone bench we with him look in closer and close but all we see is the empty bench and the linen clothes, he is a fictional character but he looks at the empty tomb and says, ‘now it all begins’ but that is not enough for Mary, Mary already grief stricken is dumbfounded , bewildered and heartbroken by the empty tomb. The resurrection in not on her radar, how much she had heard Jesus talk about his death and resurrection we don’t know, but she was around she must have heard something. Yet even his closest followers who had heard everything missed it. She flees the scene to find Peter and the beloved disciple two of Jesus inner circle. In her grief the empty tomb is not enough to convince her of the resurrection!  Sunday has arrived but Mary doesn't know! 


v.11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two Angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They 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.”
Mary ran away from the tomb to the Apostles and she follows them back at some point. When the disciples looked in there were no Angels for them to see. Mary sees the Angels, the Greek is very clear she looked intently and yet it seems like she doesn’t see them at all. They ask her why she is crying and one commentator said, ‘Yes why is she crying, if she finds what she is looking for. The corpse of Jesus, we are all lost for eternity.’ In Scripture any time an Angel appears the first words it says are  ‘Do not be afraid’ and the reason they say this is because people are usually so afraid they are about to die of fright. Mary in her grief is almost oblivious to their presence. She replies again the same thing, they have taken away the body of my lord and I do not know where they have laid him. There is no more words from the Angels and Mary turns around immediately maybe they point behind her, or maybe she hears a sound that distracts her although this seems unlikely in her grief as she is distracted enough to miss the presence of the Angels even when she is talking to them. Its Sunday and Mary doesn’t know.
She turns around and sees Jesus, We are back to irony now, John tells us that now she sees Jesus which is true but even though it is the risen Jesus in front of her, her grief is so big she cannot see that it is him. Maybe there is something different about his appearance, Luke especially seems to suggest that. Maybe its just that it is early in the morning. Maybe her eyes are watery from all the tears and her head is in a mess. Or maybe Jesus looks so different, but she is kept from recognising Him. It’s Sunday and Mary doesn’t know. Seeing Jesus she is unaware that there is no need for tears. Jesus speaks to her, Woman why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She supposes him to be the gardener and proceeds to ask the Risen Jesus if he has moved the body and then very tenderly he says, ‘ Mary’ throughout the text John has used the word Maria for Mary now Jesus speaks with the word Miriam. She speaks so very tenderly using her name. This woman who loved Jesus immensely is given the privilege of being the first person to witness the resurrection. Jesus didn’t go to the elite, not even the elite in the Apostolic band but a woman in grief, a woman who had loved Jesus to the uttermost. The reason for Mary being the first witness to the resurrection was because she was the one in the most need. She was grieving more, hence while the Apostles were hid away in locked rooms she was out in the dark weeping and seeking the body of Jesus.   She replies Rabboni, Some commentators say this word is used only of God as teacher and that this is a theological confession. However John tells his Gentile audience that this word means teacher. We don’t need to find confessions to Jesus as God as John is full of them. In deed when he appears to Thomas that is his confession, My LORD and MY God, of better, the God of me and the LORD of me. It is an intimate moment when this grieving woman finds that her grief is ill founded, Jesus is alive. 
He is Risen! It’s Sunday and finally Mary knows. The text suggest that she grabs hold of Jesus, she gives him the biggest hug in the history of humanity! She thought  she had lost him that He was gone she had been looking for the living amongst the dead. She didn’t know that the grave could not keep hold of him as death had no power over Him. That he is the LORD of live and that he laid down his life only to take it up again.
She is given an amazing privilege to be the first witness to the resurrection, yet she cannot cling to him. She cannot keep it to herself, and be the last witness- it's vitally important for all our sakes that we share what we have witnessed. When I was 15 I met the risen Jesus, not bodily but nonetheless it was very real. He changed her life, He changed my life- we need to be sharing this glorious good news. The resurrection is vitally important. 




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