April 17 – John

It is Easter Sunday, the day that we celebrate one and only one thing, the Resurrection of Christ, and what that means to each one of us who believe.  It is a day of joy and hope!  A day of new beginnings!

What I love about the Gospel of John is that he has the ability to craft the event of Jesus Resurrection with a maximum amount of detail and symbolism.  Yet, he also shows repeatedly the inability of Jesus disciples and followers to grasp the fact of the resurrection.  Although Jesus himself had told them that he must die and would then come back to life again, they had not really comprehended that reality.

This past summer I attended a week long seminar on Mary Magdalene. I have always been a great admirer of her as one of the strong women who are mentioned in the Bible.

The gospels of Mark and Luke tell us that Mary of Magdala had been cured by Jesus from seven demons.  In Jesus’ time it was language for saying that she’d had many serious problems, and through Jesus, God had utterly changed her life. None of the gospel writers felt the need to catalog what Mary’s troubles had been, but today we still understand “demons,” don’t we? The things that eat at us, plague our thoughts, creep into our dreams at night and wake us up in a sweat.

Have you ever experienced the demon of being riddled with self-doubt, taunted by fears for the future, the fear of death, or whether you have lived up to what you had hoped you would be able to accomplish in this world?   I know that I have.  For at times, we all have demons who call to us to examine ourselves and find ourselves coming up short!

We don’t know whether Mary Magdalene’s demons were worry over a life-threatening disease, dementia or the result of some physical or emotional trauma she had suffered. But we do know these demons are real, the stuff of the life we live, or others we know and love.  And this also we know, by all accounts: that Jesus – by word or healing touch – had somehow made Mary of Magdala new.

We know from the other Gospels that Mary had followed Jesus along with other women from Galilee, providing from her own resources for Jesus’ needs and those of His mission.

She and those women followed Jesus to the Cross, and she had seen where Jesus was buried, so it is no wonder that Mary got up in the early hours of the morning on that first Easter day.  We can imagine her making her way through the dark, back to the tomb, weeping as she went.

Just seven short days before, Mary Magdalene and the other women had entered the city of Jerusalem along with Jesus and His disciples.  She had seen the multitude of people who gathered to wave palms at Jesus, singing and shouting praise as He rode into the city on the donkey.  We can imagine her singing with joy,  for she thought that they saw what she saw in Jesus.  She thought they saw him as the Messiah.

It wasn’t long, however, until all this jubilation started to go tragically wrong. Jesus was arrested, and we can imagine Mary and the other women following along, trying to get a glimpse of Jesus, or to hear what was to happen to Him.  Most likely they heard through the grapevine that Jesus was being mistreated, whipped and jeered at.

Jesus was tried and condemned to death on the cross as the women once again stood at the edge of the crowds of people, hoping to hear of Jesus fate.  And then, following the crowd, they see a procession coming down the street with a mob of people yelling and jeering.  Eventually, men carrying crosses came into view, and there was Jesus with a crown of thorns, dragging a cross.

They watched in horror as Jesus was crucified, and then hastily buried because it was the eve of the Sabbath.  We can only imagine the horror of that scene.  Like any good Jew, Mary Magdalene would have observed the Sabbath, and then early the next day, walked through the dark to the tomb. And we can imagine her horror when she comes to the tomb, and the stone had been rolled away and Jesus’ body was gone.

We can imagine Mary running as fast as she could to tell the disciples that Jesus’ body was missing, and we have to admit that the scene of Peter and the other disciples having a footrace to Jesus tomb.  Once they found it empty though, they returned back to where they had been.  Then, and only then does Jesus appear to Mary Magdalene.

As we leave here this morning, to eat our special Easter dinner, and perhaps even eat the ears off of a chocolate bunny, let each of us experience the joy of the Resurrection, and the gift of life and love that God and Jesus bring to all who believe.  For as believers, Jesus calls us each by our names, for we are Beloved Children of God.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen.  Christ is Risen Indeed?                                Amen