Night and Day

I've been watching the series "House" on TV lately. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, the show is about a brilliant doctor who diagnoses all the really difficult cases that other people can't figure out. He's a difficult personality, with absolutely no bedside manner, so for the most part; his team handles interactions with patients. He steers clear of patients and other relationships as well, because they aren't completely subject to logic, and they are not within his control. He prefers the clarity and rationality of medical science. People of faith drive him crazy-whenever someone turns to God, he goes out of his way to prove to them that they have been healed by science, and not by God. God is too inexplicable and too uncontrollable for him.

As we gather today to celebrate the greatest feast day in the Christian year-the resurrection of our Lord-we have to admit that resurrection really is not explicable. And it is certainly outside our experience and outside our control. In the world as we know it, death is final. People die, we bury them and that's the end of the story.

Even the first disciples, the ones who knew Jesus in the flesh, weren't expecting resurrection. Mary Magdalene woke up early on Sunday and went to weep at Jesus' grave-just as any of us who have lost someone might do. We know the person is gone, but we seek a shred of comfort by being near their mortal remains-all that is left of them in this world.

John's gospel tells us that it was still dark when Mary Magdalene went out. Light and dark are highly symbolic in this gospel. Dark stands for confusion, lack of faith, sin and death. Light stands for truth, faith, life and Christ himself. At the very beginning of the gospel, in the prologue, we are told that the true light which enlightens everyone, is coming into the world.

It was still dark when Mary Magdalene went out early that day because sin and death still held sway. Jesus was dead and hope was annihilated. The darkness seemed to have won. When Mary arrived at the tomb, and saw the stone rolled away, she did not immediately think, "Alleluia, the Lord is risen!" Instead, she concluded that Jesus' enemies had added insult to injury by stealing his body. She ran off to tell the others, and Peter and the other disciple race each other to get to the tomb first to see what has happened. That foot race is a curious detail-I will return to that shortly. Anyway, the two of them peer into the tomb and see that it is empty except for the grave cloths lying on the ground.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he was still wrapped in his grave cloths. The symbolism is that Lazarus was restored to this life-he was still mortal and would face death in the future-death still clung to him in the form of grave cloths. But Jesus was raised to a new life in which death has no place. He left death behind in the tomb with the grave cloths.

For most of the disciples, the empty tomb wasn't enough to convince them that Jesus was alive. Even seeing him wasn't enough because they didn't recognize him right away. Mary Magdalene thought he was the gardener. Later that same day, the other disciples thought he was a ghost. He had changed somehow-resurrection life is not just a continuation of this life-it is a transformation. It makes sense that they didn't recognize him right away-we don't look at a butterfly and recognize the caterpillar that it used to be.

But Jesus appears to the disciples and helps them to recognize him. His exchange with Mary is one of the most moving scenes in the New Testament. She is weeping because his body is gone, and he appears and asks her why she is weeping and whom she is looking for? She still doesn't recognize him, but thinking he is the gardener says, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. " Then he says her name, and at the sound of his voice saying her name she recognizes him. Just as Jesus had said, the Good Shepherd knows his sheep by name, and they recognize his voice. And suddenly, the darkness is dispelled-the truth begins to dawn on her that Jesus is alive!

But I want to go back to the disciple who raced Peter to the tomb. He is never named in John's gospel. He is identified simply as the disciple whom Jesus loved, or the beloved disciple. He is the one who reclined next to Jesus at the last supper, and leaned against his chest. When Jesus was on the cross, he entrusted his mother Mary to this disciple, saying, "Woman, behold your son." And, "Behold your mother."

John includes several interesting details about this disciple. He raced to the tomb ahead of Peter. When he got there and looked in, John tells us that he believed. He had not seen the risen Lord, or heard his voice, or touched him. He hadn't really grasped what resurrection meant. He just believed.

He trusted God. He didn't need proof. He just had faith. Someone asked me the other day who this disciple was. Tradition tells us that he is John, the son of Zebedee, the author of this gospel. But many believe that he is left unnamed because he represents us. We too have not seen or heard or touched the risen Lord, at least not in a physical sense. We too are invited to believe without seeing or hearing or touching-to trust God and have faith. It's not explicable and it's not controllable. House wouldn't like it at all.

But for those who believe, it is the difference between night and day. To trust God and to have faith that the light will conquer the darkness makes all the difference in our lives. If we accept on faith that Jesus rose from the dead in order to free us from sin and death, our lives will be transformed. We need not fear the past, with our mistakes and our guilt. We need not fear the future, because God has defeated death and evil. Jesus' resurrection is only the most visible part of the redemption that is taking place in a hidden way all around us. Love has been revealed to be the most powerful force in the universe, and therefore, our hope in the future is inextinguishable.

The present too, has been transformed, because when we go look for Jesus, as Mary Magdalene or Peter or the beloved disciple did, we will find him. He is alive, and though we may not be able to hear or see or touch him, we can have a relationship with him, as intimate and close as that of the beloved disciple.

It is in relationship with him that we become truly alive. He invites us to leave our own tombs behind and follow him into new life-his life-a life of love and service, healing and reconciliation. He sets us free from fear, so that we have more room in our hearts for love and creativity. As we walk with Jesus in faith, in the power of the resurrection, we may find ourselves so transformed that people have trouble recognizing us. We'll be as different as day is from night.