Risen, in the Garden

[00:00:00] Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. From God our father and from our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:00:07] Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah. [00:00:12] Christ is risen, and with him comes a new reality. [00:00:18] Reality is changed by Christ's resurrection because he lives. We also live. We also will live because he's been raised from the dead. You and I also will be raised from the dead. Christ has fundamentally changed reality for human beings and for all creation. You could say that's suffering, that's groaning and the pains of childbirth, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. [00:00:46] Reality is different. [00:00:48] Christ is risen. He has risen indeed. Alleluia. [00:00:55] Mary Magdalene went early, when it was still dark to the tomb, and she wasn't expecting reality to be changed there. She was going along in the darkness, and she expected to carry on her dark task. [00:01:13] She was going to further prepare Jesus body for burial. In jewish custom, it was a year long process, and I suppose that was just practical. [00:01:28] If you visit a tomb, an ancient tomb in the holy land today, you'll see it's generally there are spaces for ossuaries to go, these bone boxes, and then there's also kind of a main area in the tomb in which a body could be laid. So for a year, a body would be laid out and kind of prepared for this, but it would be laid out until it had decayed and all the bones were all that was left. And then they would put those bones in a smaller box, an ossuary, and stick it in a slot, and whole families would be buried together this way. [00:02:11] So Mary Magdalene, when she's going to begin this process or continue it, it's only been a few days, so she's going there early in the dark and, well, fulfilling a duty, let's say, for someone she loved, she's not at all, it seems, expecting that reality will be very different than what she was thinking. [00:02:38] She gets there and Jesus is gone. She goes back and tells Peter and John. Peter and John run to the tomb. [00:02:49] They run to the tomb. You think they're running to the tomb because they think he might have risen from the dead? [00:02:56] Probably not. They're probably thinking, what is going on? [00:02:59] And they're running to deal with it. And John tells us as yet they didn't understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. [00:03:11] Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stands there weeping, and she gets to see Jesus in his risen glory. [00:03:24] I mentioned at the beginning of the service that John, the gospel writer, from which this reading comes, John says that in the place where he died, there was a garden. [00:03:36] Okay? So he places the setting of the crucifixion in a garden. [00:03:43] And throughout the gospel of John. If you've been in my Bible study. [00:03:48] After the early between services on Sundays, you've seen there are some references in the Gospel of John. To the Garden of Eden, okay? Bringing us all the way back to Adam and Eve. But here we are. Isn't it fitting that Christ's death and resurrection would take place in a garden where it all began. Where it all went south. Where man returned to the ground? Now the ground opens up. The stone rolls away. And Christ. Christ comes out into a garden. [00:04:24] He's the new reality for humanity. He's the new human being. The new Adam emerged from the tomb never to die again. [00:04:36] And that's what Mary sees. She sees a gardener. [00:04:42] She mistakes him for the gardener. [00:04:50] Jesus said to her woman, why are you weeping? [00:04:54] Well, she's weeping because. Well, because she's scared. Because Jesus is gone, right? But tied to that is, well, that Jesus is dead. [00:05:07] Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking, supposing him to be the gardener? She said to him, sir, if you have carried him away. Tell me where you have laid him. And I will take him away. [00:05:19] Jesus said to her, Mary. [00:05:24] She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni. She recognizes him immediately. So, first she recognized him as the gardener, maybe you could say as Adam. [00:05:38] But then he says her name. [00:05:43] And you could say that she recognizes him as the shepherd. [00:05:47] In John, chapter ten, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. My sheep know me. Right. I know my sheep by name. I call them by name. [00:05:58] And they know the voice of their shepherd. [00:06:01] That's in John ten. Now, here in John 20, Jesus calls the name of his sheep, Mary. [00:06:10] And she knows the voice of her teacher. [00:06:13] She comes alive. She wants to hug him. And he says, no, no. [00:06:21] Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, braboni, which means, teacher. [00:06:27] Jesus said to her, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the father. But go to my brothers and say to them, now notice. Go to my brothers. [00:06:38] He calls them his brothers. Here's the new Adam, right, in whom humanity is restored. [00:06:47] And now he has brothers. Here's the son of God by nature. Who's made us children of God, right? To those who did believe in John one. He gave the power to become children of God. [00:07:01] And if we're children of God, then we're Jesus brothers. Go and tell my brothers. [00:07:08] Say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father. See, they are brothers. [00:07:15] I am ascending to my father and your father to my God and your God. [00:07:21] Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I've seen the Lord. [00:07:27] What amazing words. [00:07:31] Jesus bursts from the tomb, he comes out from the ground to which humanity had returned, living, never to die again. [00:07:40] He comes out of that. I mean, really, it's from darkness to light that morning. [00:07:46] But you could say on a cosmic scale, it's from darkness of sin and evil and death. [00:07:53] He came to those dwelling in great darkness. On them a light has shined, we say at Christmas, quoting Isaiah, from the darkness of our human situation. We have the dawn of a new reality of life and light in Jesus. [00:08:16] That's for you and me, brothers and sisters in Christ. This party is just getting started. You know, we're gonna have breakfast, and then we're gonna come and we're gonna have two more services with a procession and more Easter hymns. [00:08:30] This party that's starting, it's obviously not the beginning of the party. This is a party that's been repeated every Easter since Jesus rose from the dead. And it's a party that's going to continue, and it's a party that's going to continue forever. When endless day comes, when Jesus comes back, he's coming back. And reality is fundamentally changed. We're going to talk more about this in the next service. But reality is fundamentally changed. It is not the same anymore. So here we are, it's getting light. Here we are still in the darkness. Maybe you're experiencing health difficulties. Maybe you're experiencing some kind of personal darkness, or looking around the world and seeing darkness, or sometimes you just experience the darkness of interpersonal strife or of your own sinful nature. [00:09:28] What do you do? [00:09:29] Look to Christ, because the Son of God has risen, and with him he has healing in his wings. With him comes healing and life and hope. [00:09:46] We should really just run outside because the sun is rising, and on the horizon now is a little bit of light. [00:09:54] And when you look at that, it just naturally brings some hope. It's like, ah, a new day. [00:10:02] That's what's happening in Christ. That's what has happened in Christ. There is hope, if you have faith to see it. [00:10:09] And so that's, I mean, that's our role in the world this morning, today, and always is to point our family members, our friends, our coworkers, to point people to the hope that we have in Jesus, that he has risen from the dead. And reality is fundamentally changed, that there is hope dawn is coming if you just open your eyes to see it. In Jesus name, amen.