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"Mary’s Easter"
John 20:1-18
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
Easter Sunday
April 15, 2001
University Baptist Church
Minneapolis, MN
It is so inspiring to be here to celebrate Easter in this wonderful community. I love the music, the festive banners, and especially the way you live out your calling not just on Sunday mornings, but throughout this week as I saw so many of you giving so much of yourselves to the homeless families housed in the church as Holy Week marked our turn with Families Moving Forward. I am so proud of this church and all it stands for. You are living the resurrection. That birth of hope for which we all long. Easter people: people living resurrection lives make this world a better place. It’s great to be among Easter people today. Oh, I am not saying that we don't have our Lenten moments, God knows that we do. But we are amazingly able to persevere through those Lenten moments (when we are at our best) because of the support and caring of this church family. You are making changes in people’s lives. And I see it in you, too as you joyfully reunite with your church family and dream about what more can be done on behalf of God’s people.
That is living the resurrection. Like the bulbs blooming outside, this community, this world is coming alive. It’s Easter morning.
Easter needs to be more than simply a celebration of Sunday finery.
More than a candified collection of eggs and new clothes.
More than the sappy spirituality that says "I'm okay, you're okay."
More than the triumphalism of traditional Christianity.
Easter needs to be a remembrance that there is a higher purpose—a remembrance that we are not alone—a celebration that we go forth with power to face a new day.
I want to talk briefly this morning about the first Easter person. Mary. I’m not talking about Mary the mother of Jesus or the other Mary. I’m talking about Mary Magdalene. Her story throughout the Gospel is an unfolding resurrection, and it behooves us to examine it as we seek out ways we can live and experience the resurrection anew in this third millennium.
The disciples were still reeling from the Last Supper which they had shared with Jesus on Maundy Thursday. After their master had been betrayed by one of their own, he was taken away, convicted on trumped-up charges and crucified for all to see.
All that is except for the disciples who were hiding away. The disciples were huddled in an upper room afraid of what might happen to them now that Jesus had been killed.
But now that the Jewish Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and some other women arrived at the tomb, at sunrise. And behold, the stone was rolled away. Mary quickly ran and told Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved. The two of them bounded off in a foot race from the upper room to the tomb only to find out that yes, it was true. Jesus was gone. Nothing but linens remained of their master and best friend. And the disciples went home. They went home and left Mary weeping outside the tomb.
At the crucifixion, the disciples went to hide out and left Mary to weep at the cross. Mary, who was not permitted to be a disciple of Jesus because she was not a man, lived a life and had an obedience to Jesus more faithful and more profound than any disciple would even approach. But what was so special about Mary?
Mary Magdalene was an outcast and everyone had condemned her. Everyone, that is, except for Jesus. If you have ever felt condemned or made an outcast for some reason or another, I submit that Mary Magdalene is a role model to follow.
Mary, we will remember, is the one who it was said was possessed with demons, seven of them. Many scholars over the years have tried to figure out what those demons were—trying to make logical sense out of something which our overtly empirical minds cannot fathom—trying to find out the trouble with Mary. The demon factor of Mary hides behind psychotherapeutic names, like "schizophrenia, multiple personality, paranoia, depression, obsession, bi-polar." Or perhaps sociological terms like "anti-social behavior or criminal mind." Or more popular names like "crazy, weirdo or bad seed."
Rumor has it that one of her demon aspects was that she was a prostitute, although there is no scriptural evidence to prove this.
When Mary met Jesus, she had seven of those demons.
Maybe Jesus didn’t cast out her demons after all. Maybe he didn’t care. Maybe the real demons are the orderliness of our lives which mask a whole lot of other demons. Maybe Jesus welcomed the chaos that Mary brought.
Mary, in Jesus’ eyes, was no longer defined by her demons. That’s a resurrection right there: a resurrection of dignity; a resurrection of respect; a resurrection of self-worth. After meeting Jesus, Mary became a healthy, powerful and faithful woman. She was no longer controlled by her demons.
We would all like to be free of our demons. We would love to have that quick fix. But I don’t believe it was as quick as that. I bet it took time and many a tentative step, if not a few stumbles here and there. But taking those steps is the substance of resurrection. It’s being new and starting all over.
Scripture really says little about Mary, but other ancient Christian literature accounts her as the most important person in Jesus’ life and among the most important in the early church. She is given credit for carrying the gospel to France. Mary Magdalene.
Do you remember that after Mary anointed Jesus with her hair and costly ointment, Jesus told the rebuking disciples, "Truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her." (Mark 14:9)
Mary is the only one who is mentioned in all four gospels as the one at the tomb and the first one to whom Jesus appears, even though she does not recognize him at first.
What was so special about Mary, I wonder.
Was it her special relationship with Jesus which is also hinted at in the early Christian documents?
Was it her demon possession which gave her a clearer picture of reality than others?
Was it her ability to be at the cross and never deny, betray, or fall asleep on Jesus?
Was it her ability to express her feelings openly enough that Jesus would hear and respond?
Was it simply her being in the right place at the right time?
Hear this: Mary saw Jesus resurrected first because of her ability to admit her brokenness. Sisters and brothers, if you think that you have it all together, if you think that you are great and walk around patting yourself on the back because you look so nice in church on Easter, if you are above feeling any kind of responsibility for the rest of the world, if you are resigned to only do the safe and acceptable things in this life, then you may well miss the resurrection right before your eyes. Mary saw Jesus risen from the dead first because she was willing to say that she did not have it all together.
Long ago she had given up the fight against her inner demons and the demons of the world. Jesus had shown her a new way and she was no longer defined by her demons. She let down her guard, as Jesus had taught her, and wept outside the tomb. The disciples had already sprinted home to safety and had run away from their own despair, trying as hard as they could to hide from their fear and their anguish. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. Eventually, perhaps out of curiosity, she decided to peer into the tomb. And behold she saw two angels in white, sitting where the Body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? She answered, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." At this Mary turned around and saw a man standing there who asked her again, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Of course, it was Jesus. But Mary did not do piety. She was raw with pain. She railed at the man.
"Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Tell me where the dead body is and I will be able to put this behind me. Don’t hold my lord and savoir away from me. What part of the garden have you put him?"
Jesus looked into her eyes deeply, piercingly like he had done so many times before and said, "Mary."" And immediately she recognized. Immediately she believed. Immediately she realized that her faith was not only in a human teacher, but one with the power over evil’s ultimate weapon, death itself.
Many of us know people caught in the cycle of addiction. It can suck away hope. It can make life very difficult. And there can seem no way out. One woman I know (for the sake of this sermon, let’s call her "Mary") didn’t think she had a problem. Even when her whole family did an intervention on her, telling her how her drinking affected their lives, she preferred to wallow and just think about it. She had spent years thinking about it and wallowing. But finally, she started to face the demons. She entered herself into a treatment program. It wasn’t easy for her or her family. It included a lot of self examination. It included a family week when the entire family examined their roles in the addictive situation. But she came out of it a renewed person. She had to admit her brokenness. She had to admit that she was powerless over alcohol. She had to admit that only a power greater than herself could restore her to sanity. Then she had to try to make amends to all those she had wronged—a humbling experience. When I speak with her now, she’s an Easter person., She has resurrected. She sees the possibilities in her life. She has a new sense of joy and purpose. Her demons no longer control her.
Jesus said to Mary in the garden, "Do not hold me." In other words, "you cannot look at me in the same way again. Don’t look at me, look at the rebirth of possibility out there. Look at the fact that the demons of this world and of your own psyche are no big deal to me.
What is a big deal is that you live in a new way. Now go, and tell the disciples what you have seen." And she did. And to commemorate this wonderful event, we dress in our Sunday bests and come to church where the Banners are back up, the flowers are all around and joy fills our hearts.
Easter is about being free from the clutches of death, sure, but it is also about being free to be something.
Free to make a fresh start.
Free to look at life in a completely new way.
Free to embrace a new beginning for your life.
So, the question comes back: What is your new tomorrow going to look like? Is it going to be just like so many yesterdays, or is it going to be something different?
May this be the first step in the rest of your life.
"Go ye into all the world and preach my gospel to every creature," says the resurrected Jesus in the 28th Chapter of Matthew’s gospel. Go into the world as Easter people, living and being the resurrection.
Jesus calls you to new life regardless of what some may call your demon possession, regardless of your station in life, regardless of your feeling ready or able or even willing. Jesus calls all of us to be resurrection people.
If we can admit our brokenness, our anger, our fear, our timidity, who knows what can happen? We just might, like Mary, discover a new way to live a life of faith.
For we are set free.
We are washed clean.
And we are ready to face a new tomorrow.
And our new tomorrow must be one in which we create a space where all of us are welcome. Where all of our stories are heard. Where it is okay to be broken. It is okay to be joyful from time to time. It is okay to have despair. But it is not okay not to care.
We have shown that during Lent. May we face tomorrow with a new sense of embracing life, love and hope.
The one who cast demons out of Mary, offers us the same opportunity. Christ calls us to be free, to continually wash ourselves clean and through it all to be ready for a new tomorrow in which all are honored, all are welcomed and all are loved.
That is God's way.
That is our way.
For Christ is risen.
Christ is risen Indeed!
Amen.