Why Are You Weeping? (Easter Sermon)

Easter Sunday - March 31, 2024

Scripture: John 20:1-18

“Why Are You Weeping?”

“Why are you weeping?" Mary Magdalene, left alone at the tomb by Peter and John, is asked this question twice in quick succession this Resurrection Sunday morning. Without doubt, Mary Magdalene loved Jesus and might even have been putting herself in harm’s way to visit that tomb.

We are told that Mary went there alone while it was still dark. What she planned to do at the tomb is anyone’s guess, but the most likely explanation is the best. She knew that a large stone had been rolled across the entrance, and she was surely not going to move it. Mary was going there to mourn. That was all she could do. Jesus was dead. She was in the depths of despair, not yet 48 hours past Jesus’s death on the cross. In her grief, the reality of the situation might not yet have set in.

Christ died on the cross on Friday, the day of preparation, and his body had been hastily moved into the new tomb provided by Nicodemus. This needed to be done before the sabbath began at sunset. Wrapped and placed in the tomb with no time to spare, the stone was rolled across the entrance, and all went home. We can imagine stunned silence, uncontrollable tears, and shock.

Mary’s weeping, her tears, her grief: it is all understandable. Our grief is rooted in love. Our mourning is our expression of loss. Of course she was crying! When she arrived in the morning’s dark, she was expecting a sealed tomb where she could sit quietly before sunrise. Instead, she finds the stone rolled away. It is grief on grief, shock on shock.

This final shock in the dark of the early morning would have been unbearable. From triumphal entry to trial, persecution, and death, it was all over. Even the tomb was not left untouched. Jesus’s body was gone! Everything was wrong. But it was not.

God had a different plan. Mary Magdalene went to mourn, alone and in the dark. She was weeping, but God turned the grief to joy, darkness was made light, death was defeated.

There are vital points about this day and this encounter to which I want to bring your attention. We will start with a wide-angle lens. Then we will zoom in.

The first point, of course, is that death has been defeated. Jesus said he would die to take on the sins of the world. And then, on the third day, he would rise and live forever. And that is exactly what happened.

Even on the cross, Jesus demonstrated his forgiving heart. “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” In Christ’s death and resurrection, through our baptism and belief, we are saved so that we do not need to die. This is the Good News, my sisters and brothers.

Now let’s narrow the focus to the being of Jesus outside the tomb. Think about that. Consider that Mary Magdalene had spent considerable time with Jesus during his ministry. She was there to witness the crucifixion. Moments before Jesus breathed his last breath on the cross, she was there. Yet she did not recognized Jesus that blessed Sunday morning.

Jesus looked different, perhaps transformed. He no longer appeared as the beaten and bloodied man who paid a penalty he did not owe. He suffered for us and for all. But on this Sunday morning, that work was done. Jesus Christ had been restored to life, restored bodily to show us what God could and did do.

There is hope in this. There is the hope of eternal life and resurrection for us all. There is resurrection into a new, perfect, healthy, unbroken body. Just as Jesus demonstrated victory over death, Jesus also demonstrated what we can expect. God’s salvation is for us as people and for God’s entire creation. We will all be restored to perfection as God created it.

Paul discusses this explicitly and directly in 1 Corinthians 15:35-38. While these bodies we inhabit today are mortal and finite – they will die – they are but seeds of the spiritual, eternal bodies we will occupy. As Christ was transformed to be, at first, unrecognizable, so will we. There is unspeakable hope in this promise.

Death has been defeated. We are saved by our faith in Christ.

On the other side of death, the breaking forth from the seed of this body, is the new, eternal, spiritual body to which we can all look forward.

Let’s change our focus one more time. Now let’s consider the interaction between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. It is the most human point.

By our standards, this sequence of events might have been, probably would have been, much different. After all, Peter was the rock on which Jesus was to build his church. Wouldn’t it make sense to catch up with him? How about John, the author of this Gospel, epistles, and Revelation? John, the disciple Jesus loved, the disciple who runs quickly, why was he allowed to leave without a Christ encounter?

It is simple and profound: This Jesus is our caring and compassionate messiah. Love is who God is, and love is what God showed then and now. Rather than leaving Mary weeping by the tomb, left to figure it out, two angels and Jesus himself appear to her. Each one of us is precious, each one of us his sheep. When one is in distress or goes astray, Jesus is there.

And as Jesus was there then for Mary for a quiet moment of reassurance, God dwells in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not forsaken. Mary Magdalene, a woman who by John’s account is the first person to spread the good news of the resurrection, was able to move from sorry to joy in a flash. Jesus made that happen for her by being there, if just for a moment. Jesus can make that happen for you.

God’s grace then is this: Though we were sinners, Jesus came into the world to save us. He finished his work on the cross, defeated death through his resurrection, and now is seated in God’s glory to love us and never leave us alone.

Why did Mary weep? Why do we weep? Love. We weep because we have loved and lost.

But on this day, this Easter Sunday, know that God has other plans for us. Our future is not death, but life. It is not weeping but joy. Pain and suffering will become known no more in paradise. And all of us will be together in that paradise in the light and life of Christ.

On this Easter Sunday, I invite you to commit or recommit yourself to your faith in Christ. Jesus Christ seeks out all his sheep. Jesus hears you crying. If I can help you make the decision to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I am here for you. This congregation is here for you. God is here for you. AMEN.