Easter Sunday 2010: I have seen the Lord!

Clip Art courtesy of the General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church 

John 20:1-18    Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.  She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”   Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb.  They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in.  Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there,  while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings.  Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.  Then they went home.  Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in.  She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.  “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.  “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”  She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him.  “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”   She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”   “Mary!” Jesus said.   She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).  “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”  Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!”  Then she gave them his message.

Context:  As I meditate on this Gospel reading for Easter Day, I am drawn to Mary's encounter with Jesus.  In John's version of the empty tomb, Mary goes alone and in the darkness of early morning.  She reminds me of Jesus who often went alone to pray in the morning.  In her grief, she also stays alone at the tomb long after Simon Peter and the "disciple whom Jesus loved" left to go home.  Have you ever felt this kind of grief?   Have you ever lingered in a place long after others left?    What were you seeking?

Finally Mary is ready to see what is in the tomb.  Imagine her surprise to find the two angels who question her grief, "Dear woman, why are you crying?"  Can you see feel her anguish as she turns away revealing her increasing distress as Jesus' disappearance?    Have you ever felt this kind of anguish and distress?   From where did your feeling emerge?   I wonder how Mary feels to have the same question asked by this strange man, "Dear woman, why are you crying?"   I remember when Jesus called his mother "woman" and I find it endearing in this passage.  Jesus loves Mary.  Can you hear him call her by name, "Mary ..."  I wonder how often she has heard him call her name.  It must have been countless times for she recognizes his voice in an instant.  She must have rushed to embrace him as she cries out, "Rabboni!"  In the context of this passage, it too sounds like an endearment.  Mary loves Jesus.  Yet Jesus rebukes her for she cannot stay in the past.  She must move into the future.  Mary is called into service by Jesus himself ... because she lingers, she becomes the first witness to the resurrection as she cries out, "I have seen the Lord!"   

Going Deeper:  Suddenly I remembered a conversation I had with God several years ago which invited me into a personal time of deeper meditation through remembering and drawing ... which I share on my Reflection Blog called imamosaic.blogspot.com. (Click here to read)   Take a few moments to read that blog entry.

Pondering:   Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, "We may wonder, whom can I love and serve? Where is the face of God to whom I can pray? The answer is simple: That naked one. That lonely one. That unwanted one who is my brother and my sister."    From Mother Teresa I learned long ago to seek the face of Christ in everyone I meet ... however, that homeless man is the closest I have ever been to proclaiming, "I have seen the Lord!"    Have you ever been able to make this proclamation?  If so, what was that like for you?  Were your emotions positive, negative, or (like mine) all mixed up?  Have you shared your story with anyone?  Would you consider sharing it with me ... and with others on this blog?  I invite you to make a comment describing a time when you saw Jesus in another person.   If you have never thought about this, how do you think your life would change if you looked for the God within each person?

Now ... what about you and me?  Do others see the light of Christ in us?   

Praying:  A Prayer by Cardinal John Henry Newman
Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Your Spirit and Life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that my life may only be a radiance of Yours. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus! Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine. It will be You, shining on others through me. Let me thus praise You in the way which You love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach You without preaching, not by my words but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears for You.   Amen.