Easter New Life, New Hope, New Beginnings John Douglas Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church For 1500 years, Easter Sunday for western

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1 Easter New Life, New Hope, New Beginnings John Douglas Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church For 1500 years, Easter Sunday for western Christians has been the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox a sometimes confusing formula which means the date can vary by more than a month from year to year. For example, this year Easter Sunday falls on March 27. In 2015 it was April 5, and next year it will be April 16. To add to the confusion, the Eastern Orthodox Church calculates Easter differently using the old Julian calendar this year Orthodox Easter falls on May 1 more than a month after our celebration. When Easter falls in the month of March, I think many of us feel like it s early. We prefer Easter in April when it s brighter and warmer. However, there s something to be said for celebrating Easter when it is a little colder and darker because tombs are dark and cold and it was dark when Mary Magdalene came to the tomb that first Easter morning. Listen to the story from John s Gospel: Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her,

2 2 Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned and said to him in Hebrew,b Rabbouni! (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord ; and she told them that he had said these things to her. Reading and meditating on this scripture, several things stood out to me. First, is the emphasis on the tomb. In my Bible, the phrase, the tomb, is mentioned nine times in eighteen verses. That s a lot. The tomb, the tomb, the tomb. Tombs are places of death. The tomb is where the dead are laid to rest when life is no more. When we have lost a loved one, especially in the immediate aftermath of their death, a tomb is a place of heartache. There is darkness, coldness, grief, regret and despair. That s what we usually find in and at a tomb. It s not a place we want to be. We may feel drawn to visit, but it s usually painful because it s a reminder of what s been lost. The tomb is where hopes have died and been buried - there will be no more days with the one we love. The tomb is the place of endings with no more tomorrows, no more chances, no more opportunities. The tomb is a tough place to be and that s where Mary, Peter, and the disciple Jesus loved are on the first Easter. Some of us may be feeling that way this morning because we ve lost someone we love recently or because a holiday like Easter when we gather with family can be a time when we especially miss someone we love even if she or he died many years ago. Some of us are at the tomb and despairing this morning because there is so much in the world that we find depressing. More terrorist b That is, Aramaic

3 3 attacks this past week in Belgium, Nigeria, and Iraq killed over 100 people and wounded hundreds more. We look at the political landscape and hear how people who would occupy the highest office in our land speak about other people and it s discouraging. We see the struggles so many people have with addiction or jobs or finances. All these things feel like the tomb they feel hopeless, like something has died and been lost - a certain level of innocence, safety, civility, opportunity, or hope. Tombs are awful because when you feel like you re in a tomb, you feel trapped with no way out. I ve been reading my dad s memoir and in it he shares the story of an intoxicated man who was walking home from a bar in the wee hours of the morning and as usual he took a short cut through a cemetery on the way to his apartment. Unfortunately he didn t realize a grave had been dug for a burial the next morning and he fell in. More than ten feet below the surface and in his condition, he tried and failed to climb out. Resigned, he sat back in one corner to wait for morning and for people to come who could help him get out. As he was dozing off to sleep, a second drunken man fell into the grave. As the second man tried to climb out the first one said, You ll never get out of here. Well, he did! It s amazing what we can do when we re motivated. As I was reading in John s Gospel this week I noticed the emphasis on the tomb begins at the end of John 19:41-42, just before the Easter story: Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. The tomb is mentioned twice but so is the garden. In many ways a garden is the opposite of a tomb. A garden is a place of new life, new hope, and new beginnings. Gardens are beautiful, lovely, inspiring, relaxing. Then it hit me. Looking back in the Bible, the story of God and humanity begins in a garden. Genesis 2:15-17, states, The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the

4 4 knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die. Of course, Adam and Eve, who represent all humanity, do the one thing they were told not to do and then they try to hide from God. Genesis 3:8-9, They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, Where are you? Of course God knows where they are, the question is for them and for us. God asks Adam and Eve and us, Where are you? They are hiding from God because they re ashamed of themselves because they ve disobeyed God, and messed up. In Genesis humanity is hiding in the garden and God is searching. Humanity sinned in a garden and that started a cycle of sin and violence of brother killing brother that is still spiraling out today. If you turn in your Bible to John 18:1-5 this is what you hear about the last night of Jesus life: After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. 2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, Whom are you looking for? 5 They answered, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus replied, I am he. Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, I am he, they stepped back and fell to the ground. 7 Again he asked them, Whom are you looking for? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. 8 Jesus answered, I told you that I am he. Just like in Genesis, there is a betrayal in the garden. Just as Cain killed his brother Abel in Genesis, they came with weapons to take and kill Jesus. They come to the garden to arrest Jesus and to hand him over to death. But that s not

5 5 the end of the story because John 20 tells us it s in a garden that new life, new hope, and new beginnings are found. In John 20 Mary is searching for the Lord and she moves from the tomb to the garden. On that first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene sees a number of things that are signs of the resurrection. She sees an empty tomb (20:1-2), she sees two angels (20:12-13) who she talks to, (eventually and she even sees the risen Jesus) (20:14-15) but seeing all those things, none of them caused her to believe in the resurrection. Mary reacts in a typically human way to discovering the open tomb and the missing body she assumed it was an act of robbery or vandalism and that the body had been taken. In addition to Mary, Peter and John, also see the empty tomb and the grave clothes lying there with no body in them. John believes and Peter does not. Seeing doesn t guarantee believing even for those who were with Jesus and knew him best. And then like clueless men, they leave Mary alone with her tears. Men, don t make this mistake. Mary is bawling her eyes out and they leave her standing there alone and walk away. And these guys are part of Jesus inner circle, pillars of the early church, yet they leave Mary drowning in her tears. Because they don t stay and linger with Mary, they miss out on seeing Jesus. It s when Mary turns from the tomb and hears Jesus calls her by name, Mary that she cries out in recognition (20:16). Her recognition comes from hearing the word Jesus spoke. Jesus asks Mary the same question that he asked Judas and those who came to arrest him in the garden on Thursday night Whom are you looking for? The question in the garden remains the same, the difference is who is being addressed. Are we meeting Jesus in the garden to betray him or with hostility or because we oppose him like Judas and that crowd or are we looking and longing for him? Mary shows that seeing alone doesn t necessarily lead directly to believing. If there s to be faith in the resurrection it needs to come from something more than seeing an empty tomb. Hearing is crucial to faith because John s Gospel was written for folks who lived after Jesus had been

6 6 physically present so hearing was more crucial to faith than seeing. Mary is the pattern for Christians in later generations like us who come to know Jesus on the basis of what we hear rather than physically seeing Jesus. We will not have the chance to see the signs of the resurrection that Mary saw - an empty tomb, abandoned grave cloths, and most likely we won t be spoken to by a couple of angels or even the risen Christ. But we can hear the story and decide where we want to spend our time and invest our life at the tomb or in the garden. It s in the garden where Mary hears Jesus say, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Those words are so important and yet they re easy to overlook. Jesus has died and now he is alive again and he s telling Mary and all of us my Father is your Father, my God is your God what has happened to me can happen for you. There is hope in our everyday lives that the tomb is not the last word; there is a garden of new life, new hope, and new beginnings. If your life is hard right now, don t just look at the tomb, look for the garden. If you re grieving right now because death has taken someone you love, don t just think of the tomb, think of the garden of new life, new hope, and new beginnings. If you re down, depressed, scared, frightened, or discouraged, turn your focus from the tomb to the garden where you can meet the risen Christ, the garden where his Father can comfort you, the garden where Jesus God can give you new life, new hope, new beginnings that s what happens in the garden. One last thing I think is cool, In the second chapter of the Bible, Genesis 2:9 states, Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the final book of the Bible, Revelation 22:2b in a description of heaven says, On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. It is in the garden of God that we and all people will find healing, wholeness, life, love, and peace.

7 7 John 20:15 says that Mary looked at Jesus and, Supposing him to be the gardener; well he wasn t the gardener, but he is in a sense, the Gardener. In the garden, Jesus knows your name. He calls you just like he calls Mary and invites you to relationship with him in the garden of new beginnings. Having heard Jesus, Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord ; and she told them that he had said these things to her. In the resurrection of Jesus God turns us from a tomb to the garden in which new life, new hope, and new beginnings emerge and grow so that Mary and we can say, I have seen the Lord! Leave the tomb, and walk and live in the Garden. Questions for Reflection or Discussion 1. Are there any Easter traditions that you look forward to each year? If so, what are they and what makes them fun or special? 2. Look at John 20:1-18 and notice how often the words saw and seen are mentioned. What do you make of the emphasis on seeing? 3. Look at the scripture again for where hearing is involved, what do you notice about what happens when Mary sees and when she hears something? 4. In the Easter story in John 20:1-8 do you relate more to the response of Mary, John, or Peter? Which one is more representative of your faith experience or perspective? 5. Mary delivers the first Easter sermon and it s short and memorable, I have seen the Lord. How can we say that in our own lives? 6. How does the resurrection of Jesus matter for our present as well as our future?