Sermon Tone Analysis

Theme: Proclaim the Good News

Let us pray.

Most holy, Lord God, we are gathered here to celebrate the resurrection of your son; the long three days are ended and Jesus’ tomb is empty; may we like Mary Magdalene share this good news with others, through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Amen.

Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest and noted author of books about preaching.

Barbara shares a story of when she was a young girl, in her own words.

“When I was a girl, I spent a lot of time in the woods, which were full of treasures for me.

At night I lined them up on my bed: fat flakes of mica, buckeyes bigger than shooter marbles, blue jay feathers, bird bones and – if I was lucky – a cicada shell, one of those dry brown bug bodies you can find on tree trunks when the 17-year locusts come out of the ground.

I liked them for at least two reasons.

“First, because they were horrible looking, with their huge empty eye sockets and their six sharp little claws.

By hanging them on my sweater or – better yet – in my hair, I could usually get the prettier, more popular girls at school to run screaming away from me, which somehow evened the score.

“I also liked them because they were evidence that a miracle had occurred.

They looked dead, but they weren’t.

They were just shells.

Every one of them had a neat slit down its back, where the living creature inside of it had escaped, pulling new legs, new eyes, new wings out of that dry brown body and taking flight.

At night I could hear them singing their high song in the trees.

If you had asked them, I’ll bet none of them could have told you where they left their old clothes.

“That is all the disciples saw when they got to the tomb on that first morning – two piles of old clothes.”

Barbara Brown Taylor gives us an insight into the empty tomb from nature.

I guess technically the tomb was not empty.

Jesus left his burial clothes behind.

Those clothes no longer defined Jesus.

Jesus was no longer dead.

He is risen.

He wears resurrection clothes.

Before sunrise on that Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene goes to Jesus’ tomb.

In spite of the darkness, Mary found her way to the tomb and when she got there, she saw that the stone covering the tomb was rolled away.

The first thought that comes to Mary’s mind is, “grave robbers.”

Grave robbers were common in those days.

Mary assumes that the body was stolen.

She did not go into the tomb.

Mary immediately ran off to tell Peter about this calamitous event.

Another, an unnamed disciple, is with Peter at the time.

They both run off toward the tomb.

The unnamed disciple reaches the tomb first.

He looks in and sees Jesus’ burial clothes in a pile.

It must have looked like a teenager’s room.

He doesn’t go in.

Impulsively, Peter doesn’t stop at the entrance, he goes in.

Peter saw the burial clothes.

But he also saw the cloth that covered Jesus’ face, rolled up and in a place by itself.

Grave robbers would not have left the clothes behind.

Lazarus came out of the tomb with all the wrappings still on his body.

These have been left behind.

Something different has happened here.

The unnamed disciple went in, saw the scene, and then believed that Jesus rose from the dead.

Neither he nor Peter had put this news into the context of the Old Testament though.

They do not yet grasp the significance of the empty tomb.

The two of them went back where they came from, leaving Mary weeping outside the tomb.

They didn’t stop to ask why she was crying.

They just left.

There are germs of what happened to the unnamed disciple.

Faith precedes understanding.

It is a gift.

The historical teaching about the mysteries of the faith follows baptism.

Faith comes first as a gift.

Sorting it out comes later.

It is like love for a child, which proceeds knowing who the child will be.

What this disciple sees leads this disciple to understand the resurrection.

Mary stays behind.

She has grieving to do, and she knows it.

She has tears to shed, and she knows it.

And it is through those tears that she sees the risen Jesus.

That is what moves me so deeply and touches my own experience.

So often it is through our tears that we experience the risen Christ.

Frederick Buechner says, “It is not the absence of Jesus from the empty tomb that moves us.

It is his presence in our empty hearts.”

Sometime, perhaps minutes, perhaps seconds, later, Mary Magdalene looks in the tomb and sees two angels.

She is still crying.

She is overcome with grief and sadness.

I don’t know if Mary saw an angel before or how she would recognize one if she saw one.

They were dressed in white, sitting where Jesus’ body was laid.

The angels were not interested in talking to Peter and the other disciple.

They were there for the mourning Mary.

Perhaps they were there when Peter and the other disciple went into the tomb, but their faith was not strong enough to recognize them.

The angels asked Mary why she was crying.

They asked the question that Peter and the other disciple didn’t ask of her.

They don’t announce the resurrection.

They are focused on Mary’s grief.

Mary told them someone stole Jesus’ body and it is missing.

Then Mary turns around and there is another man standing there.

It’s Jesus, but Mary didn’t recognize him.

After all, Jesus is dead, right?

Mary in her grief cannot think right.

She can’t recognize Jesus.

She is in a place where she can recognize angels, but not Jesus.

After all, Jesus is dead.

Whoever is standing near her cannot be Jesus.

Jesus also asks Mary why she is crying.

Mary asks him, if he stole Jesus’ body to please tell her where it is.

Mary was unintentionally very perceptive.

Jesus did steal Jesus’ body.

Jesus is the grave robber.

And he’s right in front of her!

Jesus calls her name and she recognizes his voice.

Jesus is the good shepherd and calls us by name.

She says, “Rabbouni,” which means Rabbi or teacher in Aramaic.

Since Jesus has yet to ascend into heaven, he doesn’t want to be touched.

Mary is not to cling to Jesus, she is to share Jesus.

Mary is not to keep Jesus for herself.