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Spoilers have been a topic of conversation lately. Do you
know what I mean by spoilers? When someone gives away the end or some plot twist
in a book, movie or TV show. Last week, Savannah Guthrie of the Today Show
caught some flak for commenting about the end of Downton Abbey’s season finale. Apparently, lots of people who had
recorded the show and not watched it yet were upset.
Do you like to have things spoiled, the ending of a movie
or the plot of a TV show or the twist in a novel? I’ll be honest, sometimes
when I’m reading a book, I’ll read the last page when I’m half-way through. But
when I do I always feel a little guilty that I spoiled the surprise.
Some people get really upset about spoilers. This is bad
because we have the unfortunate combination of DVRs and Twitter. Lots of people
record shows to watch them later, and lots of people watch them as they happen
and then Tweet about it – sometimes as they’re watching. Then the DVR crowd
gets mad because the suspense is ruined. Or the surprise is ruined.
Jesus was a fan of spoilers, but like with so many other
things, most of the time his followers didn’t get it. In his three years with
his disciples, Jesus spoiled the end of his story a few times. In Mark 8:31 he
tells the disciples that he will suffer, that he will die, and that he will
rise from the dead. He told them several times about the resurrection, but
still, as we saw in our scripture this morning, they were surprised by the
empty tomb. They didn’t know what to think; they didn’t know how to feel.
I think that is the way a lot of us feel about the
resurrection of Jesus. We hear the stories, we read the accounts, and we look
at the page and think, “Yeah, but what does it mean?”
One of the most effective ways I’ve found to
read scripture, to find the meaning of scripture, is to put myself in the
story. Look at the events from the point of view of one of the participants. I
want to do that for our scripture from this morning. Think about the story. Put
yourself there as Mary or as Peter or as John.
It has been a troubling few days – days
filled with sorrow, days filled with fear and weeping. We don’t know where Mary
spent the Sabbath. She spent Friday at the foot of the cross watching her
friend and teacher die. But we have no record of Saturday. Maybe she went to
the Temple to pray, to ask God why Jesus was taken from them, to ask God if
she’d been wrong to follow Jesus.
Peter, like most of the other disciples,
spent Friday running and hiding. He’d tried to watch some of Jesus’ trial, but
only ended up denying that he even knew Jesus. He probably spent Friday and
Saturday hiding from his shame as much as hiding from those who had Jesus
arrested. Like most of the disciples, he only heard about the horror of Jesus’
death from others because they were too afraid to show their faces in public –
too afraid to see it for themselves. Or maybe he didn’t want to hear, didn’t
want to see – couldn’t bear to think about it.
John had been there at the crucifixion. Maybe
he told Peter about it or maybe it was too much to talk about. Peter and John
probably stayed in hiding on the Sabbath, afraid that they would meet the same
fate as their master if they entered the Temple to worship and pray. As the sun
went down Saturday, marking the end of Sabbath, maybe they considered at least
going to see the tomb.
Early Sunday morning – before dawn – we find
Mary on her way to Jesus’ tomb. She waited as long as she could; left almost as
early as she could without breaking Sabbath laws. As she approaches the tomb,
she sees the stone has been removed from the entrance. Her grief immediately
turns to panic. “Oh no! Someone stole the body!” She turns and sprints back
into town. She finds Peter and John and tells them what she found. Now they are
panicked and they figure they’d better do something about it.
The two of them run back to the tomb –
excited, scared, confused – and they see just what Mary saw. The stone is
moved, the tomb is empty. Peter gets there just after John, and he goes in to
get a better look. He finds the wrappings lying there empty. John enters the
tomb after Peter and sees the wrappings and the cloth that covered his head
folded and laid aside. John sees and he believes. Maybe they finally get it.
Jesus told them he would die and he died. He also told them that he would rise
again. Did he rise?
Peter, in his confusion, must wonder what it
means for him. Is he even more ashamed of denying he knew Jesus? Is he excited
and looking forward to a chance to apologize, a chance to redeem himself? Is he
ready to see Jesus again so he can apologize or does the empty tomb fill him
with dread and embarrassment?
What about John, he watched Jesus die. Jesus
spoke to him from the cross – asked him to take care of his mother, or asked
his mother to take care of John. And now the tomb is empty. Maybe his thoughts
are practical. Do I still need to take care of Mary? Maybe his thoughts were
more spiritual. Jesus said he would go to prepare a place for us – told us that
we would go where he goes. Will we rise also?
And then they went home. Their panic turned
to belief turned to uncertainty about what to do. Maybe they don’t know what to
make of this just yet.
Mary returns to the tomb, still grief stricken, still
panicked over the missing body. And now Peter and John are gone, too. Her mind
must be swirling. He died, but now he’s gone, stolen body, rise again. She
looks into the tomb and sees angels, but still she doesn’t quite get it. She
doesn’t seem to notice that they are angels. “Where is he?” Then she realizes
she is not alone outside of the tomb. She asks again, “Where is he?” She just
wanted to see him again. To know where he was. To be near him.
Finally he calls her name. “Mary.” And her panic melts
away, and the trouble and the sorrow of the last few days are replaced with
absolute joy! She is near him. Christ is risen! She is ecstatic and she can’t
wait to tell someone, just as he told her to. So she runs to town to find the
disciples again. This time to tell them, “I have seen the Lord!”
What does the resurrection mean?
For Mary, the resurrection means that she can spend more
time with her Lord. She can be in the presence of Jesus again. For John, it
means that what Jesus said is true. He is truly the Son of God. He is light in
the darkness. He is Lord. For Peter the resurrection means a chance at
redemption. A chance to start anew.
What about for you? What does the resurrection mean to
you? We don’t typically recite the Apostle’s Creed in this service, but a part
of that statement of faith says that we believe that Jesus was crucified and
died, was buried, and rose again on the third day. We believe it, but what does
it mean to believe it?
We can start by looking to Mary and John and Peter.
Resurrection means that we worship a living God. It means that we can spend
time in the presence of Jesus. It tells us that Jesus is who Jesus claimed to
be. The Son of God – Jesus is light in the darkness. John’s gospel is the only
one that begins the resurrection story in darkness. I imagine the sun breaking
over the horizon just as Jesus calls Mary by name. The light of Jesus breaking
into the darkness. Just as the light of Jesus breaks through the darkness of
our lives. Resurrection means that, just like Peter, we have a chance for
redemption.
In the death and resurrection of Jesus, sin and death are
defeated. The death and resurrection of Jesus delivers us from the consequences
of sin. Paul wrote in his letter to the Roman church that the “wages of sin is
death.” Jesus defeated death. In baptism, we are baptized into the death and
resurrection of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we share his baptism. In sharing his baptism, we share his death. In sharing his death, we
share his resurrection. For the believer, sin and death have no power.
So for us, Jesus has spoiled the ending. We know how the
end will go. Life wins over death. Light wins over dark. Christ is risen! No
matter what tragedy we are dealt, life wins. No matter what disastrous or just
disappointing circumstances we face, life wins. Alyce McKenzie said this, “Knowing
that, in the end, life wins, takes the steam out of our suspense and
strengthens us to face whatever life may hold.” As Fredrick
Buechner wrote, for the believer “Resurrection means that the worst thing is
never the last thing.”
Resurrection means life wins. No matter
what, the love of Jesus wins. And that is news that is so good, it has to be
told. It has to be shouted. Christ is risen! Or as Mary told the disciples, “I
have seen the Lord!”
Amen.
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