Easter Sunday

John 20: 1-18

On Good Friday we looked at how The Gospel according to John revisits Genesis.[1] So, John begins as Genesis begins, but he includes Jesus as the Word of God- 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him not one thing came into being. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. […]

9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

On Good Friday, we met Jesus in a garden. Like in Genesis, it became a garden of betrayal. Though, the roles are reversed. Instead of God asking where Adam and Eve are, Judas and the Temple guards come seeking the incarnate Word of God. … Jesus asks them, “Whom are you looking for?”. And they answer, “Jesus of Nazareth”. … Jesus answers them, and in the context, his response can mean “that’s me”, but the words can also be the name of God given to Moses out of the burning bush “I AM”.

Jesus is arrested and brought to the religious authorities, and then to the Pagan Roman authority, who has him scourged and mockingly dressed as the “king of the Jews”. The Chief Priests stir up the crowd against Jesus, and proclaim their loyalty to the Pagan Caesar rather than God’s Messiah. Pilate then consents to have Jesus crucified.

As human beings have been doing constantly throughout our history, we rebel and reject God. It happened in the Garden when the parents of all humanity took the forbidden fruit. Cain rejected God’s warnings and killed his brother. The Tower of Babel story is about rebellious humanity elevating itself through empire-building rather than embracing God's vision of unity. … The history of Israel is a history of the repeated rebellion against God. God blesses them and rescues them from slavery, but they grumble against God and against God’s appointed leaders. They want to return to Egypt. They turn to the worship of other gods. … The mortar is barely dry in Solomon’s Temple before they set up idols to foreign gods in it.

And there are consequences for turning away from God- for walking off the path God has prepared for us. A generation is lost in the wilderness and can’t enter the Promised Land. Pagan tribes attack the tribes of Israel. The Northern Kingdom is lost and taken off into captivity by the Assyrian Empire, never to be heard from again. The Southern Kingdom, Judah, is taken into captivity by Babylon for 70 years, but is able to return. At the time of Jesus, they had been back from exile for just over 500 years, and there were many at the time of Jesus who believed that their spiritual exile continued. The Ark of the Covenant was lost, and the visible presence of God didn’t seem to return to the Temple. And they continued to struggle against invading empires.

And now the Chief Priests, who were responsible for guiding the people in the ways of God, are proclaiming the Pagan Caesar as their king, and are rejecting God’s Messiah. … And The Messiah is betrayed even by his own. His own disciple, Judas, betrays him. Peter denies knowing him. Most of the others run away and hide.

We hope that we would be different, if we were there, … but if we are really honest with ourselves, we know that we all have a darkness in us. That line in the hymn “Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing” always catches me- “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it/ Prone to leave the God I love”. We hope we would be different, but even the greatest of saints seem to become more and more aware of the depth of how they rebel and reject God even as they grow closer and closer to God. St. Paul says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Tim 1:15). How can he say he is the worst? Because he sees his sin from the inside. …

I drive a 2005 Honda Accord. At night the windshield looks fine, but when I’m driving into the rising sun, I can see every nick and chip and speck of dirt, to the point that it can become very distracting to see through. It’s a bit like that with God. When we are in the darkness, we can be relatively unaware of our sin, or at least we might not think of it as a problem because we can see through the windshield just fine. … But as we grow closer to God, confronted by that light, we see the nicks and chips and dirt. …

As we begin our friendship with God the big obvious sins get dealt with- overt arrogance, pornography consumption, acting out in violence, theft. … But then we become more aware of the subtle sins- the judgemental thoughts; the ironic pride in our own humility; gossip disguised as prayer; anxious lack of trust in God; our spiritual complacency; ingratitude for the good we have been blessed with. I remember hearing a priest once ask, “what if when you woke up tomorrow you only had what you gave thanks for today?” … Yes, there are big ways that we human beings rebel, but there are subtle ways we rebel too, and they both expose a heart problem.

But God, is always faithful. God is constantly sending us help. And this weekend we remember that, in God’s profound genius, He uses even our rebellion and rejection of him to save us. As the Roman spear is thrust into the side of Christ, water and blood pour out. … Just as Adam was put into a deep sleep like death, and his bride was shaped from his side, so from the side of Christ in his death comes the water of baptism and the blood of the chalice that creates the Church- the bride of Christ- Bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh- the Body of Christ. … On Good Friday, Christ dies. Because of us, and for us. But he does so willingly. Saturday, the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, he rests in the tomb.

On the first day of the week, the day God began to create, we see Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb of Jesus to complete the preparations for his body that they didn’t have time for when they first placed his body in the tomb. … To her shock the stone has been removed from his tomb and his body is gone. … she sees this as yet another indignity against Jesus.

She ran to tell Peter and John, who then run to the tomb. Their race to the tomb, who won the race, and who went in first, is an odd detail to include, but it has the ring of a memory. It’s the kind of detail that someone might share when recounting something that happened to them. … When they arrive at the tomb, they see a strange sight. His grave clothes are lying there. The cloth that was on his head was rolled up and put to the side. Why would grave robbers take the time to unwrap the body? … The wonder of what has happened starts to hit them, and they return home.

Mary stays at the tomb, weeping. When she looks into the tomb again, she sees two angels. They ask her why she is weeping, and she answers that her Lord has been taken away and she doesn’t know where they put him.

She turns and sees someone. It’s Jesus, but she doesn’t know that it’s him. … It’s another strange detail to include. It’s not the kind of detail you would include if you were making up a story to convince people of the resurrection. In a culture that was highly suspicious of a woman’s testimony, this uncertainty is a strange detail to include. She’s looking for him, and she’s looking at him and talking to him, and he’s talking to her, but she doesn’t recognize him? The one she calls Lord? The one she spent three years with? She doesn’t recognize him? … It’s a strange detail to include, and it strikes me as a memory she doesn’t know how to explain.

The man in front of her asks the same question as the angels, “Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?” And I can’t imagine him asking this without a twinkle in his eye. … She thinks he’s the gardener. … How appropriate, since Adam was placed in the Garden to be the gardener. Genesis 2:15 says, 

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” 

And the first person to see the risen Christ, the New Adam, mistakes him for a gardener. … She wonders if maybe this gardener moved the body of Jesus for some reason. If so, she will take responsibility for dealing with the body.

She finally sees him when he says her name- “Mary!”

There is a point where their joyous embrace has to end. This is not going to be like it was before, walking the dusty roads, camping and eating meals together. Jesus is preparing something, and it will be better for them, but it will mean he will be with them in a different way. He will be ascending to be with the Father, where he was before his birth. And he is going to bring his humanity to that place.

Mary becomes an Apostle, which means someone who is sent on behalf of another. She is the Apostle of Jesus sent to the Apostles to tell them that he is back- he has conquered death- The grave wasn’t able to hold him.

The resurrection is God’s answer to the rebellion of humanity. God took our sin and, in an act of amazing alchemy, transformed our lead into gold. … Jesus doesn’t conquer death just for himself, but as a representative of humanity. … St. Paul draws the parallel between Adam and Christ in a few places. In Romans 5:18-19 we read, 

“Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” .. 

Just as we are under a shadow because of Adam’s sin, so the New Adam’s righteousness shines a light that dispels that darkness. Adam contained humanity within himself, as their original ancestor. And the New Adam invites humanity to be a part of his body- to live in union with him- as a part of a new creation, to receive new identities, to be citizens of a new Kingdom, and receive a restored relationship with God.

Christ’s resurrection means that we can wake up each morning knowing that we have a way out of the sin that ensnares us, and that death will not have the final say in our life. And that assurance can give us the strength to forgive and love, because we don’t have to obsessively worry about our own self-protection. The one we serve conquered the grave, and he invites us to share in his victory. AMEN




[1] This sermon is heavily influenced by NT Wright’s John for Everyone commentary and Stephen De Young’s Whole Counsel of God Podcast commentary series, particularly the episodes in John.