Whom Are You Looking For?
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
April 11, 2004 (Easter Sunday)
John 20:1-18
John 20:1-18 ¶ 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. 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.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
¶ But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 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. 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.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 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.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 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.’” 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.
I. INTRODUCTION
Have you ever traveled somewhere and had someone you didn’t know pick you up at the airport? Whether it’s a friend of the family, or the family member of a friend, or if you’re a real big-shot, a hired driver, there’s always this nervousness because you don’t know who you’re looking for and the person meeting you doesn’t know who they’re looking for either. If you’re lucky, you’ve each been given a good description of the person. If you’re really lucky—or you’re a real big-shot—they’re standing there waiting with a placard with your name on it. Finding someone is a lot easier when you know who you’re looking for.
II. THE GOSPEL
Which is what makes tonight’s scripture lesson so curious. Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb early on Sunday morning and discovers the stone has been rolled away. She returns and fetches Simon Peter and the Beloved Disciple who return to the tomb with her. Peter enters the tomb, but finds only the linens that Jesus had been buried in. Then, we are told, they return to their homes.
Mary lingers and weeps at the tomb. She encounters two angels who ask her why she is weeping. She turns and encounters Jesus, but she doesn’t recognize him and supposes that he is the gardener. But then Jesus says to her, “Mary” and she recognizes him and calls himRabbouni “Teacher”.
Why doesn’t Mary recognize Jesus? She was going to his tomb. She had known him for some time. What is it that prevents her from finding the one she was looking for?
III. WHOM ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
How much worse off are we, then, who do not have the benefit of actually having known Jesus in person. How can we find the real Jesus?
A. The Quest of the Historical Jesus
Well, we have spent a fair amount of time and energy trying to do that. Beginning in the Eighteenth Century, the tools of historical criticism began to be applied to the Bible and to the study of Christian faith.
1. The Eighteenth Century
Thomas Jefferson thought he had a good idea of who Jesus was: he published a version of the Bible that lacks anything miraculous. His version of the Gospel, was a record of the deeds and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Benjamin Franklin said that he believed that Jesus of Nazareth had left us with the greatest moral system the world had ever known, but that he agreed with the English dissenters and had ‘serious doubts as to his divinity.’ In the 18th Century, it was not uncommon among many to see Jesus as the founders did—as a moral philosopher. This view is not unknown as many today still have it—including our current president who, during a 2000 presidential debate identified Christ as his favorite philosopher. Indeed, it is as a philosopher that Jesus is mostly regarded by non-Christians, as well as by a great number of Christians (as was shown by the president).
2. The 19th Century
In the 19th Century, Liberal Protestantism produced a fair number of Biblical scholars—mostly in Germany—who sought to discover the historical Jesus. Interestingly, after the result of the laborious research by these 19th century academics, they determined who the Jesus of history actually was. Not surprisingly, he looked an awful lot like a 19th Century German academic.
This fact was pointed out by Dr. Albert Schweitzer in his landmark book The Quest of the Historical Jesus in which he pointed out that the Jesus people find is the Jesus they go looking for. Schweitzer himself believed that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet. In the process of identifying Jesus this way, he showed that his contemporaries were so uncomfortable and unfamiliar with apocalyptic language that they failed to see Jesus as the one thing he spent the most time talking about. His view has been very influential and is persuasive—but that has not meant it is the last word on the topic.
3. Recent Trends and The Jesus Seminar
No, in recent memory there have been all kinds of interpretations of Jesus: he was a social and moral conservative; he was a radical and a revolutionary. He was prophet of love and peace. He was a teacher of the Law. Interpretations abound.
In recent years, the Jesus Seminar has been at the forefront of declaring what can be known about the historical Jesus. Through their somewhat questionable methods of voting on the authenticities of Jesus’ sayings and their questionable Biblical scholarship—particularly of their most visible spokesman, Bishop Spong—they have identified a Jesus who looks like a wandering cynic preacher who said a lot of nice things and preached a message of tolerance. They have a somewhat more difficult task of explaining why such an inoffensive and bland figure would earn the ire of the religious and political authorities to the point of his crucifixion.
But our hunger to know and to find the real Jesus is never sated. Every year at this time, the big three news weeklies: Time, Newsweek, andUS News & World Reports publish their “Jesus” issue. Whether it’s pandering or journalistic recognition of a desire to know, these magazines are designed to feed the appetite of the public to know about Jesus. I note that a recent issue of US News & World Reports has as its cover story “The Real Jesus”.
But no matter how much we read or debate about the historical Jesus, we still cannot be assured that we have found the real Jesus. The one we come looking for on this Easter Sunday.
IV. WHOM DO WE FIND?
Because ultimately, the Church is not a historical society, but a community of faith, and the questions we have cannot be answered by historical observation alone, but require theological reflection.
A. King, Messiah, and Son of God
We have done a fair amount of theological reflection over the past several weeks. We have explored what we meant when we made certain confessions about Jesus Christ. Just before Lent, we looked at what it was we meant when we called Jesus the “Son of God” and talked about Jesus as the one through whom we see the image of God the Father.
On Palm Sunday, we talked about what it was to confess Jesus as Christ and Messiah. On Maundy Thursday it was as “Lord and Teacher” as we sought to understand his example of servant-humility in the washing of feet, and what that meant for us as his followers.
On Good Friday, it was as “King” that we sought to understand him, given Pilate’s declaration “Behold your King!” and the sign that was hung over the cross “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
B. The Resurrected One
But there is one other way we understand Jesus on Easter Sunday: the Resurrected One. Were it not for the Resurrection, no one would be calling Jesus King, Messiah, or Lord. And probably not even “teacher” as he would likely have faded into obscurity as another Jew executed at the hands of the Romans.
It is remarkable sometimes that even though Easter is the cornerstone of Christian faith, how little it seems to figure into people’s understandings of Jesus. We so often fixate on his teaching, on his example, on his politics, his death and suffering, and what those things mean, that we forget to look at what it was he meant.
To the early church, to those disciples cowering in their homes, the Resurrection signified the ultimate reversal of fortune. Defeat had become victory, sorrow had become joy, death had become life. And not only for Jesus, but for all of us. As we read in the first letter of Peter:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1Pet. 1:3)
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead showed that God was faithful to his promises. Justice would be brought to this unjust world. The innocent crucified had been raised. Peace would be brought to this broken world: the pierced one had been restored to wholeness. Life would be brought to this world overrun by death: the one whom we sought in the empty tomb “who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here” (Mark 16:6)
We sometimes forget the meaning of Easter, so caught up are we in the other things we want to know about Jesus, that we forget the one thing the church has been proclaiming about Jesus since day one: Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah!
And with Jesus, we also share in the promises of God. As St. Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthians:
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. (1 Cor. 15:20-22)
I submit that that’s a bigger deal than being a philosopher, an academic, or a wandering cynic. The Jesus we find is so much more. So much greater—so much more of an indication of God’s grace and abundant mercy.
So long as we go looking for a Jesus who is less than life from death, we will likely continue to find only Jesuses who look like us in some way. When we encounter the real thing, we’ll be as unknowing as poor Mary Magdalene beside the garden tomb.
V. CONCLUSION: THE ONE SEEKING US
Mary Magdalene had known Jesus in life and yet still had not realized that she had encountered him. How much worse off are we, who not only did not know Jesus during his earthly ministry, but who consistently and constantly get him wrong in our understandings of him? What chance do we ever have of finding the real Christ? Especially given the fact that the Jesus we find is often the Jesus we go looking for?
Well, fortunately for us, it’s not about our ability to find Christ, but about God’s desire to find us. If there’s one thing Easter should convince us is that God is at work in the world. God is turning the tables on our prejudices, our fears, our alienation, and even our death. The cross shows the degree to which God is willing to go to bring us into reconciliation with God. God does not do this out of God’s need but our own. The Resurrection is the vindication of our hopes in God.
We are still limited—in our abilities, in our intellect, in our wisdom, and in our love. Were it up to us alone, we would wander around the garden forever, looking for our salvation without success. But it is not up to us alone: The Resurrected One stands there beside us, waiting for us, and calling us each by name.
