Much Ado About Nothing
John 20:1-18
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked inat the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are 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.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic,“Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Much Ado About Nothing
The tomb was empty – before dawn, Mary arrived in the dark and found the rock rolled away. Black greeted her. It’s Easter, we scream even when we are still traveling in a dark place ourselves and learning to see differently – we want to see the light, why is John starting with black, tombs and emptiness?
As opposed to the rainbow of colors found in flowers and spring breaking out all around us, black is not even honored as a ‘real’ color. But there are some very appealing things about black especially when it comes to clothes:
· Black means never worrying about matching.
· Black hides stains.
· Black flatters every skin tone.
· Black can make anyone look mature.
· Black works for every season.
· Black is figure-flattering.
This is the black I prefer to think of on Easter morning instead of the frightening, darkness that overwhelms and seems to prevent us from seeing anything. But in the black that Mary sees, there is nothing there. This is the nature of black – it absorbs every color – or to get technical vibration and returns nothing visible to our eyes – really a shade, not a color at all.
Mary panics – no surprise, what we ‘see’ is not just with our eyes but with our hearts, experiences and gut. She has had a rough few days witnessing her Lord’s arrest, torture, and crucifixion. No surprise that her glass is half empty – so she has forgotten what Jesus tried to teach before his death and jumps to the only logical conclusion – she sees an empty tomb and it means grave robbers – she goes rushing back to the disciples.
What do they see? After a weird foot race – still a jockeying among the guys for who is fastest, a better follower – whatever. Peter and The Beloved Disciple peek into the tomb. They don’t say anything either to Mary or to the other disciples, but we are told one believes. Does he believe Mary that the tomb is empty? We don’t know exactly what he believes because he certainly doesn’t share. They no longer think it was a robbery because what type of grave robber folds the head cloths. They must make assumptions from what they see because we are told they don’t understand. Maybe they are excited, angry, devastated – but what do they do? They return to their homes - the safety of ‘normal’, back to the way things have always been, the way it is supposed to be before this messiah disruption. Almost as if ‘nothing’ has disrupted their lives at all.
Mary is overwhelmed by grief, the only thing she sees in her broken heart is a scene of a robbery, and her response is incredible immediate mourning, tears that nothing is in the tomb but grave cloths and there is nothing she can do. This scene with Mary is moving to us to see her complete and utter devotion and distress. It was also enough for Jesus. He cares enough to come to her, urging her to wipe away the tears and cry no more. I get a feeling that this was a change of plan on Jesus’ part as he gently tells her not to hold on to him because he hasn’t ascended yet.
He hears her voice crying out in anguish and knows her. She is but one sheep, but the love and compassion Jesus has for each and every one of us is so all-encompassing that he can’t let it pass until ‘the right time’ but must go to her immediately. He knows her right away, but what does it take for Mary to see her Lord? She hears his voice, the voice of her shepherd calling her name – hears his voice to ‘see’ and believe. He calls her specifically in a unique and personal love. A love that is unique and personal but massive and universal.
You see the thing about the blackness – the symbolism of that black that makes us so sad when it drapes the crosses in our sanctuaries on the days between crucifixion and resurrection is that the ‘black’ crosses all boundaries and defies our exact definitions. The black of mourning the death absorbs everything in love. It absorbs – just like Jesus. Pulling each and every one of us to himself. Uniting us all together with a love that nothing can pull apart. A color that encompasses all colors – indiscriminately. A love that is so big it crossed the uncrossable boundary of death for us – all of us and each of us.
When Mary saw that love, when she believed in the resurrected Jesus who was at the same time personal to her and meant for the world – what did she do? She told the world – “I have seen the Lord!”
What do we do with Easter? So many people come to church twice a year – Christmas and Easter. And, even non-Christians at least know the basics of the story. What do we do with this story? Nothing! There is nothing we can add to this scripture. Easter does speak for itself. There is nothing in the tomb, nothing we can add. Even in the scripture, before Mary Magdalene or the disciples got there, the stone was rolled away and Jesus was raised. They had nothing to do with that.
Thank goodness it isn’t up to us to understand or be able to explain – nothing we do, say or don’t do or say can diminish the importance of Easter. It isn’t just an event or something that happened like other events that are on the calendar year to year or a particularity in history. As Thomas Long describes, “The resurrection transforms history and gathers up all of nature, but history and nature cannot contain it. In the resurrection, the transcendent glory of God enters time and space, infusing and redeeming everything.”
Go back to where it all began where Jesus broke into our time, burst upon history – Bethlehem was so crowded – so many people flocked to the city for the census that no room was to be found. Throughout his life Jesus walked the roads drawing larger and larger crowds to himself as he showed us what a messiah is and what a messiah does. Last Sunday, Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem on a donkey, a colt with crowds lining the street waving palm branches and lauding him with shouts of Hosanna.
Jesus continues to draw crowds, for his arrest, judgment and finally crucifixion. The difference is that the crowds slowly pull back leaving a growing space around Jesus – the people fear entering this empty area of risk or vulnerability that came with the cross – fear being associated with a criminal who dared to challenge the powers that be.
In a mere three days, the crowds thinned. The disciples are in hiding fearful of their association with Jesus – for they didn’t understand. Can you imagine – it didn’t start at the apex of Jesus’ popularity or with the amazing show of a startling resurrection in front of a crowd but instead was personal apperance, weaving us together in a resurrection message personalized for each and every one of us exploding forth - person to person connecting millions. One brave lone woman struggling with her grief heard her name and began the wondrous ministry that would pull people from around the world in – in toward Jesus. In through the all-encompassing darkness of a cross, a dark means of torture - transformed forever and now also holding the light of a prism that magnified the light of God the world round.
That is what the white of Easter is – for white isn’t really a color either. Rather than absorbing like black, the white reflects and scatters the wavelengths. Jesus didn’t cautiously step out of the tomb but erupted out of that nothingness redefining our world with a whirl of light that shines out of the darkness, not just overcoming it but incorporating it into Himself – leaving nothing behind. Nothing!
The light shines on Jesus and shines from Jesus bathing the world, transforming it as a whole for each and every loved person, creature, part of creation. So, put on your Easter white. Wait a minute!
White vs black, dark vs night – Jesus defeated death. We – I have jumped back into our duality. We still don’t understand – we move back into our rational scientific minds dividing the world into this and that thinking that in hindsight we get it so much more than those disciples. I think not – Jesus defeated not in the traditional way we think of with a conquest of power and might but with a rare and all-encompassing compassion and mercy, a love deeper and wider than our imagining.
Jesus defeated anxiety by pulling it to himself, hate by pulling it in, loneliness by absorbing it, fear, sin, even death – all not by squashing or getting rid of these things but by a love that says yes – that part of you - that too I love. Jesus showed us what it means to love all unconditionally. Erradicating forever our weak ideas of merely accepting black and white, obliterating the many ways we rationalize division by saying simply – I am there too. I defeated it not by absence, not by elimination but by acceptance, by pulling it all in – in love. Jesus loves us this much and become part of us – not ignoring one part of us individually or systemically. Part of our messy whole.
Shine God’s love from within and without into the world. Be the prisms of this non-color that radiates, connecting all while shining back out that no individual might miss they are beloved. That nothing, nothing within us, nothing of this world, nothing beyond can separate us from the love of God in our savior Jesus Christ.
Jesus came for one He came for all – he gave everything for you, personally God for you. God cares enough to make it personal defeating everything by joining it in love. Do you? There is nothing that can get in God’s way when it comes to bringing each and every one of us closer, into that blessed full relationship. Do you understand? Do you believe? Do you see the full spectrum of God’s love pulling you in and radiating that love back out through you - out to the world? God’s love, God’s grace is that strong – nothing not even death can defeat it to separate us. It started with one lone woman. Are you that one person today? Believe, share the story. Share this explosive message that knows no bounds, that permeates everything. Nothing limits the love that runs rampant from Jesus to the world through each of us one person at a time. Run – show the messy, mysterious, massive love of our God now – He Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed. Amen.
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