Christ is risen, who gets it?

John 20:1-18

            I have spoken about energy suckers (those that seem to drain life out of you) and energy givers (those whose presence always makes you feel better, alive, appreciative). Today is Easter Sunday! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Today is a energy giver if ever there is one! What more joyous day could there possibly be? Not only has Jesus taught us the way he has wiped the slate clean, giving us eternal hope and the promise of new life. We are heirs to the kingdom! 

               I hasten to note a few things though about today's passage from John (The disciple whom Jesus loved).  First, it was the women who were the first to witness the Resurrection. I note that because somehow in the translation from the time of Jesus to Rome and a very euro-centric male dominated church, that fact is sadly forgotten and hardly appreciated. The fact that Jesus ministered to, made friends with and appreciated women as worthy as men to receive and live the good news. It was just one more radical 'agenda' item that Jesus lived and showed us. The message received by the outcasts, the marginalized.

              Perhaps related to the first item is that the men doubted what the women were saying. I'll let that stand on it's own. The real point I'd like to make is that doubt. Here today we have been given the world. All that is perceived dead can rejoice, all that is ill can flourish again. We have a new beginning, eternal life born of of death in Jesus' rising to new life. What kind of 2x4 do we need to be whacked with to get it?  The disciples doubted it after they were repeatedly told what was going to happen. They will not even recognize Jesus as they walk along with him (on the road to Emmaus).  I suppose it is folly to think we may get it any better than they did then but look alive people! Jesus IS risen! The butterfly has emerged from the cocoon. The old is brand new. We are brand new. We have been graced with incredible gifts. Are we so blind that we cannot see what we have been graced with? 

            The women got it. The men, not so much.  Let's not waste any time digesting what has happened here. We have been granted clemency, our sentences commuted. We are free as the butterfly and no longer bound by the chains that have held us down. 

             Jesus Christ is Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

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.