Resurrection
A Homily on John 20:1-18
by Griff Martin
April 12, 2020
*This document comes from an oral manuscript.
He is Risen! (He is Risen indeed)
Maybe despite being as un-Easter as we know it this morning, the truth is it’s actually as Easter as it can get this morning... All of us huddled in our homes this morning, a bit alone and more fearful than we admit, all feeing grief and not totally sure what is going on and ready for something beyond this, anything beyond this...
Which means we might understand Easter better this year than any year before.
We are home waiting for our "Mary report"... Mary, the brave one who goes to the tomb early in the morning (something else that we might understand anew this morning)... Because what is the first thing a lot of us are doing each morning? We get the get the paper or we turn on our phones to check in on the exact same thing Mary was checking on: the state of death these days.
And Mary goes to the tomb and she gets there and she finds the stone rolled away… Which might be a huge clue for her since the stone had to be rolled back when Lazarus came back to life; however, when we are in the midst of panic our mind does funny things and faith is often one of the first things we lose even though it might be the most important thing we have those days. I will let you make the connection there.
Mary assumes that someone has come in and stolen the body, which is not an irrational fear in those days.
So back to the disciples she runs, the men who were not courageous enough to venture out with her that morning… these men who are already talking about returning to fishing and to their previous lives because they -- we -- don’t expect that on the flip side, things might actually get better, might actually improve in their newness and we forget this, even though it’s the center of our faith.
So she goes running back to the disciples and wakes them up, this time Peter and John go back with her, the three of them racing for the tomb to see what has happened… And we get these odd details of a foot race to the tomb, then a who’s who of who is brave enough to finally go in the tomb and then a bizarre statement of John believed followed by the statement but he still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead (and there is a lot to unpack in that Scripture and parenthetical reference… we are called to believe, not understand… again, faith not fact).
And then the disciples head back to the other disciples and Mary stays… I think now is when it all starts to fall in place for Mary and it’s her moment to stand, to go through it all, because look what immediately happens… Mary weeps; it’s a word that is very pointed here and an important word for two reasons…
First, I think this is just a moment of literary genius, which is John’s style, everything in his gospel has multiple meanings and I think here John is giving us a brilliant prophecy by playing on the beatitudes of Jesus… Blessed are those who weep for they shall laugh… Mary’s tears are clues to the cosmic joke of Easter, that death is no more.
Second, she finally stops and allows all her emotions to come forth and that is the act that saves her in this story. It’s one of the hardest truths I know… that feelings are meant for feeling and we only harm ourselves when we refuse to feel… Mary stops and lets all the feelings of the last few days wash over her and she cries and those tears are her baptism and those tears are what allows her to see.
It’s the philosopher Nicolas Wolterstoff who wrote, “I see things through tear stained eyes I would have never seen with dry eyes.”
The tears help her to see the angels… The angels the disciples missed because they were too busy trying to figure things out, trying to understand… Her tears gave her vision.
The angels ask "why are you crying," and she starts to explain why she is crying, the grief she is in and the very real pain she is feeling. And that sharing her truth, stating what is going on in her heart through tears and through words helps her to see even more… Now she sees the man who is there, too, and my read is that he has always been there, she's just not noticed him… and of course, we know it’s Jesus.
They have a short conversation until he finally says her name… "Mary"… and the moment he says her name, she knows who it is. Which is still a Gospel truth: when Jesus says our name, we know it, we just have to listen for his voice, we have to stop and pause and be.
"Being"time, time to pause, might be the most spiritual gift any of us have these days.
Mary recognizes him,"Rabboni" she cries out. Now don’t miss that moment, John is writing his Gospel in Greek and here he goes from Greek to Hebrew, which is an odd move because then he has to do the work of translation of the Hebrew word to a Greek audience. Rabboni, which means teacher. Hold onto that.
Because Jesus responds to her, “Don’t touch me… Don’t hold on to me… don’t cling to me.” Now if we have not yet found our way into this story this morning, well there it is because those are the words we are hearing today… Don’t touch me… six feet away… cross the street when you are out walking and see someone who is not quarantined with you. And I don’t think Jesus is telling Mary he needs six feet, that doesn’t work with the rest of the Gospels where Thomas puts his hands in the side of the resurrected Jesus.
I think it goes back to that Hebrew word, which means teacher. Jesus is telling Mary here in this moment, don’t cling to what you thought you knew of me, be willing to embrace a bigger version of Me. Don’t hold onto only what you thought you knew, hold onto the faith of possibility of all that can be.
And with that Mary issues the cry of resurrection: “I have seen the Lord.”
This week I have been thinking about how this story -- this Resurrection -- applies to us today, what do we do with the Easter story in the middle of a very "Good Friday" world?
Well maybe we need to be reminded to let go, to not cling. One of the struggles I have had all week is how do you even do Easter without a choir and without the processional and without Easter lilies and the flowering of the cross? I have to confess that I have even voiced,"well maybe we cancel Easter and it’s our first service when we get back."
And then I heard Jesus, “Griff don’t cling to how you think it has to be…”
Or maybe it’s this, this thinking of I can’t wait for all of this mess to be over and we can get back to how life is supposed to be. I was listening to a podcast with a very wise voice and I was literally stopped in my tracks while running when he said, “There is no going back. We are working towards a new normal but there will always be a before COVID19 world and an after COVID19 world, things won’t ever be the same.” And hearing that was one of those times that I broke down in the midst of all this…
And maybe what I needed to hear there was Jesus, “Griff, don’t hold onto what you think best, what you already think of as the good old days…”
Or maybe it’s the exact same resurrection truth that Mary faced, and Jesus says, “Griff don’t cling to what you thought you knew of me, hold on to the faith of possibility.” The possibility that Jesus is always bigger and better than the Jesus we think we have grasped. That Christ is always bigger than our hearts and minds can ever truly even begin to behold. The truth that what we have to surrender each and every Easter is whatever Jesus we hold in our minds that keeps us from seeing the Christ in the actual world.
And I think we are seeing Christ all over our world today… in nurses and doctors, in H-E-B cashiers and Instacart drivers, in delivery persons and home health aides, in the neighbor who leaves toilet paper on your door and the friend who calls to check in on your state of mind. This Easter we might see Christ more visible than ever before.
Because the truth of Easter is that Christ is very much alive in our world and in our ways, we just have to have the vision to see it.
It’s the Gospel truth of the Runaway Bunny… The story where once there was a little bunny, who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother,"I am running away.”"If you run away," said his mother,"I will run after you, for you are my little bunny.”"If you run after me," said the little bunny,"I will become a fish in a trout stream and I will swim away from you.”"If you become a fish in a trout stream," said his mother,"I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.”
The story continues and each time the mother becomes something new in order to love the bunny. It ends with the bunny saying he will become a bird, and the Mother says, “Then I will be a tree that you come home to.”
This Easter, don’t cling to past Easters, but instead hold on to the hope of Easter today.
Don’t cling to an old Jesus, but hold onto the hope of Christ.
Don’t cling to Jesus, instead let Christ be more.
Christ will always be exactly what the world needs Christ to be that moment, we just have to have the vision to see it, the courage to follow it, the arms to embrace it and the heart to feel it.
Christ is very much alive and with us today and because of that, we will Easter.
He is Risen.
*artwork: The Resurrection by Donald Jackson
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