There are two distinct parts, two distinct movements, two distinct encounters to this morning’s passage from John. I think those two encounters also have a great deal to say to the church on Easter Sunday as well.
In the first movement of this passage Mary, Peter, and John have an encounter with an empty tomb.
Mary goes to the tomb and discovers that there is no body. She reports to Peter and the “Beloved Disciple” this fact: “The tomb is empty;” more specifically she says, “They have taken the body of Jesus.”
Insult has been added to injury: we can’t even give Jesus a proper burial.
Then John tells of a dramatic footrace to the tomb. I see it in my mind as similar to the final moments of the 1999 Super Bowl between the Rams and the Titans, Peter’s hand is reaching out for the goal line of tomb, but the Beloved Disciple beats him to it, winning the foot race.
At the tomb the beloved disciple looks in, sees the wrappings, but does not enter. Peter arrives shortly after John, and enters the tomb. He sees the wrappings used to cover the body of Jesus. The beloved disciple then enters the tomb and together they see that the Body of Jesus is no where inside. Then John says, “They saw and believed.”
Let’s stop for a moment and consider what did he/they see and believe? There is no body: it has been taken/moved. This is what they believe. They believe that the tomb is empty. John makes a point of saying, “for as yet they did not understand the scripture…” They don’t yet believe, know, or understand that the empty tomb means Jesus is alive and that he has been raised.
For them, in this moment, Jesus is like Moses; his body is in a place that no one knows. The tomb is empty. Happy Easter. And they go home, perhaps making up their minds to go back to life as they had known it.
And maybe there are a few people like this in the Church, maybe some here this morning. People who believe that there was an actual empty tomb on Easter morning, but they’ve walked away before meeting with the Risen One. They’re going back to life as they have known it, they believe in the forgiveness of sins, but they haven’t met the Resurrected Jesus. If it’s you, wait a while; Jesus is here.
In the second major part of this passage we have Mary waiting alone and weeping. She’s been robbed of her chance at closure. She cannot complete the rituals of lamentation.
And almost, like she can’t believe it, or maybe because she thinks that if she looks in the same place one more time he’ll be there. (You know, like when you lose something and you look in the same place over and over and over again?) That’s what Mary does. She looks into the tomb one more time. Maybe as a way of saying good-bye.
And as she looks in she sees to angels. Sitting there among the wrappings that held Jesus’ dead body are two messengers there to attend to her in her grief.
And their question seems so obvious, but it’s an important question: “Why are you weeping?”
We’re taught to pay attention to the body language of people. To look for signs of distress, not so that we can refer them to professionals, but so that we can be present with them in whatever moment of pain they are experiencing. Aloneness in grief, makes grief that much harder to bear. We’re invited to become messengers of hope for others, just as these angels are for Mary.
“Why are you weeping?” They give her a place to name her pain and she takes it.
“They’ve moved the body of Jesus and I don’t know where it is!” And she turns as if to gesture to them the barrenness of the tomb, the emptiness of the garden, and there he is. There is Jesus. But to her he is just the gardener; she is blind with greif.
“Where have you taken him?” she cries. “If you show me where he is, I will take him and tend to his body!” To Mary he is just a gardener, and she is so blinded by grief and pain she can’t see him…until he speaks her name: “Mary!”
I imagine like a parent comforting a child saying their name, rocking them back and forth, trying to get them to calm down. “Mary!”
And in hearing the Risen Christ speak her name, she knows him for who he is. And she falls to her feet in front of him.
This is why I said to wait a while. Jesus is here and he speaks our names: Daniel, Kristen, Alex, Matteo, Grace, Abbey, Elliot, Hajnal, Troy, Jay, Matt, Steve, Chris… He speaks our names so that we will know him for who he is.
There are lots of studies about newborns recognizing the voices of mothers and fathers based on learning their voice patters in utero. It may not necessarily create stronger bonds, but our children know who we are.
Mary knows Jesus because he speaks her name. Jesus speaks her name because he knows she will recognize him and know that she belongs to him. And he speaks our names this morning so that we will know to whom we belong and so that with our words, with our actions, with our lives we will testify to his risenness.
“I have seen the Lord,” Mary told the eleven. “I have seen the Lord…and it is so much better than just seeing an empty tomb.”
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