John, chapter 20, 'Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark...' Every word carries drama and detail, and is laden with meaning, soaked in the past and the present promises of God, soaked in scripture.
Hello.
I don’t know about your particular context, but I’m guessing it might not be too different from my own as Christians are under so much pressure today. Some big things have happened in the last few weeks and it seems like a good moment to share some of those with you.
So, how are you feeling - spiritually - today?
As Baptists, we don’t get too hung up about the liturgical calendar, but at this point in the year, we align with all the other denominations and come together to commemorate the most important days of the Christian year: the dreadful Good Friday and then the glorious Easter Sunday.
If preaching or teaching; John, chapter 20, is the place to go to set the scene, [verse 1]: ‘early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark’ and then John describes how Mary Magdalene, he and Simon Peter in turn searched for the body of Jesus, outside and inside the empty tomb. Every word carries drama and detail, and is laden with meaning, soaked in the past and the present promises of God, soaked in scripture.
This scene is the pivotal moment in all space and time: it’s the moment between death and life, between despair and hope.
I expect you all know this passage inside out. Preachers over the centuries have landed here and lingered: we can read what Augustine in the fifth century said about the first Apostle - Mary Magdalene and her ‘stronger affection’[1]; we can learn from Lancelot Andrewes’ Easter sermon in 1620[2] about the depths of Mary’s faithfulness and love; the fledgling minister in Holy Trinity Eltham, East London preached this Easter Sunday from John 20 about Mary’s evangelism.
Even so, this year, Easter celebrations seem fragile in the face of the extra-ordinary times we are living in. Times of crises upon crises.
Is the message of Easter – of hope that Jesus is alive and that because he lives, we will live too – is it being delivered where it is needed?
Well, the Christian media has covered the resurrection like never before – you’ll have seen articles and debates such as on Premier [Did Jesus of Nazareth rise from the dead?[3]], blogs by Ian Paul on Psephizo [Doubting Thomas: what does Jesus’ resurrection teach us?[4]] – and I think our souls are thirsty too to understand more about the truth of the resurrection:
What did it mean to Mary? What does it mean to us?
This year, for our particular church family in Wotton Baptist Church, Easter has been a hard one to celebrate. On Tuesday 14 March, a young boy called Amos was unexpectedly diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia with tumours in both lungs. Amos’ parents, grandparents and great grandparents have been closely connected to the church for decades. There probably aren’t many families more deeply rooted in Christ.
On Wednesday 5 April, we heard the devasting news that Amos hadn’t made it. An infection seemed to have set in suddenly at home; he was blue-lighted into hospital and despite intense medical treatment, he didn’t make it.
Two days later, it’s Good Friday.
Four days later, it’s Easter Sunday.
How do his parents cope with that? They are deep-rooted Christians, with generations of believers and ministers to support them. But that doesn’t change the hard-lived facts of this world: it doesn’t change their shock, grief and pain. Those emotions have to be lived through.
So to make sense of Amos’ life and death, I have thought about Mary’s experience at the tomb, starting in darkness, grief and confusion, and only able to be transformed by the presence of Jesus, bringing light, comfort and clarity.
We know Amos is with Jesus, but we still have to walk the long journey …
from cross to tomb,
from death to burial,
from the deepest grief … slowly … slowly into the light.
Amos was only six years old. His cancer wasn’t there because of anything his parents or he had or hadn’t done. It was there because collectively, we humans, have allowed pollution, disease, sin, poverty and injustices to dominate in the world where they shouldn’t.
How do we look at ourselves in the mirror and deal with this bad stuff: the grief and shame at the brokenness, the toxic environment, the poison in our food, the climate chaos … the impact of sin and injustice is both personal and universal: we and all our children are suffering.
That is the starting point for the message of Easter.
And where do we go from there? Where does Mary Magdalene lead us?
Mary turns around from the empty tomb where she has NOT found the broken, wounded body of Jesus. She turns and she finds the living, transcending body of Christ.
And Jesus Christ says [verse 17]: Go … and tell them,
“I am ascending to the Father and your Father, to my God and to your God.”
He confirms her place with Him, he confirms John and Simon’s place with Him, he confirms the identity of all believers – and He claims us all as brothers and sisters of God the Father.
And there goes Amos; and there we will go too; and really, what on earth could be better than that?
Photo by Bruno van der Kraan on Unsplash
[1] https://thedivinelamp.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/st-augustines-tractates-on-john-201-18/
https://wesleyscholar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Augustine-Homilies-on-John-1-40.pdf
[2] http://anglicanhistory.org/lact/andrewes/v3/easter1620.html
[3] https://www.thebigconversation.show/videos/season-5/episode-1/?utm_source=Premier%20Christian%20Media&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=13872228_UNB%20ROW%2011-04-23&utm_content=TBC&dm_i=16DQ,89BVO,S3Q4KF,XXC99,1
[4]https://www.facebook.com/IanBPaul/posts/pfbid038P1rTZ9BHVxXNJEhrA6X8S6GVyd8KrR1CCteQKpTm8EDTYHyeKnBCZKorD1SAFc2l
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