Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 23rd March 2008 by Rev. Dr. Jochen Teuffel. The scripture readings that day were John 20:1-18.

1 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' 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 [A] 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 hold on to 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.


What a story is told to us on this Easter Sunday. The stone which had sealed the tomb, has been removed. From now on everything is open. Indeed someone is missing, as Mary Magdalene reported to the disciples: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” The past has been displaced, no corpse in the tomb, the remains of a life whose spirit was pressed out on the cross of Calvary are gone.

Peter did not want to believe it, so he had to enter the tomb, but all what he found, was the linen wrappings lying there and the cloth which covered Jesus head rolled up in place by itself.
Yes, it was, as Mary Magdalene has told him: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.” No one around in the early morning, nothing one can do, therefore Peter and the one whom Jesus loved went home again.

But Mary unable to accept the sudden disappearance of the corpse stayed back, weeping outside the tomb. We know that tombs are one of the most sensitive places in our world. They remind us of someone gone, and somehow appear to be the place where we can still meet them. In our own remembrance the person deceased will be present, yet in a very limited way which cannot satisfy our longing for him or her. The outcome of such tension is nothing less than mourning, in Mary’s vivid imagination the Lord is still there, yet no longer in the tomb, but he is no longer accessible. Life can no longer be shared with him in future. The relationship with him is confined to the past. And memories are the touching moments when the past enters our present life. But those encounters with the past do not have any promise for the future. Death does not have any promise when it comes to life. Therefore, the process of mourning is a necessary one for it slowly, very slowly dissolves our own life-sharing ties with a dead person close to us, and in a way frees us from any common expectations towards future. And I think this is very crucial. If our life is still bound to someone who is no longer alive, we participate in his or her death, and there will be hardly any life in us. Our own life is somehow frozen by the death of the beloved ones.

Frozen life, that means nothing else than life confined to the past, indeed Mary is staring into the empty tomb, caught up in hurting memories, no moves, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb” but I cannot follow him anymore, life without any future direction, no way to go, just staring into an empty tomb.

Two angles sitting there where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. What an encounter, messengers from God. Why are you weeping? Her answer is self-revealing: “«They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.» They have taking away my Lord, they have taken away all I had, my Lord, even my memories have no place to focus on. I do no know where to go.

Yes, human bodies, corpses can be taken away, they can be burned to ashes, they can be rotten, they can be disposed and displaced, by not the Lord, the Son of God, for he is there, standing right in front of her, but Mary is unable to recognize him. As her whole mind is still taken up by the search for a corpse, a body, which she still addresses as “my Lord”, her only hope is that the person next to her is the gardener, who – for what reason ever – has taken care of the corpse: «Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.»

I will take him away, I will take my Lord though he is dead with me, I will never let him go. His body is all what I have. Her desire for Christ is so strong that she even wants to embrace his death.

However, the Lord is far more than a dead body, a corpse to be taken with. He addresses the desperate women with her own name, “Mary!” Only then she is able to recognize him. “Rabbuni,” My teacher, my Lord, there he is, in the reach of her own arms, yet the risen Christ prevent her from clinging to him. His body does not belong to her, noli me tangere, do not touch me. I do not belong to you now at this tomb. You are not to embrace me right now.

“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” This is the core sentence of the encounter with the risen Christ. This is the message which Mary is supposed to witness to the followers of Christ.

Christ is risen, but not in such a way that we (out of ourselves) can grasp him with our own hands and arms. He does not belong to our sphere, not to be reintegrated into our daily life, in stead, ascension indicates the direction. Ascending to his father, who is also our father, ascending to his God who is also our God.

Christ’s resurrection is not an example of immortality for the biological life on earth, instead his resurrection is meant to draw us into the life-giving community with his heavenly Father.

The challenge for us, whatever we embrace with our own arms on earth, cannot be preserved by us, subjected to death, evoking memories confined to the past, never able to satisfy our desire for life.

It is the risen Christ, addressing us, with our own name, who is not to be embraced according our own desires. Only the way he gives himself to us is the right way to embrace him as the risen one, (life not simply to be retrieved, reanimated, but to be transformed). Yet so often our own desire wants to grasp, to hold life back in the sphere of death. Where life is mingled with death, as it is the reality on this earth, there will by suffering and mourning, for one of us will be gone, and the other has to bear his or her loss by mourning.

Our life here on earth is interlarded with tombs and graves. And every one of them reminds us of a loss. But as the risen Christ told Mary “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” There is this promise of eternal life in the community with our heavenly father, where death no longer can interfere by cutting of life-lines and loving relationships. Imagine, there is this promised place in the bosom of our heavenly father devoid of graves, the place where the mournful past will be recovered by the full extent of life. And it all depends on the encounter with the risen Lord, who is not a dead corpse to be displaced. No, his voice is already her, and actually, when we celebrate Eucharist, he will be here in the midst of us with his risen body. He will draw us into the community with the triune God, as the Apostle Paul has witnessed:

“I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, for He is risen.”

Amen.