Easter Bride

Shattered Expectations

Everybody loves a good romance, right? There was a great story out of Tijuana this week. Two refugees from Ukraine tied the knot at the border in Tijuana. Semen Bobrovski and Dasha Sakhniuk traveled a few thousand miles over 6 days to get to the refugee camp in San Ysidro. Bobrovski is a Russian. Sakhniuk is Ukranian. The two met 3 years ago when Bobrovski went to live in Ukraine. They were supposed to get married in Kyiv, but the invasion turned their plans upside down. Neither bride nor groom dreamed that their wedding would include a mariachi band and a taquiza meal. The bride told one reporter that she was happy, though none of this was what was expected. It wasn’t what we expected.

Expectations. Our story today is one of expectations. We read the story moments ago. The story of Mary Magdalene. She shows up at the tomb of Jesus early Sunday morning at o’dark thirty. It’s not so dark that she can’t see that that really heavy stone has been moved. She also sees that there’s no Jesus there. She goes running to Peter and John who themselves see the same thing. Mary is shaken. This is one of Jesus’ best friends. Mary had met Jesus during Jesus’ ministry and Jesus turns her world upside down. She had been known as one possessed by demons. Through the healing touch of Jesus, she is freed from the control of the oppressor. She goes to the tomb before the sun is up and finds the tomb empty.

Seeing the empty tomb is not what she expected. She expected to be alone with the body to grieve. Now her grief is compounded. In her mind she crafts the only possible narrative she can think of, based on her expectations. Someone must have taken the body. Somebody moved the body. I don’t know why? What else would someone want? Maybe he was in the wrong tomb? Are there questions that still need answered? Is not dead enough for some people? It’s dark. It’s empty. And I don’t know why.

Well stories

Throughout the Bible, there are numerous stories about women at wells. If you were going to write a play for the Jewish village schoolchildren around romance, you’d probably dress the kids up in shepherds gear and find some stones and tell a good man meets woman at the well story. Isaac’s wife Rebekah was found at a well. Isaac’s son Jacob met his wife Rachel at a well. Moses found his wife Zipporah at a well. You want to get married? Go find yourself a well and just wait for the girls to show up with their sheep, and you move the stone away from the entrance of the well so that brides have water for their flocks.

What’s great about John, Jesus’ best friend who is telling this resurrection story, is that he also has a woman at the well story. Jesus meets a woman at a well… and they talk about marriage. Not their marriage. But her five marriages. Wells, weddings, and marriages. A running theme in the Bible. Wells are where brides are found, and even though the Samaritan woman is not Jesus’ earthly bride, the subject matter points to the fact that Jesus is very interested in her becoming part of the bride of Christ, his community, the church.

A woman in distress

There is no well in our story. But there is stone that has been moved. And there is a woman in distress. Alone. In grief. With shattered expectations. And now there is this stranger asking her “why are you crying?” In her grief, she cannot see who it is, but she runs to her narrative. She runs to her shattered expectations. She runs to what she thinks is true about the world she lives in:

John 20:15 Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you’ve carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him, and I will take him away.”

She’s already mentioned this twice. Someone has taken him away and I don’t know where they have put him. “I don’t know”. That’s the fuel underneath Mary’s expectations. I expect to know. I expect to be on top of all of this. I wasn’t on top of the crucifixion. I couldn’t control that. I need to know. Knowing will help me feel like I’m back in control. Knowing will give me comfort. She is so bent on “knowing” what she doesn’t know that she challenges this stranger. It’s almost personal. What was “they” is now “you”. She has twice already said “they’ve taken him away”. Now… to this one she supposes is the cemetery attendant she says “you.” You must be the one. Wow. Almost accusatory here. And then she adds a new wrinkle to what she has been saying, which gives away her true intentions. What we suspected. “I will take him away.”

This is what happens in grief. We have our expectations. We know the way the world is supposed to work. I didn’t expect Jesus to be crucified. In my world, that isn’t supposed to happen. And this morning, I expect Jesus to be in that tomb. Things are out of control. I need information. And I need to act. Where have you put him? I want to take him. I need to bring some sanity to my world. I need to be in control. And this lack of control is making everything worse. The one who rescued me from devils is no longer here, and there’s nothing I can do about it. At the very least, I want to be where his body is, that would bring me comfort. And it too is gone. All of my hopes are dead. What was dead is not only dead, but now gone.

We’ve all been here. At the end of our ropes. Nothing makes sense. The world is closing in. And the narrative I have for my world that keeps me sane is all falling apart. I need more information. I need to do something. I need to take control of my life, even when it’s obvious that I have no control. I will take him away, if you would just tell me where he is.

Grooms who save

Do you know what every single woman at the well story has in common (outside of the obvious)? The unexpected happens. Expectations aren’t simply shattered. They are turned on their head. The stupendous happens. All of the women at these wells over the centuries get a surprise, a-ha moment. Something they were not expecting and what they weren’t expecting is beyond anything they could have thought of. In many of them, a man shows up who ends up being her destiny. Salvation shows up at these wells. Every. Single. Time. Whatever the woman lacks, whatever the woman needs, it is all made good by the one who shows up to the well. Salvation shows up and brings healing and hope and life. The groom in these instances is beyond real. It really is the stuff of fairy tales on these stories really happened.

This includes the story in John about Jesus showing up to a well in Samaria, a place hated by Jews. He meets a woman whose life has been one of a lot of difficulty. Almost seemingly passed from one husband to another. A piece of property. She’s had 5 husbands and isn’t married to the one she’s living with. Someone who is notorious in town. And yet this one who shows up at her town well comes bringing salvation. Living water. Eternal life. Life goes from imprisonment and hopelessness to freedom and joy in an instant.

The Groom who speaks her name

And here… at a tomb, another woman in difficulty. In grief. In hopelessness. And in one instant, everything changes.

John 20:16 “Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

Mary thought she had accounted for all of the probabilities. All of the possibilities have been eliminated. My expectation is that he is dead and someone has moved him and I need to take him for myself. Her grief is so deep and her narrative so fixed that there’s one possibility she has not accounted for. And into that grief, that One Possibility speaks her name: Mary. That’s the unexpected. That’s the outlier possibility. Jesus is alive. Not dead. Alive. And Jesus comes and meets this woman in her helplessness, in her grief, in her desperation, and he speaks her name. Her identity. But that identity is no longer tied to who she used to be, what she used to do, but the Resurrection itself. It is the Risen Jesus who speaks her name and in speaking her name floods her identity with himself.

She is the unexpected bride. He is the resurrected groom, risen to save her from all of her self-salvation. To save her from her narrative.. what she thought should be the case based on earthly expectations. What the bride needs for moments of insecurity and helplessness and being at the end of self-sufficiency is this groom who saves, this groom who has promised to be hers forever.

This conversation ends with Jesus’ promise to be hers forever:

John 20:17 “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

My Father. Your Father. My God. Your God. What’s mine is yours. All of it. Israel’s covenant marriage with her God was built on this very covenantal formula:

I will be your God, and you will be my people.

If you were an Israelite, this was your hope. This promise. The greatest of Israel’s promises. So much so, when a Gentile Moabite woman named Ruth decides she wants to live in Israel with her mother-in-law, she says “your God will be my God. and your people will be my people”. And now, Mary hears these words and they are for her for all-time. Your Father is my Father. Your God is my God. Jesus pledges his covenant faithfulness to Mary. There’s never a moment when Jesus is not her God. The one who speaks her name is the one who is hers and hers forever.

Jesus, our Groom

This is the glory of the resurrection. This is why we meet on Sundays. Jesus defeats sin. Jesus defeats death. He does all of this to save us… to give us that very same resurrection life. That very same Risen Jesus is our groom right now. He is our God. We are his people. There’s never a moment this isn’t true. We spend a lot of time chasing our expectations. What we think to be true about the way the world should work. Is supposed to work. We have a narrative in our head much like Mary’s. It may not be precisely, they’ve taken Jesus away and I don’t know where they have put him, I need to take him away.” But all of the same elements are there. Things are out of control. I need more information. And once I get more information, I’m going to fix this myself.

And into our world, the risen Jesus speaks our name and makes us His own. He saves. He rescues. He forgives. And he pledges himself to us. I will be your God. And you will be my people. It’s all we need to hear. It’s all we want to hear. Jesus is not dead. Jesus is alive, and he is saying our name, because he promises to be our salvation forever. He makes us his Easter bride.

Let’s Pray.

This meal gives us forgiveness. This meal also gives us life. Jesus said the one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life. The death gives life. The death brings to life. This Word combined with this meal doesn’t simply forgive us from our sins, as important as that is. It also gives life. This meal produces resurrection people. Every time we eat and drink of Jesus’ body and blood we are being made into resurrection people… people who have life.