Prop - Relight the candle you blew out on Friday
Reading: John 20:1-10, 19-23
Reflection: Jesus is Missing!
Many of you I’m sure know all about ‘Where’s Wally?’ - looking for a wee lad in busy pictures where much is happening. The pleasure is in the story telling in the picture as well as the satisfaction of finding Wally. Well a friend of me gave the Christian version - Finding Jesus.
Today for the disciples and friends of Jesus is a bit like these picture challenges. I mean he should be easy to find but somehow there is too much else going on, and nothing quite makes sense. The last they knew Jesus was dead, confirmed dead by the soldier’s spear before being taken down from the cross. He was buried in a borrowed tomb by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, simply wrapped and placed there because there was no time to put him anywhere else.
So when Mary went in the early hours of Sunday morning she went expecting to lament at his grave. It is still dark, again our author playing with the dark and light - she comes stumbling in the night. It was a custom to lament at the tomb for 3 days. She was not expecting the stone to be rolled away. She was looking for Jesus’ grave, not the empty tomb. We always come to worship today knowing Christ is risen. That first Easter Sunday, no matter what Jesus tried to tell them, they expected him to be in the tomb. No-one was more surprised than the disciples that Jesus was missing.
Mary doesn’t go in the tomb. She goes straight back to the disciples to tell them that Jesus is missing.
Again Simon Peter and John who liked to be the beloved one, (author’s privilege) are key players. Simon Peter who is still the leader despite his denials and John are up and away unable to believe Mary. Blessed are those who believe without seeing, but for them their first thoughts are either grave robbers or that the authorities moved Jesus to a communal grave, more in keeping with a criminal’s death. They are not looking for the resurrection either. Jesus is missing, known to be dead, therefore this is not by his hand.
The beloved disciple is younger and fitter so I’m told but waits for the eldest to go in first - sign of respect. What they find in the tomb shows that truly Jesus is missing. The grave clothes are the key to this supposition.
The authorities haven’t taken him because they wouldn’t have stripped him first. They would have just lifted him out.
Even Lazarus when he came shuffling out of his tomb was still in his grave clothes. Not easy to take the grave clothes off - so they wouldn’t have wasted time.
If grave robbers, again unlikely because there had been no time to wrap Jesus with anything valuable. But even still they would have left the body not the linen.
So puzzled and confused the men went back home wondering where on earth Jesus might be. Did they start to wonder about the things Jesus had said? The comments about rising again in three days. What a day. Can he be alive? If he is where is he? Why hasn’t he been to see us? What happens when the authorities find out that he is missing? What will happen to us? Mary stayed - not really knowing what to do with herself.
It is now Sunday evening. It has been a long day, indeed frustrating. You can’t exactly hang posters asking if anyone has seen Jesus. Mary says she has spoken with Jesus in the garden but women are not trusted as reliable witnesses. But what if she is right? What if she isn’t just a grieving, emotional woman who saw what she wanted to see...
Suddenly, in a style only Jesus can carry off, he is no longer missing. Everyone in the room can see him, hear him and indeed touch him. The joy in the room is tangible. Their dearest friend, their Lord and Teacher, their Messiah who they had mourned stands before them and blesses them with peace. Peace be with you.
The thing is for the disciples, for his friends they lost not just a friend but a Lord and Teacher, someone who gave them purpose and direction. So when Jesus stands with them in the room - he offers his peace which is not transient but deep rooted. And then gives them purpose and direction, a mission or a calling. He breathes on them proving that he has breath in his body, and reminiscent of God breathing life into Adam or the dry bones in Ezekiel, we know that the breath of God is life-giving. He breathes life into the broken, hurting people in the room.
‘As my Father sent me, so I send you.’. Easter Sunday may be the end of something but it also the beginning of something. And that something continues with us as we follow in the footsteps of so many disciples, friends of Jesus before us, and prepare the way for the many coming after us.
People will try and tell us that Jesus is still missing. But we know otherwise. Jesus is present in all of us, and we are his body in this world. We might just need a gentle reminder that we sent into the world with the Good News. So let’s not try to hide Jesus away. Remember he can’t be locked in or locked out. After all neither being entombed or locked out stopped Jesus.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia. Amen.
Happy Easter and Peace be with you.
Thank you for following our Holy Week journey and I’ll be back blogging again soon. For now some chocolate and an Easter feast.
Love Sarah
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