✠ Jesus Christ, Gottessohn ✠
John 20,11-18 2213
Ostersonntag 034 weiß
Joseph, Patriarch
Amos, Prophet, 838-759 B.C.
31. March 2013
1. O Lord Jesus Christ, on this festive day You awoke from Your sleep in the grave and now raise up all who have slept since the world began. God had died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. God has also risen to new life and death quakes in trepidation, for Your life is our life unto glorious eternity. Amen.
2. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 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.“ Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to Mary Magdalene: „Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?“ 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.“ Jesus said to her: „Mary.“ She turned and said to Him in Aramaic: „Rabboni!“ (which means my great teacher). Jesus said to her: „Stop touching Me, for 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.’“ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples: „I have seen the Lord!“﹣and that He had said these things to her.
3. On the first Easter Sunday, the Gospel according to John records how Mary Magdalene had gone to the tomb to finishing giving Jesus a proper burial. She had found the tomb stone rolled away, and she straightaway went and told the Apostles Peter and John (the author of the Gospel of John). These two apostles ran to the tomb and discovered that the tomb was indeed as Mary had reported: the stone had been moved away, the body of Jesus was not there and his burial linens were set aside complete with the napkin that covered His face neatly folded up. They believed what they saw, but they did not yet understand the Scripture which said He must rise from the dead. After investigating the empty tomb, Peter and John returned home.
4. Our sermon text picks up the story from that point. Mary Magdalene remained behind, but the facts were still the facts: Jesus was dead, and now His body was missing, but worse yet, whoever took Him away had removed His burial clothes. All that was left for Mary to do was to break down and cry. The apparently obvious desecration of her rabbi’s body was too much to bear, but she looks inside one final time. Now she sees two angels seated where Jesus’ body had once lain. Perhaps these angels had removed the body of Jesus, but before they are able to answer she turns and asks someone she perceived to be the cemetery gardener: „Did you take Jesus away? Tell me where He is and I will re-bury Him.“
5. The Scriptures that proclaimed Jesus must rise from the dead (Psalm 16,8-11; Isaiah 53,10-12; Hosea 6,1-2; John 20,9)
had not sunk in to even Mary Magdalene yet. There are several Scriptural texts John had in mind here with this reference. The Prophet Isaiah proclaims: »It was the will of Yahweh to crush His Servant; He has put Him to grief; when His life makes an offering for sin, He sees His offspring; He prolongs His days; the will of Yahweh prospers in His hand. Out of the anguish of His life He sees and is satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, makes everyone to be accounted righteous, and He bears their iniquities. Therefore I divide Him a portion with everyone, and He divides the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His life to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of everyone, and makes intercession for the sinners« (Isaiah 53,10-12). The Prophet Hosea prophesies: »Come, let us return to Yahweh; for He has torn us, so that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He binds us up. After two days He revives us; on the third day He raises us up, so that we may live before Him« (Hosea 6,1-2).
6. Consider also Psalm 16,8-11 where David writes: »I have set Yahweh always before Me; because He is at My right hand, I am not shaken. Therefore My heart is glad, and My whole being rejoices; My flesh also dwells secure. For God shall not abandon My soul to Sheol, or let Your holy one see corruption. You make known to Me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.« The Apostles Peter and Paul use Psalm 16 when preaching Jesus’ resurrection, arguing that the text cannot be about David since David is still sleeping in his tomb.
7. With one word, Jesus creates resurrection faith. Jesus simply says: „Mary.“ Recall the Prophet Isaiah again: »But now thus says Yahweh, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: „Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine“« (Isaiah 43,1). Jesus called Mary by name; she is His and He had redeemed her. Jesus has called each of you by name, too. In the waters of Holy Baptism you were baptized into the Triune Name of God, and He, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, called each of you by name, made you His son or daughter and redeemed you.
8. Mary responded with faith: »Rabboni!«, that is, my great rabbi or my great teacher! The man who stood before her was no mere teacher or gardener but the Great Teacher and the Gardener who is the very Messiah and Christ who gives her everlasting life. In her great joy, Mary was touching Jesus. We just do not know for certain: was Mary embracing Him or was she prostrating before Him at His feet and grabbing His ankles in a posture of worship or was she just putting her hands on Jesus to verify that, yes, this is a very real, physical and alive body of Jesus who had been dead two days earlier?
9. Jesus indulges Mary touching Him, but only for a brief moment, for the time quickly arrives where she must stop. Mary would revel longer in her joy of being in the presence of the risen Jesus, for Jesus has important work for her to do.: »Stop, Mary. It is time for you to go and proclaim to the apostles and disciples what you have seen and heard this morning. Tell them that I am risen; tell them that I am going to ascend to My Father and God.« Mary is the first of the disciples to see the risen Christ Jesus, and He sends Mary to be an apostle to the Eleven Apostles
.
10. Mary told the apostles that she had seen the risen Jesus. The tomb had been opened, His body is not there and Mary has seen, spoken to and touched Jesus. The horrors of Friday’s crucifixion and burial give way to the shock of an empty tomb and the exultant joy of the risen Jesus. Thus Christ Himself reveals to John in his apocalypse: »I am the Living One. I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.« (Revelation 1,18). To hold the keys to something is to exercise authority over it. Death and Hades were locked jail cells for sinful men and women when they died. Death could not be prevented, and Hades could not be avoided. All people die, and since all people are sinners, Hades was our destination. Jesus’ resurrection changed all that. Jesus has the power over Death and Hades. Jesus has overcome Death with His own resurrection and on the last day Jesus will empty all the graves and bring forth resurrected bodies, some to eternal life on the new heavens and earth and many to eternal death in hell.
11. An empty tomb on Easter is not the cornerstone of our Christian faith. The cornerstone of our faith is why the tomb is empty. The Apostle Paul explains the importance of Jesus’ resurrection: »Since Christ is raised from the dead, therefore, the dead will also rise. If Christ has been raised, then our sins are paid in full. Those who now die in Christ have entered Paradise and await the last day when Christ gives them their very own risen body« (1. Corinthians 15,12.17-18). This is the best news for us! We live this life, get sick and eventually will die. Jesus’ resurrection promises that death and the grave are not the end for us, but they are now a transition to eternal life in God’s presence. Thus the apostolic epistles refer to death as sleeping. When you go to sleep you wake up in the morning. For Christians, death is merely going to sleep in the body and waking up in the presence of the Risen Lord Jesus.
12. The Apostle Paul again describes the importance of Jesus’ resurrection: »Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: »Death is swallowed up in victory
[Isaiah 25,8]. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?
[Hosea 13,14]« The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ« (1. Corinthians 15,51-57).
13. Jesus has redeemed all the world back to His Heavenly Father. Easter Sunday is a glorious day of victory. Christ is risen from His grave! You have been baptized into Jesus’ resurrection, and He promises that on the last day He will likewise raise you up from your grave. We are heirs of the gospel proclamation made by Mary Magdalene, the apostles and all bishops and pastors who continue to preach this gospel heritage. Rejoice and be glad for your sins are forgiven and everlasting salvation is yours through the risen Christ Jesus. Amen.
13. Let us pray. O Jesus Christ, You died but then arose, You have the keys of Death and Hades, keep us always in this resurrection faith so that we do not fear death or hell but trust in Your redemption for us. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
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