Encounters with the Risen Jesus: Easter Sunday

Call to Worship

Holy Week - whew.

So many emotions. So many experiences.

anticipation

fear

love

grief

hope

despair

belief

darkness

surprise

joy

And I wonder if you were to pick one (or three) of those, which you have experienced this week. Either as you have traced the story of the Passion, or just in your own life this week.

(Read the list again.)

From declarations of “Hosanna! God Saves!” and petitions of “Hosanna! God save us!” to Jesus bending to wash the feet of His disciples. From the upper room discourse - glorious teaching from Jesus about the life He’s calling His followers into to the arrest and trial. From the cross to the tomb… to where we will find ourselves this morning in the text. The tomb empty. Jesus… alive. And speaking our name so that we will recognize Him.

Today, we bring it all with us. All the anticipation, fear, love, grief, hope, despair, belief, darkness, surprise and joy… and whatever else you’ve got. As we join with Christians across the globe and throughout the centuries in proclaiming,

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Hallelujah and Hosanna! Praise be to the God who saves!

Well, we’ve almost done it. On Dec 19th, we began our journey through the Gospel of John. And now we have just two final chapters remaining. Over the next six weeks or so, we’ll make our way through John 20 and 21. And if you’ve been reading along, please take some time to reflect on what you’ve read. How it’s intersected with your own journey through these last few weeks. And, whether you’ve just read through the gospel or not, I invite you to take some time … and read through the gospel in the next few weeks. On May 29th, we’ll have a “potluck” sermon where I’ll invite you all to share a verse or a story that has impacted you in some way. Maybe it spoke into a situation you were facing? Maybe the gospel words raised a question that you’re still mulling over?

Meanwhile, we continue on with our journey through John. The Light Has Come. The Hour Has Come. And now… today, we are just on the cusp of a series of Encounters with the Risen Jesus.

Melanie, would you come and read for us? And would you all please stand for the reading of God’s word?

Who gets to come to the tomb?

Mary

Simon Peter

The Beloved Disciple

Who gets to encounter the Risen Jesus?

Well, for today, according to John, just Mary. (But as we make our way through the rest of John, we’ll see that there are more who will encounter Him! So stay tuned!)

Who was Mary Magdalene - a corrective. And a disambiguation. Have you ever searched for someone online only to find that there are other people by that name?

Simon Chan describes Mary this way:

“What makes Mary’s devotion to Jesus unique may have begun early in his ministry when he cast seven demons out of her (Luke 8:1–3). Mary had known the terrifying power of spiritual enslavement and the exhilarating freedom of following Christ her teacher. Here was a Rabbi who treated women very differently. From that day, her admiration and love grew.

Mary followed Jesus to Jerusalem. When all the other disciples fled (Mark 14:50), she stood in solidarity with other women to witness his agonizing death on the cross (Matt. 27:55). Love refuses to be cowed. Love perseveres when hope is extinguished. Mary witnessed Jesus’ limp body being taken down from the cross. He was dead! But love will not give up

Who was Simon Peter? - also called “Cephas” in Aramaic. was one of Jesus’ first followers. Outspoken and ardent, enthusiastic, strong-willed, impulsive and sometimes brash. Met Jesus through his brother Andrew back in John 1...

Who was the Beloved Disciple - likely, John. But it’s not totally clear. John may want his readers to read themselves into the text. As the disciple loved by Jesus. Therefore, some scholars think it is really just a symbol for a disciple. Or, there is also a theory that says that it is the resurrected Lazarus. “The one you love” has died. I don’t think we have to solve who it is in order to read the gospel of John. But in case you’re wondering why I don’t just call the Beloved Disciple John, this is why.

So Mary is there. And she’s come at the first opportunity - she couldn’t come while it was still Sabbath. And so she’s up before dawn. In the dark. Going to the tomb. And what she finds there - the stone moved - doesn’t feel like good news.

She goes to tell the Simon Peter and the Beloved Disciple the terrible news of Easter morning. The stone has been moved.

There’s a funny moment that follows. Especially if you think that The Beloved Disciple is John. Because the Beloved Disciple & Peter race toward the tomb after Mary tells them her news.

And John the Apostle writes: John 20:3-10

John 20:3–10 NIV

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

But the BD doesn’t go in. It’s Peter, arriving a little behind him, who blows past and goes straight in… something neither Mary nor the BD have done.

So Peter and the BD wouldn’t have known to go without Mary.

But the BD and Mary wouldn’t have realized that the body was gone, but the tomb wasn’t in a state of disarray. The face cloth folded neatly, the text says. And it is Peter who SEES this.

The Beloved Disciple believes, John tells us. But what exactly did he believe? That the body was missing?

They needed one another. They each brought something to the Easter community.

So, who gets to go to the tomb on this Easter morning? All three of them. But it turns out they need each other or they might have missed out on what was really going on. (In fact, since Peter and the Beloved Disciple go home, we can see that they’re going to need the message Mary will bring when she comes to them a second time. I have seen the Lord!

And then there is the second part of the text, where Mary lingers in the garden. In grief. I’m not sure why the others left. But Mary didn’t. Perhaps couldn’t. She’d come to pay her respects to the dead. And things had not gone as expected. Even in her grief.

Have you ever experienced grief like this? A sense of loss? A sense of things being all topsy turvy. I know you have.

And I know that right now, we’re also carrying the grief and loss of many other situations beyond our own… those of our friends and family and of our church community. We’re sitting with them. Holding space for the hard things can’t be fixed easily - or we would fix them.

And of course, we do this for our city - for those things in Kamloops that are complex and difficult. Including people who lack housing, who need complex care that addresses mental health issues as well as homelessness. For the Tkemlups Indian Band and for the grief that we were invited to join in on last May when the announcement of the unmarked graves was made. How can it be already almost a year that we’ve held that grief - and how have our Indigenous siblings held that grief for so long without support?

And of course, we do this for a province and country and world. We lament the reality of war. The reality of displaced peoples. An estimated 84 million. In Syria. In Ukraine. In Afghanistan. In Sudan. In Myanmar. And more.

As we see Mary encounter the Gardener… who of course isn’t the gardener and also IS THE GARDENER of the new creation. As Mary encounters Jesus without realizing it… as Jesus calls her name. As Mary hugs him. For she must hug him since he says, you can’t hold on to Me… right? And then commissions her to go and tell. Go and bear witness in a world that won’t consider her a witness. But Jesus calls her anyway.

Go and tell the others.

And she does.

Is Jesus meeting us in places we don’t recognize him? Are we listening for His voice? Do we realize He will call our name?

Can we, like Mary, become vehicles of resurrection love?

Love that is intensely personal and particular. But also that is for the whole world?

Benediction:

You had not imagined

that something so empty

could fill you

to overflowing

and now you carry

the knowledge

like an awful treasure,

or like a child

that roots itself

beneath your heart:

how the emptiness

will bear forth

a new world

that you cannot fathom

but on whose edge

you stand.

So why do you linger?

You have seen

and so you are

already blessed.

You have been seen

and so you are

the blessing.

There is no other word

you need.

There is simply

to go

and tell.

There is simply

to begin.

~ written by Jan L. Richardson