The First Words

 John 20:1-18

 

April 5, 2015

 

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

Historians tell us that there were a dozen self-professed messiahs in first century Palestine preaching the end of the world, doing miracles and calling for the restoration of the Holy Land (note as examples: Zealot by Reza Aslan or Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography by John Dominic Crossan).  A number of them came from Galilee, Jesus' home turf, which had a long tradition of resisting foreign powers and local corruption.    They would all die a martyr's death.   If Jesus of Nazareth were "just another one" of these prophets, why are we still talking about him 2,000 years later?

 

Because of Easter.

 

None of the gospels record the resurrection.  There are no eye witness accounts of Jesus' dead body coming back to life that Easter morning.  No one can report how the stone got rolled away.  All they are sure of is that the tomb is empty and his body is not to be found.  In Luke's version of the story an angel asks the women, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" (Luke 24:5)

Scholars tells us that before the stories of Jesus' birth were written down, even before the Easter stories were written down, the earliest Christians told the world that Jesus was alive because they had seen the risen Lord themselves.

To those questioning his credentials as an apostle, Paul writes years before the first gospel is written:

 

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.  (I Corinthians 15:3-8)

These early Christians, most illiterate and poor, would suffer persecution, imprisonment and death for their new faith absolutely convinced they had encountered Jesus alive and well as the Risen Lord.  The Easter story confirmed what they knew in their hearts; God's love can never die, even at the cruel hands of power and greed, love wins.

 Indeed, Jesus is found among the living not the dead.  That is still true today.

This has been a most Holy Week.  If we were looking, we could see all sorts of signs of resurrection:

 

On Thursday, the day we remember Jesus’ last supper with this disciples, the evening of his betrayal and arrest, the City of San Jose celebrated the life of Police officer Michael Johnson who was killed responding to a domestic violence call last week.  Officer Johnson served the SJPD for 14 years and was considered one of their best and most highly accomplished members. He leaves behind wife Nicole and a wonderful family in which he was a huge part.

Eight thousand people attended his service.  Uniformed officers came from all over California and the nation.  Many thousands more citizens lined the route of the entourage from the funeral home in Los Gatos to the SAP Center in San Jose, waving flags, praying in silence as the hearse passed by.

Bishop Patrick J. McGrath, the head of the Catholic Diocese of San Jose, compared Johnson, who was 38, to a meteorite that flashes across the sky and disappears all too quickly. "They don't last long, but those who experience their light remain forever dazzled," McGrath said. "And that was true with Mike."

Jamie Radack, Johnson's older sister, explained how Michael always sought to follow in their father's footsteps as a police officer.  "I knew he would grow up to become a cop," Radack said. "Whenever Mike and I played cops and robbers as kids, he always insisted on being the cops and I always had to be the bad guys.  That turned out to be fortuitous, not just because Mike grew up to become a cop, but I grew up to become a lawyer," she said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

David Solis, a police academy classmate of Johnson and now a Menlo Park officer and one of Michael’s best friends spoke for all police officers;  "[Mike] We thank you for your life and your sacrifice to us. Death did not make you a hero. You were already a hero while you lived. You are forever stitched to us, bonded to us, and now your heart will beat through ours."  (“SJPD Officer Michael Johnson: Police, family, community say goodbye to hometown hero”, Robert Salonga, Mark Emmons and Mark Gomez, San Jose Mercury News, April 2, 2015)

 

Love never dies.   It cannot be killed by the most evil darkness.  It lives on in us not just shaping our memories but the way we live.

I could care less what the latest carbon dating test of the Shroud of Turin says about its origins.   That archeologists debate the authenticity of a stone ossuary reported to contain the bones of Jesus' brother James means nothing to my faith.  

I know that Jesus lives every time I see an act of true compassion.  I know that Jesus lives every time someone who has hurt another seeks forgiveness and a way to make amends.  I know the Easter tomb was empty every time someone speaks out for justice in a world bent on power and greed.  

This has been a most Holy Week, indeed.

My father died last year just after we had finished the Maundy Thursday Holy Communion services at the church I was serving.  They had been managing his leukemia with monthly blood transfusions for two years and my mom's at-home round-the-clock care.   The transfusions stopped working and he had a dignified, pain-free death in a Hospice unit in Northern Sacramento.  Calvin Arthur Bollwinkel had no complaints; his 88 years were full of blessings.  He adored my mother Julia during their 64 year marriage.  As a lifelong and devoted San Francisco Giants fan we are convinced that his influence from Heaven was the reason they won their third World Series in five years last year, which could be the only logical explanation!

On the night before his death my mom, brother, sister and I got to say our good-byes. We received a very special gift.   As my mom kissed my dad good-bye she whispered, "I love you...we will be together again..."  

She didn't plan to say that.  It just came out.   It came out of a life spent together.  It came out of the reality that love never dies.  In spite of the enormity of illness, suffering and death, it is love that gets the last word.  It is love that defines us.

And the Easter tomb is empty and Jesus is raised from the dead.

Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb on Easter morning expecting to finish the preparations of Jesus' body for burial which were interrupted by the Sabbath.   What she finds is the empty tomb.  She runs to tell the disciples, who after checking it out, leave her there to weep alone.

Here at Church of the Wayfarer we have spent the Lenten season contemplating the final words of Jesus from the cross.  This morning we hear his first words as the risen Lord; “Woman, why are you weeping?  Who are you looking for?"  [Please note…men leave the dirty work to women and then leave them alone to cry…sounds familiar doesn’t in the life of the church?!  But it will not be the last word we hear from Mary…]

At first conventional wisdom would have her ask, "Where have you taken his body?"  That is only logical.  But when he calls her by name, "Mary", she realizes it is Jesus and this woman left alone will be the first to announce "I have seen The Lord."  And the world has never been the same.

So who are you looking for this bright and beautiful Easter morning?

If we are here to make Grandma happy and then go to brunch, there’s nothing wrong with that!   If we come in hopes of reviving a memory of a time, a person or a faith in the past, wonderful.

But if we are looking for Jesus, we won't find him in the relics of the past, they only point to what is all around us now.  We find the Risen Lord in the lives of those who live in the promise of God's love.   Passionate worship, deepening faith, social justice, radical hospitality and extravagant generosity these are the signs of Easter, these are the pathways to discover who we really are and one whom we seek.

For the last two thousand years, Christians have identified themselves to each other, sometimes during periods of persecution, hiding or oppression, with the liturgical confession and response, “Christ has risen…..Christ has risen indeed”.

Let’s do so together yet again as we claim the promise of our faith; “Christ has risen…..Christ has risen indeed”.

 

Amen.