Super Sunday

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 9, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 20:1-18.

            It’s the big day!  It’s Easter!  They call the day of the Super Bowl “Super Sunday”, but for a Christian today is Super Sunday!  This is the day we celebrate the risen Jesus, who defeated death, not just for himself, but for all of us.  Jesus, who died so that our sins would be forgiven, rose again so that we would know we can have eternal life in heaven!

            We celebrate this day, and we should celebrate this day.  But at the start of that first Easter Sunday, nobody was celebrating.  Nobody knew what had happened.  Remember, on Good Friday, Jesus was killed.  He was dead.  His dead, lifeless body was placed in the tomb, really more like a cave.  A huge stone was put in front of it.  No one could get in or out.  And of course, since the next day was the Sabbath, nobody even tried to get in or out.  Everyone--literally everyone--assumed that Jesus’ lifeless body remained where it had been placed, in the tomb.

            Before sunrise on that first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb.  Other gospels mention other women who were with her.  She sees that the stone has been removed from the entrance.  And she’s shocked.  More than shocked, she’s horrified.  Not only have they killed Jesus, but now it looks like they have not even left his body in peace.  She comes running back to where the disciples are.  She finds Simon Peter and John.  For all we know, they might have been still asleep.  She’s probably crying.  She tells them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

            Simon Peter and John run to the tomb.  We don’t know what they expected to find.  We don’t know what they thought they were going to do.  But they had to go and see for themselves.  John gets there first.  He stands at the entrance, looking at the linen grave clothes with no one inside.  Then Simon Peter gets there and runs right into the tomb.  He sees the grave clothes, too.  And then they left.  They went back to where they were staying.

            The reading tells us “They saw and believed.”  But it also tells us that they still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.  So what, exactly, did they believe?  They believed that Jesus was not there, obviously.  Did they believe that he had risen, that he was alive?  Did they believe he was the Savior, the divine Son of God?  Or did they just believe that the body had been moved or something?

            We don’t know.  But they left.  Mary Magdalene did not leave.  Mary stayed at the tomb.  And two angels appeared.  We don’t know if Mary Magdalene recognized them as angels, we’re just told that’s what they were.  They ask her why she’s crying.  She tells them it’s because they’ve taken Jesus’ body away and she does not know where it is.  Then she turns around.

            And there’s Jesus.  She does not recognize him, either.  He, too, asks Mary Magdalene why she’s crying.  She tells him.  And then, Jesus says her name.  And she knows.  She knows.  Jesus is not dead.  He’s alive.  And the celebration starts!  She does not know how this happened.  She does not really understand why it happened.  She does not know how this is even possible.  But none of those things matter.  This is Mary Magdalene’s Super Sunday.  The celebration can begin!  Mary Magdalene knows Jesus is alive, and that’s all she needs to know.

            The first appearance of Jesus, after he rose from the dead, was to Mary Magdalene.  Why do you suppose that is?  Why not appear to Simon Peter and John?  Why not appear to someone else?  Why Mary Magdalene?

            Well, for one thing, she was there.  Simon Peter and John had gone out to the tomb, of course.  But the way this is written, it sounds like they came, they looked around for a minute or two, and they left.  Jesus is gone.  Huh.  How about that?  And they went away. They thought they’d seen all there was to it.  Time to move along.  Nothing to see here.  

Mary Magdalene did not leave.  She stayed there.  She did not know what had happened, but she stayed.  She stayed in the last place she had seen Jesus.  In her mind, there was nowhere else to go.

Mary Magdalene made herself available to the Lord.  She was not just coincidentally in the right place at the right time.  She decided that if she could not go to where the Lord was, she would stay where the Lord had been.  She would wait for him to come back.  She put herself in that place, so that the Lord could speak to her at that time.  She had enough faith, and enough trust, to wait for Jesus even when he was nowhere to be found.  And she was rewarded for her faith and her trust.

            I think that’s a lesson for us.  There are times in our lives when we really are trying to find the Lord.  There are times when things are not going right, or when we have hard decisions to make, or we just know that something’s missing in our lives.  We’d like to have God give us some guidance, tell us what to do.  Or maybe we’d just like to feel God’s presence, to know God is there with us.  And it seems like we don’t hear anything or feel anything.

            Some of us have had that happen.  Maybe it’s happening for some of us now.  If not, it may at some point in the future.  When it does, think about this.  Are you making yourself available to God?  Are you putting yourself in a place where the Lord can speak to you?

            Maybe you are.  But I think there are times when we think we are, but we’re actually not.  I know I’ve done that.  I don’t have the patience to wait.  I don’t hear from God, so I start running around, trying to do stuff on my own.  I go here and go there, I do this and do that.  I think I’m trying to find God, but the fact is that I’m doing things my own way.  And it’s only when I stop running, when I slow down, or even stop, that I actually hear from God.  And often it’s when I go back to the last place I heard from God, and patiently wait there, that I find him again.

            That’s one of the things prayer is about, really.  Too many times, when we pray, we ask God to do certain things for us.  And that’s okay–Jesus told us that we’re allowed to ask God for things.  But sometimes, we need to just pray that God’s Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us.  

When we do that, we’re not asking for God to do anything specific.  We’re not telling God to lead us in a certain direction.  We’re just asking God to lead us.  We’re just asking to be in God’s presence.  We’re just patiently waiting, making ourselves available to God, so God can speak to us if God chooses to do so.

            And look again at Mary Magdalene's reaction.  As soon as Jesus says her name, Mary Magdalene immediately recognizes him.  And she rejoices!  She knows it’s Jesus.  Again, she does not ask any questions.  She does not ask how.  She does not ask why.  She does not ask how this is possible.  She just rejoices that this is Jesus.  She feels unbelievable joy that Jesus, who she saw killed and put into a tomb, is alive.  Again, none of the questions matter.  Mary Magdalene does not need to know the answers.  This is Super Sunday!  Jesus is alive!  Mary Magdalene knows that, and that’s all she needs to know.

            Contrast that to how the disciples reacted.  We’ve talked about Simon Peter and John going to the tomb for a few minutes and then leaving.  But then, that evening, Jesus comes to the disciples.  He says peace be with you.  But they did not rejoice.  They did not immediately respond at all.  Then Jesus shows them his hands, with the nail prints in them, and his side, which had been pierced by the sword.  It was then that they believed.  But only then.  They needed evidence to believe it was Jesus.  Mary Magdalene did not.  She believed immediately.

            Now, the disciples eventually got there.  And that’s okay.  Jesus did not get mad at them or anything.  But the thing is, by demanding proof, they cheated themselves.  They cheated themselves of the spontaneous, overwhelming, overflowing joy that Mary Magdalene felt.  They cheated themselves out of Super Sunday.  Again, Jesus did not condemn them for it.  They did not sin by doing this.  But they missed out on some of the joy.  Jesus’ best friends, the ones who’d been with him for all the years of his ministry, missed out on some of the joy of his resurrection.  They missed out on Super Sunday.  And that’s kind of sad.

            So where are you?  And where am I?  Are we like Mary Magdalene, ready to rejoice, ready to have Super Sunday today?  Or are we like the disciples, still demanding more evidence?  Not sinning by doing so, but missing out on some of the joy of Jesus’ resurrection.

            My prayer for all of us, including myself, is that we have Super Sunday today.  Let’s make ourselves available to God.  Let’s be where we can find God and wait there, trusting that God is going to come.  And when God comes, let’s recognize Him and rejoice!  Like Mary Magdalene, let’s know that Jesus is alive, and that’s all we need to know.  It’s Super Sunday!