LONG AGO, in the time of Caesar Augustus and the Herods, Jesus was born to poor parents under an empire that oppressed the poor and favored the rich.
He grew up in Nazareth, a small town that no one paid any attention to. Just up the road (within sight of Nazareth) was the much larger city of Sepphoris. Much of Sepphoris lay in ruins; the resistance movement had been strong there, and Rome acted violently toward all resistance movements.
Yes, the kingdom of Caesar was violent and cruel, and maintained order at a terrible cost. Every day, Jesus could look up the road and be reminded of this. In his lifetime, Jesus spoke of an alternative kingdom, a kingdom where power is displayed not through might, but through love. In this alternative kingdom, the poor are lifted up, strangers and outcasts are welcomed in, and radical hospitality is shown to all.
Jesus insisted that this alternative kingdom could be a present reality for those who had faith...
The rulers of Jesus’ time felt threatened by his alternative kingdom.. So they - and the high priests who collaborated with them - had Jesus arrested, tried, and executed by crucifixion.
Three days later, early in the morning, while it was still dark…
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb.
In our minds, Easter is associated with spring and sunshine and bright colors and flowers and butterflies. What lovely Easter lilies we have decorating our sanctuary today! What beautiful, brightly colored clothes many of you are wearing! It all looks so wonderful!
I wouldn’t want it any other way.
But for Mary Magdalene, there was none of that.
So it might be a stretch for us to imagine what it was like for her.
But let’s give it a try.
It was early. It was quiet. It was dark.
The hymn says she came while the dew was still on the roses. I’m not sure there were roses, but probably there was dew.
Mary probably had to grab an extra blanket to wrap around her shoulders because of the predawn chill.
She had to travel slowly, because it was hard to see in the darkness. Maybe she carried an oil lamp tohelp light the way.
She was not singing songs of Alleluia, songs of joy.
She heard no birds singing; it was too early and too dark for that. The rooster hadn’t even crowed yet.
She was not expecting to see new life.
She came, while it was still dark, to encounter death. To sit with death awhile. To contemplate. To mourn.
She went to where death was. She went to the darkness. She went to the tomb where there was no hope, no life.
Whether she realized it or not, she was doing what Jesus had done all his life.
In his ministry, Jesus went to where death was. He walked the road to death. He went to the darkness. He went to those who had no hope and no life.
No one expected the messiah to be quite like that.
They expected a king, like David. A king dwelling on a hill, with the golden sun shining down on him. A king who was just and fair, but who lived in glory, who lived in the sunshine.
Jesus was not that kind of king.
Jesus was born in a poor town, grew up in a poor town, was raised by poor parents of the artisan class, a class that was even lower in the social hierarchy than peasants. When he was born, his parents couldn’t afford to sacrifice a lamb at the temple, so they had to offer up a pair of turtledoves instead.
Later, when his own disciples heard where he was from, even they were skeptical: “Could anything good possibly come from Nazareth?”
Jesus’s ministry consisted of going to the people whose lives were filled with darkness, people who were more dead than alive. Lepers. Sinners. Samaritans. People who had suffered terribly under the Roman occupation. People who had been told that their lives don’t matter. People who no glory-seeking leader would ever associate with.
He dined with them. He touched them. He embraced them. He affirmed them.
The Pharisees, the Roman officials, the high priests, the scribes - where were they? They stayed as far away from death and darkness as they could. They separated themselves from those who lived in the shadows. They were out there in the sun, making laws, issuing decrees, enforcing the rules that separated the people into categories of clean and unclean, righteous and unrighteous,... and those in the lower classes they tried to hide away. In the darkness.
But Jesus went to the darkness. He went to those who were suffering. He went to those who were dying. We went to those at the bottom, the losers, the outcasts.
That’s the kind of leader Jesus was. He was not afraid of the dark. He was not afraid of death. He went to where death was, because that’s where he was needed most.
Some leaders do all they can to avoid darkness and death. Some leaders spend every weekend in the sun, on the golf course, drinking champagne, relishing their glory and fame. The devil came to them and said, “bow down and worship me, and I will give you all the kingdoms on earth, all power and authority and glory; I will turn stones into bread for you and lift you up on high” and they said yes.
Not Jesus.
Jesus sought to do God’s will. So Jesus went to those who lived with death. He went to those in the darkness. He went to those who had been told that their lives didn’t matter.
Jesus went to those who lived with death to say, “Black lives matter.”
Jesus went to those who lived with death to say, “Trans lives matter.”
Jesus went to those who lived with death to say, “Refugee lives matter.”
Jesus went to those who lived with death to say, “poor lives matter.”
And he went to those who could find no healing from the government, and he gave them the care they needed.
And he went to those who were denied food stamps, and fed them.
That’s the kind of person Jesus was. He went to the world’s dark places, the places where death dwells, the places other people avoid, in order to bring light and life.
This did not make him popular with the powers of oppression.
But if we want to be like Jesus, to follow in his footsteps, we need to do what he did. We need to do what Mary Magdalene did. We need to GO while it is still dark. We need to go to where death is. We need to be willing to sit with death. We need to accompany those for whom death is their constant companion.
That’s where Christian faith begins. Christian faith begins while it is still dark.
Mary Magdalene was willing to go while it was still dark. Mary Magdalene was willing to walk the road to death. And because she was willing to walk in darkness and walk the road to death, she was the first to see glory of the resurrection.
When we go to the dark places, the places of death, the places where life is hard, where lives are oppressed, we may encounter those who oppose us, just as there were those who opposed Jesus. Yet we know that God goes with us. God did not abandon Jesus, and God will not abandon us.
The psalmist prayed: “When I walk through the darkest valley, the valley of death, I fear no danger, because I know God is with me.”
God is with those who go while it is still dark. God is with those who walk the road to death.
Some people never go while it is still dark. Some never walk the road to death. Some only venture out if the spotlight is shining on them.
The prophet Isaiah was acquainted with those who liked to worship in the spotlight, without ever venturing into the darkness. Isaiah knew people like this. People like this ask, “Why do we fast, why do we worship and pray, and yet you pay no attention to us?”
Through Isaiah, God responds: “I pay no attention because, on your day of fasting, your day of worship, you do whatever you want. You oppress your workers. You treat people as if their lives don’t matter. You quarrel and brawl… and then you come to worship?
“That is not the way to worship.
“This is the way: you must humble yourself. You must venture to the place of darkness and death, the place of sackloth and ashes...
“You must loose the bonds of injustice, undo the thongs of the yoke, let the oppressed go free...
“You must share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, you must cover them; you must not hide yourself from your own kin who live in darkness.
“Do that, and then your light shall break forth like the dawn, your healing shall spring up quickly, your light shall shine in the darkness and your gloom shall be like the noonday.”
Yes, there is glory, light, and life! There is resurrection!
But to see it, you need to start while it is still dark.
Go, while it is still dark. Walk the path to death. Don’t wait until the sun is shining and everything is happy to show up. That’s a weak faith, the faith that God has little use for. It’s easy to walk in the light. Anyone can do that. But it takes great faith to walk while it is still dark.
That’s what those who follow Jesus do. They go to the darkness. They accompany those who walk in darkness and death. They sit with those who have had the world’s back turned on them. They affirm those who have been denied. They speak out for those who have had their rights taken from them. They embrace those who have been cast aside. They help up those who have been beaten down. They bring light into the places of darkness. They bring life into the places of death. They work for healing and wholeness in the midst of a broken and fragmented world.
This is the heart of the gospel. This is the good news. This is resurrection.
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