Easter
John 20: 1-8
“A Tale of Two Believers”
Rev. Tom Willadsen
“A Tale of Two Believers” The Reverend Doctor Thomas C. Willadsen, Spanish Springs Presbyterian Church, Sparks, Nevada, March 31, 2024, Easter, John 20:1-18
John and Melanie have known each other for years. They work together in a large office and their jobs are very similar. Though they have known one another for years, and they even go to the same church, you couldn’t call them friends. You’d think they’d get along because they have so much in common, but they don’t. When they get together they drive each other crazy. They both think to themselves, “I just can’t communicate with him/her.” Their boss knows about all this, but she also knows that they are both excellent workers, real assets to her business, so she doesn’t let it bother her.
Melanie and John approach their work very differently. Melanie has been at the firm a little longer, and she remembers, it seems to John, everything that they have ever done in every situation. It’s as if she never forgets anything and her knowledge of history, and the way that she says, “I remember the way we did this one time a few years ago….” makes John want to climb the walls! Melanie is thorough, on the job she does her homework, she doesn’t offer advice to customers unless she has checked and double checked her facts and is certain of what she’s doing. John, on the other hand, is quick with answers for customers that he seems to pull out of thin air. He has an agile mind and he can think on his feet. Of course, this drives Melanie batty, “How can you be so sure of yourself? she used to ask him. She doesn’t anymore though, because the answers he comes up with so effortlessly are almost always correct. Which makes Melanie even crazier! For his part, John can’t imagine why Melanie is so thorough, yet he has to admit that her approach works just as well as his.
A few weeks ago, John nearly laughed out loud when he saw Melanie locking the office at the end of the workday. She locked the door, then checked to make sure the latch caught, then she closed the door, and tried it to make sure it was locked, then she did it all over again! Melanie has watched John lock up too. He turns the key and walks away before the door has even closed!
At the end of the day, both lock the door equally well. But you can see why and how they drive each other crazy.
They have the same taste in books. They love to read mysteries. John loves to solve them; he knows who done it from the earliest clues in the story. He only finishes the books to confirm that he was right all along. He usually is. Melanie reads mysteries too, the same authors, because she delights to see how the different details get worked out. She tries to solve the mysteries, but usually gives up and waits to be taken by surprise when the solution is revealed.
As I said before, John and Melanie go to the same church, both of them attend regularly. They sing the same hymns and hear the same messages, they pray together as part of the congregation, they even share the Lord’s Supper together. And like most church goers, they don’t talk about what happens on Sunday morning. If they did talk to each other, they would be surprised at how differently they understand worshipping together. See, John’s favorite part of the service is the affirmation of faith, and it always has been. He looks forward to standing up with other Christians every week and saying, “Yes, I am a Christian!” He describes it was “marvelous.” Melanie, on the other hand, looks around as the congregation stands, and she marvels too, that so many people are saying these words together, she is amazed that people are so confident in their faith. Melanie has always struggled with faith and believing. She wrestles with these weighty questions. She is a seeker and always has been. She brings the same thoroughness to church that she takes to the office.
They have both come to church today, of course. John has come to church filled with joy; he has been elated since he rolled out of bed. It’s EASTER!! CHRIST IS RISEN!! It’s the happiest day of the year for Christians. And he loves to go to church and praise God who overcame the Cross to set everyone free from their sin. He loves to hear all his favorite music. He lives in the assurance of the resurrection. And he has come to church this morning ready, eager, to celebrate.
Easter makes Melanie a little uncomfortable, how can sorrow be turned into joy so quickly? She needs some time to get a handle on the resurrection, she doesn’t get it immediately. And she tries to, she tries to live into the hope of the resurrection, but it’s a struggle for her.
Melanie and John are real. Their names have been changed. And updated. They exist now and they were there at the tomb on the first Easter morning. There are some believers, like the Beloved Disciple, who only need to see the cloth that Jesus had been wrapped in lying in the tomb to know that Christ is risen. The Beloved Disciple knew before he’d even seen his risen lord that Jesus had conquered death. He saw and believed. It came easily to him.
But the story also tells us of one who was more like our Melanie, Mary Magdalene, who went early in the morning to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed. And she ran to the disciples to tell them that the body had been taken away. Later, when she was alone at the tomb she saw Jesus, but still didn’t believe. She turned to the one she took for the gardener and asked where the body had gone. She was holding onto the idea that the body had been taken away. It was only when Jesus called her by name, only then, did she turn a second time and recognize her teacher. And she was ecstatic! As she reached out to her teacher, she reached into the past. “Teacher,” is a name that was used early in Jesus’ ministry, and in her calling out that name, she was saying she wanted things to be as they used to be, just like old times. And that’s when Jesus replied, “No, don’t hold onto me.” For if she holds onto the old ways, there is no room for the new way, if she holds onto the body of her Teacher, she cannot embrace her risen Lord. If she clings to the old ways then there can be no new relationship between God and the people. It is a new thing that Jesus proclaimed to Mary at the broken tomb. A new thing that Jesus was establishing, when he said, he is ascending to my God, and YOUR God, to my Father and YOUR Father.
My friends, there is room both kinds of faith, for believers and seekers at the Lord’s table. That’s what we gather to celebrate today. Our new relationship with God made possible by Jesus’ death and resurrection. A new relationship that can only happen when the old one has been replaced, when we are able to stop looking for the living among the dead, and start seeing signs of the risen Christ in our own lives. Mary didn’t begin to get it until she was called by name. It took her a while, but when she understood and believed, when she was able to leave the past behind, she went and spread the news of the resurrection, saying, “I have seen the Lord!” Her belief was every bit as strong as the Beloved Disciple’s. There is real hope in this message, that Jesus calls us to faith, and reaches us in a way that we can understand. Just as we gather to hear God’s word of the resurrection and as we gather together for the joyous feast of the people of God. We take the first step to being the people of the resurrection. Christ is risen!