Sermon: Easter Vigil, John 20:1-18, April 8, 2023 Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Linman

Sermon: Easter Vigil, John 20:1-18, April 8, 2023

Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

Tonight’s account of the resurrection recorded in John begins with the frantic activity of running to and fro. Having seen that the stone had been removed from the tomb, Mary Magdalene ran to Simon Peter and Jesus’ beloved disciple. Hearing that news, Peter and the beloved disciple ran together toward the tomb, Peter being outrun by the beloved disciple. They saw the empty tomb, but then they went home.

All their rushing and running about didn’t get them very far when it’s all said and done, at least in terms of the possibility of their having had an encounter with the resurrected Christ.

Isn’t that the case when we’re in a hurry? When we succumb to the siren call of urgency, we miss all sorts of compelling, even life-changing encounters. When we’re rushing about, we miss even that which is hidden in plain sight right before our eyes.  

In contrast, I’m struck by Mary’s response. It wasn’t to run home, to flee the empty tomb. No, Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. She stood there. She didn’t run. She didn’t flee.

Sometimes it takes being still, slowing down, stopping even, for us to have our feelings catch up with us. In Mary’s case, it was grief at the death of her beloved teacher, Jesus, that caught up with her.

Mary stood. Stood still even. Quite a contrast to all the running that begins this story from John. In this account of the resurrection, standing there allowed Mary to see the two angels in the tomb who asked her why she was weeping. Theirs is a rhetorical question that becomes a sign pointing to the news that Jesus was alive again, suggesting that there was no call for tears, except perhaps tears of joy.

That’s when, still standing, Mary turned around and saw Jesus also standing there. Jesus standing, in similar fashion to how Mary was standing. Standing together. The very fact of Jesus’ standing was evidence of his resurrection. Dead people don’t stand up.

One of the biblical Greek words for resurrection also means to stand or to rise up. The root of the German word for resurrection also translates to stand up.

Mary and Jesus met each other standing. Standing still. Staying put. Standing together. And that soon made all the difference.

At first, this encounter, when Mary and Jesus are standing next to each other, is a humorous moment of mistaken identity. Jesus said to Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, Mary said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” This is a moment of humor in the divine comedy which is the story of the resurrection, the antithesis to what otherwise would have been the tragedy of Jesus’ death.

Mary standing there. Jesus standing there having been raised up to stand up. Standing still and staying put, together, that’s when Jesus uttered the word, the name that made all the difference. Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

Then Mary recognized this standing one, this living one, as her teacher, her rabbi. So, she exclaimed “Rabbouni,” “Teacher,” and she wanted to reach out to embrace him.

Without their standing with each other, this encounter may not have happened. Mary was standing there, staying put long enough to hear her name on the lips and in the familiar voice of her teacher. Hearing her name made all the difference between unbelief and belief, between despair and joy, between death and life.

And that’s when Mary stopped standing still, and made haste to go back to the disciples to share the news of this encounter, as Jesus instructed: “But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” So Mary went to them: “I have seen the Lord,” she said – all because she stood still long enough to see Jesus himself standing in the fullness of resurrected life.

We stand a lot when we do church. We generally stand for the hymns. We stand for the reading of the gospel as a way of honoring the resurrected Christ who continues to live on in his word. We stand to recite the creed and to pray the prayers of intercession. We stand to greet each other with the Peace of the risen Christ. We stand to receive the bread and wine, when the risen Christ is made known to us in the breaking of bread. We stand up to leave this place to proclaim the resurrection in our words and deeds as we return to the world and our homes and neighborhoods and places of work.

Through these means, when we stand together in church, we, like Mary, encounter the risen Christ. In fact, standing in church becomes its own symbol and thus proclamation of Jesus having been raised up. Thus, in a few moments, we’ll stand up again with Mary, the apostles, and all the saints to sing and bring the good news, for Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed, alleluia! Amen.