It’s interesting how each of the four gospels tells a slightly different story of the disciples discovering the resurrection; but in every one it is the women who go early in the morning, even before dawn, to the tomb. In two of the gospels they take spices with them – spices because Jesus body had been hurriedly laid in the tomb as the sabbath was fast approaching. They planned to properly anoint his body for burial. But the big barrier was the stone that had been rolled in front of the entrance – they didn’t know how they would move it.
But amazingly when they got there the rock had been moved.
Matthew’s gospel talks of an earthquake and says that an angel rolled the stone away. The others simply record that it had been moved.
Our imaginations can go wild with this – was it an angel? The earthquake? People who stole his body for secret rituals? Grave robbers? Or did Jesus push it over from inside? Of course, Jesus didn’t really need to move the stone – in his resurrection body he was able to suddenly appear in rooms with locked doors. The resurrection Jesus is not bound by ordinary boundaries like solid walls or rock. The resurrection Jesus did not need the stone to be moved so he could get out of his tomb.
We needed it moved so that we could look in. We needed it moved so that we knew without a doubt that the tomb was empty.
And yet what grief that caused. The women coming to honor their friend and lord, expecting to lay him out and finding – nothing except the linens he had been wrapped in. Mark, the first gospel to be written tells us that “trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.”
It didn’t make sense. It was horrible. Beyond horrible, it was frightening. In John’s account that we just heard, Mary Magdalene does not run away but keeps asking, Where is he?
Taking about this two millennia later, we know the story, we know what happened. But as it was happening this was not a morning of joy. This was not a delightful Easter sunrise. This was a morning of fear and grief.
Things happen in our lives which seem incomprehensible. A tragedy strikes, we get a fearful diagnosis, a crazy man kills Asian women, a pandemic changes our entire way of life, we are betrayed by someone we trusted. And in these times when the unbelievable happens, when our worst fears come true, we grieve and like the women, we are “trembling and bewildered.”
When they found the stone had been rolled away it was a disaster. The tomb was empty. The man whom they had loved and pinned their hopes on was not only dead but now there was nothing where his body should have been.
Looking back, we know that it was not a disaster but a great joy.
In our times of grief and darkness we cannot see the resurrection. We just feel the horror of the earthquake and the shock of the empty tomb.
And we can stop there. We can run away and pretend it’s not happening. Or like Mary Magdalene we can continue to ask, where is he? Where is God in this? Yet when Jesus spoke to her, she was in such turmoil that she did not recognize his voice. I wonder how often in our own times of turmoil we fail to hear the voice of Jesus speaking to us?
With 20/20 hindsight we can know what the disciples did not – that their darkness and fear was being transformed into joy and hope. Because the moment of sadness was also the moment of hope. As Jesus taught, a seed must die and be buried in order to grow and bring new hope, new life.
Last week I quoted Richard Rohr saying that “salvation is sin turned on its head and used in our favor.”[1] This week I want to change that a little to “resurrection is disaster turned on its head and made into new life.” Resurrection is disaster turned on its head and made into new life. Even in the disaster God is at work bringing resurrection. It may not happen immediately, just as seeds have to germinate hidden in the soil for a time, but God always brings resurrection.
And that is the hope of Easter, that every disaster can be turned on its head and made into new life.
Yet like Mary Magdalene, we need to keep looking even when God has apparently disappeared, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him,” she cried. And she was so busy crying that she didn’t recognize him until that beautiful, intimate moment when he said her name: Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).
Yet it was not the same. Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me.” Now she had found him she wanted to hold on tightly, to make sure he would never leave again, but Jesus said No – Go, go and tell my brothers. When resurrection comes things are different.
As we hope that we are beginning to step out of this pandemic – as we glimpse signs of resurrection, we know that things will not be the same. As Easter people we are called to be part of creating the new, we are called to be resurrection people always seeing the signs of the resurrection and always creating the reign of God here on earth.
In a few minutes we will renew our baptismal vows with Lauren. These are vows to work to manifest resurrection in our personal lives and also in our society. We will vow once again to resist evil – evil the anti-resurrection, the force of violence and death; and we will once again vow to strive for justice and peace among all people. This is what our nation needs right now; this is what our world needs right now. This is what complete resurrection looks like – reconciliation between all humans; reconciliation between humanity and Creation; and reconciliation with God.
And that, people of God, is what we work for everyday through inner and outer work – we work for the coming for the reign of God, not as a distant hope but as something that is already here and just needs to be lived into. We cultivate the seeds of hope and possibility. We cultivate the seeds of nonviolence and grace.
We are the resurrection people, and we are not alone. This is not our project; this is God’s project and our God specializes in resurrection – disaster turned on its head and made into new life. Every time we take a step toward new life, every time we live our new life in Christ, it is magnified by the work of the Holy Spirit. So let us with Mary continue to look for the presence of God in every situation, let us continue to listen for his voice and let us carry the news of resurrection into every corner of the world.
[1] Rohr, Falling Upwards p.60
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