Maybe he’s the Gardener
Richmond Hill, Richmond, Virginia
1 April 2013 | Easter
John 20:1-18 | Jesus Appears to Mary
The Rev. B. P. Campbell
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
There are about seven different accounts of the appearances of Jesus after his death. There are a lot of differences between them – different appearances, or different descriptions of the same event.
There are a couple of things which I think always need to be said about these appearances, which collectively in Christian history and theology are known as “the Resurrection.”
- First, no one reports seeing a “resurrection,” – that is, Jesus standing up and walking out of the tomb. The only reports are of an empty tomb, and of people seeing Jesus.
- Second, there are no reports of any sightings of Jesus by anyone who did not believe in him and know him before he died. These experiences are by people who knew him beforehand.
- Third, as we see in this story of Mary Magdalene, the appearances are unusual – people who know him only gradually come to see him, even when they are talking to him.
I’m not trying to prove anything by these notes – only putting them there so that we can relate to the basic accounts and data we have, rather than to something we make up or think we have heard.
Tonight I want to look briefly at Mary Magdalene, in hopes of getting a line on Jesus’ resurrection for ourselves. And I want you to notice with me that she is trying to find his body.
First, she sees that the body is missing and goes to her friends, Peter and the Beloved Disciple: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,” she says, “and we do not know where they have laid him.”
They run with her to the tomb, and see that the body is not there. They leave. She stays, and she weeps. She looks in again. There are two angels there. They ask her why she is crying. She says again, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” They say nothing.
Then she turns around and sees the gardener. He asks her why she is weeping, and she says to him what she has been saying all along: “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
This is Mary’s plight. She is desolate. Her Lord, the man she loves and follows, has been crucified. She watched him die. Now, the final ignominious event has occurred – even his body is gone. She wants to find it, and in her search we may find the story of our own search for Jesus.
- First, she asks her friends if they have seen his body.
- Then, she asks the angels.
- And finally, she asks the gardener.
1. Have you seen the body?
There’s been a Crucifixion. There are always a lot of crucifixions. Ask your friends if they have seen the body. It is pretty hopeless sometimes. We are looking for change. Looking for something to believe in. Looking for improvement in our metropolitan city and its leadership. Looking for an improvement in the Congress, or in the economy. Today the New York Times said that as many as 50% of the stock transactions in America are now in secret – not even on the New York or other stock exchanges. Nobody knows what is going on. The situation is out of control.
Where have they taken the body?
Not only is the Lord not here to lead us through this craziness, but we can’t even find the body. We have seen economic failure. We have seen the death of dreams. Now they are even hiding the evidence.
Mary asks her friends for the body, and no one can find it. Neither can we.
2. But then, she asks the angels.
They don’t tell her where the body is, but at least they seem to care if she is weeping. The Greek word angel means messenger, announcer, angelos. These are not your ordinary folk. They may look like ordinary folk – there’s no description in the story – but they clearly don’t feel like ordinary folk.
And here’s the beginning of a different story for Mary, and perhaps for you and me. These two folks don’t feel the same – they are not in despair, for one thing. There is a spirit about them, a hope about them – something in them makes it seem like they are angels.
How would she know that they were angels? Well they could have been dressed in white with wings on their back. I know that’s how artists have drawn them. But I’m thinking it was something else. I’m thinking it was the way they felt – the way it felt to speak with them. They asked her why she was crying, — it must have seemed sympathetic or caring in some way. They were present to her.
I don’t know exactly what it was, but this I know: they got her attention. Up until this point, she was locked in the past, locked in her deep despair. But now she was talking to two people who seemed to be there for a reason. They got her attention.
She still didn’t have the body, but someone had her attention – someone was listening. She was present.
You can’t go from despair to hope all at once. You can’t go from cynicism to promise all at once. You can’t go from death to life all at once. It takes time. Maybe someone to listen. Maybe someone to get your attention. Angels.
3. And then, she asks the gardener.
Is this another angel? She asks him for the body. He calls her by name. She calls him “Teacher” in Aramaic, Rabbouni. She doesn’t need the body. There is no dead body. He is the living man. He’s Jesus.
Now what about you? What route will you take to find the body? There is plenty of despair to go around. Plenty of things that have been, and will not be again. But what I’m hoping tonight for you and me is that we might hear a message, hear an announcement, hear a bell ring, see a candle or an Easter lily, — see an angel to make us listen — or let the body and blood of Jesus – this bread and this wine – be food to make us ready.
Ready for a gardener, or someone else we meet, to turn into our Lord.
Ready to see the beauty, the possibility, the fullness of the next day, the next moment ahead. I’m watching what happened to Mary – I’m watching how she went around looking until she found. She thought she was looking for the last solace for her despair, but what she found was an angel, and then she found someone real, some new life, a real reason to go forward, a real life to live.
I’m interested in this gardener particularly because he didn’t initially appear to Mary to be anybody special, much less her friend Jesus. It didn’t look like hope, or rescue, in the beginning. Just one more person to ask where they had laid the dead body. But he called her name, and she knew.
I’m thinking that somewhere, somehow, sometimes daily, sometimes for big things, sometimes for little things, someone like Jesus calls your name. He might look like the gardener – he might even be the gardener. But when you hear it, you look up and you go forward. And the spirit of Jesus’ resurrection is, as it was for Mary, present in your life.
There were many different appearances of Jesus after his death recorded in the New Testament. None of them occurred to anyone who did not believe in him. And even those who did had trouble recognizing him. I’m thinking, that’s not so different from you and me. I’m looking not for a body but for an angel, and for a gardener who might turn out to be Jesus.
AMEN.
