Why Are You Weeping, Mary?

Easter C
Why Are You Weeping, Mary?
St Johns Campbells Bay, 2010
John 20:1-18
May my words inspire and enliven our faith. Amen.

“Woman, why are you weeping?” the angels asked her.
Jesus asked her the same question, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
Why are you weeping when it is Easter Sunday? May be we could ask ourselves the same question – Why do we weep?
Well, we could say it is because we feel deeply about something or more likely someone. It moves us, it affects us way beyond our minds, it is our passion and deep love; full of emotion. Weeping helps us express what we can often not even begin to put into words. Weeping is what we do when we are deeply hurt, upset, or lost or afraid, or absolutely exhausted, or disappointed, or devastated, or relieved; when we are deeply moved.

Today, at this Easter service, we gather here to worship as Christians have done for centuries. And we acknowledge that it has been a pretty rough week emotionally. This morning we enter into the Easter story, told from St Johns Gospel. Women, over two thousand years ago, who came to the grave of Jesus on that first Easter morning were no doubt absolutely exhausted, emotional drained, deeply lost and hurt and probably a very afraid and disappointed – they were devastated.

These women had witnessed the awfulness of Good Friday; the whippings, taunting, suffering, horrific death of Jesus. These women were devout followers of Jesus. These women, at the break of dawn, quietly walked along the path to the place of Jesus’ burial. It was still dark, and they carried with them their ointments, their perfumes, their oils to anoint the dead body of Jesus on that Sunday morning.
And our Gospel according to St John focuses particularly on one woman; Mary Magdalene. The Gospel of John tells us the Easter story of Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene was deeply attached to Jesus. The word, “magdalene,” means “from Magdala” and Magdala was a small town near Capernaum. We know from the first three gospels that Jesus had healed her of a disease of demon possession. Mary Magdalene accompanied a band of women who traveled with Jesus and his disciples. This band of women often paid for the disciples’ food and supplies. This band of women was at the crucifixion of Jesus and saw it all. As, with the other women,
Mary Magdalene’s heart must have been devastated, as she saw Jesus crucified. And now according to the Gospel of John, she came to Jesus’ grave early in the morning while it was still dark. She saw that the stone in front of the grave had been rolled away and so she ran to find Peter and John to tell them what had happened. I assume that Mary Magdalene ran to the Mount of Olives where Jesus and his disciples stayed overnight when Jesus visited Jerusalem. She found Peter and John. John was not called John but the disciple whom Jesus loved. Many Biblical scholars assume that “the beloved disciple” was John, who contributed greatly to the account we have in the Gospel of John. In other words, Mary found Peter and John, and John became the equivalent of an eye witness at the scene of this event.

Peter and John ran to Jesus’ grave. Sure enough, the gravestone was rolled away. John, the younger, got there first. John bent over and looked in but did not go in. Then Peter, the older fisherman, finally got there. They both walked into the grave, Peter first, and saw that Jesus’ body was gone. They saw the linen shroud in which Jesus’ body had been wrapped lying there. The linen cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, was rolled up and not with the linen wrappings that had been on Jesus’ body.
The Gospel of John tells us that at that very moment, John believed. He was making a faith statement about himself. John had not seen the Risen Christ, but in that moment of looking at the linen clothes, he believed. John still did not understand the Scripture that Jesus would rise from the dead. Even so, John believed, before Peter, before anyone else.

John, the teller of details, continues his story, focusing particularly on Mary Magdalene.  The Gospel gives us much detail: As Mary was standing outside of Jesus’ tomb, she was crying. The Greek word implies “weeping deeply or sobbing.” The word for “weep” occurs four times in this story. As she was weeping, Mary bent over to look into the tomb. As she was bending over, stooping, looking into the tomb, weeping, she saw two angels. And the angels asked a pivotal question of Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping?” And that is the key question for today, “Why are you weeping Mary?” That question echoes through the centuries and into our hearts today, “Why are you weeping?” Mary replied, “Because someone has taken away my Lord and I don’t know where they have put his body.” Then, after Mary had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there but she did not recognize Jesus. She thought it was the gardener. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? What are you looking for?” And then Jesus said, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabonni which means Teacher.” Jesus said, “Do not hold onto me for I have not ascended to my Father. Go and tell the other disciples that I am ascending to my God and your God.”

And Mary went and told the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”! And I can imagine that Mary Magdalene was still weeping – indeed her deep, deep sadness had turned to amazement and jubilation, but her tears symbolised the deep passion and feelings that she experienced as she expressed her love and relationship with Jesus.

Do we too weep as we experience Jesus’ death and resurrection – are we so deeply affected that people might ask us, ‘Why are you weeping?’. And if they do ask us, can we fully explain why? - Probably not, but my point is that the deep, deep emotion that Mary expressed as told by St John can deeply, deeply move us and inspire us. As a follower of Jesus, Mary’s whole being was affected so deeply and so beautifully and so passionately that it was indeed her that Jesus chose to appear to first. What an honour!

So Easter morning is one of jubilation – of great joy at the resurrection of Jesus. It is a morning where we experience great passion, great love and deep emotions. It is about new life – how amazing is that!

Today, Easter Day, our punga logs (which have been our Lenten symbol in the church) have been resurrected by being amongst new life and beauty; flowers and greenery bringing joy to all. But in order to have got there we have been there a long journey of Lent. But a journey that has to be taken; as flowers grow out of seeds that have died and are transformed, new life grows through the mystery of the cross.

So may be my question to all of us is – why are we NOT weeping? This life-changing, amazing, earth shattering reality cannot help but move us even if we take it on board ever so slightly and lightly.

The hope of the resurrection is that this world is not just where Jesus died - this world is where Jesus lives! And because Jesus lives, we have been set free to live as well. Easter did not happen just once in the past. It has the potential to happen every day. Each of us can experience death and rebirth in our every day lives. Today is the festival when all those “little” resurrections are brought together and integrated with the overarching resurrection, which is the core of our faith.

But sometimes resurrection is hard to believe in. Some days it is hard to see with eyes of faith. Some days it is hard to see new life amongst us. That is why we need the church – each other, and also our traditions and reminders of the biblical stories and resurrection event - so that in those times of struggle and doubts, we can support and grow one another's faith. That is why we celebrate communion; the sacraments might seem like child's play to the world. Eating bits of bread, drinking sips of wine - to a casual observer it would appear a harmless tea party. But when we look with eyes of faith, when we listen with ears of hope, when we experience such passion and emotion as Mary, we discover anew Mary's gospel: I have seen the Lord! When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we dare to imagine a different world, a world not imprisoned by the powers of evil and death, but set free for love, justice, peace and new life. How can we NOT weep at such a reality?

I often wonder what happened to Mary Magdalene after she was the first person to have seen Jesus? You would think that Mary Magdalene would have become a legend in the earliest church, that she would have been talked about and written about and sung about in the most ancient traditions of the church. But Mary Magdalene disappears into the passing pages of human history. That is, Mary Magdalene is not mentioned in the Book of Acts, nor in the letters of the Apostle Paul, nor in the pastoral letters of the New Testament. She is not mentioned in ancient church history. We don’t hear about Mary Magdalene until the Middle Ages when Mary is associated wrongly with the woman caught in adultery or associated with the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. But we cannot loose Mary’s story; her passion.

For me, I remember Mary Magdalene as the first person who experienced Jesus from the tomb. She experienced the resurrection and her belief transformed her feelings of sadness into deep emotions of joy. She is the one whom deeply loved Jesus and through such emotion she wept!
So why then are we NOT weeping?
Can we too experience such deep emotion as we celebrate resurrection today?
Amen.