Racing to the Tomb: An Easter Sermon

John 20:1-18

Most of us know this story. We have heard year after year. We know that after the Lord’s Supper, Jesus went up to the garden to pray. After he got done praying the guard’s came and took him away. We know that the trial ends with the crowds shouting, “crucify him!” and we know Pilate gives in to their wishes and sentences Jesus to death. We know they flog him and that they take his robe from him and then cast lots to see which of them get to keep the robe. We know that after several hours Jesus finally dies. We know that they take his body down from the cross and lay it in the tomb. But most of us do not even stop to grieve at this point, because we also know the end of the story, we know that on Sunday morning the tomb is empty and Jesus Christ is alive because he has risen from the dead!

As we listen to or tell the story our minds cannot help but wander to the end, to the, “He is risen!” part. Our minds are there long before he has even been nailed to the tree. We can’t wait to get to the end. We know that it has a happily ever after ending. We know Jesus does not stay dead, we know that Christ has risen. Because of this, all too often, we do not truly appreciate the joy such an ending to a story must be.

As Mary approached the tomb that morning she did not expect to find an empty tomb. She fully expected to find a dead body. But instead she finds the stone has been rolled away. To a person living in the first centur,y, the stone being removed from a burial site can only mean one thing – grave robbery! Someone must have stolen the body sometime between Friday evening, when they laid it in the tomb and early Sunday morning when Mary arrived. She is in shock, she is upset, she is horrified, so she goes and tells two of Jesus’ disciples, Peter and John.

They take off running. A foot race to the tomb ensues. Peter takes off first, but John is hot on his heels. John catches up and the two were neck and neck for a short while, but then just at the last minute, John gets a second wind and get there ahead Peter. Once the two are there they look inside, and see that Mary is right and it says John believed. But what did he believe? He believed, but he did not yet believe that Jesus had risen. They looked in the tomb and believed, believed that Mary was right, the tomb was indeed empty. John did not yet understand what the scriptures say about how the Christ must rise from the dead.

He and Peter both come to the same conclusion, which Mary had previously come to, that is that someone has taken Jesus’ body away. They are consumed in grief, they thought things were really bad when Jesus actually died. Just when they think things cannot possibly get any worse, they do. The person whom they truly believed to be the messiah, the Son of God is dead and all their hopes and dreams are crushed. Now on top of that, someone has stolen his body! This is a horrible tragedy. What could be worse than having the dead body of someone you knew and loved, stolen from their grave just a few short days after their death? This is the tragedy to end all tragedies.

The two return home, brokenhearted and despondent. Mary chooses to stay and is weeping over the tomb. She is deeply affected by what has happened this morning. I have always imagined that at this point, she is standing outside the tomb crying gently and quietly. But as I have studied this text, I have discovered that there was nothing quiet and gentle about how Mary was weeping. What this actually says in the original language is that she is wailing according to the morning customs of her day.

She is wailing at the top of her lungs. Mary is completely and absolutely distraught! Her Lord is dead and someone has stolen his body. This is not the time for quiet, gentle weeping, this the time for loud gut wrenching sobs. The kind of wailing that comes uncontrollably, the kind of wailing that involves the whole body, the kind of full body sobbing one participates in when the whole world has come crashing in and there seems to be no end to the chaos and confusion. Nothing will ever be right again! Mary is standing outside the tomb crying in this manner!

It is in this shocked, confused, deeply distressed state of mind that she sees the two angels and Jesus. It does not occur to her that this man might be her Lord. She immediately believes him to be some sort of gardener and asks him if he knows what has happened to Jesus’ body.

At this point, all it takes is for Jesus to say one word, “Mary.” Upon hearing him speak her name, she Immediately recognizes him as her Lord. Jesus then gives Mary a message to pass on to the others. Jesus asks Mary to be the first to preach the good news of the Gospel of the risen Lord.

Mary is elated. Just a moment ago she was positive that her world had come to an end, that she would never be able to get over the grief that she was experiencing, now, she is so excited that she can’t contain it! She has seen Jesus! She has seen the Lord! He is alive! He has risen! Who would have thought? How could they have ever guessed that when they found the tomb empty that it would mean that he had risen from the dead? The world is not only right, but it has never been more right. The sky is bluer and the grass is greener than it has ever been before. Because Jesus is alive. She knows that he is alive! She has seen him! She has seen him!

We as Christians have exciting news! Jesus is alive. We know that he is not dead. We know that death has no power over him. But, perhaps, we have heard the story too many times. We know the ending. It is not exciting. You would get more emotional if I read the passage and changed the end of the story than you did when the scripture was read earlier this morning, with the miraculous ending that it has. We do not get excited and want to tell everyone we meet. We are not struck with awe at the amazing nature of this event. It is old hat. Of course Jesus rises from the dead, what else was he going to do? It does not occur to us that this morning’s story should have ended with Mary anointing a dead body with burial herbs. But it did not end that way. It ended with Mary running off to tell the disciples that she had seen Jesus and that he is alive!

This is something to be excited about! This is something that should change our world! This is something that should make all things right! Jesus is alive! Jesus is alive! Not only should this change our lives, but it should be something that so fills us with joy, so that we cannot help, but want to tell everyone we know about the glorious truth of the resurrection of our Lord! Jesus is alive!

We should never let the hindsight of history turn this miraculous event into yet another story, which we know so well that we can recite it by heart without affecting our lives at all. We should never let ourselves listen to this story the same way we listen to so many other stories that we know so well. We should let this story shape and change our lives. We should let this story fill us with joy and excitement. This story should fill us so completely that it spills out of us on every possible occasion. There should not be one person in our lives who does not know how this one event defines who we are and changes everything about us.

Jesus is alive! And because of this we are changed! Because of this the whole world is changed! Let us shout it from the rooftops and proclaim it to the entire world. The tomb is empty! Jesus has risen from the dead and he is alive!