Christ is Risen! —Lectionary Reflection for Easter Sunday—Year A (John 20)

John 20:1-18 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

20 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. ² 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.” ³ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. ⁴ The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷ and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸ Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, ⁹ for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰ Then the disciples returned to their homes.

¹¹ But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, ¹² 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. ¹³ 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.” ¹⁴ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ 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.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Do not touch 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.’” ¹⁸ 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.

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                It was just a few days earlier that Mary Magdalene and the rest of Jesus’ followers had watched as Jesus was crucified by order of the Roman governor. According to John, once Jesus had been pronounced dead, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body and laid Jesus’s body in his own family’s tomb (John 19:38-42). Now it’s true that the Romans didn’t normally grant the friends and family of those they crucified the opportunity to give their loved one a decent burial. Crucifixion was designed to humiliate and serve as a warning to others who might choose to threaten their authority. While that may be true, that’s not how John or any of the Gospel writers tell the story. So, here in John, Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy and devout follower of Jesus, asked the governor for the body so he could give Jesus a decent burial. With Jesus’ body safely ensconced in the tomb, that should be the end of the story. He gave it a good run, but it failed. Or so it would seem. Of course, that’s not the end of the story.

                On the first day of the week, while it was still dark but after the Sabbath had ended, Mary Magdalene decided to check out the tomb. Why she did this, John doesn’t tell us. In Mark’s version, Mary and two other women brought spices to the tomb so they could anoint his body (Mk 16:1-2). In John Mary seems to go alone, and as in the synoptic versions, she finds that the tomb is open and the body has disappeared. After making this discovery Mary returns to the community that is surely grieving the death of their teacher and tells Simon Peter and another disciple what she had discovered. When they hear this, they run to the tomb to see for themselves. They also discover the tomb to be empty, except for the linen wrappings and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head rolled up in its place. Simon got their first and made the initial discovery, but when his companion arrived, “he saw and believed” After that the two disciples returned home. They don’t encounter any angels or receive instructions, they just believe what they hadn’t understood before that point, and head home. Now Mary Magdalene will have a direct encounter with the risen Jesus, but the reaction of Peter and the Beloved Disciple is interesting.

                When we come to the Easter story, we’re preconditioned to understand what has transpired. If we’ve been going to church for any length of time, and I’ve been going my entire life, we know that the reason the tomb is empty is that Jesus has risen from the dead. We come to church expecting to sing an Easter hymn that declares that “Christ the Lord is Risen!” Jesus’ disciples, including Mary, didn’t have that luxury when they gathered at Jesus’ tomb. While many Jews believed in the idea of a resurrection, it was supposed to happen at the end of the age. Martha had made that confession in John 11. But this is different. While Jesus had talked about his resurrection, the disciples found it difficult to get their heads around the idea. After all, the idea that a single individual might be resurrected was a foreign concept. So, their befuddlement is understandable. It’s still a belief that moderns struggle with.

                I’ve already hinted that the four gospels tell the story of Jesus’ resurrection differently. While they agree that the tomb is empty, their stories quickly diverge after that. When it comes to the empty tomb, we must acknowledge that by itself it’s not proof of the resurrection. Remember that Paul says a great deal about Jesus’ resurrection, but he says nothing about an empty tomb, and his accounts of Jesus’ resurrection predate the Gospels. The Gospel writers feel the need to address the explanations others had given regarding the emptiness of the tomb. Here in John, Mary Magdalene offers one possible explanation that had significant currency at the time: perhaps someone stole the body. Note that when Mary first encountered the risen Jesus, she mistakes him for the gardener and asks where he had taken Jesus’ body. While an empty tomb doesn’t prove the resurrection, it offers an opportunity to ponder the possibility.

                If the empty tomb is not sufficient proof, the various post-resurrection appearances might do the trick. John offers several such appearances, beginning with his appearance to Mary Magdalene. Before we get to Mary’s encounter, we need to acknowledge that even these appearances aren’t sufficient proof. Back in the eighteenth century, David Hume reminded his readers that there was little contemporary evidence that people might lie in a grave for three days and then get up and walk away. To empiricists like Hume, talk of resurrection made little sense. I have to see it to believe it. Thomas had his questions, but he got to see (and touch) before he believed. Of course, the Beloved Disciple simply looked into the empty tomb and apparently believed that he had risen based on Jesus’ previous teaching, or so it seems.

                If the empty tomb and reports of appearances, and Paul gives a whole list in 1 Corinthians 15—though unfortunately, he doesn’t mention Mary Magdalene or any of the other women unless you include them in the more than five hundred brothers and sisters to whom Paul says Jesus appeared (1 Cor. 15:3-9)—don’t do it for you, perhaps the transformed lives that result from these appearances will suffice. Some suggest that Jesus’ followers experienced a mass hallucination and were moved by that hallucination to create a new religion, but personally, I find that problematic. How does a mass hallucination transform a disillusioned band of Jesus' followers to take up the work that followed? 

                As we consider John’s account of the resurrection of Jesus, it is worth considering Greg Carey’s point that “the resurrection narratives are interested in Jesus’ followers as well as Jesus himself.” Yes, they talk about Jesus’ resurrection, but the four gospels along with Paul, address the effect of his resurrection on the followers of Jesus. So, Carey continues: “Each of the four Gospels has its own way of presenting a critical message: Jesus’ resurrection is as much a beginning as it is an ending. His followers will continue his ministry, even extend it. Because they will receive spiritual power as a benefit of the resurrection, Jesus’ followers will multiply Jesus’ own work” [Death, the End of History, and Beyond, p. 166].

                Getting back to John’s account of the resurrection of Jesus, I’m struck by two items in the story. First, consider the differing responses of Mary Magdalene and the two disciples, one of whom is Peter. When Peter and his companion go to the tomb after Mary told them about the missing body, the two disciples enter the tomb, look around, and then head home. John does say that the other disciple, the one Jesus loved (the one who many assume is the narrator) does believe, but we’re not told what he believed. Perhaps he had enough evidence to move forward. But why just return home?

                In contrast to the two disciples, Mary returns to the tomb after the disciples leave, and holds a vigil for the beloved teacher whose body has been taken from the tomb. We’re told that Mary weeps over her loss. If you had been there, would you have walked in the shoes of the disciples who looked around and went home or Mary who held a vigil for her beloved teacher?

                The second element of the story involves Jesus’ appearance to Mary. Now, first of all, according to John, after the two disciples left Mary wept at her loss, but she also looks into the tomb. She sees something her companions didn’t see. There in the tomb sat two angels dressed in white where Jesus’ body had once lain. The angels ask her why she’s crying, and she tells them that someone had taken Jesus’ body and she doesn’t know where they’ve taken him. All she wants is to make sure Jesus’ body is recovered and restored to its rightful place in the tomb. It’s at that point that she encounters Jesus. At first, she thinks he’s the gardener. She asks the man to show her where Jesus’ body had been taken and she would take him back. For some reason, she doesn’t recognize Jesus, at least not till he speaks her name. When he pronounces her name—Mary—she immediately realizes who it is and says to him “Rabbouni!”; which is Hebrew for Teacher. Interestingly, it’s the sound of his voice that opens her eyes to his identity.

                Now comes the second element that I find intriguing. That has to do with the conversation Jesus has with Mary concerning his ascension. According to liturgical tradition that is based on the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, Jesus’ resurrection and ascension occur forty days apart. During this interim period, Jesus appears to the disciples on several occasions before bidding them a final farewell and commissioning them to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8, cf. Matt 28:19-20). Returning to Mary, as you might expect at the sound of Jesus’ voice, she probably became confused and joyous at the same moment. Because she probably wanted to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating, she attempts to grab hold of Jesus. You would do the same, wouldn’t you? I mean, when someone is dying, you don’t want to let go. Here he is, apparently alive, so surely you want to grab hold to make sure you’re not seeing or hearing things. I know I would! While she does what seems natural, Jesus tells her not to touch him. That’s because he’s not yet ascended to the Father (Jn. 20:17). What does that mean? Isn’t ascension something that happens when Jesus has completed his post-resurrection appearances?  Does John assume that Jesus has to make a quick trip heavenward before he can be touched? That’s what it sounds like, but that makes little sense. Perhaps it’s not the touching that is at issue, but Mary’s desire to keep Jesus earthbound, so to speak. He wants her to understand that, unlike Lazarus, this is a full-fledged resurrection and he’s not staying around with them. Instead, he now goes to the Father. So, perhaps this has more to do with the mission Jesus is sending Mary on.               

                Since it appears that Mary is touching Jesus, the message might be to let go of his body because Jesus has an assignment for Mary. Here in verse 17, we hear Jesus tell Mary Madelene to go tell his disciples that he is ascending to his Father and their Father, his God and their God. In giving her this assignment, here in John, Mary becomes the first Apostle, the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus. Paul might not count her among the Apostles, but it appears that John does! So, with that commission, Mary heads back to the rest of her community. When she arrives at the upper room, she announces to the disciples “I have seen the Lord.” She then tells them the entire story of her encounter with the risen Jesus. Jaime Clark-Soles reminds us that in John 20, it’s Mary who talks more than anyone, even Jesus. Thus, she notes that “Mary Magdalene is the first to testify that the resurrected Jesus Christ is the central fact of human history—no, cosmic history. In so doing, she herself has become a central fact of that history. Can you hear her voice?” [Reading John for Dear Life, p. 140]. 

                On Easter Sunday we gather to hear the word proclaimed that death doesn’t have the final word. Jesus might have been laid in a tomb, but he didn’t stay there. In his resurrection, life triumphs over death. Resurrection leads to ascension, such that we not only live on after death, but we live on in relation to the living God, with Jesus paving the way for us in this regard. Earlier in the Gospel, Jesus had told the disciples that he would be leaving them, but in doing so he would prepare a place for them (Jn. 14:1-4). Mary prepares the way for us to embrace the message that Jesus is going to the Father, and that he has prepared the way for us as well. As Jonathan Walton notes: “Resurrection Sunday should enliven, enrich, and encourage our souls, helping us to envision the impossible. We can take comfort even in the graveyards of our despair” [Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (Kindle Locations 6573-6574)]. So, let us sing boldly: “Christ the Lord is Risen today!”

Image Atrribution: Miller, Mary Jane. First Apostle to the Apostles, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59688 [retrieved April 2, 2023]. Original source: Mary Jane Miller, https://www.millericons.com/.