“Seeing is Believing” John 20:1-18

24 April 2011 “Seeing is Believing” John 20:1-18

Being truthful this morning of all mornings I come looking for answers. Perhaps you can help. How exactly do you hold an Easter egg? I know, many of you have the same question. Do we hold it delicately or firmly? Do we hold our Easter egg delicately so we don’t break it or firmly so we don’t drop it? It’s been a year since last Easter and I always forget.

I bring this up because many of you have already held an Easter egg this morning and you could advise us on this matter. But, perhaps latter, for today is a day to set aside such deep and complex problems.

For today we are in high celebration of a different, sort! Today is a day like no other. Amazing grace has filled the morning dawn and today of all days God’s amazing grace has taken hold of us. Being truthful this morning we come looking for that grace. Have you felt it yet today? Have we felt God’s grace? Have we seen God’s grace filling the space around us? It is here with us this morning in our sanctuary.

Look around, who do you see? There, right there in that pew in front of you, God’s grace. There in that pew behind you, God’s grace. There in that person to your right or to your left, God’s grace. God’s grace has filled their hearts as it has yours and mine, and we are radiant this morning! We are all clothed in the newness of life that has come to us in our risen Lord Jesus. We are God’s grace this morning. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Even the weather is spectacular, it is a glorious Easter Sunday and the world is glowing. The world is outshining itself and just now we have heard this amazing and true story about Jesus. Our Jesus, taken from us so quickly, now has come back. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

In Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have been cleansed of our sin; we are now able to be reborn, resurrected to new life. We have a fresh start where sin may no longer be our sole cross to bear, a fresh start where love may have another chance. Love coming to us from Christ’s dying for us. Love extending from us filling us with grace and joy and blessings and an unbounded desire in our heart to give it all away to the most surprised people. Those whom we least expect, surprising even ourselves.

These past 40 days of Lent was a time for clearing and cleaning and digging out the rocks and thorns and weeds in our lives. These were the days set aside to help us be honest with ourselves and, with God’s help, get rid of the unhealthy life habits we have been holding on to.

With God’s wisdom, space has been cleared that will allow us to tend to a new life, a new garden where we have been planted with God’s love, where we may realize new growth, new beauty and joy.

Space has been made where we may cast our new love upon the world, one person at a time. Space has been made where God’s kingdom will come, where resurrection will bring God’ grace, God’s hope to our life and to all we gather to God.

Through so much of our life God reminds us of God’s grace and Easter Sunday is one of those special times. The kids are excited about the day and the adults are too. There is that egg question after all and that question about God’s grace, and we know today is the day for answers.

In the midst of this excitement, we are drawn to church. Christmas and Easter have this effect on us. They draw us to the church to find our answers and hear once again the stories of God’s truth that ground us IN the world while not grounding us TO the world.

So, the Easter story: Mary came to the tomb early that Sunday morning. The stone covering the tomb had been rolled away. Without looking in, and in shock, she ran to Peter and the others to tell them what she had seen.

For Mary, still in her grief because Jesus had died on the cross, this was too much. She laments, “They have taken the Lord,” his body, they have taken his body from the grave. And I don’t know where they have taken him.”

Peter ran to the tomb to see for sure. Unlike Mary, he entered the tomb searching frantically for Jesus and saw only piles of rags. He and John saw that Jesus was gone and they too were in shock. They have taken the Lord, what are we to do now?

Mary was back now at the tomb, she stood weeping, and she bent over to look into that space where Jesus had been and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. The angels questioned her tears and her sadness, “Woman, why are you weeping?

Don’t you know, she replies, they have taken the Lord, he is not here, he is gone, forever, he is gone from us and we will never see him again. Why don’t you understand? The angels understood, they understood what Mary did not.

She turned around and was face to face with Jesus, but she did not recognize him. She thought he was a gardener. He asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

Mary was so filled with sadness and hopelessness, sadness that Jesus had been crucified, sadness that she has come to the tomb to prepare his body for burial only to find he is no longer there. She was filled with her fear that Jesus, the one whom she loved, her savior, had abandoned her.

Still believing Jesus to be the gardener, Mary said to him, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” She asked him if he knew where they had taken her Lord. Jesus knew. He said to her, Mary.

Jesus began his new life, his new ministry as the resurrected Christ by calling the first disciple of the new chapter in human history by her name, Mary. Mary recognized his voice and then she understood, this is Jesus, he is not missing after all, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

Mary has suddenly felt renewed, resurrected from sadness and fear and hopelessness and her lost sense of self. Jesus said to her, “Go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”. With uncontrolled joy Mary ran and told them all, “I have seen the Lord.” Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

It is fair to wonder this morning what this all means. We understand the story. Jesus, once dead to us, dead so that our sins would be forgiven, is now alive and risen, risen so we will be risen too. We get this. We’ve read it in scripture, we’ve learned it in Sunday School class, and we’ve heard it preached many, many times before. We may even understand what we think this all means. After all, we are intelligent faith filled Christians.

Then, perhaps understand is too strong a word. Saying each of us is to be part of a life of resurrection from the old life of sin to the new life of grace is one thing, knowing how that life would look is another.

Do we have the faith that it takes to honestly believe that the resurrection life, begun in Jesus back on that first Easter Sunday, has become our new life? This is 2011 after all. Do we have the faith to believe we are to live a new resurrection life? Dearest ones, we must.

We must believe our life is a resurrection life if we ever expect to know who God is and what God has in store for us. Believing in the truth of the resurrection and believing, through our baptism, we are included in this new life with Christ takes a leap of faith. But from that leap we see that Jesus Christ has walked from that tomb right into our lives, and if we haven’t heard it, he calls us by our name.

Jesus calls your name and mine this morning no less than he called those early disciples. His call is to come and follow him, to leave the old life behind. He expects this morning that we will finally give him our answer.

That is our real Easter surprise. Jesus wants to hear from each of us this morning. Not about how to hold an egg, but have we felt God’s grace tugging on our hearts and will we accept his call. Dearest ones, we must.

Easter Sunday is the day the Lord has made for you and for me. Easter Sunday is God’s answer to our lives of struggle and pain, confusion and indecision. God’s voice is clear, we are called to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior for we are to be resurrected from our life of separation by sin, separation from our Holy Lord God. In Jesus’ resurrection we are lifted up, saved, to live in God’s kingdom where we become our authentic selves. Disciples of Jesus Christ.

Initiated by God, Jesus came to Mary, and Jesus comes to us. The results of that encounter are dramatic. It changes our lives. We are sought out and we encounter the risen Lord who calls us to follow him giving us a glimpse of who we are meant to be, of who we can become. For we, dear brothers and sisters, are meant to be like Christ. We are created to be like Christ.

Open any egg you may find, peel away any shiny chocolate covered bunny, find the jelly beans, our real treasure this day is Jesus Christ.
He is risen. He is risen indeed. And he is not alone.