April 20, 2025
• Rev. Rob Fuquay
St. Luke’s UMC
April 20, 202
EASTER
Graves into Gardens
“As She Wept”
John 20:1-18
There’s a story about a woman who looked out her window one day to see her German Shepherd dog shaking the life out of the neighbor’s rabbit. It was already a bad neighbor relationship, and this would not improve things. So, she grabbed a broom, pummeled the dog until it dropped the rabbit that was covered in dirt, dog slobber—and extremely dead.
Then she got an idea. She took the rabbit into the house. Washed it clean, took a blow dryer and fluffed it up. Then she snuck over to the neighbor’s house, gently put the rabbit back in its cage and went home.
A few hours later she heard screams from the neighbor. She ran over and feigned innocence. “What’s wrong?” she asked. The neighbor woman said, “It’s my rabbit!” “Your rabbit,” she replied, “what’s the matter.” The neighbor said, “Three days ago it died. I buried it in the backyard and now its back!!”
For those of us familiar with the Easter story, who know that Easter is about more than bunnies and chocolate eggs, then this humorous story captures the true reality of the first Easter story, just without the laughs. Most of us know that Easter is about Jesus rising from the grave. Resurrection is a familiar word, whether we believe it or not. But if we can at all relate to the feeling of something in our lives that was dear to us that died, a dream, a person, a hope, and have no expectation what’s so ever that that reality would change, then we can better understand the Easter story.
In his landmark book The Resurrection of the Son of God, Bishop N.T. Wright makes the point that in the first century no one believed in the possibility of a bodily resurrection, not the Jews, nor the Greeks, or the Romans. The Greeks believed that everything physical was evil and so the point was to discard one day all material things. The Jews believed in resurrection but only as something in the future at the end of time. No one, though, would have entertained the idea of bodily resurrection in history. The thought of Jesus being alive after seeing him die and be buried would have inconceivable at best if not downright shocking.
That’s why in the Easter story we just heard, the first reaction of people to the empty tomb is not even to consider the possibility of resurrection. John is the only one of the four Gospels to begin the Easter saying, “While it was still dark.” The others say “at dawn” or “early in the morning,” meaning as daylight approached. But John reminds us of the mood of Easter. Grief, sadness, and no expectation of change in these conditions. They say that for some people with dementia the worst time of day is sunset. They call it Sundowner Syndrome. Patients become very agitated and uneasy. For everything robbed from their memory there must be a feeling that if I have no light, I don’t have anything now.
So, John begins Easter in the dark. Mary came to the tomb to find the stone rolled away, but nothing in her said, “I guess Jesus was right. Everything he said about rising three days after his death must be true.” Her memory had been robbed. Instead, an empty tomb only compounded her grief. Her rational process said someone must have stolen the body.
She runs to tell the two disciples, Peter and John (picture). They run to the tomb to investigate for themselves. Peter goes in and sees the place where Jesus’ body had been, and the linen strips used to wrap his body for burial along with the cloth around Jesus’ head removed and neatly folded up. This adds further confusion. If someone stole the body, why would they have taken time to remove the wrappings, much less fold them up neatly?
Then John enters, sees the same evidence and it says, “He saw and believed.” What’s interesting here is that John wrote this Gospel, so he’s talking about himself, basically saying, “I saw and believed.” But believed what? He even admits that when he and Peter left the tomb, “They still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” (John 20:9) So John believed, but in what?
So, they leave and return home. Mary is alone at the tomb, and this is where we come to the verse that stands out to me this year. I say “this year” because this is my 36th Easter sermon I have preached. And probably 2o of those have been from the Gospel of John. And every time I prepare, I go back and read the same commentaries I have for years. I study many of the same resources, but often there is a part of the story that stands out and this year what stood out for me is this next verse, “…but Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb…” (picture and verse on same slide)
As she wept.
Mary lingered in her grief. She didn’t go home with the others. She didn’t run or hide from her grief. She didn’t isolate from it. She stood bravely alone at the source of her grief and because she lingered there, she experienced Easter.
Let’s pause here for a moment to consider who Mary Magdalene was. A tradition developed that said she had been a prostitute. This was started by Pope Gregory the Great in the 7th century. He connected Mary Magdalene with the woman who washed Jesus’ feet, She is described as a “sinful woman” in Luke chapter 7, but we aren’t told that woman’s name. Pope Gregory declared that was Mary Magdalene, but that’s not accurate. We are actually told in Luke 8:2 about Mary Magdalene, “The twelve disciples went with him, and so did some women who had been healed of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (who was called Magdalene), from whom seven demons had been driven out…” (Luke 8:2 GNT)
Now in the ancient world evil spirits and demons were ways of describing all sorts of afflictions, particularly things today we might call emotional or mental conditions. Mary may have been suffering a mental illness, something that others judged or labeled as being evil. Maybe something that made people say, “Steer clear of her, she’s got problems.” If you’ve ever been treated that way or had loved ones treated that way, then you know what that can do to your mental and emotional health.
But Jesus didn’t treat Mary this way. He saw her as someone who could be whole again and he healed her. He saved her. He gave her hope. So, when Jesus died, what do you think Mary’s grief must have been like?
But she lingered in her grief at the tomb, and when she looked into it, she saw two angels. For some reason she wasn’t startled by this. They may have looked like ordinary people. But let’s skip over why she wasn’t bothered by ordinary people sitting in a tomb at twilight. They asked Mary, “Woman, why are you crying?”
At first the answer seems obvious, at least to us. She’s weeping because Jesus died, except Jesus died two days ago on Friday. She was there when it happened. Also, the Easter story doesn’t mention Mary weeping until now. Her tears must be for another reason. And she actually tells us that, “They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him.” (v.13) Her tears are because of added turmoil. Jesus’ death was bad enough, but now her only source of comfort was to be near his body. To remember and give thanks for what she had.
If Mary could have had her prayer answered that Easter morning, then Jesus’ body would have been returned to the tomb. He would have remained dead but that would have probably been enough to stop her tears. She would have been okay with that, and what a tragedy that would have been. But she lingered long enough for God to give her a better answer than the one she was asking for. As she wept…something happened.
She turns and Jesus is standing there, but she doesn’t recognize him. Her mind can yet fathom that possibility. She assumes he’s the gardener. He asks the same question as the angels, “Woman, why are you crying?” But before she can answer he follows with another, “Who is it you are looking for?”
This is the breakthrough question. Mary, of course, is looking for her Lord. But not a living Lord. She is looking for a Lord who is limited, limited by death. But God can’t be limited. God is always moving on, living on. Mary just can’t imagine a God who can do more than what she has already experienced.
That’s perhaps the biggest obstacle to a growing faith, remaining open to a God who goes beyond what we have believed or experienced as true already. Many years ago, a British pastor and theologian named JB Philipps wrote a little book called Your God is Too Small. In it he describes many of the inadequate views of God people have, a God who is limited to their understanding. But then, the larger part of the book is spent stretching the reader’s imagination of a God who goes beyond expectation. A God who always challenges us to keep up, and keeping up often means letting go of ideas or opinions that are inadequate.
David Owen was a former associate pastor of St. Luke’s many years ago. He went on the senior pastor of St. Mark’s in Bloomington and North UMC here in Indy. Several years ago he died, but friends published a collection of his sermons. One of them is titled “Jesus is Not Where You Last Saw Him.” I referenced this last year in a sermon.
Who is it you are looking for? Who is the Lord you seek? God may want to do more than you expect.
That’s what Mary discovered (picture). Jesus called her name, “Mary.” Earlier in the Gospel Jesus said the Good Shepherd “calls his sheep by name…and they know his voice.” (John 10:3-4) (picture and verse) Now Mary experienced that. She replied, “Rabouni!’ (which means teacher).” (20:16) (Picture and verse) Mary’s response was a variation of the word Rabbi. It is more personal. It means “My Teacher.” Her eyes are opened. She is overjoyed. But the importance of this interaction is the relationship. You see the Gospels do not explain how the resurrection happened. It simply tells of people who encountered the Risen Christ.
This is the heart of the Easter message. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a theory to be accepted, a doctrine to be believed, or an idea to ponder. It is a relationship to be experienced with a Risen Lord who meets us in our pain, our grief, our shame, and gives new hope. He lets us know that we are not alone. That we are worth redeeming. And He comes to us, but not just for our own personal peace. He comes to do more than just keep us comfortable where we are. He comes to give us purpose.
Mary reached out to hold Jesus and he responds, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” There are numerous theories about what this meant, that Jesus’ resurrected state was changed so Mary can’t hold him. But that doesn’t make sense when you think that in the very next story Jesus will tell the disciple, Thomas, to place his hands in his wounds to prove he is risen.
No, I imagine Jesus told Mary not to hold him for a different reason. Tim Keller points out the words “do not hold me,” have a more forceful meaning. It’s more like, “Do not cling to me.” You can imagine Mary, for all Jesus had meant to her, wanting to cling to him, not to let him go so he is not separated from her again. To hold onto all he has meant to her. He was her source of hope and peace. Why would Jesus say, “Don’t cling to me?”
Because, perhaps, it’s an attempt to hold onto past experience. To hold onto a peace she once had. Can’t we relate to that feeling? Remembering a time in life when we felt God’s peace but the means by which that peace came changed. And we long to go back there, but God is not limited to the past. God is moving on, living. And that’s what Easter means. Because Jesus rose again, he is not just in our past, he’s in our future.
This is what he wants Mary to know. When he goes away again it will be so that she can experience Him even more fully than before. And the way He will live for her is to live through her.
So, notice what he tells Mary immediately after saying, “Do not hold me,” “But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” (John 20:17) He gives Mary a job, a purpose, reminding us that the way God brings hope to people is though people.
I read about a seminary dean who told one of the students who had avoided preaching in chapel that the next week he would deliver the sermon. The student had never preached. He studied and crammed all week but no divine inspiration. The day of the service he stood before his fellow students and said, “Do you know what I have to tell you today?” They nodded no. He said, “Neither do I, go in peace.” The dean was not pleased. He said, “Tomorrow you will preach again.” The next day the student stood up in the pulpit and said, “Do you know what I have to tell you?” Everyone nodded yes. He said, “Good, then I don’t need to. Go in peace.’
Now the dean was really irritated. He assigned the student to preach again and this time if he didn’t have a sermon, he would be booted. The student got up to preach. He asked the same question again! “Do you know what I have to tell you?” Half nodded yes, half no. He said, “Okay, so the ones who know, go tell the ones who don’t. Go in peace.”
This time the dean said, “Send the ones who know to tell the ones who don’t. You finally preached.”
This is the true Easter sermon. It is the one Jesus preached. Go and tell. Take your experience of hope, your being found and met by a risen Lord in time of grief, or pain, or guilt, and share it with others. Go tell. But more than tell, show.
Many in our world have already heard what we have to tell. They’ve been preached. What too many haven’t experienced is showing what we know. Showing hope. Showing compassion. Showing mercy. That’s what’s needed in our world.
Let me close with a story that happened about a month ago. It was a Friday, get that now, a Friday, when hope was low. A young man was at the front desk asking for a pastor. I was the only one in the office at the time, so I went to see him. He was from Haiti, his English was not too good. His native language was Creole, but his second language was Spanish…