Photo by Kendra McDermott taken before the sunrise service at Cooks Point Methodist in Caldwell, TX on Easter morning.

Calling Your Name (An excerpt from the Easter sermon)

John 20: 1-18

FOCUS:  Mary recognized Jesus the Christ when she heard her name; Jesus is calling us, too.

MARY

Mary knew it was Jesus when she heard him speak her name.  

She heard a voice she thought she would never hear again, but at first it wasn’t familiar.  Mary knew grief, perhaps deeper than ever before in her life. She knew abandonment and she knew loneliness, but perhaps never like she did that morning. 

Mary started toward the tomb of Jesus early in the morning, while it was still dark.  With the breaking of the sun, the Sabbath was over.  She could go to the tomb of her friend, her Lord, her teacher, and give him the love and respect in death that had been denied him so violently in his last days of life.

The four Gospel accounts vary from one another.  There are different arrangements of time, there are different people present, there are many differences.  But one person is true to all four accounts of this day that changed the world:  Mary Magdalene.  

This loyal follower of Jesus waited until the Sabbath was over, and headed toward the tomb where she had seen the body her fried, her Lord, her teacher, placed.  Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret follower of Jesus up until his death, asked Pilate, the Roman governor, for permission to take the body.

It was Friday, and the Sabbath began at sundown.  Pilate granted the permission, and Joseph came and removed the body.  Nicodemus, also a secret follower of Jesus that was among the religious leaders, and who had come secretly to Jesus one night early in John’s Gospel account, came with him.  Nicodemus brought 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes, and they wrapped the body of Jesus in linen cloths along with the fragrant mixtures, and placed the body in a tomb carved out of a rock located in a garden… in the place ..where Jesus was crucified.  A huge stone sealed the entrance to the tomb.

WHAT HAPPENED

When Mary Magdalene arrived, she saw that the tomb had been opened; the stone had been removed.  She left immediately, and ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, “the one whom Jesus loved”, to tell them what happened.

“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.  

We are not sure who the other disciple is, but traditionally we believe it is John, partly because he keeps referring to the “one that Jesus loves.”  And, he makes a point of letting us all know he outran Peter to the tomb.

The other disciple outran Peter, peeked inside and saw the linen cloths, but did not go in.  Peter ran up and just ran inside.  He saw the linen cloths 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.

The two disciples rushed there, and our scripture says they both eventually went into the tomb, saw the linen cloths seemingly put away – it’s worth noting that in another resurrection story Lazarus comes out of the tomb at Jesus’ command, but he is wrapped in his grave wrappings.  

We are told they believed, but we don’t know what they believed.  We do know what they did – they left; they went home.  

Mary remained.  Perhaps more alone than ever.  She reached out to men, one more time, and she was left.  Probably the only man in in her life who loved her for who she was and not for what she could do for him had been taken from her.  He had been betrayed by one of the group she knew, one of his own disciples. And he had been further betrayed by the religious leaders, those who were supposed to teach her and everyone else about God, who were supposed to show her the path to God.

What do we do when all seems lost?  Where do we turn when everything seems to go wrong?  Too many don’t know where to turn, they lose hope.  For too many the false promises of seeking wealth. or of the shallow relationships that pass for love or of the empty philosophies that are exposed as shams…when we put our trust, when we put our faith, in the wrong place, it can be devastating.

Suicide rates are up, particularly among young people.  Medically assisted suicides in Canada were attributed to one in 20 in 2024 — medical issues including depression, and seasonal affective disorder.  

Where do we turn when there seems to be no way out?  Hank Williams turned to drink.  The man who wrote “I Saw the Light” and so many wonderful songs died from alcoholism in the back of a car one New Year’s Eve.  He told a friend that he couldn’t see the light anymore.  

Many of us have been in dark, dark places.  Sorrow, grief, hope shattered.. 

In Jesus Mary had seen something she had never seen before:  she saw a love she had never seen before.  She saw a relationship with God, with Abba Father – Daddy! – that she had never seen before.  And the religious leaders, who kept claimed to represent the Lord of all creation, seemed so cruel and vindictive and …yes, evil.  They orchestrated the killing of Jesus by blackmailing the Roman governor, telling him Jesus had to die.  And when Pilate asked them if Jesus was the king of the Jews, and if they wanted to crucify their king, they called out the saddest line in the Bible:  “We have no king but Caesar!”  These religious leaders, blind with hatred and ambition, declared Caesar their king and thereby renounced the Lord they claimed to serve.

Mary knew all that.  And she saw the beatings, and she saw the cruel taunting, and she saw the crown of thorns and the crucifixion of Jesus.  And she saw him die, and watched as his body was placed in the tomb.

And now the body was gone.  And the men she counted on for help, well, they were gone, too.  

Here’s our Scripture:

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 the 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.”  

Our Scripture paints such a vivid picture.  She’s alone and terribly sad.  She is grieving for the loss of her friend, her Lord, her teacher, and now something has happened to his body – some other act of cruelty has taken place, as if killing Jesus were not enough.  

But then, something happens – and her world, and our world, would never be the same. 

HEARING YOUR NAME

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”  She tuned 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.”  

She heard Jesus when he called her name. 

She heard what she thought she would never hear again.

Jesus was alive!

And nothing would ever be the same again!

Jesus gave her a task – she was to go and tell the news to the disciples.  (By the way, this makes Mary the first evangelist,  the first to proclaim the great news.)

Mary announced to the disciples “I have seen the Lord!” and told them all Jesus had said to her.

So let me ask you this:  what if this is true?  What if God was put to death, bearing our sins, yours and mine and all the world, and rose from the dead conquering death itself?  

What if it is true?  A gift you can’t earn, a grace you cannot even understand, a new life offered from the struggles to do everything on our own.  

We understand sin, don’t we?  We believe in such a thing as evil.  How can you look at the world and not see it?  

What if the weight of that sin was carried by Someone else?  That crushing weight you barely admit to yourself, what if Someone could take it from you?  Someone who knew the pain, someone who knew the cost, someone who would bear the weight even to the point of death? 

What if it is true?  What if the power of forgiveness, the power of love is strong enough to break the power of sin? 

All of us here know sadness.  All of us here know grief.  Most of us here know despair and deep loneliness, and may have felt like giving up.  

But don’t.

Just don’t.

In the midst of the darkest place, a dawn can come.  In the midst of the silence of loneliness, you can hear a sound.  It may not be right away, and it may get worse before it gets better, but there is a sound for all of us to hear.

There is a sound made just for you, and just for me, and just for everyone.

The sound is the giving of hope, the giving of promise, the giving of life itself:  it is the sound of Jesus calling your name.  

I hope that today, of all days, you hear that sound.  Maybe for the first time, or maybe hear it again.  

But there is nothing sweeter or more profound in the world than hearing your name called out by Jesus. 

Listen with me.

What if this is true?  

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen