A Tortured Soul Transformed
by Charles Love
John 20:1-18
Typical men! Insensitive, self-centered louts!
Is there really any other way to describe them: Peter and the disciple “whom Jesus loved” -who we take to be John?
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and she saw that the stone had been rolled away. So, she ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple and she cried out to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him.” Immediately, accompanying Mary, Peter and John ran to the tomb…We’re read the story: they looked, they saw and then, it says, in verse 10, “the disciples returned to their homes.” ...AND, THEY LEFT MARY STANDING THERE… WEEPING… AND ALONE!
Typical men! Insensitive, self-centered louts! …We could make excuses for them: they had been through a lot…this was not an easy time… fear hung in the air… The “they,” that Mary presumes “have taken away the Lord,” were the Sanhedrin: and had they not shown just how dangerous they were? Plotting and conniving... Making a mockery of the law and any semblance of legal proceedings…Tangling Pilate into their web of murderous intent… Paying a mob to shout out, “Crucify him…” THEY WERE DANGEROUS. And, reporting the empty tomb to the disciples, Mary’s reference to them, “They,” must have struck fear in the disciple’s hearts…. “They” were not done yet! “They” would actually, overcome or manipulate the guards at the tomb so that they steal away the body of Jesus hoping to subvert any scheming plot “they” might imagine the disciples hatching whereby, in the imagination of the Sanhedrin, the disciples might themselves steal the body –as a way of supporting some kind of outrageous claim that Jesus had risen…. “They” were still actively on the prowl! “They,” seeking to put a lid on the last vestiges of this Jesus thing, tidying up loose ends, might, yet, come after the disciples! Yes, we could make excuse for the disciples. We can understand their immediate impetus to “disappear,” to go home, to make display that they are finished- a threat no longer. But, THEY LEFT MARY STANDING THERE? No matter how we might charitably “understand,” can we make excuse for that!
Typical men! Insensitive, self-centered louts! …Hold on you ladies who might already be shaking your heads in knowing empathic judgment…. There are others in this story too! Although John does not focus his telling on them, they were there- as the other gospel records tell -that group of women who came to the tomb very early in the morning bearing spices to anoint the body of Jesus. They were there too. In John’s record, Mary Magdalene acknowledges them, in verse 2… Hear it again…Mary races to report to the disciples and what does she say? “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and WE (Mary and the other ladies) WE do not know where they have laid him.” All the gospels agree! As the story opens there were a number of women there: and then, like the men, they were not! They ALL left Mary, standing there, weeping, alone! A tortured soul- abandoned…
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“Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying.” Suddenly, Mary is no longer alone! “But,” we might wonder, “what strange comforters! ...and what strange words they speak!”
The very first thing that the angels say, baffles us… These are angels sent by God to Mary in her deepest distress. Were they sleeping during their mission briefing? Did they really not know? Did they have to ASK? “Woman, why are you weeping?”
As outrageous as this question may seem to us, when asked by the angels, it becomes all the more outrageous, a moment later in the story, when Mary turns and suddenly sees Jesus, “though she did not recognize him and took him to be the gardener” …and, the very first words of Jesus ask the same, seemingly silly question- “Woman, why are you weeping?”
These are Jesus’ very first resurrection words! Can they be as “silly” as we might take them to be? …I think not. We might presume these words “silly” because to our minds they ask a dumb question….Here is Mary at a time of grief and you have to ask why she’s crying! “Yes,” Jesus replies, in effect, “I have to ask: and, it’s so important that I ask, that I will make of my asking the first words beyond the grave!”
“Woman, why are you weeping?” Our Lord asks: and, he listens. He does not presume to know. He does not extrapolate from his own emotions, he does not read his own agenda into the scene, instead, in a penultimate example of compassionate caring, he asks …and he listens… And, it’s a good thing he did.
Mary’s response to Jesus’ question is not what he, or we, might have expected: some matter of grief’s raw pain. Listen to what she replies- “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.” …Three times, in our little story today, while we might presume simple grief, Mary makes it plain that what’s bothering her most of all is the idea that the body of Jesus had been ferried away in desecration- and that is the immediate cause of her weeping. She has “lost” her Lord….Answering this presenting crisis and pain, Jesus goes on, as we all know, to reveal himself to her- showing her that he is not “lost” or stolen away, but “found”, right there, and with her again.
In all of this, Jesus shows us how exceedingly important it is TO ASK…. A critical first step for those who would care and, with God, answer…. The disciples never asked. The other women never asked. But, loving Jesus asked: and, then, he was able to make a difference.
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Three times, as we’ve noted, in our little story today, Mary pours out her deepest fear. The first time was to the disciples who, in response, took off on their own agenda. The second time was to angels- who, as the story goes didn’t have time to answer. And, finally to Jesus, who listened, cared and did the right thing. Three times, Mary poured out her deepest anxiety: and, in such repetition, there is something to notice…. Whether or not others responded as well as we might like, each pouring forth of Mary’s deepest sorrow, ached to share the load. Such a load of grief or care is lightened by sharing. And, when the load is shared, with those who really care, the weight of it all is diminished.
As today’s story progresses, we can see, in it, a miracle taking place in Mary. At first we see her going to the tomb. Then she, seeing the stone rolled away, goes “racing” to the disciples. And then we see her, again, back at the tomb, standing there weeping. And then, she meets Jesus and, for the third time, pours out her sorrow. A tragic waif: but wait, the story is not done! Read on… As the story ends, we get a very different picture of a Mary transformed. The desperation, the panic, the debilitating sorrow is gone. Her imagining of some kind of a conspiracy theory- “they have taken away the body”- is no longer in play. She is composed, almost at peace -as John wraps up his telling of it in simple words- “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them what he had said.”
Three times Mary poured forth her sorrow: until, ultimately, the load of it no longer had her in a panic or frozen, immobilized by its weight. In the telling of it, the load was lightened and she was healed… We know how this works. Any of us who have been part of funerals or comforting the bereaved. We know that there is healing as the story is repeated over and over and over… And we know that, as such a story is shared with those who really listen and care, the weight of it can become manageable- healing takes place- and life beyond the grave becomes gradually, imaginably real.
Hallelujah- great for Mary: but, what of us?
This is the Day of Resurrection and we are reading a resurrection story hoping that resurrection can come to us. Without a doubt, we all know the place of Mary in today’s reading. We’ve been there. Some of us ARE there, right now.
“Woman, why are you weeping?” is not only God’s question to Mary, it is God’s question to each of us who gather in this place today….
“Why are you weeping?” is God’s invitation that, this Easter, we all answer the question- naming the things that we bring today that are our biggest worries and anxieties…. It may not be a matter of bereavement. We may not be caught up in fear of any ominous conspiracy- as was Mary. We may not be possessed by any fear as blinded the disciples… But, we all can name concerns and anxieties, situations and realities, in our own lives, in the lives of people we love, and in the wider world, that move us close to, if not to, actual tears. There are things we all care about and/or fear that much: and, as much as Easter long ago was about God coming to Mary to answer her fears, Easter today can be about God coming to us to meet us, in and through each other perhaps, to listen and speak words of compassion and new life and resurrection beyond whatever tortures our soul…. Easter continues to be a reminder of God who asks each of us, “Why are you weeping?” and then, of a God who offers to carry the load transforming and freeing us to live in and through or beyond it. The Easter experience can transform the weight of whatever pain we bear and set us free…
The Easter miracle waits to happen for you. It is the invitation and the promise of today.
Easter is not a one time event. Easter is about God forever eager to rise for us, to come to us, to be with us… Easter is about God ready to listen to us, to comfort us, to transform us… Easter is about God alive with us- making it through every valley of pain, every shadow of death, every trial, every tribulation.
Easter is about more than simply the resurrection of Jesus- as important as that is. It is also about the resurrection of Mary, new life for the disciples, new hope for Peter and Andrew… the miracle of life’s renewal extended to all of us.
Easter is God’s miracle of every tortured soul transformed: and all creation, sharing the joy, singing alleluias.
With Jesus Christ, WE are risen today.
Hallelujah!
Amen
Charles Love
St. Andrew’s
April 16 2006