69 - The Resurrection

John 20:1-25

Jesus and Mary Magdalene - Titian

The resurrection is the central, pivotal event of Christianity.

God raising Jesus from the dead transformed the dispirited disciples into the beginning of a world wide faith which proclaimed a new kind of kingdom, a kingdom of God.

This new kingdom transformed people, and it could transform society.

The day started with a woman, Mary Magdalene, alerting Peter and the disciple Jesus loved, that the tomb was empty.  They ran to the empty tomb, examined the evidence, and returned to their quarters.

And then we have one of the most vivid scenes in scripture.  

Mary is distraught.  She goes back into the tomb, and encounters two angels in white.  They ask her why she is weeping.

"They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."  Not 'the Lord'; 'my Lord.'

She turns and encounters a man she takes to be the gardener.   

"Why are you weeping?  For whom are you looking?"

We can imagine the desperation in her voice as she says:  "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."

Then the "gardener" says her name:  "Mary."  And she knows who he is.  "Rabbouni," she says.

Then he sends her to proclaim the good news, the gospel, to the disciples.  She is the apostle to the apostles.  She goes and says as she is directed:

"I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

Later he appeared to the disciples who were hiding behind locked doors, and he commissioned them, breathed the Holy Spirit on them, and gave them authority to forgive sins.  This power, and the significance of forgiveness in Christian piety and ethics, could have a powerful transforming effect for the Christian community.