1 Why Are You Crying? John 20:11-18 Easter 2016, 8:30 service It is a question we often ask another person with good reason. We want to know the reason for someone s tears, and we usually want to address that reason to make that person feel better.// It is a question we often ask babies who are crying, for example, as if they had words they could speak to tell us at that age. We wonder if they are hungry, sleepy, teething, or if they want to be held, have a wet diaper, or, dare I say it, need to pass gas.// It is a question we often ask toddlers, too, toddlers who come to us in tears. We wonder if they have fallen down, or if someone has hurt
2 them or said or done something cruel to them. We wonder if they are tired and need a nap.// It is a question we often ask adolescents when they burst into tears unexpectedly. We wonder if they have been bullied, or had an argument with their best friend. We wonder if they have been rebuffed by a girlfriend or boyfriend. We wonder if they are overwhelmed by the peer pressure at adolescence, or if they are simply experiencing the raging hormones of puberty.// It is a question we also often ask college students when they call home, troubled. We wonder if academic pressure has gotten to them, if they need money, if they have been hurt in a relationship, if they are homesick.// It is a question we often ask adult friends who seem on the verge of tears when we meet them or when a tender topic is brought up. We
3 wonder if there are issues with their marriage, their job, their children, their parents.// It is a question, finally, we often ask our parents as they age. We wonder if a friend has been diagnosed with something serious, if a friend has died, if they are lonely, if they are in pain, or if they are frustrated by the aging process.// It is a question that is asked in the Biblical text for today, and here, I have always thought, it doesn t seem to be asked with good reason. Two angels ask Mary Magdalene this question when she is standing outside Jesus empty tomb. The question seems, to me, frankly, dumb, even though there are never supposed to be dumb questions; it seems, at the very least, oblivious or insensitive. Don t the angels know why someone would cry at the tomb of a loved one who has died? And can t they figure out that someone would cry at the tomb of a loved one whose body seems to have been stolen? Hel-looo!
4 Mary answers the angels with these reasons and turns away from them, seeming, like me, to be sort of irritated by a dumb question. When she turns from the angels, however, she sees someone standing there, a man, a man who is the risen Jesus, but for some reason, she does not recognize him. He again asks her, but he follows it with a much more sensitive, intuitive, meaningful, and interesting question. He then asks, Whom are you looking for? He gets to the heart of the matter, her real concern. He senses, he knows, that she is looking for him, or at least for his body. Mary supposes him to be a worker at the tomb, perhaps a keeper of the garden, and she replies that she is looking for the body of her friend which should be in the tomb. She thinks maybe he has moved the body. Then, this worker, this supposed gardener, calls her by name, and she turns to fully face him and look at him, and she sees him, recognizing him as Jesus, her teacher. He tells her not to try to hold on to him, for his work is not yet done; he has not yet ascended to God his father and the father of Jesus followers. She follows his command, telling the disciples as well, I have seen the Lord. I have always supposed that
5 when Mary did that, her tears of sorrow, despair, and frustration at Jesus death and the empty tomb, became tears of joy at Jesus resurrection.// So, why do I think Jesus question, Whom are you looking for? is the more interesting question in the Biblical text? First of all, the question about crying in general can be answered pretty easily. As doctors note, 1 crying can be a release of emotion, signaling we need to address something. We are happy or sad or frustrated or in physical. Crying also may have a biochemical purpose, releasing stress hormones or toxins. Crying may also at times serve a social purpose, when we use it to manipulate someone. And, as scientists note, 2 tears are always in our eyes a bit to lubricate, nourish, and protect the eyes. We also have reflex tears to irritants like wind, smoke, or onions. Crying tears specifically is produced by emotion or will. Mary is clearly crying at the tomb from emotion. Secondly, the question about for whom we are looking for is much more interesting because this question not only speaks to Mary, it 1 Webmd.com 2 Alex Gender, Why Do We Cry?
6 speaks to all of us. In life, as we grow and explore, we are looking for something. When we attend church and Bible studies and discussion groups, when we wander off to try other faiths or philosophies, when we try to devise our own way, and when we come to church on Easter morning, we are all looking for something, in fact, looking for someone. We are looking for meaning in life, and we are looking for the only person who gives it meaning, Jesus. Nothing else will, no one else can. One pastor 3 explains how this is true today: [at least one] cultural anthropologist writes that Americans have increasingly turned to malls as community centers where people of all religious backgrounds can celebrate so-called civil-religious holidays together.... People are still seeking some meaning to life, and if they are not getting it in the churches, it s hopeful that they try to get it somewhere. This pastor continues, People are still seeking meaning. We are meaning-seeking beings. Alone in creation we wonder where we come from, why we are here, what will become of us, and why we must die. There is about us a 3 John Buchanan, A New World at First Light.
7 longing to know and to be known, an emptiness that nothing seems to fill, a question for which there are no simple answers. I am convinced that that is why churches are filled to capacity all over the world [on Easter], because today we get down to business: this whole matter of meaning is there any, and if there is, what exactly is it?...you are here, I am convinced, because you seek meaning and you know that today the church will talk about it. I add to this that especially this year, in a world of terrorism, polarization, and global change, we especially seek meaning. We seek the truth in a world where there seems to be only relative truth or even no truth at all. So, let me talk about it, and let me start with the Biblical text. Who was Mary Magdalene? She was a person who found meaning in Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that she had been healed from seven demons who Jesus cast out, whatever those were and wherever they led her in her search in life. She was saved from wandering by Jesus, saved of her sin, and she followed him. She listened to his teachings, and they made sense to her and moved her. She knew Jesus and had come to see him as, at the least, something more than a person, and she had found in
8 him meaning and purpose for her life, a way to live in love and hop. She had found in him the Way, the Truth, and the Life. When he was arrested and crucified, the meaning and purpose for and of her life seemed to be gone. Everything had ended so horribly in a way that made no sense to her at the time. There seemed to be only ahead a life of sadness and despair. Her hope for something more than this life---even when life is good---was dashed. Had this Truth been just another story, just another false idea of meaning in life? Or had this world killed the Truth and so put an end to it? Yet Mary respected and valued the person of Jesus, she valued their relationship as true and real, she trusted in him, and her love for him as her teacher was not diminished. So she went to his tomb, presumably to treat his body in the order of the day. At least she could do that. There, the sadness only continued, for his body was gone. Not knowing what to do, just before the text for today in John, Mary goes to tell Peter and John what she has found. They want to see for themselves, and seem to remember Jesus saying something about rising from the dead, so with eagerness and hope, they run to the tomb. They
9 see the empty tomb, but they also see a small detail. Jesus grave clothes remain, and not just tossed off, they are folded up neatly. No grave robber would take the time to do that. Again, they remember Jesus words, but like us, they are slow to understand, and they return home to think, to wonder, perhaps to pray. Had Jesus really risen from the dead, as he had said he would? But Mary stays, and she cries, she weeps. She has not yet been fully satisfied as to what has happened. And then she encounters the angels, and then she encounters the person she at first believes is the gardener, and then she recognizes him as Jesus. She knows it is him--- he calls her by name, and she responds. He was something more than a person, he was fully human and fully God, and he is risen! He died for her sins and ours, and he has overcome death. He will yet ascend to his Father, the God and Father of us all, but she has had an encounter with him, and the meaning and purpose, and most of all the relationship, is back. He is indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Life. So what does this story have to do with us? If we go past the text for today for a bit in John, we learn the answer. We learn that this story
10 is written down for us, so that we, like Mary, may find meaning and purpose in Jesus, so that we may believe, and that through believing, we may have life in his name, abundant life---a life forgiven from sin and in relationship with God, a live of love and hope; and eternal life---a life after this life in relationship with God forever and ever. As with Mary, Jesus calls our name---bill, Dave, Michael, Jim, Cathy, Debbie, Susan, Pat. We need only respond, as Mary did with Rabboni! and as Thomas later would with My Lord and my God! // So comes the question again: why do we cry? Why do we cry as babies, toddlers, adolescents, adults, parents? We know why, for as Jesus said, In this world, you will have trouble. But we should also remember that Jesus followed that by saying, Take heart, for I have overcome the world. This means that we can know, we can know, that our tears of sorrow, pain, and more, can be transformed into tears of joy, joy that we are loved, joy that we are forgiven, joy that Christ is risen, joy that we have found meaning in him, joy that we have found what and who we are looking for, and joy that we can proceed in life in that knowledge. //
11 Let it be today because you are crying tears of joy, joy that can be celebrated all day and all your life, joy that will be full in all senses, when we, after our deaths, fully see the Lord, just as Mary did, face to face. Then, he will again call our names---ralph, Wally, Jerry, Chris, Tina, Maureen, Connie, Linda. And we will say, Jesus! Teacher! Savior! My Lord and My God! And then again, we will cry tears of joy! Amen.