St. Mary Magdalene
(21-22 July 2007)
John 20:1-2, 11-18
Pr. George L. Murphy
St. Paul’s Episcopal
Church,
“I HAVE SEEN THE LORD”
“Listen!” she said, “Listen to me! I have seen the Lord!”
Rebecca and her fiancé were going to visit her grandmother. It would be a long afternoon. “I know,” she sighed as they walked along the street. “Most of the time Grandma just lives in the past.”
“That’s for sure!” said Simon. The other times we’ve visited her, she’s repeated the same stories we’d already heard – several times. I know she’s your grandmother, and she’s important to you, and she is a nice old lady, but I do get restless after awhile. It’s hard to sit still and listen to the same stories over and over – and always stories about things that happened a long time ago.”
“Well,” you have to remember that all the important things that happened to her were a long time ago. You can’t expect her to be open to anything new at her age. And after all, she really did know Jesus.”
“Sure, I know. She was a follower of a famous man for a few months. It’s the one halfway important thing that ever happened to her, so it’s become for her almost the only important thing that’s ever happened in the world. Maybe this Jesus was a great teacher or miracle worker or something – I don’t know. But I think that life is to be lived now. It’s too short for us to get hung up on something that happened a long time ago. We ought to live for the present.”
Then they were at Grandmother Mary’s house and she was greeting them at the door. She could still get around, although she was getting rather feeble and her hearing wasn’t good. “Grandma, this is Simon,” Rebecca said loudly. “He’s been here before. Simon!”
“Oh yes,” said Grandma. “He’s the one who always reminds me of young John.
He was one of Jesus’ disciples, you know.”
“Yes Grandma, I know,” said Rebecca. “You’ve told me about him.” “A thousand times,” though” Simon. And when they were seated, Rebecca tried very hard to deflect her grandmother’s thoughts from the past. She talked about the weather and their family and the latest news from Damascus, and Simon tried to talk about how things were going at the silversmith’s shop where he worked.
Grandma nodded at all this and said, “Yes,” and “Isn’t that a shame?” and “How nice.” And at the first pause in the conversation she said,
“Jesus had two disciples named Simon. Did you know that? There was Simon Peter, of course – I suppose everyone has heard of him. But there was Simon the Zealot too. It’s a good name. And of course I was a disciple too. Maybe I’ve told you that before.” Grandma laughed gently – she was firmly in place again, back there in Palestine sixty years ago. Rebecca glanced at Simon as if to say, “I tried,” and the two of them settled back to listen with perhaps half their attention.
“Yes, “ Mary said, “I was one of Jesus’ disciples after he healed me when I was so mixed up. A number of women were disciples. We went to Jerusalem along with him for the Passover. All the men ran away when he was arrested – or at least most of them did. I can’t quite remember. And the other women and I were the only ones who saw him die.” (Grandma still said “Die” instead of “Pass away.”) “And,” she said, “We were the only ones who would go to the tomb. The rest of them thought it was too dangerous.”
“And at first, you know, they wouldn’t believe me when I told them what had happened – I said ‘I have seen the Lord!’ But they must have thought I was dreaming or something. Then that evening ...”
So she went on about those events of long ago, talking about what Jesus had said and done. And Rebecca and Simon sat there and nodded and said, Oh – really?” and “How interesting!”
Then Grandma’s voice changed – became just a little louder and a little sharper. “You’re not really listening to what I’m saying, are you?” she demanded.
Simon’s mouth dropped open and Rebecca gasped. It was terribly embarrassing – people aren’t supposed to say things like that. “Well of course – you know but” they stammered. Finally Rebecca summoned up her courage. “Of course we’re listening Grandma. But – you are kind of living in the past, you know.”
“Nonsense!” said Mary. How could I be living in the past? Didn’t you hear what he said to me? He told me not to cling to the past. He is - what is to come. It was the future that I saw!”
“Listen!” she said, “Listen to me! I have seen the Lord!”
Suddenly she was no longer just an old woman. It wasn’t that she really looked any younger, but that her age just didn’t matter anymore. She looked at them with eyes that had seen. When she said, “I have seen the Lord,” he was present. Jesus reached out his hands to heal. He spoke, teaching the crowds who had gathered around him. He walked the road to Jerusalem, and they followed him.
He hung on the cross and they listened to the groans and curses. They heard his words, “It is finished,” and felt his friends’ despair. His dead body was hurriedly wrapped for burial and they watched as the stone was rolled to the door of the tomb.
That was like all the deaths and all the burials of the past. But the future came upon them. “I have seen the Lord” and death has no more dominion over him. He stands in the garden and calls Mary by name and she knows that it is the Lord. She touches his feet and knows that he lives, but she can’t cling to the past, to the old life. The world’s future is breaking into your life now, as Jesus calls your name.
“Mary! Simon! Rebecca! ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’ There is hope for your future. I have taken your death so that you can share my life, the life of God.”
“You there – you who have been sitting in churches for sixty years and have heard it all. You who think that your life is winding down and that there’s not a lot to hope for – your future has hardly begun. I am your future. I am the beginning and completion of all things.”
“You young people who think that the Bible is just dry history book stuff – I am not trapped in the past. When my story is told, I am with you. When you share in my Supper, you share in me. I am not here to teach you about the past but to bring you God’s future, so that you will have wisdom and strength for your future.”
“I don’t want any of you to live in the past, in a religious museum. And I don’t want you to live just for the present. Be part of God’s future, where you will sit at table with me in the Kingdom of God.”
The risen Lord calls you by name, now.