Tears of grief to tears of joy

Easter Sermon 2010

(W.Logan, Crows Nest Lutheran Parish, Qld Australia)
 John 20:11-18
(11)  Mary stood crying outside the tomb. While she was still crying, she bent over and looked in the tomb (12)  and saw two angels there dressed in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and the other at the feet. (13)  "Woman, why are you crying?" they asked her. She answered, "They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!" (14)  Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing there; but she did not know that it was Jesus. (15)  "Woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who is it that you are looking for?" She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him, "If you took him away, sir, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him." (16)  Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned toward him and said in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (This means "Teacher.") (17)  "Do not hold on to me," Jesus told her, "because I have not yet gone back up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God."

Lord Jesus, risen from the dead, we greet you with great joy! Fill us with your Holy Spirit, and share with us your new life, hope and joy, as we listen to your word this morning. Amen.

“There is a time to be born and a time to die. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance.”

These well known verses from Ecclesiastes 3 (verses 2 and 4) are a good summary of the Easter weekend. Except that verse 2 needs to be changed to: ‘There is a time to die, and a time when we will rise!’

Mary cried at the grave of Jesus. Many of us have lost loved ones. For some, time has softened the grief a little. For others, your grief is still raw and ongoing. People grieve in different ways, and follow different time lines. When we suffer losses that cut us deep, it can take years to recover, if ever we can recover. If ever? There is a time to cry. A time to mourn. If we are still hurting, may God bring us comfort, and gentle and supportive understanding from others. May others be patient with us. May we be patient with those who have suffered losses. Sometimes we can get impatient, and try to ‘jolly’ people out of sadness. We might mean well, but we can end up adding to their grief by sending them a message that says, ‘you are foolish to grieve, and if you continue to grieve there is something wrong with you.’ There isn’t anything wrong with us if we feel grief and sadness, even if it’s many years after the loss of our loved one. Old pain can return when we recall difficult or traumatic experiences from the past. There is a time to mourn. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, ‘Blessed are those who mourn… for God will comfort them.’

God is the God of all comfort.
He is a God who lifts up the humble. He heals the broken hearted. Psalm 51: 17 says, “a broken and contrite heart O God you will not despise.”

On the first Easter day, Mary and some other women came to the tomb, early in the morning. Their hearts were broken. What about the men? They were also devastated, but until the women came back and told them the tomb was empty, they weren’t interested in going anywhere. That is one response to grief: to retreat into yourself, and withdraw from society and relationships. Another response is to do that the women did: express our love or respect for someone by visiting the grave, or setting up a memorial of some kind.

There is a time to mourn. But there is also a time to laugh. A time to come alive with joy!

Ultimately that time will be when Jesus returns. When all the evils and suffering of this world will finally be brought to an end, and we will be able to enjoy the presence of God and fullness of health and strength forever. One of the disciples who visited that empty tomb, John, wrote many years later, in Revelation 21:3-4 “ I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne:
"Now God's home is with people! He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old order of things will have disappeared." (GNB & NIV, edited).

We look forward to future comfort and deliverance from the sorrows of this life. But the resurrection of Jesus means we can go one better: he brings new life and hope and joy to us right now!

The angels asked Mary, ‘Why are you crying?’ Jesus asked Mary, ‘why are you crying?"  "Who are you looking for?"

She was looking for Jesus. But only for Jesus’ body. Her heart was broken because she thought her friend and master had been permanently taken away from her. There is despair in her tears. That is what we experience, when loved ones die… or when our plans fail. When hopes and dreams are dashed. When disappointment brings us down low.

The best she could hope for, or so she thought, was to find Jesus’ body, and pay her respects.

God allowed her to find the body of Jesus… but it wasn’t a dead body. Jesus had finished being dead: he was alive, and that’s how she could meet him: alive and well, and keen to share his new resurrected life with her, along with all his friends – anyone who is willing to accept his gift of life and hope-  forever!

This is how we meet Jesus. Not as a distant legend known only in through Bible story books and nostalgic talks. He is alive, and is with us today.

Mary asked the one she thought was the gardener, "If you took him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him."

But she didn’t have to go and get him from anywhere. He was standing there, right in front of her. Full of life and joy, he calls her name: "Mary!"

Full of life and joy, it is Jesus who calls our names, when we were baptized.
He is the one who is serving us at the Lord’s Supper. He is the one who hears our prayers, and who gives us his name, his support, his worthiness, as we pray to God our Father. He is the one who is with us, every day, encouraging us, strengthening us, guiding us, teaching us. When we are weary, his voice says, ‘Come to me, and I will give you rest.’ When we are tempted, he says to us, ‘I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.’ When we turn back to him with shame and sorrow because of bad choices we’ve made or tasks and duties we fail to complete or do well, he says, ‘I don’t condemn you. My blood also covers this sin. Come, let’s live again!’

Jesus called Mary’s name. Her tears of grief gave way to tears of joy, maybe even to delighted laughter and dancing!

Today Jesus calls your name, and invites you also to become aware that he is alive. And he is able to turn tears of grief to tears of joy.

Amen.

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!