A Sermon for Easter Day
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie
Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:14-17,22-24
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-18
"I have seen the Lord." The words of Mary Magdalen. But just what did she see? Was it the gardener? Was it the Jesus on the cover of this week's Newsweek ? or the one on the stained glass window? or the other one on the church office wall?
Did this person Mary finally recognized as the Lord even look like the Jesus she had been following? After all, at first she thought he was the gardener. Had her tears or her grief so blinded her that she couldn't see well enough to recognize that familiar face or does a resurrected body somehow look different?
The bible just doesn't answer that one. And Mary isn't here to tell us what she saw or how Jesus looked after three days -- Was he: short or tall, light or dark skin, short or long hair, brown or green eyes? Was his resurrected body strong and healthy just like before they came to Jerusalem or was he still a bloody, beaten mess? Or maybe his resurrected body had scars where the wounds had healed?
We just don't know. Apparently the Gospel writers didn't think it was important enough to tell us. We are a highly visual people - we usually recognize people most easily by how they look. Jesus didn't look like Mary expected him to look ... but she recognized his voice. "Mary" the gardener said. And suddenly Mary knew this to be more than a gardener -- this was unmistakably and miraculously her teacher Jesus. And she told her friends so, saying, "I have seen the Lord."
Whatever it is that makes a person individually unique, loveable and recognizable, was there for Jesus' friends to see with a certainty that literally changed the world.
Mary was looking for Jesus, and although he wasn't quite like she expected, she recognized him. She found the one she was seeking. Listen to what he said to her. "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father."
Do not hold on to me. Let me go. You can't keep me. It can't be like it was before. Things are different now. Don't hold on to what once was -- let go of the details of death. Let go of the color of eyes and hair, the shape of hands and feet.
If, indeed, the Lord is risen, then everything is different.
It isn't going to be like before, Mary. So listen closely to the message that Jesus has for us: "But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Jesus' father is also our father. Jesus' God is also our God. Jesus is God's Son and so we, too, are God's children.
"Don't hold on to me, Mary. But go to my brothers. ..." "Whom are you looking for?" the gardener asks. Are you looking for Jesus? Let go, Mary. Go to Jesus' brothers and sisters. Are you looking for a beloved child of God? Then go to Jesus' brothers and sisters.
If you want to see evidence of the resurrection of a first-century Jewish Mediterranean peasant, he, Jesus himself, tells us "Do not hold on to me, but go to my brothers and sisters."
To see evidence of the Resurrection, turn to those whose lives Jesus has touched and transformed.
The power of the resurrection is in our lives now. What does Jesus' resurrected body look like today? It looks like Jesus' brothers and sisters. It may look a lot like you.
When we, like Mary, look for Jesus, he doesn't always appear the way we expect. Jesus appears in the faces of his children, there are glimpses of him even in the most unexpected places: It may be easy to see Jesus' body resurrected in someone who loves and cares for us. It may be easy, too, to see Jesus alive again in someone who is dying of AIDS. It's more difficult to see Jesus resurrected in those who hurt us: in family or friends who reject us because of whom we love. Yet they too are Jesus' brothers and sisters.
Our God is a God of surprises and won't be limited to those places where we expect to find him. Sometimes God shows God's self to us clearly, as he did in Jesus life. But other times, God is hidden in the most surprising places: God uses all kinds of unexpected ways to show God's love. Maybe God uses a kitten, or a tornado, or an old movie to tell you something about love. God sends us little surprise messages in unexpected places: Sometimes God looks like the gardener, or maybe like your mother or the paper boy.
That's one of the reasons I like Easter egg hunts. It's like seeking God: Sometimes the treasure is obvious, other times it's hidden and surprising. And there's joy and nourishment in the finding.
God is a God of surprises. On that first Easter morning, Mary got the surprise of her life. All of us are children of God, and brothers and sisters of Jesus. Children of the same God who gave eternal life to our brother, Jesus. The Lord Jesus is alive And the great surprise is that we also will live.
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