Easter Day: Seeing not only the cross, but the empty tomb

Alleluia, Christ is Risen- the Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia.
 
It is a joy filled proclamation.  It is a proclamation that is rooted in mystery, a proclamation that defies logic.  We who are weary with the weight of our present time,  we have the audacity to shout words of praise.
 
“Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”  Given that we put those words away for the season of lent, it now first and foremost on our lips.  But would those be the first words we utter if faced with the reality that Mary faced?
 
In our Gospel, Mary is caught up in her grief.  Her first words are not words of praise.  She speaks to the man whom she assumes the gardener and says to him,  “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
 
Even though Jesus continued to talk about his resurrection among his disciples, Mary is stuck in a feedback loop.  She is thinking, where is Jesus? Where is he, where did he go? Did someone take him?  In fact she runs to the disciples to tells them, “They have taken the lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him.”
 
She is looking for Jesus, where SHE thinks he should be- in the tomb, and when she doesn’t find him there, she weeps.  She misses the angel dressed in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been laid. “Woman,” she is asked, “ why are you weeping?”
 
She replies, “they have taken my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.” This is a long way from a shout of Alleluia!
 
Mary is caught up in what the rev. Joslyn Ogden Schaefer describes as “crucifixion vision.”
 
Crucifixion vision is a way of seeing and perceiving the world that makes us thing that Sin and Death are in charge. Crucifixion vision tricks us into wanting go back into the past, where we long for a “time before.”  This vision has us saying I wish we could go back to the good old days when we were younger.
 
The Crucifixion vision drives deeper the wedge between eh haves and have-nots.  It makes us hoard toilet paper, making sure we get ours, ever mind anybody else. 
Crucifixion vision assumes that the partisan divide is too great and nothing will ever change in our politics.  That the democrats are to blame for our lot in life or that the republicans are to blame for our lot in life; that one is a loser unless one comes in first place regardless of effort.
 
Death is the end, you can’t take it with you when you die, so you’d better do all you can now to get as much happiness as you can.  It has us taking selfies as if to say that it didn’t really happen unless it’s on Instagram or  no one would believe you.
 
I think you begin to see the trend here.  This kind of  Crucifixion vision is centered on a fictional reality rooted in values that the world tells us we should have.
 
The values of the world told Mary that Jesus was dead.
 
His body was placed in the tomb and it should still be there, so if it wasn’t then someone must have taken it.  She is paralyzed and stuck.  And this doesn’t make Mary weak- rather it makes her human, she speaks the same words we say nearly 2000 years later:  Where is the body? where is Jesus?
Can we ever return to a time that was before the COVID Pandemic?  Realistically no, no more so than we could return to a time before 9./11 or Pearl Harbor/ or the Overthrow of the Kingdom.  Our reality is different.  And we still greive the loss of what was.
 
Like Mary, we are at risk of getting caught in a trap.  Like a black hole that warps the fabric of space and time such that nothing can escape it, we look at the bands of cloth in the tomb and we cannot see the angels in front of us.  We see only the loss, only what is missing.  We cannot see Christ in our midst.
 
That is until… Mary…. Mary…..
And that’s when it happens: Jesus calls her by name! “Mary!” And when she hears it, she is overcome! She cries out, “Rabbouni! Teacher!”
 
The Easter moment is one of profound change.  She no longer sees that Jesus is “missing’  he is right there.  That what he promised at the Last Supper has come to pass!
 
Mary brings us face to face with the depths of our humanity. Her witness is a mosaic of the human experience—grief and joy; uncertainty and affirmation; depression and determination. This is the true witness of Easter!
 
Even in the depths of our despair and grief, when things just seem to keep piling up with no end in sight, and even when we just don’t know if we believe it anymore, the God made known to us in Jesus Christ has a way of showing up where we least expect him!
 
But if we’re not careful, we’ll close the book.  And end the story right there.  Done deal. Mary recognizes the Resurrected Lord and everyone lives happily ever after. All tied up with the pretty bow like a Hallmark movie.
It is then also distant and historical.  It is something that happened way back then to a woman named Mary.  It doesn’t happen to us, the resurrection is not happening now.
But it is.  We don’t’ say Alleluia Christ WAS risen, we say Christ IS risen.
 
And Mary?  Her role is not done yet.  We soon realize that Jesus has a job for her, a mission in fact.  He says to her
 
 “…Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” The moment that Mary leaves the garden, the Good News of Easter gets loose and begins to transform the world!
 
Mary bears witness to the fact that, even in the face of death itself, God will have the last word!
 
Because of her witness to the resurrection Christ, Mary is known as the Apostle to the Apostles.  And she continues to teach us that grief and joy, uncertainty and affirmation, are all inescapable parts of our humanity. She teaches us that our vision can change; that our lives of faith aren’t about success or opportunities for advancement; rather, they are holy mysteries that will surprise, unsettle, and transform us. But most important of all, she teaches us that in the resurrection of our Lord Christ, we know that love, hope, and peace will ultimately prevail!
 
And so, in this Eastertide, may we proclaim that Christ is risen.
 
The vision that holds us back from seeing the glory of God revealed in the resurrected Christ must be left behind the bands of cloth that like in the darkness of the tomb. 
 
We are people of light.  We worship Christ who is the Light of the World . Alleluia!  May we proclaim that the risen Christ is not simply in our homes or wherever it is we are, but here, present in the world around us. May we proclaim it, not simply with our lips, but also with our hands and hearts. And as we live into the joy and promise of Easter, may we go forth into the world, looking for the Resurrected Christ in places we may not expect.
 
Alleluia,  Christ is Risen,  The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia!