Sermon for Year B, Easter Day • April 1, 2018

This is a story of the first Easter:

     It is Yom Rishon, the day the Romans call Sunday.  It is the first day after the Sabbath.  Here and there the streets of Jerusalem are touched by the rose-colored first light of dawn.  There is already quite a bit of noise.  On this chilly morning, with the Passover festival now ended, pilgrims who came from near and far are already streaming out of the Holy City on their way home.

     Three women, each wearing a long veil and woolen cloak tied with a cord, hurry toward the city’s north gate.  They are disciples of the Galilean rabbi named Jesus.  By this gate they will pass beyond the walls of the Holy City and then follow the road which leads first to Golgatha, where Jesus was crucified three days ago, and finally to the cemetery.

     Mary of Magdala leads this feminine expedition.  While Jesus played no favorites, he always treated Magdalene as his “13th disciple,” showing her the same respect as the original Twelve.  Still, her natural gifts for leadership have always irritated the menfolk.  Women are often quite assertive within the confines of the home.  However, Mary’s self-confidence in public, and especially her willingness to speak her mind, often causes resentment among the male disciples.

  With her this morning are Salome the wife of Zebedee and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses.  Mary (not Jesus’ mother) is a Galilean widow who met Jesus at that wedding in Cana, shared the excellent wine made from water, and promptly joined Jesus’ little wandering community.  Her husband Clopas has been dead for several years, and her three sons are now grown and married.  Having no man to look after, she has been at liberty to take to the road with Jesus.  In addition, her late husband was a moderately successful trader.  As a widow she is far from wealthy, but she has used her modest resources to help finance Jesus’ ministry. 
     Salome, wife of the fisherman Zebedee, is the mother of Jesus’ friends James and John.  Our Lord’s parents were longtime friends of Zebedee and Salome, and John and James have been Jesus’ mates since early boyhood.  That is why they were among the first men Jesus called to his service.  Zebedee has been happy to see Salome take occasional journeys with Jesus, because that way she can spend time with her sons.  Jesus often teased her about keeping James and John tied to her apron strings.

  “Did the spice merchant overcharge you?” Magdalene asks Mary, to whom it had fallen to buy supplies for the anointing.

  “He tried.”  Mary replies.  “But Salome and I worked on him together, dickering and arguing without a pause.  After half an hour the poor man was a frazzled mess!  He finally yelled, ‘You’re making my life miserable!’ and settled for a reasonable price.”  She and Salome laugh at the memory.  They love to haggle.

  “Blessed are the sisters,” says Magdalene, “who can teach a tight-fisted shopkeeper that gouging his customers is very annoying.”

  “We have the spices,” Salome observes, “but the rock will be a problem.  It took two men to seal his tomb.  I doubt that three women can move that rock.”

  “Perhaps we can enlist the help of some men,” Mary suggests.

“If there are any men around.  And if they will agree to help.”  Salome’s expression indicates doubt.

The road curves to the right.  As they pass the hill of crucifixion, the three women fall silent.  A mile beyond Golgatha there is another path, one less traveled.  Turning aside, they soon enter the graveyard.  This is a strip of land along a low hill where the limestone bedrock is exposed.  Many tombs have been hewn into the rock.  Some stand open, ready to receive their owners.  Those already occupied are sealed with heavy rocks.  Only a few wildflowers soften this grim landscape.

“I don’t see any men,” Salome observes, looking around.

“And I don’t think we will need them,” Magdalene says, bringing her friends to an abrupt halt.  “Look! The tomb is already open!”

There is a moment of confusion.  “Did we take a wrong turn?,” Mary asks.  “Or did we get his tomb confused with another?”

“No,” Magdalene says firmly.  “This is where they buried him.  I could find his grave in my sleep.  Something is very wrong here.”

The women walk slowly toward the open tomb, dreading what they will find inside.  As they approach the gaping portal, a young man in a bright white tunic sits atop the pushed-aside rock.  Has he been there all along?  Perhaps they didn’t notice him because their attention was so fixed on the open entrance.

  “Good morning, Mary of Magdala,” says the man in a rich voice, “and you also, Mary the widow of Clopas, and you, too, Salome the wife of Zebedee.”  At this greeting the women draw close together and eye him with deep suspicion.

“How do you know our names?” Salome demands.   

“Do not be alarmed.  You three were among those near the cross when your Master was crucified.  Later you were here in this garden when Jesus was laid to rest.  Now you have come to anoint the dead.”  He speaks with authority.

“Who are you?” Magdalene says with rising anger.  “You’re a stranger.  We’ve never seen you before!  Are you a servant of those who killed Rabbi Jesus?”

“Hush, my friends, and fear not.  Jesus of Nazareth, whom you seek, is not here.  He has been raised from the dead.  Look inside the tomb.  See the place where, just three days ago, he lay wrapped in his shroud.  Remember how it took two men much effort to seal this tomb.  Now, your Master has burst his three-day prison.  Even as we speak, he is on the road home.  All is just as he told you.”

The three women look inside, as the young man instructs.  Finding the tomb empty, they are gripped by a sudden fear of the unknown.

“Now, my friends, I give you a task, and a great honor,” the young man says.  “You are the first to know that the Lord is risen.  You are the very first witnesses.  Go now and tell Peter and the other disciples what you have seen.  Tell them that the Lord will meet them in Galilee.  There they will see him alive again.”

The three women turn to each other, speaking rapidly in disbelief.  “What?”  “Is this some kind of vile joke?”  “Perhaps they have stolen the Master’s body!”  Yet when they turn back, the young man is gone.  It is as if he simply vanished into thin air, like the morning mist disbursed by sunlight.  Deeply troubled, the women quickly retrace their path to the Holy City, coming at last to the house where, in the upper room, Jesus’ disciples hide in fear.  The Master was put to death.  His friends worry they may suffer the same fate.

When the women burst in and tell their tale, the men at first dismiss their report as “women’s talk”.  Eventually Peter and John go to the cemetery and confirm what the women told them.  Now, while the men huddle in confusion, the three women sit above them, on the roof, where they had slept the previous night.

Mary voices her uncertainty.  “What does this mean?” she asks.  “Can it be true that Rabbi Jesus has risen from the dead?  Or is this a cruel hoax played by the Pharisees to bring an end to everything we’ve hoped for these many years?”

Deep in thought, Magdalene says, “No, it’s not the end of everything.”

“What do you mean?” asks Salome.

“It’s not the end of everything.  It is the end of the beginning!”  She gives her friends a warm look.  “Remember what Jesus told us about the coming of God’s kingdom?  ‘Your kingdom come,’ is what he taught us to pray.  But he also said that the Father’s kingdom has already come near.  What I didn’t understand then, but see now, is that the kingdom has come near in him, in the Master himself.”

“I think you’re right,” Mary says with new understanding. “When he died, we assumed that the kingdom died with him.  But now….”  She is silent a moment, reflecting on Jesus’ words.  “But now, he is alive, and the kingdom has not faded away!”

Salome speaks with new excitement: “It is the end of the beginning, but also the beginning of something new!  His new life is the hinge on which everything turns!”

“So then, we have work to do!” Magdalene declares.  “The Master told us that we must build the Father’s kingdom on earth!  For three years he taught us how!  Now we just have to get busy and do it!”

“We certainly can’t do this alone.  Do you think the men will agree?” asks Mary, pointing downward toward the frightened disciples in the room below.

“Oh, yes,” Magdalene responds with a wry smile.  “We will help them see what they are called to be and to do.  In time I’m sure Peter and the others will say that it was actually they, the men, who were the first to see the light, the first to know what the Lord requires.”

     The women burst into knowingly laughter.  Then they start to speak of what the future may bring.