John 20:11-18

11/07/10
John 20:11-18
Hudson UMC

We continue, this morning, with John’s account of the resurrected Jesus, which is the longest in the New Testament. In John we get to see several instances of people coming to meet the resurrected Christ. The reactions that people have when they see Him are particularly interesting. Today, we have the encounter of Mary Magdalene with Christ. She is the first person to see Him, even before those we know as the apostles. Her story raises some interesting thoughts.

We find Mary weeping outside of the tomb. We read, “As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’” If you think about it, this really is a good question to ask. If we were to ask Mary why she was weeping at the very beginning of chapter twenty, it would be a silly question to ask. Why was she weeping? Because Jesus, her teacher and friend, had been executed.

As it stands, the question makes sense and it is her tears that seem out of place. Jesus is no longer there, He has been raised, there are two angels sitting where Jesus had been. We can understand why Mary would weep if Jesus were dead, but He is alive. Surely, if she was the kind of person who jumped to say, “It’s a miracle” at everything she did not understand, as some would have us believe, she would have gone away rejoicing. But this is indeed not the case. John portrays the whole scene as if it were obvious that Jesus was raised and not just missing because, now that he has received the Spirit and has remembered all the things Jesus said while they were together, it makes perfect sense that this is exactly what happened. These two angels are surprised at the tears because, to them, it is clear that Christ has been raised and that is something to rejoice, not weep, over.

But to Mary, this is not the case. Her conclusion when she sees that Jesus is no longer in the tomb is that His body has been stolen. She is convinced that her hope is gone; not only has Jesus been killed to the surprise of His followers, it seems that His enemies have not stopped simply at killing Him but by stealing Him from His tomb. In her mind, she has good reason to weep; there is a large hole in her life.

A man comes up to her and says “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Mary thought that this was a gardener and so she replied, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” The question that might cross our minds is, “Why would a gardener want to take the body of Christ away from the tomb?” Apparently, there were some in the early days of Christianity that claimed that this is exactly what happened. A gardener who worked in a place where someone extremely well-known was buried might be concerned about the large crowds that might come to see the tomb and destroy the plants that he has worked so hard to take care of. It could, conceivably, be in his best interest to remove the body so that people would leave him alone.

What is interesting is that Mary is so intent on finding Jesus. She is so interested in finding her Lord that she is willing to hunt down the body of Jesus and take responsibility for it, presumably taking it to another location altogether. The reason why this is interesting is that this man whom she mistakes for a gardener is actually Jesus Himself, the one she is looking for. She is so intent to see Jesus, so bent on finding Him that she actually misses Him. She was face-to-face with her Lord, and yet she is totally unaware of the fact.

To a certain extent, her confusion is understandable. After all, we have many stories in the New Testament of people not recognizing Jesus after He had been raised from the dead, even people who saw Him face to face. It is a theme that will show up again before we finish John’s account of the life of Christ. However, I can’t help but think that part of the reason that she couldn’t recognize Jesus is because she was expecting one thing and what was really the case was something altogether different.

Mary was expecting to find a Jesus in the tomb, wrapped in grave clothes, lifeless and still. Instead, Jesus was actually living and breathing, resurrected in glory, one whom not even death could defeat or contain. She wanted a Jesus who fit neatly into her preconceived notions, whom she could make sense of with her past experience and she was confronted with a Jesus who was nothing of the sort.

There are many people who do not believe in Jesus. As a Christian pastor, I cannot account for why someone would reject Christ, but it happens. People have many reasons for why they do not believe that range all over the map. However, if someone does not believe in Christ because they cannot recognize Him in spite of all their searching, might it not be possible that they are looking for a Jesus who does not exist? Is it not possible that the Jesus they have been looking for is one of their own creation, one that is shaped by their hopes and desires and not by what God has actually done? This seems to be why Mary could not recognize Christ. The Jesus she was looking for was a dead Jesus, a weak Jesus, a broken Jesus; the only Jesus there is is one who was alive, who was victorious over death; still with the wounds of crucifixion on His body and yet one who is strong in spite of them.

When I suggest that perhaps we human beings tend to look for a Jesus who will fit into our hopes and desires and that is not who Jesus is, I do not mean to imply that Jesus is somehow less than what we hope for and desire but far greater. After all, the Jesus that met with Mary was not the one she hoped to see, but was far better. She had her own understanding of what was possible and this simply didn’t fit into it. To really believe in a God who does the impossible, who heals the broken, and who overcomes despair is hard to do and, if God had not demonstrated very clearly that this is the kind of God He is, it would be hard to explain how anyone could believe. And yet, God is greater than our limited ideas, bigger than the box that we so desperately want to put Him in.

It can be a somewhat difficult thing to see such a faithful follower of Jesus being so confused that they can completely miss Jesus, even when He is right in front of her. It is difficult because we can’t help but wonder, “If Mary could miss Jesus like that, is it not possible that I could miss Him as well?” Indeed it does mean that, but let us not stop reading the text at this point, for if we do, we will miss the rest of the story.

In spite of Mary’s inability to recognize Jesus, does He abandon her? Does He say, “Well, she must not have been trying hard enough, or must not have had enough faith, or must not have wanted to see me badly enough?” No, He does nothing of the sort. He calls out her name, “Mary!” Instantly, the picture is changed, immediately, her guard goes down. Instead of speaking, presumably in Greek, the common language, to the gardener, she speaks in Hebrew, calling out to Jesus, “Rabbouni,” which means “teacher.”

Apparently, Mary runs at this point to embrace Jesus because He responds, “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.’” It is as if Jesus is saying, “I know you are happy that I am back, that I am no longer confined in the tomb, but that does not change the fact that my mission will draw me away from this world of space and time and back to the Father.” This is nothing new, as Jesus has said it before and promised that it was actually better that He left, because then the Advocate, or Holy Spirit, could come and be with them. His saying that He could not stay but had to ascend to the Father were words of comfort and compassion. He would not abandon His followers as orphans but would empower them through the Holy Spirit so that they would do, in His own words, greater things than He did.

Brothers and sisters, this is the God we serve. We follow a God who routinely destroys our preconceptions, who constantly breaks through the limitations we consciously or unconsciously put on Him. As we gather today to remember those who have gone on before us, it is fitting that we should consider the resurrected Christ. After all, those we love have not merely passed away but have gone on to glory, the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ who blesses and keeps them. To God, they are not just nameless and faceless entities, but are loved and known by name. Each of them has heard the voice of the Lord call them, like Mary Magdalene, by name, and the same will be true for each one of us. As we acknowledge our human loss over the past year and throughout our lives, let us also give thanks that we had the chance to know them, to love them, and to be influenced by them, as well as rejoice that, though we are separated for a time, we will indeed be reunited with them one day. Our God is good, now and always. Let us pray.

AMEN