Mary Magdalene went looking for Jesus. She needed to find Jesus.
She knew he was dead. She had watched him die on the cross; watched, as his dead body was lowered from the cross, carried away, and placed in a tomb; watched, as a stone was placed over the entrance to the tomb, shortly before sunset.
She knew he was dead, but still, she had to find him.
She knew he was dead, but it was a hard thing to accept. He had done so much for her. Her life had been broken—I’m not sure why, or how, but the Bible says that she had been possessed with demons. She was tormented…until Jesus made her whole. Made her alive. Gave her a life worth living.
So she came, not even waiting for sunrise; she came while it was still dark.
She came, looking for Jesus.
She needed to find Jesus.
But when she got to the tomb… she couldn’t find him. The stone had been removed; the body wasn’t there.
She ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved… Scholars don’t know who this “one-whom-Jesus-loved” was; some think it might have been John, the author of the gospel, while others think it might have been Lazarus, over whom Jesus had once wept…
She ran to them and said: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid him.”
These two disciples ran to the tomb, saw that it was empty, and left, confused.
But Mary stayed. She needed to find Jesus; but his body wasn’t there, and she didn’t know where to go, or where to start looking for him.
Like Mary, we come today looking for Jesus, hoping to find him, seeking his wisdom, and the life he offers.
Like Mary, we know—or at least, we hope—that Jesus has the power to heal us and make us whole. We come, broken, disillusioned, and robbed of hope, because of all the ways this world has worked to tear us apart, to make us lose hope, to make us doubt ourselves, and doubt that we could ever, ever, be loved completely, unconditionally, just as we are.
And yet, that is exactly what Jesus does. And that is exactly who Jesus is.
Jesus is God’s radically inclusive love, drawing all people in, casting no one aside. Jesus is the one who overcomes all barriers, the one who knows us inside and out, and who keeps on loving us anyway. Jesus is the one who restores us to wholeness.
A man appeared in the garden. Mary thought he was the gardener. She said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him…”
All he did was speak her name. “Mary…”
And Mary knew that it was Jesus. When she heard her name, she heard the same love and affirmation that she always heard, before, whenever he’d speak her name. The way he spoke her name, she knew that he saw her—really, truly saw her, saw the person she was, saw all her failures and mistakes, but also her beauty; her beauty that was nothing less than a reflection of God’s own glory, the image of God, that is in every person.
If you come seeking Jesus, he’ll do the same for you. He’ll call your name. He’ll call you “beloved.” He’ll see who you really are, your true self. He’ll take your brokenness, he’ll take your wounds, he’ll take whatever it is that is tormenting you… and he’ll make you whole.
He’ll see in you the image of God that is in every person, even though you might not see that image in yourself.
He’ll let you know that whatever you’ve been through, and whatever others may have said about you, will never change the fact that you are a beloved child of God, precious and beautiful in God’s sight.
When I was a substitute teacher, I encountered many students who could not see how holy, how precious, they were. They could not see the beauty within.
They had been torn up and beaten down by the sometimes cruel social structure of the classroom and playground. They had been made to carry burdens far too heavy for their young shoulders. They had come from broken families, and had been made to feel broken themselves.
And even though I never mentioned God or Jesus to them, I realized that it was my task—perhaps my most important task—to help them see the beauty within, to know that they are worthy of love and acceptance. Because that, I knew, would make a world of difference.
And in that way, even though I never mentioned God or Jesus, I made God and Jesus visible in their lives. I helped them find Jesus.
Sometimes, we in the church do mention God and Jesus, yet fail to manifest the love and affirmation that Jesus demonstrated with Mary Magdalene and with everyone he encountered. Instead of that love and affirmation that makes people whole, we speak words of judgment and condemnation; we threaten people with punishment and eternal damnation, even though people are already tormented and torn apart and carrying heavy burdens in this life.
And I can only wonder that, as people listen to us talk about Jesus, they can’t find him. They need to find Jesus, they need to be made whole, just as Mary Magdalene needed to find Jesus, and needed to be made whole, but even though we keep talking to them about Jesus, Jesus himself is not to be found.
And they wonder where we have taken him.
Because the Jesus that was being described to them does not resemble the Jesus of hope, of life, of love, that they so desperately need.
As Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove asks in his book, Reconstructing the Gospel: “What happens when, like Mary… you realize they’ve taken away your Jesus and you don’t know where they’ve laid him?”
Frederick Douglass, a former slave in the time of Lincoln, went to the church looking for Jesus, but was disappointed that Jesus could not be found there. Douglass said that he went to the church looking for “the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ,” but when he got to the church, he found only a “corrupt, slave-holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity.”
The church had taken Jesus away, and he didn’t know where they had laid him.
Gandhi, though not a Christian, was inspired by Jesus. Gandhi’s philosophy of Satyagraha was inspired by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. But Gandhi had a hard time finding this Jesus in the church. “I like your Christ,” he once said; “But I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
The church had taken Jesus away, and he didn’t know where they had laid him.
Lisa Sharon Harper is an African-American theologian who wrote one of my favorite books, titled: The Very Good Gospel. Much of her personal life as well as her professional life has been spent looking for Jesus.
And she, too, has had a hard time finding Jesus in the church.
She points out that the message of the gospel, the message of Easter is good news. By definition, it is good news! Yet, she asks: where was the message of good news for the indigenous people of this country who were forcibly removed from their homelands? And, she asks, where was the good news for her ancestors, who were enslaved in South Carolina?
Lisa Sharon Harper writes that the message of the church to so many people throughout history did not have any good news in it for far too many people…
And a church that doesn’t have any good news doesn’t have Jesus.
The church had taken Jesus away, and she didn’t know where they had laid him.
There is so much that keeps Jesus hidden away in this world…There’s so much judgment. Condemnation. Hypocrisy. Politics. Nationalism. Scandal. Racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Transphobia. Greed. And tearing each other apart.
And what a shame it is, when these things appear in the church, and work to keep Jesus hidden away, in the one place where people expect to find Jesus…
We at First Christian Church are working hard to remove such things from God’s church. Because every person deserves to experience the same love and affirmation that Mary Magdalene experienced from Jesus. Every person deserves to find Jesus, to see the risen Lord, and experience his presence in their life, to know his love, and to experience that affirmation.
It really does make a difference, to know that God loves you and that God affirms you. To be made whole in this way is to have your life saved.
That is my prayer for Tara, Caden, Jeremiah, and for every one of you here today on this Easter Sunday, including those of you worshiping with us online: that you are able to find Jesus, experience Jesus; that the risen Lord is revealed to you, and not kept hidden away; that you come to know God’s love that is for you.
Jesus sees you the same way he saw Mary Magdalene. Jesus calls you by name, and says your name with love. Jesus knows you as who you really are: God’s beloved child, precious and beautiful in God’s sight.
When God created you, God pronounced you very good, and Jesus sees this goodness in you just as he saw it in Mary, even if you don’t see it yourself.
And together, our task, as the church, is to see God’s goodness in one another, and in our neighbors; and to make Jesus known, to not keep him hidden away, but to make known his love and the life he gives to each and every person.
And we’ll continue our work until every person sees their own God-given goodness, and until every person experiences God’s love, and until every person is made whole by the amazing love of our risen Lord.
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