“Can We Blame Her?” was preached at First Presbyterian Church of Allentown, PA on Easter Morning, April 4, 2021. This was my sermon of the three sermons preached by me and my colleagues that day. This service took place outside in the Memorial Garden, so there is no recording of the sermon.
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Do you believe what you cannot see?
This Easter morn, as we gather to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, do you believe what you cannot see? Yes, I’m talking about the resurrection and all that comes with it.
Love? Life? Hope? – What guides you these days? What do you believe will come next?
Now of course you like me believe in the resurrection. You didn’t have to be there with Mary that morning to know it is true! And because you like me believe in the resurrection, you never questioned the resurrection, unlike Mary! You never questioned why Jesus died a few days earlier or why the tomb is now empty. And because we believe in the resurrection and the love, life, and hope that comes with it, we never questioned how God was at work in a year of pandemic and mass shootings and countless deaths.
Oh wait.. Oh… wait…
I have. Maybe you have too.. maybe we are like Mary.
Mary Magdelene came to the tomb early one morning, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. Her first thought is a logical one; she accuses that Jesus had been taken from the tomb and laid elsewhere. When she brought Peter and the disciple Jesus loved to the tomb, they went in, saw Jesus was missing, and went back to their homes.
But Mary – in her disbelief – stayed. She wept outside of the tomb. When two angels appeared to her while she was weeping, she accuses that Jesus had been taken from the tomb and laid elsewhere once again. It is in that moment Jesus appears before her… and once more, with Jesus himself in front of her, Mary accuses that Jesus had been taken from the tomb and laid elsewhere.
But can we blame her? Just a few days earlier, her Lord, her teacher, her friend – Jesus – was put to death on the cross before her very eyes. She experienced everything firsthand from the moment Jesus was sentenced to death to the moment they laid his body in the tomb.
Mary believed what she experienced to be true. So when the tomb was empty, it was not easy for Mary to instantly believe in something she didn’t just experience, like that her Lord had been raised and was alive once again. She could only believe what was true for her. She saw his death so death is what she trusted.
And can we blame her?!
We know tragedy. We know sorrow. We know death, especially after this last year, especially after the latest mass shootings. Countless deaths. That is our truth.
And Resurrection goes against all the evidence, what we see and experience in this world, especially as of late.
There is something about Mary weeping outside of the tomb before she believes the resurrection that is so… relatable. There is something about Mary accusing for three times that Jesus’ body had been taken that is relatable too.
Because how many times have we broken down in sadness or frustration or anger this past year? Or how many times have we accused another person of being wrong? Like telling a teacher or pastor or a grocery store worker how to do their job or like negating someone’s grief with an unsolicited silver lining? I’m guilty too..
You see – it’s easier for us to live in our experience and what we know to be true – and believe that that truth and experience is the same for everyone else. Especially in times of immense sorrow and grief.
But look what Jesus does for Mary. She is so lost in her truth that she fails to see him before her. But he calls her by name and her eyes are opened. And she sees the Lord! The resurrection! The life, the love, the hope!
So too the Lord calls you by name. Don’t be so distracted by your truth that you fail to see what is right before you. The risen Christ is standing before us. The resurrection is our truth. The love, light, and the hope it brings is our truth. Yours, mine, and ours. Something we share as a truth together.
A quote from Star Wars:
“Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it...You'll never make it through the night.”
Do you believe what you cannot see?
In our darkest days, we believe in the collective truth. We believe in the resurrection. We have seen the Lord!
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