The thing about faith is that we don’t just want to be better. We want to want to be better. And that is where the magic is.
wanting to love like Jesus
Easter | John 20:1-18
This gospel story makes me laugh every year.
Mary goes to the tomb to weep and mourn Jesus, finds it empty, and goes back to tell people about it. And what do the two dudes do on their way? They race each other. Come on.
And honestly, I’m not entirely sure the writer even gets it! Because he’s like, Peter may have gotten their first, but yours truly went in first, so I totally won. And, I don’t know if you know this, but Jesus secretly loves me most.
I’m not sure why we associate lilies and fancy clothes with Easter and not foot races. That’s what we should be doing after church. Show up in those tank tops, short shorts and running shoes and we are going to celebrate the risen Christ disciple-style!
Priorities, right? We’re just keeping it Biblical.
Of course, the foot race isn’t the point. But it is really revealing isn’t it? About their priorities. And how they see their work.
Competition
One of the main themes of the time before the Crucifixion is Jesus trying to teach them to work together and they are constantly competing with each other. Who is the best one? Which disciple is the one Jesus really loves [hint, John thinks it’s him].
There is a wonderful tension throughout the whole story based on their competitiveness. Because they (and we) can’t imagine Jesus truly wanting to serve everyone and not make the hardest workers the favorites.
It isn’t just that some of us feel bad because we haven’t been to church very much lately. It’s that some of us are over here, 40 years later, going oh yeah! Another star on the Sunday School attendance board. Look at all that gold next to me!
In a sense, the biggest talker of the bunch, Peter, is wrong a lot. The dude doesn’t have the GPA to be the valedictorian, and yet Jesus trusts him anyway. Jesus called him Satan a while back. Peter straight up denied knowing Jesus on Friday morning. But here he is. Wanting to see that tomb. Wanting to want to be better. And Jesus is down for that.
Isn’t that a big part of what we’re doing here? Why we are here now? Wanting to want to be better. Because we know something is messed. And we want to clean it up. And yet we’re all a little afraid of what bridges that gap.
This morning we celebrate the resurrection of the dead.
To have Easter, we must have Good Friday.
And what happened on Good Friday? Jesus was crucified.
But how did that happen…well, that’s a longer story. But in a nutshell, it is something like this.
Jesus arrives in Jerusalem proclaiming a theology of repentance, mercy, and God-centered and -inspired love. The religious elites freaked out. Jesus messed up the Temple, was confronted by the leaders, humiliated them over and over again, gathered with his friends for one last dinner, was anointed generously for burial, and then allowed himself to be handed over to the religious authorities who were planning to kill him.
Now, those authorities can’t kill him themselves, but feel that if the state does the dirty work of executing, then they can pretend they had nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, the state is also freaking out about all this disruption and don’t care about Jesus’s theology so much as his anti-imperialism rhetoric, so they have Jesus cruelly and publicly executed. We call this latter part The Passion.
Now, the thing about the Passion is that we naturally get super focused on the part about Jesus dying. We probably forget how much of the story is focused on Jesus telling his people that this was going to happen. That they should get ready. And most importantly, trust that he would see them again.
So here we are, with the disciples wanting to want the resurrection.
At this point, they’re skeptical. And confused. They also can’t help themselves. They race. And compete. And judge each other. Who was really there. And who counts as a “real disciple.” They can’t help themselves! Anything but actually dealing with the pain they are feeling.
Mary preaches the first Easter sermon and a couple guys are like I gotta see this! And when they do see the tomb is empty, they what? Wander off?
Mary is there. And in my version [in my head] she’s all Ugh! Men! But in the story she’s all crying and upset and kind of angry because someone has messed with her Jesus. And she will not let that junk stand. And she’s sobbing.
The two figures that are in the tomb and Jesus himself ask Mary the same question: “why are you weeping?” This is the central question. Because if she listened to Jesus, internalized his teachings about the generous, merciful, love of God and how we are to share it with other humans on this planet, and how he would die and be raised, then why is she weeping?
Of course she’s allowed to miss him. And to want to protect him. But she is mourning a dead man who did not stay dead. Who told her he would not stay dead. He doesn’t need her protection. He doesn’t need her tears.
What he wants is for Mary to love as he loves.
Which is anything but competitive. Or protective. It isn’t violent or abusive. It doesn’t demand its way.
God is love, not foot races. Or even mourning at an empty tomb.
Today we celebrate this new day. Celebrating that the new creation that Jesus promised the disciples was already on its way before the third day. It was on the move before Jesus was born. God’s new creation is present here. In us and around us. And we get to celebrate that in baptism and the renewal of baptismal vows.
We aren’t keeping score or trying to be better than anyone else. We aren’t demanding our way. God has already done this beautiful new thing and we get to share in it, offering it to one another.
This new thing we have longed to be all our lives, is real. It is here and now. And it is found in loving like Christ.
We have the love. There’s plenty here. If you feel like you’re running out, no worries, there’s always more. You might need to take a break so you can find it again. But it is there. It is ours. And we get to share it with each other right now. So let’s go!