Looking for Signs of Resurrection

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, April 12, 2020
John 20:1-18

    I went down to our basement last week to get our Easter decorations out, and I noticed this amaryllis growing that I had thrown down there by a window in January.  We were going to repot it, but I ran out of time and simply forgot about it….until last week, there it was, growing a green shoot again like it did when we first bought it before Christmas, without honestly any water or new soil or attention at all for months!  Life was there, and life was possible for this plant all along, but I had somehow missed it – I figured it was dead and that I had probably killed it, like I tend to do with house plants eventually.  God gives us signs of hope and promises of new life in the strangest and smallest of ways sometimes, and yet it is those very signs that sustain us and reassure us when life is difficult, when we gather together for worship around a computer or tablet or TV screen for an Easter we will never forget.  This Easter, I want you to think about, “What is your amaryllis in the basement?”  What are those signs of new life and hope God is blessing you with, that you may not notice right away?  Where has God surprised you with resurrection?
    I have always loved that John’s telling of the first Easter highlights the fact that Jesus was buried and raised in a garden.  Remember that Adam and Eve, our first ancestors, began their lives in a garden.  Their sin banished them from that garden.  The last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, promises the new Jerusalem will include a garden with leaves of healing for the nations.  It is significant that Christ, the “second Adam,” is buried and raised in a garden.  Christ’s resurrection in the garden means that we can rise with him, in that heavenly garden of Revelation.  That promise remains true every Easter, whether we’re celebrating that good news at home or in church.  
At first, Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus for the gardener.  The One who is raised to life so that we might have eternal life is first recognized as the one who is responsible for cultivating life in a garden.  And for those of us who don’t have much of our usual symbols or rituals to cling to this Easter, we still have God’s promise of new life right outside our windows and on our solitary walks as we see trees blooming, grass turning green, and even plants that may be stored in our basement growing green shoots: spring comes after winter and life comes after death.  God’s power to create and restore all things to life is more powerful than any evil, death-dealing bad news we might be wrestling with even now.
    Jesus asks Mary, “Whom are you looking for?”  It is the same exact question Jesus asked the first disciples way back in the first chapter of John, and Mary responds the same exact way, “Rabbouni, Teacher!”  And similarly, just as Jesus sends the first disciples out to share the good news about him to others, Jesus send Mary to tell the good news to the other disciples and beyond that she has seen the Lord.  Mary is afraid.  Mary is grief-stricken.  An empty tomb doesn’t mean good news to her at first – it means someone has stolen Jesus’ body.  Tomb robberies were common in those days.  She assumes the worst.  Her grief and fear alter her ability to see Jesus clearly so that for a few moments, she misses the miraculous power of new life that is literally staring her in the face.
    Wow, can we relate to Mary’s Easter experience right now or what?!  Maybe we’re not even quite sure WHAT or WHO we are looking for right now, other than some alternative to the radically altered life we’ve been living these last few weeks.  Our grief, our anxiety, our fear can blind us to seeing much of any good news, even on Easter morning.  Let me ask you again, what is your “amaryllis in the basement?” What is a good-news moment or resurrection promise you have found to encourage you and give you hope in these trying times?  In the barrage of bad news we can easily surround ourselves with these days, how can you make space in your lives for God’s good news to get in, to change how you see things so that you are able to say with relief, with joy, and with hope, “I have seen the Lord.”  And, like Mary, like those first disciples, how can you not only see good news for yourself but share that good news with others who so desperately need to hear it?!  Yes, things are not normal or as they usually “should” be this Easter morning, but as people of faith we proudly and boldly strive to proclaim along with Mary, “We have seen the Lord.”  New life is still possible.  Christ’s resurrection is also ours.  That is why we gave thanks for the gift of baptism this morning, to remember that nothing can take God’s promise of life with him away from us.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.