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| Mary Magdalene | about 1535-40, Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo. The National Gallery. |
Why do
we celebrate today? Why is this the greatest festival, the reason why
Christians get out of bed in the morning, even when the clocks have gone forward?
Christ
is risen, and that changes everything. It changed everything for Mary Magdalene
and the disciples in today’s gospel reading. It changed everything for Paul who
spoke to us of his resurrection faith. It changed everything for Cornelius, the
first Gentile who didn’t have to accept the Jewish law before becoming a
Christian.
It
changes everything for us, and in just the same way. By meeting the risen Lord,
the living person who is both the heart and head of his church, the Lord of
creation who walks in the world to make all things new.
Christ
is risen. He is alive, today. Anyone can meet him and be changed by him. But do
we recognise him? Mary Magdalene didn’t, at first. Her eyes were fixed on the
tomb. Of course they were. Because, as humanity has known from the beginning,
death ends everything. And now even the dead body of Jesus, the object of her
grief, is gone. No wonder she stares into the darkness of the tomb. She sees a
vision of angels, who ask her why she is weeping. But even this does not move
her from her grief. She replies as if this were an everyday occurrence, as
though they were strangers passing in the street. “They have taken my Lord
away.”
She
turns round – very significant, that, she turns away from the tomb, the place of
death. She sees Jesus, but does not recognise him, speaks to him as though he
were the gardener. Her mind is still in the place of death. She turns back to
the tomb. We know she does, because when Jesus calls her by name, she turns
round again. And finally, now, she knows him.
Turning
round is repentance. That is what the word repentance means in the Bible. To
see Jesus, to see who he really is, Mary needs to turn around. She needs to
turn away from the tomb, the place of death, to the risen Lord, the Lord of
life, the victor over death.
The
tomb is where our sins are. Christ died for our sins, says St Paul. And in
another place he says that in dying Christ died to sin, once for all, and in living
he lives to God.
Sin and
death go together. Humanity’s fixation on its own limited resources, our
failure to depend on God who is infinite goodness, leads to tragedy. Rivalry,
violence, accusation, casting out, hatred and envy all lead to death. So in the
death of Christ our sins are placed where they should be, dead, in the tomb.
That’s the first part of the good news of Jesus Christ, the reason why we
celebrate today. But without the second part it means nothing.
The
second part of the good news is Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. In living,
he lives to God. He is the representative human, the “Son of Man” as he calls
himself in the gospels. He is the new Adam, the new human nature redeemed from
sin. In him all humanity dies to sin, and rises to God. In him all who believe
are adopted as children of God, and can then say, truly, in him, that we are
dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ. St Paul says, as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
This is
the meaning of our baptism, which we are called to make our own through faith
as we follow Jesus in our lives. In the waters of the font we were baptised
into Christ’s death, so that, emerging from the font, we rise with him to new
and eternal life.
The
resurrection of Christ is the heart of the good news. It is how we are saved
and come to share the life of God, which is eternal life.
Jesus
says to Mary Magdalene today, “Go to my brothers and say to them, “I am
ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”. The
resurrection proves that God is Jesus’ loving Father, the creator who will
never give up on his creation, continually bringing new things to birth. And in
Christ we too can call his God our God, his Father our Father.
If the
death of Christ is how our sins die, his resurrection is how we enter eternal
life, the life that God lives. Without the resurrection there is no good news.
There
are some interpretations of Christianity which seem to regard the death of Jesus as
the most important part of the gospel, seeing it as Jesus being punished for
our sins in our place, so that we get acquitted. Now that is one metaphor used by
St Paul, a piece of courtroom imagery, but there are many other scriptural metaphors
that also seek to describe the mystery of salvation. We shouldn’t read just
one. And it is a metaphor in a minor key: the major key is that of Christ the
triumphant victor, the mighty warrior who has fought with and defeated death,
and rescued humanity which had been held captive by death.
We are
not to stay looking into the tomb, as Mary Magdalene did. We are to turn
around. That is to say, we are to repent. Because when we turn around from our
sins and leave them behind we find ourselves facing the one who all along has
been calling us by name, waiting for us. Jesus, risen from the dead, the
triumphant victor over all of humanity’s sin and death. My God is your God, he
says. My Father is your Father. Jesus opens to us the eternal life of bliss and
love that he shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity which is
God.
So we
are to turn around, to repent. Don’t look any longer into the tomb, the place
where our dead sins have been disposed of. Turn instead to Jesus, who calls us
all by name, and waits for us. Believe in him as Saviour and Lord, because, in
him, we are adopted as children of God. In him we die to sin and rise to new
and eternal life.
That is
the good news, that is why we celebrate today, that is why this is the greatest
festival. This is what gets Christians out of bed in the morning, even when the
clocks have gone forward.
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