Easter Sunday 12 April 2009 John 20:1-18 Bruce

I asked eight people about the Agape Supper that we held last Thursday. Five mentioned that it was a re-enactment of the Last Supper, five mentioned that it was an occasion of friendship or fellowship, four mentioned the symbolic use of herbs and spices, two mentioned the foot-washing, two mentioned the vigil afterwards, and only one mentioned the use of candles.

The accounts are not identical, and would give a confusing picture to anyone who did not themselves attend. Does this mean, therefore, that someone was making things up or embroidering? Or possibly, was the whole event fictitious, concocted afterwards by those who wished to lay a false trail. If you were not there, what evidence do you have that we held an Agape Supper last Thursday? Only the 41 people named on my list who you can ask. If you are reading this sermon in 100 years or 1000 years, however, you will have to trust the record of these eye witnesses.

We have a wealth of evidence about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have so much evidence, garnered from the eye witness accounts of so many different people, that it is not possible to harmonise them exactly. When I wrote reports in the Bank, there was an art of proof-reading and adjusting to make sure there were not inconsistencies or weaknesses that senior management could jump on. The gospel accounts have patently not been edited and manicured to produce an artificially bland and ‘correct’ version.

All the accounts agree that Jesus was buried hurriedly on the Friday evening, and that women came back early on the Sunday morning. All agree that Mary Magdalene was there, and some add that she was accompanied by other women. They agree that they found the stone rolled away. They agree that they were spoken to by one or two beings dressed in white. They agree that Mary was commissioned to be the first to spread the news that Jesus was risen.

John alone tells the story of Peter and himself racing to the tomb and wondering at what they found inside – the grave clothes that were worth more than the body. John alone tells of Mary, in her distress, confronting the gardener, and her shock when it turns out to be Jesus. John emphasises the point that this is no mere vision; Jesus has to ask Mary not to touch him, one translation has “Stop clinging to me”. Jesus has a body that can be felt, grabbed, handled. The message is clear, that this is the same Jesus that the disciples have known for three years, and yet not quite the same.

Notice the sense of unbelief, or at least unprepared ness. Peter, John, Mary were not desperately hoping, wishing, for their dead Lord to be alive again, wishing so hard that somehow they convinced themselves that it was true. Rather, they acted as any sane person would, cautiously, appraisingly. It took quite a lot before they could begin to conceive of the enormity of what had happened.

Notice also the personal engagement of each person in the story. There is a wealth of intellectual debate and enquiry to be engaged with here. But there is also an openness and emotional involvement. John and Peter are drawn by their loyalty to Jesus; the younger man John gets there first and looks in wonderingly. The older Peter pants up and rushes straight in to inspect the scene; is he perhaps still smarting from his refusal to acknowledge himself as a follower of Jesus around the fire? He would dearly love it to be true that Jesus was alive, but all he sees at this stage is a puzzle. If you read the accounts carefully, and especially Luke, you will see that it is likely that Jesus had a private interview with Peter that is not described anywhere. That is the love and care that Jesus shows for him.

Mary is drawn by her love for Jesus. She had wanted to complete the funeral ceremonies, but this is now denied to her. She is lost in the agonies of the final act of desecration – the imagined theft of the body from the tomb. I stress again the fact that intellectually, Mary knew that Jesus was dead and gone. But her heart cried for him in love, and in love Jesus reached out to meet her. There are countless who have given intellectual assent to the evidences of Jesus’ resurrection, but have never responded with all of their heart as well.

John has carefully told his story, in a plain and simple manner, so that we might catch the flavour of the eye witnesses and their experience. What will we do about it? How shall we respond? At this point in the lives of Peter, John and Mary, we are only part of the way through their journey with God.

This Easter we respond to the shock, the enormity of what God has done in Jesus. We are on a journey of discovery. What does this all mean, how can we be different as a result?

One glorious possibility is that just as Jesus met with Peter privately, and Mary Magdalene privately, and later on he met with Paul, so he is willing to meet with each of us privately. We cannot make this happen on our command, but we can make it more likely by engaging in the ancient Christian disciplines of scripture reading, prayer, silence, and fellowship in small groups just as the earliest disciples did.

May the Lord bless you richly this Easter tide.