She thought he was the gardener!
Have you ever not recognized someone that you should have recognized?
It happened to me once. Actually, it happens to me all the time. But the worst, most memorable time, (I don’t know if I want to tell you this!) happened at a funeral.
This was years ago in California… A few days before the funeral, I had met with the daughter of the person who had died. She wasn’t a church member, and I had never met before, but she was the one who seemed to be organizing things for the family.
She arrived for our meeting in her jeans and a casual shirt, which was fine; and we met and talked about her parent, the one who had died; and we talked about what she and the family would like in the funeral… and then our meeting ended.
A few days later the funeral took place, and she arrived, but instead of jeans and a casual shirt, she was dressed very nicely, and she had had her hair done, and she had put makeup on…
(And, yes, in this story I do need to emphasize that she didn’t look exactly as she had the first time we met, in order to lessen my embarrassment somewhat…)
And I saw her and greeted her and welcomed her… but I did not recognize her.
And let me tell you, that was as close as I’ve ever come to a major catastrophe in my ministry.
Fortunately, after a few minutes, I realized: Oh my gosh! It’s her! The daughter! How did I not recognize her!
And I quickly replayed, in my mind, the things I said to her since she arrived, to see how badly I had embarrassed myself… but fortunately, while my tone may have come across as awkward, nothing in what I had said had revealed my utter incompetence and absent-mindedness. I was able to recover… but just barely. I think.
I wonder how Mary Magdalene felt when she realized that it was Jesus standing right in front of her, yet she had failed to recognize him.
Was she embarrassed? She had known him well. It was different from my situation at the funeral. They hadn’t just met once. They were close…
Or was her joy at seeing him alive so great, that her embarrassment at not recognizing him didn’t matter?
And how did Jesus react?
The only thing he said to her, at first, was her name. Mary.
But how did he say it?
Did he say it with laughter? “Mary! It’s me!”
Did he say it with annoyance? “Maryyyy…”
Was he disappointed? (Imagine going through all that Jesus went through, and then not being recognized by one of your closest, dearest friends.)
Or was his voice filled with gentleness and compassion?
I like to think it was with gentleness and compassion. Mary had been through a lot herself. She was still going through a lot. The grief. The shock.
Jesus, at this moment, already knew that there was reason for joy and celebration, but Mary didn’t yet realize that. She was still deep in her despair.
“Oh, Mary…”
And then, imagine her face, as she realized that the one she had come to mourn,
was in fact alive and speaking to her!
In fact, if you had met Mary as she made her way to the tomb, while it was still dark, and then you went off for a little bit, and returned right after Jesus had appeared to her, you probably would not recognize her as being the same person you had seen earlier. Imagine how much her countenance would have changed! Her posture, her expression, her voice—everything would be different! She would look like a whole different person!
I guess the joy and hope of Easter does make us into different people. We are weighed down by so many burdens, by personal struggles, by news headlines of war and corruption and lack of compassion and lack of justice shown to those who are poor and vulnerable…
And our bodies and our expressions reflect the weight of all we are carrying.
But on Easter morning, we are reminded that all the bad news, all the negativity, all the oppression and injustice and lack of compassion and lack of love in our world, is not the final answer.
Because the final answer is life. The final answer is love. The final answer is joy.
And when we are full of life and full of love and full of joy, our posture improves, and our face brightens, and every word we speak becomes a song of joy.
And we have this joy even though there is still so much darkness and injustice and death in our world, because we know that hope and love and life are also present, and that they are stronger, and that life does, in the end, triumph over death and all the death-dealing ways of this world.
We know this, because of the resurrection.
Mary wasn’t the only one who didn’t recognize Jesus that day…
********
Later that day (according to Luke’s gospel), two of Jesus’s closest followers were traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus, which the scripture says is about a seven mile walk. They were discussing all that had taken place during the recent Passover festival; how Jesus came to Jerusalem, flipped the tables of the sellers and money changers in the temple, got arrested, and was crucified.
And while they were talking and discussing these things, another traveler came near and started walking with them. It was Jesus himself, and yet… they did not recognize him.
Between them and Mary, I’m really starting to feel not-so-bad about my embarrassing moment at that funeral…
Anyway, Jesus says: “What are you guys talking about?”
And at first, they don’t know how to respond, and then one of them says: “Are you the only person who doesn’t know what happened? How Jesus of Nazareth, a mighty prophet, was handed over to Rome by the chief priests, and was crucified? We had thought he was the one to set Israel free.
“Yet some of the women…” [for, in Luke’s gospel, Mary did not go to the tomb alone] “some of the women went to the tomb this morning and came back claiming that Jesus was alive.”
And then Jesus said, “Don’t you get it?” And he started going through the scriptures with them…
It says he started with Moses, which is too bad. I would have loved for Jesus to have gone back even further, and to start talking to them about Joseph and his brothers, and how the brothers came to Egypt and met with the prince of Egypt, not realizing that it was actually Joseph himself they were meeting with… for they did not recognize him.
Wouldn’t that be funny?
But he didn’t. And the two disciples he was traveling with still didn’t recognize him.
And when they reached Emmaus, those two travelers extended hospitality to Jesus, who they still thought was just some random stranger who had joined them on their journey. They offered him dinner and a place to stay for the night.
And while they were eating, when Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and offered it to them, then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.
And they ran back to Jerusalem, rejoicing, to tell the other disciples what had happened.
Now, maybe these stories made you chuckle: my story of not recognizing someone, Mary’s story of mistaking Jesus for the gardener, or the story of the two disciples not recognizing the traveler journeying with them as Jesus.
But how often do you forget that Jesus is alive, today, and that he dwells among us? How often do you remember to look for Jesus? How often have you encountered Jesus, and failed to recognize him?
How often have you failed to recognize our risen Lord?
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In Matthew 25, Jesus tells his disciples that when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. And he will say to those who are righteous: “Come, you who are blessed by my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked and you gave me clothing; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.”
Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?”
And they will be told, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.”
We have a hard time recognizing Jesus in the hungry, in the thirsty, in the immigrant, in the sick, in those who are in prison. We have a hard time recognizing Jesus in the least of these, those who are most vulnerable in our society.
But when we treat them with compassion, with mercy, with empathy, with love, and with hospitality, our eyes will be opened, and we will see the risen Christ in our very midst, and we will then understand that he has been with us all along.
Christ is risen. Christ is risen, indeed!
And he dwells among us, in the people we sometimes overlook… the people we sometimes cast aside…
But when we serve them, and minister to them, and work with them to create a community where all are able to live lives of wholeness and abundance…
Then we will know that not only is Jesus alive… but that he lives right here among us; and when we serve the least of these among us, then our eyes will be opened, and we, like Mary, will be able to announce to those around us: “We have seen the Lord!”
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