Catherine McNiel—Year C Easter 1

Anthony: Let’s pivot to our next pericope of the month. It’s John 20:1–8. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Easter Resurrection of the Lord, April 20. And it reads:

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. ² So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” ³ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. ⁴ The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷ and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸ Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, ⁹ for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰ Then the disciples returned to their homes. ¹¹ But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, ¹² and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³ They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.

The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. And I know that’s just a massive understatement. And sometimes it’s difficult to put the Easter celebration into words. Preachers, writers, sages have attempted to herald the profundity of the resurrection.

So, as an author, a herald of the gospel, I’d like to give you the floor to make your attempt of why the bodily resurrection matters.

Catherine: Well, like you said, what words, what human words could ever express this? It’s like the sun. You know, we live by its light, but we can’t look at it. We can’t touch it.

I think we can continue to describe all the effects and all of the implications and all of the new life that comes from the resurrection, but I don’t know that we can ever find the words to describe, or even understand that moment, that impact itself. But the resurrection does change everything.

Like we’ve looked at several times today already, before the resurrection, while Jesus was in their physical midst, and they could touch him, and they slept back to back with him, and they walked side by side with him, and they ate with him every day, they were afraid and confused, and profoundly so, arguing about who was going to be greater in the kingdom, and running away at the first sign of danger. And in the same ways that we are ourselves confused and afraid, but deeply and profoundly missing the point, even though Jesus was right there.

But after the resurrection, something truly changed. They became bold, joyful. They banded together. They changed the world. And they did, as we’ve looked, they joined Jesus in his resurrection, but also in his suffering. Nothing became easy for them after the resurrection. It became much harder. But they were somehow empowered, they were fearless, they became bold and joyful, and they took the world by storm.

So, what it is exactly that changed in them when they saw the risen Jesus and were filled by the Holy Spirit? Only God, I think, knows. But we have the gospel today because the impact that it made in them was so profound. I actually opened my book — that book Fearing Bravely that we talked about before — I actually opened it with a retelling of this story of Mary at the tomb and how stunning and shocked she was, how she saw Jesus and he said her name and she ran to tell his friends. But then I also shift the story to describe them later that day. They are huddled in an empty room and at the top of a building with the door locked and they are, they don’t know what’s going on. Their friend, their teacher, their rabbi, the man they were publicly associated with among a huge crowd has been violently and publicly executed by the state, and of course they are afraid.

But now also there is this word that he’s alive, and I’m sure that was also even more terrifying. And yet suddenly, Jesus is there. It doesn’t say Jesus knocked on the door or turned the handle. We know the door was locked. It just says, and then Jesus was with them. And after that is when everything changes.

And I think partially bodily resurrection matters because when we grasp — if we can grasp — that we are freed from the fear of death, that the God we know in Jesus, this God of compassion and justice and mercy is the one who is the Alpha and the Omega, who holds the keys to life and death, who has opened a path to resurrection, then a whole world of opportunities opens up for us.

We’re free to love our neighbors as ourselves, as we talked about. We’re free to care for strangers around us, to love even our enemies, even if it’s costly, even if it’s sacrificial, even if it’s dangerous. Because if God has defeated death, if God has promised to be with us with this love that surpasses knowledge and this peace that passes all understanding, if this God has promised to be with us, not only every day of our lives, but even as we walk to and through and out of death, then what could possibly stop us from living this life of love? I think it’s as the Holy Spirit convicts us and convinces us of this reality that we are empowered like the disciples to go out and love with God’s love and confront the forces of evil with goodness, because what could possibly harm us if God’s thread, if God’s hand will be holding us even in the dark.

Anthony: Yes. We look at this passage, and Mary Magdalene is — of course, Christ is central — but Mary is enormous, and we read in other resurrection texts about the other women being the first evangelists telling the story of the risen Lord. What can we learn about Mary in terms of sharing good news of the risen and ascended Lord?

Catherine: Well, I love the way you’ve worded that because, you say, what can we learn from Mary? We learn literally everything from Mary. We know about the good news of the risen Lord because of Mary. And I assume that if she had become bashful and afraid and run off and hidden, Jesus would have found another way to communicate with his friends and his followers.

We do know because of Mary, and I think we see in her story the excitement, the … you know. I described earlier the resurrection as absolutely world changing, life changing, altering in every way. It helps us to live in that right-sided-up kingdom because we no longer have to fear the earthly kingdoms.

We can now keep our eyes only on Jesus who has defeated death. And so, there’s excitement there. This is the glass more than half full, you know, like we don’t need to get bogged down by all of the troubles that do come hand in hand with this story, you know, again, like the followers of Jesus were dogged and sought after by everyone who held power for the whole rest of their lives, which included suffering and imprisonment and death.

But they didn’t even care. They counted it all loss for the sake of Jesus. And we see that first in Mary, who has heard the voice of the Lord that she intimately knows, and she heard him say her name, and that was enough for her. She couldn’t understand the theology of it, or the implications of it, or the 2, 000 years of discussing it, but she knew that he was alive. And she was filled with excitement and courage, and she ran forth and shared that exciting news with those she loved. And I think that’s what we learned from her.

Anthony: Yeah. She’s such a great model for this. Yeah. Jesus himself said before he ascended in Acts 1:8, that when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, the Spirit will come in power, and you’ll be my witnesses. You’ll tell the story, you’ll lay down your life — which is what that word in the Greek means — that it’s almost like Mary couldn’t help it. Yeah, she was probably fearing bravely, you know, that’s, I mean, you’re just in awe that this Lord has risen and it’s scary and you don’t know what comes next, but courageously you go, and you tell people.

Catherine: Yes.

Anthony: This is really, really good news.

Catherine: Yes. Amazing.