Teacher! (Holy Week III)

Teacher! (Holy Week III) from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.

Isaiah 25:6-9
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all people a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
7And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is cast over all nations; 
8He will swallow up death forever. Then the LORD GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.
9It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

John 20:1-18
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. 2So 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.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrapping lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and 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. 13They 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.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus 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.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus 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.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord;” and she told them that he had said these things to her.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

1. We started this Holy Week with a parade.
1. Baptism-wilderness-entry-upper room-cross.
2. We are by no means prepared for the empty tomb.
2. We come to Jesus in the dark. 
1. “Human interpretation (or misunderstanding) of the empty tomb does not determine its significance.”
3. Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus because she’s not expecting him. She’s expecting fear and grief. Not even the appearance of the two angels can re-form Mary’s anguish into joy. But as soon as Jesus calls her name, everything in her changes. “Rabbouni! (which means Teacher)”
4. At the moment of resurrection, even before any disciples have seen or believed or spread the good news, everything has changed and it cannot go back to the way it was. 
1. “The close bond between disciple and teacher cannot be resumed on the old terms.”
5. "For it is he and no other, Jesus the son of God, who is the representative man, the second Adam…Because he has an identity, mankind has identity, each man in his particularity as the adopted brother of Jesus.”
6. Jesus not only calls Mary by her name, he calls us also, and sends us back to the community to connect with other disciples around this scary-good news. He calls us out into the world and calls us around this table where all persons are fed, body and soul.
7. We have died to sin and joined in Christ’s resurrection! All those expectations have fallen away in that death. Now all that’s left is a re-formed person able to be the self that God created. We have the freedom to echo Mary's original proclamation of the gospel: "I have seen The Lord." We may not have seen him in he he flesh, but we have seen him in the body that gathers around this table to be fed body and soul by his presence among us. With the full assurance of the gospel and God's resurrecting presence among us, we proclaim throughout all the ages that Jesus Christ is Risen today. Alleluia, amen.