This Easter Sunday sermon was preached at Glenwood and Canoe Ridge Lutheran Churches, Decorah, Iowa on April 1, 2018. It’s based on John 20:1-18. If you’d prefer to listen to it, find it at https://soundcloud.com/stacey-nalean-carlson.
Are you looking for Jesus on this Easter morning?
Where do you expect to find him?
In Nichole Nordeman’s song, Dear Me, she writes a letter to the girl she used to be, a letter to her younger self, reflecting on these questions: What would I want that girl to know? How could I help her see the world or her faith with different eyes?1
I encourage you to listen to the whole song2, but for now, here are just a few of the powerful lyrics:
You cannot imagine all the places you’ll see Jesus. But you’ll find him everywhere you thought he wasn’t supposed to go. So, go. Go! And hold all the mothers, whose babies bleed from bullet holes, and feel all the hunger, the bellies and the bones. And shout for the prisoner, cry for justice, loud and long. And march with the victims, as Jesus marches on. And love, love, love, love like it’s your own blood. And love, love, love, love as you have been loved. –Nichole Nordeman
You cannot imagine all the places you’ll see Jesus.
Seeing is believing in the gospel of John. And not just believing as in giving intellectual assent to something, but trusting, abiding, being in relationship with.
What are you looking for, Jesus asks, as the first disciples begin following him. What do you seek? They answer, Rabbi, teacher, where are you staying? Jesus says to them, Come and see (John 1:38-39).
The way of the disciple is the way of seeing Jesus. Seeking him and seeing him in every place, and in every person, where he stays, where he abides.
Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, those disciples saw Jesus staying, abiding, with the Samaritan woman at the well, thirsty for living water. They saw him feeding 5,000 hungry ones until they were satisfied. They saw him extending forgiveness to a woman accused of adultery, challenging those who would condemn her, Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her (John 8:7).
They saw him healing a man born blind, dismantling the assumption that the man’s blindness was God’s judgment on his sin. They saw him weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, deeply moved by the grief of all who mourned his death. They saw Jesus staying, abiding, with the wounded, the weary, the hopeless.
Is it any surprise, then, that while it is still dark—while Mary is alone and frustrated and confused and weeping —Jesus appears and abides with her?
Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?
With these questions, Jesus invites Mary to discipleship in the midst of her grieving. Weeping is connected to looking.
Grief, in the presence of Jesus, leads to seeing.
This is good news for us all, in a world where we can’t help but weep. Grief opens our eyes to a world in need. It also opens our eyes to see this world’s Savior.
In the midst of our grief, while it is still dark, the risen Christ encounters us and makes us witnesses.
I have seen the Lord, Mary testifies.
In my sorrow, I have seen the Lord.
Through my tears, I have seen the Lord.
In his voice, calling me by name, I have seen the Lord.
He’s there in the sorrow. He’s there in the searching.
He’s there for you, as you weep at the brokenness of this world, as you cry out against the injustices that create such sorrow. He’s there for you.
Are you looking for Jesus this morning?
He’s right here, for you, in the Word spoken and sung, in the bread broken and the wine poured. The body of Christ is here, for you, and among you.
Are you looking for Jesus on this Easter morning?
You are his risen body. The tomb is empty. Jesus has gone on to his Father and to yours, to his God and to your God. His return to the one who sent him into the world makes all of us sisters and brothers in him.
Lifted up to save the whole world, Christ makes us brothers and sisters to all.
So go, go. Love like it’s your own blood. Because it is.
Go to the wounded, the weary, the hopeless.
Go and see Jesus.
Go and be his body.
Love, love, love, love as you have been loved.
Amen.
1 https://faithinthenews.com/dear-nichole-nordeman/
2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W_K2ZUyR8c