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John 20:1-18
March 23, 2008
Mark S. Bollwinkel
March 23rd is the second earliest date possible for Easter. The last time Easter was on March 23rd was 95 years ago in 1913. The next time Easter is on March 23rd will be in the year 2228, 220 years from now. This is a special day!
We date Easter based on the Gregorian calendar which was a reform of the Julian calendar that began with the birth of Jesus in the year "zero"; which we now know was actually 4 BCE. Pope Gregory XIII (1/7/1502-4/10/1585) asked his scientists and mathematicians to come with a new calendar in 1582. It gave us the "leap year", adding a 29th day to the month of February every four years. The date of Easter was set for the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox which marks the beginning of spring. The Eastern Orthodox churches still use the Julian calendar to calculate their Easter observance so they are often held on different days than ours.
Just imagine what the world was like back in the 16th century and how it has changed.
No electricity, antibiotics or refrigerated foods. Most people slept on dirt floors. Most weddings in England were held in the month of June because May was the month people would take their annual bath; there are lots of practical reasons why the groom wore flowers and the bride carried a bouquet!
Life expectancy in Northern Europe was at best 40 years.
Wars of conquest and religion took place regularly all over the globe. Scholars suggest that following the discoveries by Christopher Columbus, over 25 million native Americans died from diseases introduced by the Europeans.1 Pope Gregory XIII, of our calendar, pardoned the French Roman Catholics who massacred over 100,000 French Huguenots because they were Protestant.
The world is a far better place today than back then. And yet, how much has changed in the human heart? Life expectancy in the 'developed world' is almost 80 years yet we still kill each other in the name of God. Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." Where fear, power and violence still plague our world it's not so much the lack of technology or wealth that holds us back but the failure of spiritual transformation.
For all of our wonderful advancement as a civilization we still struggle to know who we really are and where we are going.
Certainly Mary did seeing the tomb empty.
It was the last thing she expected to find. She had come to finish preparing the body for burial not to find the beginning to eternal life.
She must have been in shock.
As were the male disciples.
They had lived with this Jesus for 3 years. They had seen the miracles, heard his sermons. He had clearly said that he would suffer and die in Jerusalem to be raised from the dead. But fear and doubt had taken over when the soldiers came to arrest their Lord the night of their last supper. All but John and the women abandoned the Master on the cross, running away to hide.
In this gospel's version of Easter morning, it is John, the beloved disciple, who is the first to run to the tomb after hearing the women's report. He sticks his head in the tomb but doesn't enter. For him seeing was believing. The slimmest evidence convinced him that the Master's teaching of new life was real. That was all John needed to come to Easter faith.
For Peter, the empty tomb wasn't enough. For Peter, who entered the tomb and examined the burial clothes, faith wouldn't come until later. Not until the risen Jesus confronted Peter as he fished on the Sea of Galilee. It wasn't until Jesus challenged Peter to "feed my sheep" (John 21:40-19) that the fisherman believed.
Peter, like so many others, didn't know the risen Lord until he went out to serve, until he went out to share his experience of this Jesus with others. For many of us, we will only find Easter faith when we make the commitment to "feed the sheep".
Seeing isn't always believing. Mary doesn't believe because of the empty tomb, or conversations with angels or even a face-to-face encounter with the risen Lord. Mary couldn't see through her tears. It is not until she hears her name called that she finally believes. It was Jesus' word that moved Mary beyond her despair into Easter faith.
There isn't only "one" way to faith. Some of us will believe on the basis of Jesus' teaching. Some will find the risen Lord through service and compassion for others. And for many it will not be until times of despair and confusion overwhelm us, that we will hear our name called.
Mary and the disciples came to the empty tomb to find out what to believe...to make sense out of the turmoil in their community and within themselves.
Are we really that different from them this morning? Although we each come to faith in a different manner, don't we each confront the same conclusion?
The tomb is empty. Death cannot contain this Son of God. We keep running into him, in a garden, in a boat, in a locked and darkened room. This Jesus is alive and the world...our world...will never be the same again. It's a faith that can transform a life forever.
Perla Martinez Goody2 was recognized as the "Child Advocate of the Year" for the state of Oklahoma last year. She was selected to show appreciation for what she does to "free women and children from abusive situations, to support and strengthen the family and meet their fundamental needs" according to the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy. Ann Salazar of the Institute said Ms. Goody "goes where other people don't want to go and does with passion what other people don't want to do."
Ms. Goody grew up during the 1950's in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in a poor and violent neighborhood. Her parents emigrated from Mexico. She was the 17th of 18 children, eight of whom died before the age of five.
"My father let alcohol get the best of him. When he was drunk, he would beat me and my mom and my siblings until the blood came. There were many times when I thought I couldn't get up off the floor...."
She was one of those kids who looked forward to going to Sunday school and church each week but her father didn't want her to go.
"A van from the Mennonite church used to come, and if my father was still out drinking and playing poker, my mom would let them take us to church...but when my dad was around, all of us hid and didn't go to the door. One Sunday morning when I was about six, the pastor knocked on the door while my father was whipping up on us. The pastor asked him, 'Don't you know your children are a gift from God?' That set my father off and he beat the pastor up. The next Sunday the pastor knocked on our door again...bruises were all over his face. My father went to the door. The pastor looked him in the eye and said firmly but calmly, 'Mr. Martinez, I'm here to teach your children about Jesus Christ.' He must have gotten through to my father because soon after that he stopped drinking and was sober for the next ten years."
As she grew up, left home and married she and her husband became members of the First United Methodist church in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. There she became a certified United Methodist Local Pastor and worked with the church developing an outreach ministry to Hispanics in their community. Along with preaching, Ms. Goody has developed an English-as-a-Second language program at her church, the Good News Medical Center which provides free heath care for people in need; she conducts Twelve Step Programs for people addicted to alcohol and drugs and sponsors a support group for spousal and child abuse victims.
"Perla's roots in God's compassion and grace are deeper than the hardships [she has faced in life]...she has love, faith and hope" says her pastor.
A survivor of childhood abuse and violence grows up to dedicate her life to serving those just like her. Somewhere along her journey Perla Martinez Goody heard Jesus call her name. She knows who she is and where she is going!
The Easter message continues to transform lives and for good reason:
To a world ruled by fate and the whims of capricious gods, Christianity brought the promise of everlasting life. At the core of the Christian faith was the assertion that the crucified Jesus was resurrected by God and present in the church as the body of Christ. The message was clear: By submitting to death, Jesus had destroyed its power, thereby making eternal life available to everyone. This Christian affirmation radically changed the relationship between the living and the dead as Greeks and Romans understood it. For them, only the gods were immortal .... The Resurrection is an enormous answer to the problem of death, says Notre Dame theologian John Dunne. The idea is that the Christian goes with Christ through death to everlasting life. Death becomes an event, like birth, that is lived through.3 Death doesn't get the last word! Death will not define our living. Its fear not death which is our greatest enemy. Now if we would only live like it.
In January 2000, leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, invited their favorite son, Billy Graham, to a luncheon in his honor.4 Billy initially hesitated to accept the invitation because he struggles with Parkinson's disease. But the Charlotte leaders said, 'We don't expect a major address. Just come and let us honor you.' So he agreed.
After wonderful things were said about him, Dr. Graham stepped to the rostrum, looked at the crowd, and said, 'I'm reminded today of Albert Einstein...Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn't find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn't there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn't find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn't find it.
The conductor said, 'Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I'm sure you bought a ticket. Don't worry about it.'
Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket. The conductor rushed back and said, 'Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don't worry, I know who you are. No problem. You don't need a ticket. I'm sure you bought one.'
Einstein looked at him and said, 'Young man, I too, know who I am. What I don't know is where I'm going.'' Having said that Billy Graham continued, 'See the suit I'm wearing? It's a brand new suit. My wife, my children, and my grandchildren are telling me I've gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be a bit more fastidious. So I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion. You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I'll be buried. But when you hear I'm dead, I don't want you to immediately remember the suit I'm wearing. I want you to remember this: I not only know who I am .... I also know where I'm going.'
Don't we want our faith to be as simple, strong and clear?
Like the disciples we search for a faith that makes sense of suffering, a faith that transcends death and brings peace. We may think we have come to just another Easter service. But what we are here about this morning is far more than that.
It is you and I who stand before the empty tomb and face the decision of faith. Some will believe upon seeing. Some will find it through service. Yet more of us will believe only after the tears are all gone.
It is you and I, isn't it, who yearn for the transformation of love and peace in our hearts? To know who we are and where we are going?
Isn't we who long to hear the Lord call our name?
Amen.
1 (David Stannard, American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World, Oxford University Press, 1992).
2 ("Hispanic Minister Practices Wesleyan Principles", Boyce Bowdon, Response, Feb. 2008, pp.33-35.)
3 (Kenneth L. Woodward, "2000 Years of Jesus", Newsweek, March 29, 1999, p.55)
4 ("Leadership Journal", Christianity Today, Spring 2003)
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