Easter Sunday – Dawn Service
Text: John 20:1-18
Given our hindsight we presume we
would have acted differently to Mary at the open grave.
“Sir, if you have carried him away,
tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
But Mary was caught up in grief and
trauma. Where is he? “They
have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid
him.”
As she returns she misses even the
obvious – that, as Jesus promised, he would rise from the dead. She misses the
angels, dressed in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been laid. “Woman
why are you weeping?” “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where
they have laid him.” And even after that when she senses another person behind
her and turns around her grief culminates.
She assumes this man she is speaking to is the gardener, maybe even the guilty
thief:
“Sir, if you have carried him away,
tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
These first words spoken to the
resurrected Christ certainly are a long way from how we greet him today: Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.” You
see, Mary was caught up in what St Paul calls “the Old Adam”. The Old Adam
afflicts all of us. It is seeing the
world with Jesus hidden which makes us think that Sin and Death are in charge. The
Old Adam convinces us into wanting to go back to the past, to the good old days
much like Israel kept wanting to go back to Egypt even though it was
back-breaking slavery. Mary was wanting
to go back to the Old Jesus – looking for dead body of Jesus rather than the
risen glorified body. The Old Adam keeps looking to the world to make us secure
– our possessions, our careers, our money. The Old Adam says the world is filled with
winners and losers, firsts and lasts, and we’d better do everything we can to
be winners.
Mary was caught up in the Old Adam,
and she can’t get past that Jesus had died and therefore that he has risen.. She was blaming everyone: Who took his body?! She couldn’t see that the linen cloths were
rolled up so nicely in the corner of the tomb meaning something special has
happened. If you’ve ever had your house
broken into, thieves don’t leave things nice and tidy. She couldn’t see the
angels in front of her trying to reveal the truth of what happened. Mary
couldn’t even recognize the resurrected Jesus Christ in front of her because
she was still caught up in what Jesus’ calls “the old order of things”. But
Jesus has come to make all things new.
And then he calls her by name “Mary” And
now, like Peter at the transfiguration “let me build 3 shelters” she wants to
keep Jesus to herself and remain in that moment. But Jesus is not just for her but for the
whole world. “Do not hold on to me… but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I
am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ And then
the old Adam is drowned – falling away, like the scales on St. Paul’s eyes, and
she saw for the first time with resurrection vision of the New Adam.
The New Adam looks away from
ourselves and all of our problems to take in the beauty of Jesus’ resurrected
presence everywhere. Resurrection vision enables us to trust that all things
work together for good for those who are called by God. Resurrection sees the
world as God’s world – no winners or
losers: Where the first are last and the last first. Resurrection vision sees
the opposite.
Where God uses the least qualified,
least educated, least righteous, least “good” people to be his witnesses in the
world; People like Moses, a man who had a fear of public speaking. People like
David, the youngest of all the brothers who used a slingshot and a pebble to
defeat evil. People like Paul, who had been a violent persecutor of Jesus’
people. People like Thomas who refused to believe that Jesus rose from the dead
unless he could see and touch him personally. Or Zacchaeus, despised by
everyone except Jesus.
Resurrection vision sees that God
sent his only Son into the world, not to condemn the world – that’s the Old
Adam – the Old Order of things – but that the world might be saved through him.
Let us go from here with that Resurrection Vision knowing that with God, all
things are possible. That money, possession, fame and careers aren’t the centre
of the universe but God. Let us go knowing that whatever is before us that God
has promised to be with us always till the end of the age. And let us remember
that God also sees us with Resurrection Vision as created in his image,
redeemed by Jesus, despite what the world makes of us.
God will look out for you just as he
did the lost sheep, the Israelite slaves in Egypt, the woman at the well, the
despised Zacchaeus. Because of the resurrection God is at work, in you and
through you to bring resurrection hope to the world as did Mary and the
disciples. So, like Mary, let us go and tell the others that Jesus is alive.
That Christ is risen – he has risen
indeed.
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