An Easter Meditation: Mary Magdalene & Today's Tragedies

John 20:11-18 (NRSV)

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.

This chapter tells the story of how the disciples came to believe in Jesus' resurrection from the dead. And since this is the week of Easter, I thought we might do well to visit this story. Plus, that's where my mind is, so you get what is on my mind today.

Jesus' disciples had a hard time understanding two important things. First, they couldn't understand that he had to die. If Jesus had been a criminal, it would have made sense. If Jesus had just been a provocative teacher with no extraordinary power, that too might have seemed plausible. But they had seen Jesus do amazing things. He had turned water into wine. Jesus healed the son of a royal official. Then he made a lame man walk. He fed 5,000 people with only a few loaves and small fish. He walked on water, opened the eyes of a blind man, and even raised Lazarus from the dead. How could this kind of powerful leader ever die? So they had a hard enough time with the fact that Jesus had to die.

Second, once he was dead, they couldn't comprehend that he would rise again. Dead is dead. True, Jesus raised one person from death to life. But when the person through whom God worked that miracle was dead, how could he perform a miracle on himself. "Sorry to pour ice water on your silly dreams," they might have said, "but dead people can't perform miracles."

But in the famous words of Max the Miracle Worker (played by Billy Crystal), "Oh, look who knows so much!" Jesus, however, wasn't mostly dead. He was all dead. What hope is there for the dead? What hope is there for us, when dreams are shattered and plans ruined? Jesus' disciples needed a little hope.

And perhaps we too could use some hope. If you pay even the slightest bit of attention to what's happening in the world, it can seem as if we live in a hopeless age. A plane goes missing over the Indian Ocean. "Our faith sustains us," said the parents of one American passenger. But hope in what?

A ferry capsizes off the coast of Korea, and several hundred high-school students are feared to be dead. One student sent a heartbreaking text message from the hull of the sinking ship, "Mom, this might be my last chance to tell you that I love you." Mom quickly replied, but there was no response. What hope is there that he survived?

A bus carrying potential college students from the rough barrios of LA up to Humboldt State gets slammed into by a FedEx truck. Both drivers died. Several chaperones, too. And some of the students were burned so badly that their parents have been asked to provide dental records. How can you hope in the face of such tragedy?

This is the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. Two angry young men who had been given the warm embrace of our country repaid the debt by killing and maiming ordinary people in the midst of the joyous celebrations at the marathon's finish line. Why? They were supposedly angry about our country's mistreatment of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. What hope is there in the face of such warped hatred?

And then there's the personal wreckage present in some of our lives. As much as we'd like, we can't go back and repair failed relationships. We can't save our kids from the pain we've put them through. We can’t erase what we've endured or experienced. It's forever there, burned into our minds. We are helpless to escape its grasp. What hope can we have?

Honestly, I don’t really know what hope there is for all the despair and pain in our world. But I know that with desperation, we should look to the example of Mary. With tears in her eyes, she hunted for Jesus. She didn't understand the resurrection or even the possibility of the resurrection. But with tears in her eyes, she wouldn't give up. She frantically searched. She begged strangers for help. In the midst of despair, she kept looking for Jesus.

If Mary can teach us anything, it's that the desperate search for answers is not wrong. Mary refused to give up.Folks won't always find the answer they're looking for, but Jesus has a way of turning up to comfort those who need it most.

It's like a woman I knew who was riding a cruise ship. Her life was filled with such despair that she stood on the deck and contemplated throwing herself into the waters below. In bitter desperation, she called out to a God in whom she didn't really believe. She wept and begged God to become known to her and lead her out of hopelessness. At that moment, she received an indescribable feeling that God was really there. She says that God told her not to fear. Today, that woman is a committed Christian whose life has changed dramatically.

In the midst of hopelessness, Mary Magdalene found an answer beyond her wildest dreams. It's an answer that some still find today. She found a resurrected Jesus. And when she found Jesus, she wouldn't let him go.