Reflection on John 20:1-18

The Resurrection story begins with running away.  I cannot tell you how important this small detail is in the life of our faith.   

While it was still dark, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb and sees that the stone has been rolled away.  She fears the worst.  She fears that Jesus, her rabbi, her teacher, the one who loved her as God loves her, will not even get a peaceful death.  "Someone has stolen his body," she thought with panic.  What more could happen?

You know how when it rains, it pours?  Whenever things seem to have gotten to the point of being the worst that anything can possibly get, just wait for it, it can and will get much worse.  

So, Mary runs away in the night.  She runs through the darkness, grasping for some light.  She runs to her friends, Peter and the disciple that Jesus loved, trying to find some foothold now that things have gotten as bad as things can be.  

Unfortunately, as is often the case when we reach out to people in our darkest moments, they end up being of no help.  Mary follows as Peter and the disciple that Jesus loved run and enter into the tomb to investigate, but both disciples leave and go back home without speaking to her.  

She is left there, alone.  

Little did she know that the disciple that Jesus loved saw and believed.  Little did she know that he had been given a little gift of light when he peered into the empty tomb.  She did not know because he failed to share it.  

So, there you have it.  She was utterly alone, in the dark, in a graveyard.  Can you get any more cliché than that?  Can you get any more Hollywood, 3/4ths of the way through the movie that that?

But, this is not Hollywood or clichéd storytelling, it is Mary’s life; just like it is our own lives when it happens to us.

Of course, you already know how the story ends.  But, I urge you to not rush to get to the end of the story just yet.  It is OK to sit in this in between time.   

Granted, sitting in an in between time does not feel good.  It does not feel good to lose what you have loved.  It does not feel good to stumble around in the dark.  And, it certainly does not feel good to think that you have been abandoned just when you needed your friends and your Lord the most!  It does not feel good, but the time of running away in sorrow and fear (the time spent in between the horror and the joyous new beginning) is as much a part of the life of faith than any other time.

That is why we gather together for Easter Vigil, some churches in the night, and others like us at the bridge between night and morning.  That is why this very moment has been built right into our liturgical year.  It is a time to sit with Mary and spend some time sobbing and grasping for help because that is faith too.

Without the time of running away into the darkness, there would be no break of day.   

Without the darkness and the sobbing, there would be no joy in the morning.  

And, without the horrible, terrible abandonment of friends we would not be in a place in our lives where we are open to hearing our name being called.

“Mary” the voice in the graveyard garden says.   

“Mary.”  

The name comes from the mouth of the one who knows her.  The name comes from the one who actually is not gone, though she feared he may be.  The name comes from the very lips of Jesus, our Lord.  The name comes from the lips of the one who draws her to new life.   

Mary had not been abandoned.  She had not been left in the dust of life, and neither have we. 

For the first time in days, the blooming flowers are seen in the garden and the rays of light start to fall upon the skin.  We see our Lord in a new way, and we follow our Lord in a new way.   

Our lives are not the same after the in between times.  Jesus’ resurrection brings a new life, at the right time, after our moment of running away.   

Jesus comes to the garden to let us know that everything will be just fine, in fact, more than fine, the new life that he gives us sends us running again.  But this time we do not run grasping in the darkness, rather we run in the light of Christ.  And, it feels so good to finally live in this new life.  But, never forget, the new life basking in Jesus’ light and love would not have been possible without darkness.  Both are celebrated as holy the night of the resurrection.