Have you ever watched a movie with someone who has already seen the film before?  Kind of irritating isn’t it?  They have a tendency to say things like:   ‘Oh, you’re going to like this part,  watch this!’    Or,  ‘Oh, this part is really scary, I don’t think I can watch!’  It’s especially annoying if they’ve seen the movie so often that they  know the script by rote.   Then they have a tendency to blurt out a lines even before the character delivers them:   ‘Truth?  You can’t handle the truth!’   Familiarity can be a liability.
I wonder if that might be true for the Easter story too.  Is it possible to be so familiar with the Easter story that it looses its punch…instead of being a powerful, transformative experience,  it becomes just a predictable tradition?  Can it become so familiar that it’s lost its power to surprise us,  move us,  change us?

Presbyterian pastor and professor,  Stephen Farris suggests that the way we treat Easter have removed its surprise.  He says:  “We treat Easter like a toaster.  We drop Jesus into the ground on Good Friday and wait for him to pop up again on Easter morning!”    So Easter now belongs in the rank and file of all the other domestic activities we do this time of year …sharing Easter gifts,  organizing an egg hunt,  attending a  family gathering,  dressing up for church and going for brunch afterwards.   One commentator suggests the preacher should put a toaster on the communion table today,  drop in some bread and tell the Easter story.  Everytime it pops up,  put in more bread and continue on.  It would be a visual reminder of how predictable the story has become.  You’ll notice I haven’t done that… it would  be as annoying as watching a movie with someone who’s already seen the show.      
But the point is well taken.  So, I encourage you to listen to the Easter story with fresh ears today.  Walk through the story in Mary Magdalene’s shoes  … after all,  that is the gospel writer’s intent.  John tells this story in such a way that we would identify with Mary.  She is the principal character in today’s scene and the only eye witness to the resurrection.  There is a special emotional tie between Mary and Jesus…all of the gospel writers affirm this.  In fact,  she is always the first person mentioned whenever they list the woman followers of Jesus.  

In John’s account,  Mary comes alone to the tomb on Sunday morning.  She has no company with her,  and probably doesn’t want any.  She’s come to grieve her loss and who wants company for that?  She has not come to anoint the body of Jesus –  Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea have already done that.  No, Mary goes to the tomb for the same reason you and I might go to the cemetery …to sit at the gravesite of a loved one and be alone in our grief …hopefully the close proximity will make us feel closer to them
But when Mary is shocked to find the stone has been removed from the mouth of the tomb. She assumes the worst – grave robbers.  Somebody has come under the cloak of darkness and stolen the body of Jesus.  (It was not uncommon in those days for grave robbers to break into fresh tombs in search of jewelry or valuables.)   Or perhaps she  thinks the Romans have transferred him to another tomb – after all,  Jesus is in a borrowed tomb.  Whatever the case, Mary runs off to tell Peter and the other disciple,  the one whom Jesus loved,  what has happened.  These two disciples both run to the tomb and see for themselves,  and it is just as she has told them.  Then they return to their homes.  But not Mary…she remains by the tomb…alone in her grief.  After awhile she stoops down and looks into the tomb and there she sees two angels  – one at the head of the tomb and one at the foot of the grave.  They do not announce the resurrection,  instead they ask her a question:   Woman,  why are you weeping?’  She tells them ‘They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him’.  While Mary is speaking Jesus approaches her and asks her the same question ‘Woman,  why are you weeping?’ and adds,  Whom are you looking for?  (It’s similar to the question Jesus asks Andrew and another disciple when they were following Jesus at the beginning of the gospel…a question that invites greater understanding in our search.)    She supposes him to be the gardener and says ‘If you have carried him away,  tell me where and I will take him away.’   Then Jesus speaks her name ‘Mary’.  And that is when Mary recognizes who it is …when she hears her name.  She turns to him and says “Teacher!”.  She runs to embrace him but he insists she go and tell the disciples that he is ascending to be with God.  So she goes and says to them ‘I have seen the Lord’  and with those words she is the first witness to the resurrection.
Mary Magdalene’s meeting of Jesus outside the tomb is the first of four resurrection appearances in John’s gospel.  Shortly after this Jesus appears to the disciples when they are all together in one place,  then to Thomas a week later,  and finally on the shores of the Sea of Galilee after a fishing trip.   Each story tells us something different about the risen Christ.   But today’s story points to two profoundly important pieces of evidence of the resurrection…the empty tomb and personal encounter.  John is suggesting that both are important evidence of the resurrection…we need both an empty tomb and a personal encounter to come to an Easter faith.   

Now you might disagree with this because the empty tomb would seem to be no evidence at all.  A missing body can mean anything. Mary is a case in point!  She is not convinced of a miracle when she observes the empty tomb,  she’s convinced of scandal.  Someone has taken his body!  Her conversation with the two angels makes this clear: ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’  It is true that the empty tomb on its own does not prove the resurrection,  but without it,  we have no connection between the risen Christ and the earthly Jesus.   The tomb must be empty if we are to claim that the risen Christ and the earthly Jesus are one and the same person.
 And if his bones are still in the tomb and people are claiming sighting of the risen Jesus,  then the resurrection is some mystical phenomenon that belongs on the Ghost tour up in Colonial Williamsburg.  Or if it is some sort of ethereal transformation where Jesus ‘lives on in our hearts’…and that belongs on the front of a Hallmark card.   This is not what is being claimed here and is not something the church has ever claimed.  What is being claimed is a bodily resurrection…Jesus Christ rose from the grave in bodily form.  Jewish thought could conceive of nothing less.  A  spiritual resurrection,  the thought that a spirit buzzing around in space apart from a physical body,   was completely foreign to the Jews.  Body and spirit always went together because neither could exist apart from the other.  And that is what we adhere to still today whenever we recite the Apostle’s Creed ‘I believe in the resurrection of the body’.  So the empty tomb,  while it does not prove the resurrection,  certainly paves the way for it.

But resurrection faith requires more than that,  doesn’t it?  It certainly did for Mary - the empty grave provided no solace for her.  She continued to grieve at the grave until she encountered the risen Christ herself.  It was when she heard her name spoken by Jesus: ‘Mary’ and that’s when the world turned around for her.  It was in that moment of recognition all her pain, all her agony,  all her grief,  was lifted…and was exchanged for joy,  surprise,  and sheer delight.  And all this is encapsulated in just one word from her…a word of recognition:  ‘Rabboni!’  (teacher).

    Here John is claiming that the conclusive evidence of the resurrection is personal encounter with the risen Christ.  ‘You ask me how I know he lives?  He lives within my heart!’ It is to experience the risen Christ in my life.   So has Mary,  so have the disciples.  If you want proof of the resurrection take a look at the change in the disciples!  They went from a timid bunch of men hiding out in one place together, wallowing in despair,  to being faithful, fearless witnesses of Christ…proclaiming the good news throughout the Roman Empire.  It’s been said, that the real evidence of the resurrection is not found in the Gosepls - Matthew, Mark, Luke or John,  but in The Acts of the Apostles where there is a movement of faith that could not be stopped in spite of persecution and severe hardship.  If you want proof of the resurrection,  take a look at the life of Paul - transformation from church persecutor to church Apostle. Something happened back in AD 30,  and transformed the disciples and kick-started the church.  What was it?  John says ‘personal encounter of the risen Christ.’  And resurrection faith still requires it today.
Harry Williams,  former Monk of the Community of the Resurrection in Yorkshire England,  has written a bood entitled ‘True Resurrection’.  In there he says this about the evidence of resurrection:

“When we begin to recognize the power of resurrection present in the gritty routine of our daily lives,  then we shall see for ourselves that all that separates and injures and destroys is being overcome by what unites and heals and creates.  We shall no longer have to ask where and when this happens, for we shall have first hand experience of it as we live our lives in this world.  Resurrection as our final and ultimate future can be known only by those who perceive resurrection with us now encompassing all we are and do.”   
    Resurrection faith is needed as much now as it was then.  We are living in an age where hope is an endangered species…it is under attack in this age where sin is rampant,  where war persists, the  economy is in peril,  and mother nature is languishing.  Resurrection faith is needed in this age that thwarts life -  where terror has become an everyday word,  where soldiers lives are listed daily as casualties,  where torture is condoned because it serves a higher purpose,  where fear is manipulated to keep us  silent and cooperative.  
    Resurrection faith is needed and we need to bear witness to it so that hope is not destroyed and life not thwarted.  Where to you see the power of the resurrection present in the gritty routine of your daily life?  You need to share it.  Where do you see all that separates and injures and destroys being overcome by what unites and heals and creates?  Proclaim it!

It was just about a year that our family got bad news - cancer.   My wife was diagnosed with cancer and needed an operation and chemotherapy. Cancer is a scary word…  Some people can’t even bring themselves to say the word.  And the truth is,  cancer is big…it’s bigger than anyone here.   But the truth is also that cancer is not bigger than God and all of us.   Together with God cancer can be beaten.  We found that out this last year.  We found out that our community has terrific medical professionals dealing with cancer.

 We found out that there is a hidden sorority of cancer survivors in this church and beyond and they come out of woodwork and surround  those who are diagnosed with cancer.  We found out the value of Stephen Ministry in our own congregation and the incredible care this congregation is capable of in such times.  Hot meals delivered right to our door (just at the time Sue was getting sick of my Kraft Dinner!)  flowers sent,  phone calls made and cards mailed.  We had prayers offered up for us and we had family and friends come and surround us.  We sensed God’s presence …encouraging, inspiring and energizing us each day along the way,  Cancer is big,  but it’s not bigger than all that!   Hope survived,  life was not thwarted,  faith was sustained and health returned.  And when you come through something like that it makes you tougher somehow….I suppose there is something to the saying ‘that which does not kill us makes us stronger.’    Sue has had the opportunity to join that sorority of cancer survivors that pass on encouragement and hope and faith to others who have cancer.  So hope grows and life thrives.

I see evidence of the resurrection in so many places now.  I see it in the growth we are witnessing in this congregation in numbers,  in programs,  in mission activity.   I see it in the miraculous turn-around in health witnessed in two of our members in the last week…Bev Credle and Kennedy Forbes.  I see it in the announcement that Queen Elizabeth will visit Ireland this year -  the first British monarch to do so since 1920.

Evidence of the resurrection is all around us and in us.  Because God’s love is stronger than hate…God’s light is stronger than darkness…God’s Son has overcome this world and is working in the world even now  -  reconciling,  redeeming,  restoring.   And so with Mary we too add our voices this day:  ‘I have seen the Lord!’
 The Lord is risen indeed.

Amen