On the Way to Wonder

13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 

 Luke 24:13-14

We are looking at eye witnesses to the risen Christ.  Some of us are like Mary Magdalene of last week who went to the tomb and then lingered afterwards in her grief.  Jesus met her and called her name.  It was a deep personal experience.  That afternoon we meet two others, Cleopa and friend, who are headed away from Jerusalem but they are discussing the events that have just taken place.   They seem to be headed in the wrong direction, away from the action.  Maybe there was no room at the “inn.”  Maybe they had to head home for work.  It could be that Cleopa was a woman as her name sounds Roman and ends with an “a,” the female ending like with a similar name Cleopatra.  Mary Magdalene is a known follower of Jesus but we know nothing about Cleopa.  Cleopa and friend are somehow similar to the three wisemen who pop into the story line for only a short space but they represent God’s love that goes beyond the Jewish community to all people.

The verses challenge me to ponder where I am in my spiritual journey today.  Am I deeply seeking Jesus and pondering the meaning for my life or am I intellectually challenged and curious but not that emotionally involved?  In either case, God steps into reality.  God does not wait for us to climb up to him and to understand  the circumstances of our lifetimes, instead he seeks us out and meets us in the middle of our discussions.  

I also note that God met Mary Magdalene as an individual and he met Cleopa and friend in community.  We often put parameters and expectations around what a spiritual experience might look like but in fact our God is a God who works with believers and seekers, with individuals and groups and with people deep in prayer and people deep in discussion.  

So where are you today?  Are you heavy in heart with a question for the Lord or deep in discussion with deeper understanding being sought.  God comes to us where we are if we are looking and listening.  Thank you, Lord.

¹² After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. ¹³ And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.  Mark 15: 12-13

After this…

After what?  A post script was added to the Gospel of Mark but the Gospel of Luke 24:12-14 recorded the same encounter with the risen Christ.  Easter Sunday afternoon at sometime the risen Christ appeared on the road to Emmaus to two people.  Last week we looked at Mary Mgdelene’s encounter on Easter morning.  The followers did not believe she had seen the risen Christ nor had talked with him.  Perhaps you have your doubts also.  You have never actually seen nor touched Jesus.   This second encounter has a different flavor.  Two people are walking along to Emmaus, a small town about seven miles from Jerusalem and talking over the events of the day and digesting all the stories swirling about town.  There was no TV, CNN or radios then.

I don’t remember what I did Easter afternoon but it probably involved eating with friends and then a snooze thinking about perhaps the sermon but perhaps wondering when the kids would call. I might have been preparing for Monday.  I suspect that first Easter was more like the afternoon of 9-11 without TVs and radios to report. Everyone is comparing notes about what they’ve heard.

As I think of Sunday afternoon as preparation for teaching on Monday, I think of the song by the Mamas and the Papas:

, Monday, can’t trust that day

Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way

Oh Monday mornin’ you gave me no warnin’ of what was to be

Oh Monday, Monday, how could you leave and not take me

The week prior people hailed Jesus as the expected Messiah and then they yelled for crucifixion and now are confused if the body was stolen or what???  It is easy centuries later to jump to “Hallejuah” and skip the grief and despair when life does not turn out the way we want but I suspect we often have Monday downs.  For all our wants, often life does not turn out the way we want or the way we expected.  Those irritating interruptions upset our day and we feel we have been left behind.  The two travelers were not believed by their friends any more than Mary was.  It was a no-good-very-bad day.  After this,” signals a coming to terms with reality.

It is at this point of disorientation, this point of confusion, this point of discouragement that Jesus steps into that we shall be looking at this week.  We have a God  that meets us when our faith is scraping the bottom of the barrel and when life seems all topsy turvy.  When we feel God has left us behind and not taken us on his journey of health, wealth and prosperity, it is at those times that we see the risen Jesus in a whole new way.  

This week we will see God in sunrises and storm clouds, even a solar eclipse today.  We will recognizes him when we see things work out for the good.  But let us be encouraged that even “after this” God is still working to bring about good.  Thank you Lord that you are working even when I can’t see you and when I am confused and down.  To you be the glory.

First Reading: Acts 4:32-35

³²Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. ³³With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. ³⁴There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. ³⁵They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Psalm: Psalm 133

How good and pleasant it is to live together in unity. (Ps. 133:1)

 ¹How good and how pleasant it is,

  when kindred live together in unity!

 ²It is like fine oil upon the head, flowing down upon the beard,

  upon the beard of Aaron, flowing down upon the collar of his robe. 

 ³It is like the dew of Hermon flowing down upon the hills of Zion.

  For there the Lord has commanded the blessing: life forevermore. 

Second Reading: 1 John 1:1–2:2

¹We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—²this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—³we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

 ⁵This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; ⁷but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

 ^2:1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; ²and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Gospel: John 20:19-31

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

 ²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

 ²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

 ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

CHILDREN’S SERMON: Sleeping Beauty

 One of the childhood stories made popular by Disney is “Sleeping Beauty.”  The beautiful Princess Aurora is born into royalty and the entire kingdom gathers to celebrate, including three good fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. Suddenly an uninvited guest, an evil fairy, appears and curses the baby.  She announces that before Aurora turns 16, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel’s spindle and die before sunset on her 16th birthday. The good fairy, Merryweather, softens the curse so Aurora will not die, but only fall into a deep sleep instead until she receives love’s true kiss. All the people in the castle would go into a deep sleep also so she would wake with friends. The parents try to rid their kingdom of spinning wheels but Aurora does indeed find one and pricks her finger.  100 years later the handsome prince arrives to cut through the brambles that have overgrown the castle and kisses Aurora. True love awakens the princess to happy ever after.

Let’s pray.  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

Last Sunday was Easter.  We are now in the Easter season.  For the next 40 days we will focus on the proofs of the reality of the resurrection.  Last Sunday the women went to the tomb to anoint the body only to discover it was not there.  Angels told them “He is risen!”  Those three words have echoed through history with different explanations given.  Was the body stolen?  Was it exchanged on the way to the tomb and Jesus never really died because God can’t die?  All the other resurrections recorded in the Bible have the resurrected person at the scene of the resurrection.  Elijah raised the son of the Shunamite woman and presented him to his mother.  Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus and presented her to her parents.  Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain in front of the whole community.  And Jesus raised Lazarus after Lazarus was in the tomb four days and had the people unwrap the cloths binding him.  The women last week came to the tomb and found no body.  Houston, we have a problem.

  Many people saw Jesus in the days between the resurrection and his ascension but as they told their experiences they were met with doubt like that of Thomas in our text today.  “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”  Locked doors are like locked hearts that respond to the message of Easter with fear and doubt until faith grows.  Mark ended his gospel last week with an angel telling the women who went to anoint his body that Jesus was risen and they were to go and tell the disciples.  They left terrified and did not tell or were not believed. Our text today continues and it is Easter evening and the followers are gathered behind locked doors, scared.

During the Easter season we look at the proofs that confirm to us that Jesus is alive and active in our world today.  Each gospel offers the experiences of different eye witnesses to this resurrection.  As we travel through the Easter season we will grow each week into a deeper and deeper understanding of what resurrection means.  Our text today comes from the gospel of John and it is the evening of Easter Sunday.  In the passage Jesus appears and three times says, “Peace be with you.”  Princess Aurora and the people in the castle who are all asleep all seem to be at peace because they are not aware of the thorns growing around them and insulating them from their dire state and it is only as the Prince arrives and the kiss of love is given that they awake to reality and true love.

1. “Peace be with you.”

Peace from fear without

The followers were meeting behind locked doors that first Easter Sunday evening for fear of the Jews.  These people had seen all the gore of the crucifixion and had heard the words of the women but somehow it just didn’t add up.  Peter and John had also gone to the tomb and found it empty.  They had seen Lazarus walk out of his tomb recently but they still did not understand and did not believe witnesses reporting.  Princess Aurora and her parents have lived in fear of the curse for 16 years.  Just like the princess, we live under the curse of death and resurrection is hard to get our minds around.  It takes a leap of faith.  We try to eat the right foods, do the right exercises, and live as safely as we can and yet all too soon death comes knocking at our door.  Perhaps we are not afraid of the Jews — the alien, or of the Romans— the government, but we know life is fragile and our bubble of security can break at any moment. Trusting Jesus’ promises of eternal life is hard.  And then one day Jesus enters our fears and says, “Peace be with you.” 

Let me just confess.  I have control issues but the truth is that  I cannot control curses.  Life reinforces that truth.  Most of us have had to face that disappointing moment when all our faith did not make life turn out the way we wanted.  Prince Charming did not propose.  We lost a job.  A beloved person died.  Finances got stretched.  Evil and suffering are so real and God seems like Prince Charming — off in some other kingdom.

We also live in a world of multiple options.  Many think that all roads lead to Rome.  We may feel like we are standing in one of those game shows with multiple doors and behind one of them is the grand prize and we are challenged to choose.  Common precepts seem to be foundational to all world religions.  So many people surf churches the same way we surf the Internet for a church service that pleases us.  We can find information about the resurrection but we may not meet the resurrected Jesus and most likely will not form a relationship with the body of Christ nor with the risen Christ himself.  Jesus needs to step through the glass of the TV into our lives and say, “peace.”

The door formed a barrier between the terrified followers and the enemy.  Today, it is often hard to identify the “enemy.”  We are insulated in our materialism.  Many think of our country as having Christian roots and so as politics heat up this year we might be confused about issues.  All candidates claim to be good people who will deliver a better, fairer life just like Jesus.  We are not sure just who we are afraid of. Efforts to help the poor and needy have been institutionalized by society and so we now demand the government care for the needy rather than accept it as the role of faith.  The platform of actions that differentiated Christians from society in the first century and in times of crisis has disappeared.  

We look to the government rather than faith to protect us from the fears of danger from outside ourselves. 

We are cursed from without.  We are all sinners and will die.  We are exposed today to religions from all over the world that have similar precepts of being good people.  We are numbed by our present culture that offers to meet our needs and focuses on the solutions politicians offer.  Like Princess Aurora we know there is a spindle somewhere that is dangerous and upon which we might prick our finger but we are just not quite sure what it looks like or how it works.  Anxiety works on our gut and we need Jesus to come through the locked door and say “Peace be with you.”

Martin Luther describes the locked door that is meant to keep fear out and keep us safe within by the words of explanation for the second article of the Apostle’s Creed.  “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”  By grace we are saved through faith, it is a gift of God and not of works.  The Prince cuts through the brambles to kiss and free Princess Aurora.  Jesus came to this world to cut through death and kiss us with love.  The prince finds us.

2. “Peace be with you.”

Peace from doubts within.

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe,” said Thomas and many of us who doubt.  Jesus came through locked doors of fear of that which frightened his followers from without.  He then appeared to the followers who did not believe Mary.  He showd them his side and his hands.  Other Gospels say he invited them to touch him and he asked for fish to eat.  The resurrected Jesus appeared, three dimensionally.  It is only as the followers encountered Jesus that they were able to come to terms with their internal doubts.  “Peace be with you,” Jesus said and breathed on them the Holy Spirit.  

I find it interesting that Jesus goes through locked doors twice.  The first time he appeared to the group, the community of believers.  The next week he appeared to Thomas. Individually.  Princes Aurora is asleep but so is her community.  All are under the spell. Our faith is important to the body of Christ, the church, but it is also individual, changing our lives.

Thomas has become famous because he was absent from this appearance of Jesus. He doubted the reports.  Thomas did not want second-hand faith but demanded the real thing.   Many like Thomas want to encounter Jesus for themselves.  Jesus invited him to touch and feel.  Jesus appears in many ways to dispel our doubts.  For some it is music and others it is nature and for many it is in the written Word.  We share our stories to encourage others in the spiritual journeys and to help each other through hard times of doubt and pain. Thomas needed the personal experience of touching and feeling Jesus.  Even we need to know that God cares for us as we are.  The princess had to be kissed but the community was impacted.

3.  “Peace be with you.”

Peace to be fully you.

But I note something else.  Jesus breathes peace on the followers and then says two things.  Jesus sent the followers out to represent him in the world even as he himself was sent by the Father.  Next he breathed the Holy Spirit on them and he commanded them to forgive each other. Those are two challenges we cannot face when we are full of fear and doubt.  Like Princess Aurora we are asleep, immobil and unable to do anything until we are kissed by true love. Once kissed by the love of the Prince, by the resurrected Christ, the followers became changed people that changed their world.  They were not to stay behind locked doors and they had to forgive the people they feared.

They became brave representatives of Jesus facing the people on the other side of the door of fear.  Before they were at peace, they were paralyzed by fear of judgment, criticism and rejection.  When we are blinded by hatred and prejudice, we will be tempted to see people as enemies. The Peter of Pentecost is not the Peter of the trial a few days earlier.  Nicodemus who went to Jesus by night changed and went to Pilate to ask for the body for burial.  Saul who killed followers became Paul the evangelist.  There’s a difference in their lives.  1 John 4:18 challenges us, ”¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”  Loving people who are different from ourselves and who have different values and different ways of doing things, is just plain hard. But Jesus sends the followers and us even as he was sent by the Father.  We are sent like sheep among wolves.  We are sent like Jesus who was often misunderstood and often rejected but he changed the world as he loved the unloveable, touched the untouchable, and raised the dead.  Princess Aurora awakes after the kiss to live a life we can only imagine. 

The flip side of the coin is that each one of you is important.  Maybe you are not the preacher or the teacher but you are the voice, the hands, and the heart of Jesus in this world.  People will know that Jesus is risen because they will see him living through each one of us.

Secondly Jesus tells his followers and us to forgive the sins of others.  That is just plain hard and needs the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to truly forgive.  The followers are huddled behind locked door because they had seen the horribleness of their leader beaten beyond recognition and nailed to a cross.  In order to move forward in life they had to forgive those who so greatly abused them.  We call that forgiveness but we also call it “speaking truth to power.”  Sometimes that might mean turning the other cheek but sometimes it means being willing to care for sick neighbors during the plague, building hospitals and schools.  The truth of the risen Jesus is seen in the lives of the people who reach into the ugly places of life to love and care.

Thomas was invited, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas believed and proclaimed, “My Lord and my God.”  History has it that Thomas became a missionary to India and died a martyr’s death.  I met a care attendant for an Indian woman and the man claimed he came from the mountain where Thomas was martyred! He was a real person, from a real place, talking about a Biblical person I knew about.  He was not Internet information.

Faith starts like a tiny seed.  It begins with the kiss of love from the Prince who seeks us out.  It starts with the resurrection of Jesus and like Thomas realizing Jesus is his Lord and his God – alive and active in our world, we too join in testimony.  I like Thomas’ response to realizing Jesus is risen.  He says, “My Lord and my God!”  Those words imply that Jesus is not only the creator and provider but Jesus is also the master, guiding and directing in ways Thomas may not always like. Jesus is the counselor, the source of wisdom for the journey.  Take a moment and ponder the title you give Jesus in your heart.  Is he your Lord, your Savior, your Good Shepherd, or maybe your Friend?

The text concludes, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

We are the people John is talking about and we are the receivers of these testimonies. Jesus is the one who cuts through the briars choking our lives and who is willing to kiss us back to life.  He loves us not because we are like a beautiful princes asleep but because we are his creation, his children.  He wants to live with us for eternity. May the seed of faith be growing in your heart this Easter season as we learn more and more what it means that Christ is risen and wants to be our Lord and our God.

Let the people of God say,

 “The Lord is risen.  The Lord is risen indeed.”

In my late teens, early 20s we often visited my Aunt and Uncle’s family as they cared for our aging grandfather.  My uncle was a Baptist preacher and I picked up this song with a peppy tune but which also expresses the experience of Mary Magdalene that we have been looking at this week.  She was one of the first to encounter the risen Jesus.  She returned to the other disciples and shared, “I have seen the Lord.”  She knew he was in the world, alive.  Other stories were swirling around Jerusalem.  Some said the body had been stolen.  Some claimed God could not die.  “Whatever men may say,” she knew she had encountered him.  She had “seen his hand of mercy.”  She had “heard his voice of cheer.”  As she stood in the garden at the entrance to the tomb, “just the time I need him, he’s always near.”

I Serve A Risen Savior (He Lives)

Lyrics 

I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today

I know that He is living, whatever men may say

I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer

And just the time I need Him, He’s always near

Refrain:

He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today!

He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.

He lives, he lives, salvation to impart!

You ask me how I know he lives?

He lives within my heart.

In all the world around me I see His loving care

And tho’ my heart grows weary, I never will despair

I know that He is leading thro’ all the stormy blast

The day of His approaching will come at last

Refrain

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing

Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King!

The hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find

None other is so loving, so good and kind.

Refrain

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!”

Then she gave them his message.

John 20:18

We are looking at eye witness reports of Easter morning.  It would seem most agreed the tomb was empty but just exactly what resurrection meant when there was no body, was not clear.  Mary Magdalene, we are told, lingered behind and was one of the first to see Jesus resurrected.  She saw him with her own eyes, heard him talk to her and rejoiced.  That joy could not be contained and she ran to the disciples and shared, “I have seen the Lord!”

I’m wondering if we can remember the last time we received such good news that we just had to share with our friends.  I had despaired waiting to receive the Social Security bereavement adjustment to my income decision and when the letter finally came  I not only rejoiced but I quick called a friend to share.  Perhaps it is a good diagnosis from the doctor.  It is not cancerous.  Perhaps it was getting a job finally with a decent salary.  Perhaps it was being accepted in school or for some program that seemed impossible.  My roommate and I talked past the wee hours the night my boyfriend proposed.  Mary Magdalene had to share.

secondly she was sent with a message she then deliver.  She told the disciples where to meet the risen Jesus.  He was headed to Galilee.  We have joy we can share and a message.  May we be faithful today as we meet our friends…and maybe strangers.

¹⁷ 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.”’ John 20: 17 (NRSV)

¹⁷ “Don’t touch me,” he cautioned, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them that I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.” (The Living Bible)

We are now in Easter season and looking at experiences that convinced the early followers of Jesus that he had indeed risen.  The first reported sighting is by Mary Magdalene outside the empty tomb.  Others have arrived and found an empty tomb with no body.  They are being told that Jesus is risen, resurrected, but they have no body as with other resurrections in the Bible and so stories are circulating but not really understood.  Meanwhile, back at the tomb, Mary Magdalene has lingered, perhaps immobilized by her grief.  She is just needing to take a deep breath.  After my husband’s death I just wanted to sit and be quiet and still.  A man comes to Mary from behind and she assumes it is the gardener and asks him where the body is.  He calls her name and she knows it is Jesus, risen!

If it were me, I would have wanted to turn and hug him.  Jesus though says something that is not in the other gospels.  “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”  I have often pondered this scene. I do not think Jesus is talking about “ascending” as we will talk about it in 40 days when he returns to his original glory with the Father.  Could it be that Jesus is cautioning Mary that she cannot “hold on” to the Jesus she knew from the past but must now learn to relate to him as the risen Savior? He is signaling a new understanding of what we call “the Godhead.” 

Faith is in a transitional phase these next days.  We are having to grow from understanding Jesus as God incarnate who took on humanity from infancy through death.  He walked and talked with us as a human but then died and soon would not be visible.  We have learned of him as he healed the sick or calmed storms or raised the dead when confronted with those cases.  We must not hold on to these ideas but allow them to grow and breath to fit the reality of our lives today.

Perhaps the question we need to ask ourselves right now is how we “hold on” to Jesus.  I visited the USA for a month when I was younger because we brought my mother-in-law here for medical reasons.  We stayed with my parents for that month and suddenly I was their daughter, a new wife, and a new mother.  I  had trouble juggling the roles.  I was a daughter.  I was a wife.  And I was a mother.  I had grown into a new identity.  Jesus was God.  Jesus was human.  And Jesus now is Savior.  All of that roles are together in the Trinity that we worship.  We call it a mystery we cannot explain very well but it is a mystery we embrace.  Let us thank God today that he understands our humanness but that he also is a Savior for our times of weakness and our sinfulness.  May we not hold on too tightly to who Jesus was and allow him to become more in our lives.  Thank you, Lord.

Three women went to the tomb of the crucified and buried Jesus, expecting to anoint his body with spices.  But they are surprised to see the stone rolled away.  Next they hear from an angel in the tomb, “Do not be afraid.  He is risen.”  The four gospels have slightly different versions of the exact sequence of events now.  The women returned to tell the disciples that the body was missing but they were not believed.  Peter and John run to the tomb and confirm that the body is missing.  They return to the disciples as Mary Magdalene lingers.  She has seen with her eyes, heard with her ears, but she is still confused.  John 20:10-18 shares that a man then speaks to Mary from behind her, asking who she is looking for.  “Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’  Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’”  Mary turns and cries out for she recognizes Jesus.

¹⁵ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ 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.’ ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher).  John 20:15-16

It is in this personal encounter that the reality of “He is risen” begins to take meaning.  The truth of the resurrection deeply impacts Mary’s life.  We can watch movies.  We can hear testimonies from others.  But when we personally encounter Jesus calling our name, our lives change.  People who have come later in history and who did not experience that hug may not have stories of hearing or seeing Jesus but often there are stories of the feeling of being engulfed in love and of feeling completely known.  Many love to hold a cross that gives that sense of connection.

I know my doctor and my lawyer and my pastor.  They know my name but they do not know me. None of them really know me.  Christianity claims that we worship a risen Savior who knows our name, who calls us to our better self, and who walks with us on good days and bad.  He does not sit up in the clouds watching but is with us.  Mary’s story of her experience of the resurrected Jesus is the foundation for a life journey of faith that transformed her life.

In John 10 Jesus says,  “I am the good shepherd.  I know my sheep and the sheep know me.”  “My sheep listen to my voice.  I know them and they follow me.” Isaiah 49:16 ponders if a nursing mother can forget her child but concludes, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands,”   In this world where we sometimes feel like a social security number, a phone number, a driver’s license number, or some other impersonal identification, a resurrected savior who calls us by name and knows us is significant and the beginning of an eternal relationship.  We may mistake him for the gardener and not recognize that he is behind us, but he “has our back”, and is calling our name.  May we learn to recognize his presence during this Easter season as we hear the testimonies of those who saw the risen Lord face to face.  He knows our names; they’re written on the palms of his hands.  Blessings as you ponder that truth today.

 ⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. ⁶ But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.  Mark 16:5-6

Some of my most favorite words in the Bible are, “Do not be afraid,” translated here as “do not be alarmed”.  We are still looking at Mark’s report of Easter morning events when three women returned to the tomb of Jesus expecting to have to deal with a large stone in front of the grave and then the task of anointing the body of Jesus who had been beaten and crucified.  It is hard to imagine the kind of love and commitment of those women who were willing to do this task.  They were not singing songs of praise on Easter morning like we do I would imagine.  As they arrive they see that the stone has been rolled away.  They came with questions and now I’m guessing those questions were replaced with other questions.  They enter the tomb and encounter a young man whom other writers identify as an angel.  His first words to reach their ears, “Do not be alarmed.”

We might proceed an alarming announcement with, “Are you sitting down?”  If we open our door to a police person, there might be a chaplain sort of person or a neighbor with them, our heart would sink.  If we open the door to a military officer we would expect bad news.  We proceed bad news with words like, “Do not be alarmed.”  But the angel did not give bad news.  The angel acknowledged supernatural awareness of their quest to see Jesus and then he tells them Jesus has been raised and the body is not there.

The women’s eyes have seen and their ears have heard the news of the resurrection. That must have been a moment that needed a cup of coffee afterwards!   What words comfort you?  

I love 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Jesus cares about me and about you.  This week I reflected on Jesus’ words to his disciples,  “Let the children come to me and forbid them not.”  I do not need to understand everything and be knowledgeable about faith but can climb into Jesus’ lap like a child snuggles up.  I looked up Biblegateway.com and “Do not be afraid” is quoted 58 times in the Old Testment and 25 times in the New Testament.  God promised his people to hear them when they prayed, to protect them from enemies, and to be present with them.  That was just the start.  Let’s think of something that alarms us and thank God that he knows, cares, hears, protects and is present with us.  Blessings.

16 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ² And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³ They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ ⁴ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 

 Mark 16:1-4

Yesterday we celebrated Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Jesus.  The sermon I listened to pointed out that this is the only resurrection in the Bible where there is no living body as proof.  Elijah raised the son of the Shunamite who had died and she hugged the boy.  Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus and the parents hugged her.  Jesus raised the deceased son of the widow of Nain and the community saw and rejoiced.  Jesus called forth Lazarus from the grave after four days and he was unbound and welcomed back to the living.  These women arrived at the tomb not expecting a resurrection but a stone blocking their way.They were focused on the need  to apply ointments to Jesus’ body and finish the burial traditions.  As these women came to the tomb with their questions and their spices, the saw with their eyes that something was out of place.  The stone had been moved.  And there was no body.

For the next 40 days, the Easter season, we ponder proofs that Jesus is alive and not just a stolen body.  In 40 days we will celebrate ascension when he goes back to heaven and then we celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit but right now we are focused on proofs that Jesus is risen.  And I would suggest that like those women we too come daily with questions for our faith.  Somehow we always anticipate that there will be a stone blocking our ability to see clearly the Lord we want to be in relationship with.  

Perhaps we are worrying about finances and bills.  Perhaps we are worrying about health.  There is always that one relative or friend that is heavy on our heart.  And the Evil One loves to whisper questions in our ears that challenge our faith.  The wants seem to outweigh the haves and we lose sight of the blessings.  Let us take a moment right now to name the stone that we are worrying about in our relationship with the Lord.  In the next 40 days how might we be trying to see God’s hand in our lives?  Blessings as you become more aware of his presence.