On the Way to Wonder

“Have you checked under the bed?” was my mother’s advice whenever I had misplaced something.  I said it to my children too.  My sister and I pondered Mary Magdalene’s experience with the resurrected Christ.  She was going to the tomb thinking she would find the body of Jesus but found the body missing.  After all, that was where she saw him last put!  Peter and John didn’t believe her and went to the tomb also to see that indeed the body was missing.  The tomb was the logical place to find Jesus, as that was where he had last been seen. The challenge is that God’s logic does not work like our logic.

         God tells us to love our enemies and to turn the other cheek.  Resting one day a week will help us to be better workers the other six days.  I listened to a podcast about the success of Chick-fillet.  One day a week they are closed and yet bring in profits exceeding another top fast food competitor.  It is in the death of Christ that we find eternal life.  That does not make sense to our minds.  The angel said he has risen and they were to return to Galilee.  That doesn’t make sense.  God’s ways challenge us to take steps of faith, trusting God rather than ourselves.

         The Easter testimonies we will look at for seven weeks do relate “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the word of life.  (1 John 1:1)” The resurrection story was experienced by real people that really saw, heard, felt, smelled and tasted the events.  It is not fiction.  It is fact.  Perhaps the question I need to ask myself is, “Where am I looking for Jesus today?”

         Matthew 22:31and 32 says,

³¹ And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living.”

We look for God in places of life, among the living, for he is the God of the living.  It is hard to believe as we cannot see, people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but like Mary, we can hear God today call our name.  We can feel love in a hug.  We can see God in nature.  We can feel God in the laughter of children.  And we can taste God’s blessings in forgiveness.  If you are having trouble connecting with God, perhaps you are looking in the wrong place.  A good place to start looking is in a place of life.

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.  What had happened?  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 to share 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 but 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, 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.

         It is in this personal encounter that the reality of what “He is risen” begins to take meaning and 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.  I suspect she may have given him a huge hug for he then says, “Do not hold on to me.”  Eyes, ears, and touch – the resurrection is real for Mary.  People who have come later in history and who did not experience that hug may not have stories of “holding” 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 believe President Biden is president and I have seen him speak on TV and heard his words but he has never called me by name.  He does not know me.  I will probably never even get near him.  Christianity claims that we worship a risen Savior who knows our name, calls us to our better self, and walks with us in the transformation.  Mary’s story of her experience of the resurrected Jesus is the foundation for a life journey of faith that transforms.

         John 10 talks about Jesus being the “Good Shepherd.”  “I am the good shepherd.  I know my sheep and the sheep know me. V.14”  “My sheep listen to my voice.  I know them and they follow me. V.22” 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, your walls are ever before me.”   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 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.

On Easter morning three women see the stone in front of the tomb rolled away.  Their eyes tell them that something has happened but they do not let that scare them.  Their heart propels them forward for they have brought spices to anoint the dead body of Jesus.  The different Gospels tell the story slightly differently but all writers agree that the women at this point encounter an angel that looks like a young man and speaks to their ears, “Be not afraid!”  Jesus is not in the grave but he is risen!  The women’s eyes see that something has happened and then they hear the explanation.  Jesus is risen.  Their senses confirm that they are in the presence of the unexpected.

         Can you remember a time when you heard remarkable news? Perhaps it was when the doctor announced the birth of your child.  “It’s a boy.”  “It’s a girl.”  Perhaps it was those words you feared you might never hear, “Will you marry me?”  There is the joy of being offered a job you thought you would not get.  There is the relief of hearing your loved one came through the operation.  All these messages, as welcome as they are by our ears, must be lived into.  We hear but do we fully understand and believe?  The implications of the good news must be lived into.  If Jesus is living, where is he?  Is he still tattered and torn from the crucifixion?  Perhaps that is why the angel starts with, “Do not be afraid.” 

         Matthew reports the angel as starting his announcement with, “Do not be afraid, for I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. (Matt 28:5)” How comforting these words are to our ears.  Fear undermines our ability to comprehend our situations.  Fear can cause us to freeze.  What words comfort you and drive away fear?  What words do you use to comfort someone else?  Recently someone dear to me has been greeting me, “Hello friend.”  One of my favorite Bible verses comes from 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  During times of upheaval like Easter morning, may we always hear God saying in our hearts “Do not fear!”  We can cast our anxiety on him!  Thank you Lord!  We need your strength for what we are going through.

Yesterday we started the Easter season.  Like Lent, Easter is 40 days long and is a time for reflecting on the truth of the reports that Jesus truly resurrected and lives.  At the end of the 40 days, we celebrate his ascension or return to heaven and Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Did Jesus resurrect and does he live?  Biblical reports say that the guards were paid to say the body was stolen.  Others believe the body was switched and Jesus actually never died for God cannot die.  Many just don’t care.  The crucifixion and resurrection is key to the identity of Christians.

         Next Sunday we will read the New Testament text written by John where he shares in 1 John 1: 1-4

            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.

Information about reality enters our experience through our five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting.  This passage is full of sensory words.  The experiences of the resurrection were sensory.  We will look at post resurrection reports reflecting on how these senses informed the person’s experience and confirm reality for us who were not there.

         Easter Sunday women went to the tomb, carrying spices, to anoint Christ’s body.  In the rush of getting Jesus buried after the crucifixion, proper ritual had not been completed.  Perhaps in their grief the women wanted to make sure everything had been done properly – one last check.  When they arrived they SAW that the stone “which was very large, had been moved away. (Mark 16:4)”

         We have a saying, “Seeing is believing.”  The women saw the unexpected; something was out of place.  Sometimes when things are not what we expect we become alert.  When there is a car accident, all the traffic slows down to look.  When we see our friend with tears in the eyes, we know something is wrong. When items aren’t returned to their place, I admit I get frustrated looking for them. Visual clues trigger mental thinking, positive and negative.  Pictures and icons work in a similar way.  Perhaps spend some time right now with a favorite picture or photo and feel the emotions the picture brings and spend time expressing gratitude for that memory.  Imagine the women outside the tomb with the stone rolled away. What thoughts might that have brought for you?  How would you have felt?  We know what the women found but they did not.  Seeing alerts us that something is about to happen.  Perhaps you find visual clues as your day unfolds.  God is there with you when things are out of place. Blessings!  He is risen!

Mark finishes the Passion story, Mark 15:47, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus saw where he was laid.”  The tomb is sealed with the rock and the two women stand outside in silence.  In the presence of death, we stand in silence.  Yes, we cry.  Yes, we are angry for death is never a welcome visitor.  Yes, we wonder…if only.  Perhaps we plot vengeance.  But all of that amounts to silence between the deceased and us.

         In times so deep that words fail us, ritual steps in.  We have certain rituals that put words when we have trouble verbalizing.  For some the 23^rd Psalm gives us voice, “Yea though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death…” Others prefer the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven…” I have worked on Memory Units where people who have not talked for years, can sing hymns and quote Psalm 121. Mary and Mary know the ritual at death, prepare the body.  And so they go to gather the spices that need to be applied.  They will return Sunday morning.

         Rituals are powerful traditions that help us navigate emotional transitions like birth, death, marriage, confirmation, and baptism.  Often we have our own personal rituals, routines, that help organize our days.  I have “my chair” that the family knows.  That is where I sit to unwind with a cup of coffee after work or where I sit to start my day.  Perhaps you have certain clothes you wear for certain occasions.  Many families have strong traditions around what is eaten at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving.  Covid has upset our social traditions this last year and it has been hard on all of us. Parents aren’t working.  Students are studying at home and doing school by zoom.  We distance.  We mask.  What will the new normal look like? Mary and Mary go to prepare spices to anoint the body.  This ritual will help them cope with the silence of Holy Saturday.  What rituals do you have that help you keep on keepin on.  Prayer?  Journaling?  Reading?  Crying?  Talking to a special friend?  In times of crisis, rituals help us cope when our insides are silent..

         Secondly, the silence often signals that we just cannot imagine the future or the next step without the presence of the person buried.  Suddenly we cannot imagine how to face tomorrow without the comforts of yesterday. But amazingly it is at those times when we cannot conceive of what to do next, that God meets us with his new plan.  Today we sit in silence pondering the death of Jesus but God is not dead and will have a surprise tomorrow.  A song that has become popular this year is “Easter Hallelujah.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3NZEdHQaI.

Lent is almost over.  Mark shares in Mark 15:46 that Joseph of Arimathea claims the body of Jesus, takes him from the cross, wraps him in a linen cloth, a shroud, lays him in a tomb and closes the tomb with a rock.  It would appear that the story is finished.

         How many things have we laid to rest, tried to bury and leave in the past, only to have them come back and invade our lives?  A friend had a baby out of wedlock in college and when the baby turned 18, she wanted to meet her birth mother.  My friend had to explain to her three children a part of her life she thought she had buried.  Some of us do not like to fill out medical forms asking personal questions about our diseases and lifestyle that bring up bad memories we’d like to bury in the past.  I think we say that things we bury alive have a way of coming back to haunt us.  Jesus is put to rest in a tomb but is the story over?

         We talk about Jesus dying for our sins.  We spell that with a small “s” meaning those things we “have done and left undone” that separate us from God and from our fellow people.  It does not matter how big or how little those actions were, separation was the result.  But we also talk about Jesus dying for Sin with a capital “s.”  That means the state of separation between the God being and ourselves.  We do not see God or hear him or touch him as we would like.  We are limited and he is infinite.  For those offended by male pronouns, you may want to think of a God being but do not miss the point because of language.  We live in a state of separation.  It is as if a stone was rolled over the door of relationship.  We experience God as if we are in a dense fog but Paul says in Corinthians that one day we will see face to face.  Jesus incarnating in humanity, dying and resurrecting provides us a way to reunite that which has been broken, hidden, buried.  Good Friday may not end with the tomb.

         May we sit at the tomb this evening and think of all the things that have buried in that tomb with Jesus, and that we know are forgiven, never to be thrown in our face.  May we be thankful for all those sins that we will never have to face again.  May we regret all the loneliness and separation that stone represent.  All the grief of our failures can be buried on Good Friday..  Let us be there in our hearts when they buried our Lord.

Jesus has given up his spirit.  Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus so it can be buried before sunset.  Surprisingly Pilate sets aside Roman rules that people convicted of treason cannot be buried.  He calls the centurion to confirm that Jesus is dead as a crucifixion can take up to three days and it has been only six hours.  Mark 15:44-45 tells that the centurion confirms the reality and perhaps confirms that he knows this is a man worthy of a decent burial.  Pilate agrees and releases the body.

         Tonight churches will celebrate Maundy Thursday by distancing seats at churches, by zoom and streaming, and also gathering in outdoor spaces.  The different Christian traditions may vary on how they interpret the events of Maundy Thursday and the Last Supper but they all agree that three major things happened that were eye opening.  Jesus washed the disciples feet, demonstrating servanthood.  Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, communion, the breaking of the bread and sharing of drink.  Jesus gave a new commandment that we love one another as he was about to show us love in the cross.

         In the Last Supper, we are charged to “remember”, “do this in remembrance of me.”  What do we remember at this meal?  We remember the connection Jesus makes between the breaking of the bread and the breaking of Christ’s body that he is about to experience.  We remember the connection he makes between the drinking of the cup and the spilling of his blood.  We remember that he is willing to forgive our sins.  He is as close to us as the bread that builds our bodies and the drink that flows into our mouths and bodies.  He is that close.  He “gave” his life, it was not taken from him.  He gave his life for us “for the remission of sin,” for our forgiveness.  Even as Pilate turns over the body of Christ to be buried only to rise, the pastor or minister gives communion to people who become carriers of the truth of Christ.

         Today spend time remembering the meaning of your faith and the gift of forgiveness.  An acronym takes each letter of a word and writes out another word that starts with that letter and has the meaning of the main word.  So for example, write down the side of a paper “thanks”.  T is for “time” with loved ones.  H is for happy memories of …  Fill in your words now and thank God for providing forgiveness.

Last but not least Mark mentions a group of women “looking on the cross from afar.”  Mark 15:40-41 lists Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and also Salome. Then he mentions “also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.”  The Gospel of John mentions that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was present along with the beloved disciple whom we understand to be John.  Jesus commits his mother to John’s care.  In the midst of this tragic drama, a group of women stand in solidarity with Jesus in his agony.  I have pondered this kind of loyalty.

         John in his first letter to followers talks extensively about love.   1 John 4:10 shares “This is love not that we love God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”   He continues in verse 18, “There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment.”  Love gives us strength in times of great need.  People do amazing feats when their loved ones are in danger.  But John is talking here about a love that flows from God, that is not adrenaline based, but perhaps the deep compassion that has led to Christians organizing hospitals, orphanages, homes for the needy and many other enterprises.  It is a love that does not demand but that shows great strength in the presence of tragedy Love longs to assist.  I think of the many who are willing to work in the midst of the pandemic to assist people – employees at stores as well as medical people.  In the darkest hours this kind of love is a beacon of hope for the future.  We know the resurrection is coming but they did not.  They only knew their friend needed them.

         Perhaps we can spend a few minutes now remembering those who stood by us in our “ugly” times, encouraging us and loving us.  Prayers of thanksgiving are appropriate.  Likewise we can pray and ask God to put on our hearts and minds the name of someone who needs for us to reach out in love today.  Perfect love casts out fear – well, maybe our love is not so perfect and maybe we are a bit fearful, but we can still ask God for his love and we can reach out.  Pick up the phone and give someone a call!

In Mark 15:39b, the Centurion at the foot of the cross, hears Jesus say with a loud cry, with his last breath, “It is finished,” thus exclaiming the victory won.  He is moved to say, “Truly, this man was the Son of God!”  At this moment, this Centurion perceives Jesus, “true man,” to be “true God”.  The paradox and tension central to our faith is most clearly perceived in this moment at the cross. 

         A paradox is a statement that “seems to say opposite things and yet is perhaps true. (Merriam-Webster)” Our minds tell us that God cannot die and yet it appears that Jesus does.  We who know the rest of the story know that Jesus conquered death, walked through death to eternal life showing that the love of God is not defeated by death but walks through death with us to eternal life.

         Science has taken much of the mystery out of the paradoxes of life we experience.  A caterpillar crawling on a branch will become a butterfly.  A baby does grow from a small egg and sperm.  It is possible to be very angry with a child we love very much.  It is possible that a job loss leads to the decision to change professions that is a wise move – the loss leads to gain.

         The centurion sees God in Christ’s death.  What do we see?  The impossible?  A sacrifice for our sins?  A defeat of death?   Perhaps it is all of these.  We would affirm with the apostle Paul in the book of Romans 8:36,

          “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor   demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither        height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to        separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The paradox also is that when Jesus feels most forsaken, God is present loving.  It seems contradictory and impossible. When we feel the most forlorn, God is right there loving us, holding us, and listening.  Nothing can separate us from his love.  May this eternal truth stay with us as we experience the paradoxes and struggles of life today.

Today we meet another nameless person whose deed of kindness is recorded and memorialized! Mark 15:34-36 shares that about 3 p.m. of Good Friday, after three hours of total darkness, Jesus cries out, revealing he is praying Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  One of the bystanders, a nameless man, hears the cry, hears the crowd murmuring that perhaps Elijah will come to rescue Jesus, but instead of speculating, responds to Jesus’ cry with kindness.  He runs for a sponge of vinegar that he can put on a reed and press against Jesus’ lips.  Not much but it is something.  Helpful?  We do not know.

         Sometimes in the face of tragedy we are immobilized by the enormity of the problem and our help seems so little and inconsequential in comparison.  We face problems like that today.  Is wearing a mask truly going to stop a pandemic?  Will my act of kindness curb the wave of racism?”  What difference will my dollar make in the plague of starvation facing places in the world?  We feel so small and the problem looms so big.

         Moses, leading the people of Israel into the Promised Land, is told by God to send out twelve spies, one from each tribe.  The men return impressed with the fruitfulness of the land, a land flowing with milk and honey, BUT are terrified by the size of the people.  “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. (Numbers 13: 33b)  Modern communications makes it possible to bring news from all over the world and reports of the problems occurring.  We feel like grasshoppers.

         The man at the foot of the cross did not wait to talk it over with a friend.  He did not wait to see if the problem would resolve.  He did not look to the guards, government, to provide a fix.  He did not interview the man on the cross to see if he was worthy of help.  He ran.  He got that which was available at the moment and acted to alleviate the suffering of another.  It may be just that easy.  The whole problem is in God’s hand and wisdom but the sponge is in our hands.   It was not much but it was what was at hand and he acted.  History remembers. We are not grasshoppers.  We are people with hearts and hands that can reach out to relieve suffering.

         Joshua and Caleb, the two spies that believed God could take their little and do something entered the Promised Land but the others did not.  May we offer our little and not see ourselves as grasshoppers!