Eastmont Presbyterian Church   A Celebrating . . . Nurturing . . . Caring . . . Serving community of believers

The Sunday after Easter, the pastor was on vacation so the sermon was delivered by the associate. He began by referring to a recent discovery that had made headlines that year. Three boxes of bones were found in a cemetery in Palestine bearing the names Jesus, Mary and Lazarus. While not one credible archeologist believed they were the bones of Jesus, several newspaper reporters were trying to add 2 and 2 together and come up with 22. The pastor's message to the congregation was that though we do not know whether those are the bones of Jesus of the NT, it would not really matter. Easter is more important than whether Jesus physically was raised from the dead. The minister explained that Easter really means that the Spirit of Christ blossoms wherever we go, in that new life that is symbolized by the return every year of flowers and green from the grave of the earth.

After some consideration, the professor decided to write a letter to the pastor. He expressed his concern about the way the associate's sermon seemed to empty any real meaning out of the Resurrection that had been so gloriously remembered the week before. His wife mentioned her concern at a Bible study for women during the week. To their surprise, everyone defended the associate. The pastor came to visit them during the week. He explained that each person comes to faith in different ways and for some the physical evidence is not necessary. The women of the church also visited and their discussion was much the same. A strong faith does not need the crutch of an empty tomb.1

THREE WITNESSES TO AN EMPTY TOMB
Perhaps a strong faith does not need an empty tomb but that is not how the story is told. Each gospel writer describes the scene just a little bit differently than the others. They have a different account and a different set of names but one striking similarity - the names are all of women. The women not the men were the first to walk to the tomb that morning. John tells us that Mary traveled alone in the early morning darkness to the tomb. Imagine her thoughts and feelings on that lonely walk. She was still in shock from the events on Friday. Her thoughts were still clouded from seeing the blood and pain of her friend hanging on a cross. Family members tell me that they have trouble recalling the events of the funeral for their loved one. The shock and grief make everything seem like a blur. Mary may still have had blurred vision the morning she walked to the tomb. She probably had trouble seeing in the darkness. However, she saw one thing very clearly - the stoned had been rolled from the opening. Her faith must have also been rather small that morning because all she saw was an empty tomb. It is a shame Mary did not have more substance to her faith. Then maybe she would not have needed to see that the stone was rolled away But Mary did not understand all the subtles of faith. She only knew what she saw or in this particular case did not see. Scared, confused and frightened she runs back to the city to tell her friends.

Running is a normal response to fear. The high school chemistry class was returning to their seats. Each group had completed the initial phase of their experiment and was getting ready to receive the next set of instructions from the teacher. Just as the teacher began her lecture, a loud explosion was heard from the back of the lab. Glass and chemicals were sprayed everywhere. One young man who was seated in the front row bolted from the classroom and ran down the hallway. He was not seen the rest of the day. "What on earth were you thinking about?" the teacher asked him the next day. "I wasn't thinking about anything," he said. "I was just running. I didn't know what to do, so I ran."2

Perhaps Mary Magdalene did not know what to do either on the morning she stared into the empty tomb, so she ran. She ran in fear, she ran in grief. She ran in confusion. She ran to tell her friends what she did not see. "The tomb is empty. Someone has taken his body!"

When the disciples heard her news they took off running. Why did they run? What did they think they were running toward? What did they hope to find? What could their arrival do to change the circumstances? What a confusing scene! Everybody was running but did they know what they were running toward?

"There's been a bad accident on the school ground," someone told the mothers at coffee. Every one of them jumped up and started running toward the school. Why run? Why run toward the tragic? If it is not your child who is hurt, then some other mother's child is hurt. We run toward both good news and bad. We must know, and quickly, if the  news is for us. So the disciples ran to find out if the news was true.

The disciples run to the tomb quickly turned into a competition. Which disciple would arrive first? Peter, the leader of the group or the disciple whom Jesus loved?

John tells us that the disciple whom Jesus loved reached the tomb first. Once at the cemetery he bent down and looked into the tomb. The disciple's faith must have been as small as Mary's because all he saw was an empty tomb. He hesitated, then Peter arrived. The man who had so quickly denied his Lord did not wait. He rushed into the tomb and found the linen rolled up and neatly lying upon the stone. Peter leaves the tomb amazed and confused. He does not know what to make of it but notice the response of the beloved disciple - he believed.

Most scholars believe that the disciple whom Jesus loved is John the author of this gospel. John is writing an account of how the three of them came to faith. Mary believes when Jesus appears to her and calls her name. Peter believes after the Risen Lord appears to the Eleven disciples when they were back in the Upper Room. John writes that he came to faith at the empty tomb. He believes without seeing. He doesn't hear Jesus' voice. He doesn't see the risen Christ. All he does is come, peer into the dark, empty hole, and he believes. Thomas Long says that "the beloved disciple, unlike the others, believes in the resurrection in the light of Jesus' absence." There is nothing there, no evidence. No Shroud of Turin, no photos, just an empty place. But, "He saw and believed" (Jn 20:8).3

What about you? Many of you have come here this morning wondering? Could it really be true? Could the stone really have been rolled away? Were the grave clothes really rolled up and sitting on the stone? What evidence do you need? Do you have the faith to believe?

THE STONE IS ROLLED BACK
We live in an age that is rapidly dissolving all truths including the truth of the Resurrection into a matter of personal belief and preference. People would like to reduce Easter to the symbol of life returning to creation; to blooming crocus and budding lilies. The beauty of nature's cycles are marvelous mini-resurrections. However, the Christian gospel trumpets a message much louder than that. The apostle Paul boldly wrote, "If Christ has not been raised than our proclamation has been in vain, (I C 15:14).
Maybe I do not have a very strong faith but for me the resurrection of Jesus is not just a copy of the cycles of nature. The resurrection of my Lord is more than the promise that life returns after the death of winter.
John Updike made a similar point in a poem:

Make no mistake if he rose at all
It was as His body;
If the cells' dissolution did not reverse,
 The molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
Each soft Spring recurrent;...

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
Analogy, sidestepping transcendence....

Let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back4

1 Loren Wilkinson, "How Green is Easter," CT, April 5, 1999, p. 46-49.
2 William H. Willimon, Pulpit Resource, Vol. 27, No. 2, "Getting to Easter."
3 Willimon, op. Cit.
4 Wilkinson, op. Cit, p. 49.