Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!
Last night we heard the resurrection story from the Gospel of Mark. Today, we hear the account found in John. In both of these gospels, in fact, in all four of the gospels, the first witness and proclaimer of the resurrection is Mary of Magdala.
In John’s account of the resurrection, Mary Magdalene goes alone (at first) to the tomb. Seeing that the stone had been rolled away, Mary feared that someone had stolen Jesus’ body so she ran back to fetch Peter and John.
John outran Peter, but waited until Peter arrived before he went into the tomb because Peter was at the top of their hierarchical ladder. The two men entered the tomb and stood there in its emptiness, and then they believed, even though they didn’t understand.
The author tells us that Peter and John simply left the tomb and went home. Mary Magdalene, however, stayed outside the tomb weeping.
Still unable to overcome the cultural hierarchy that kept her excluded and marginalized, Mary did not enter the tomb. Instead, she bent over to look inside it. When she did, she saw two angels in white who asked her why she was weeping.
In her deep grief and desperate to find her Lord, Mary ignores the cultural rule that forbade women from speaking to men who were not family and tells them of her fear. Immediately, Mary turns around and sees another man standing with her. That’s a lot of people at a grave where Mary thought she’d be alone tending to the body of her friend.
Still unable to understand the truth of the resurrection, and still desperate to find the body of her beloved Jesus, Mary ignores the cultural rule again and speaks to this man too: Sir, if you have taken my Lord, please tell me where he is and I’ll get him.
His reply changes everything. Jesus calls her by name and suddenly, Mary’s sees and understands everything she had been unable to before. In the presence of the risen Christ, Mary is set free from all that would hold her bound. Connected once again to the love that is the life of the world, the truth of the resurrection is made known to her.
Recognizing that her beloved rabbi is now truly her risen Lord, Mary exhales her revelation in Hebrew – the language they used for prayer: Rabbouni!
That God chose Mary to be the first to see the risen Lord and the first to tell others about it is significant because in this new covenant inaugurated by Jesus our Savior, those who were excluded and marginalized in the world are now included, respected, even honored in the household of God. All of the privileged hierarchies of the world have been brought low and leveled out by this new thing, this new covenant.
No one is excluded in the kingdom of God and nothing on earth can hold us bound anymore …except us. We can refuse to go where God sends us. We can take the new thing God is presenting to us and re-form it into that old thing we know and want to see.
That’s why Jesus immediately cautions Mary not to hold on to him. It isn’t about my returning to you, Mary (he says) it’s about my returning you to God.
So go and tell the others that “I am ascending to the Father, to my God and your God.” By sending Mary with this message, Jesus commissions her as Apostle to the apostles, the first one to bear the news of the resurrection and the one who brings it to the Jesus’ inner circle of friends.
In doing so, Jesus finishes in his resurrection, what he started in his ministry: he removes the earthly barriers that oppress and hinder his chosen ones in their work as witnesses of the Good News.
We too have been commissioned as apostles of the resurrection. It happened for us at our Baptism.
In a moment, we will stand and renew our Baptismal vows re-claiming with one voice and one heart the truth of what the resurrection means for us:
• the truth that we have been set free from all that would hold us bound;
• the truth that we are connected to the Love that is the life of the world;
• the truth that we are all equal members in the household of God;
• the truth that we are co-creators with God and one another of the kingdom of God on earth.
Thanks be to God and Happy Day of Resurrection!
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