Holding onto Jesus or Clinging to Christ?

                                     A sermon by Rev. George R. Taylor

                                   First Presbyterian Church, Stroudsburg

                                                   March 23, 2008

     Think about the last time you experienced a loss of such significance that shook the very foundations of your life like a powerful earthquake. Or a disappointment so bitter you were left awash in bewilderment and sadness, as if a flood had swept away everything known and familiar.   This unexpected intrusion and unwanted disruption to your life may have been a life threatening illness or accident. Perhaps it was a fracture in your marriage, or the loss of your job, or the death of a cherished loved one.  One moment all is relatively well in your world and the next you find your life is suddenly falling apart.    You know what I mean.   You’ve been there before, and quite possibly you are there this very day.

     This is how Mary Magdalene felt on that lonely Sunday morning when she went to the tomb of Jesus, who had been buried in a cave outside Jerusalem following his terrible crucifixion. Reminiscing and thinking back to her first encounters with Jesus, Mary remembered how Jesus had changed her life.  This was the man who had given her a chance when everyone else thought she was worthless. This was the man who treated her with dignity and respect, while others condemned her for carving out a living the only way she knew how.  This was the man who not only restored her faith in herself, but had instilled the belief that God was indeed alive and at work in the world, to help the poor, strengthen the weak and frightened, do battle with evil, and bring about a new age of peace and justice. With Jesus, she really could believe that God was here.  God really cared. God was in this world doing good things.  Jesus showed her that.

     And then somehow in just a few short days, not even a week, between the beginning of Passover when Jesus entered Jerusalem to now, all that had changed. It was gone forever. All hope was crucified with Jesus that excruciating afternoon they nailed him to the cross. That one brief, shining moment of new life and new possibilities was taken from her by the political and religious rulers, who seemed to take whatever they wanted to maintain their power and control. Despite what Jesus had taught Mary about his death and resurrection, this now had little bearing on how she understood what had happened and how she felt in the wake of such tragedy.  Despite what scriptures said about the Messiah and salvation, they must be mistaken, for all hope had been crushed by the death of Jesus.  All Mary knew was that Jesus was killed and for all she cared, she might as well have died with him.

     To keep herself from going crazy with grief, Mary galvanized enough strength to go to the tomb, to anoint Jesus’ body with oil, her final expression of love and devotion, her last attempt at being near him and holding onto her now shattered dream. Seeing that the stone which sealed the tomb had been rolled away, all Mary could deduce was that someone had broken into the tomb and stolen Jesus’ body. Her sadness was now compounded with her outrage. And so frantically she ran to tell the disciples. Peter and another disciple hurried back to the tomb. This other disciple, whom many believe was the one known as the beloved disciple, was the first to arrive.  Taking a few more steps than Mary previously had,  he walked up to the entrance of the tomb and could see Jesus’ grave clothes lying there. For whatever reason, this disciple chose not to enter into the tomb. Peter, always and ever brash and impulsive, entered into the tomb where he could see that some of the grave linens were carefully folded and placed by themselves.   Knowledge of scriptures alone was not enough for either Mary or these two disciples to interpret the previous days events as a fulfillment of scriptures prophecy and Jesus’ teaching about himself.  For belief to be engendered, for deep faith to be established, knowledge had to be joined by experience.  The heart had to join hands with the head. One had to have a personal experience and spiritual encounter before the proclamation of the gospel and the teachings of Jesus could be fully understood and believed.

     And then John’s telling of our Easter story shifts back to Mary who was all the while outside the tomb crying.   Peter and the other disciple’s encouraged response and more hopeful reaction to the empty tomb caused Mary to realize things may indeed be far different than they first appeared. And so with a glimmer of hope lighting her way, she entered into the dark tomb, only to be confronted by the glistening presence of two angels in white.  Mary’s response to the angels inquiry about her tears shows us that Mary still fixated on Jesus’ death, blinding her to any other possibilities, making thoughts of resurrection completely foreign. “They have taken the body of my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”  And then a man appeared to Mary, whom she took for the gardner.  And it was only when Jesus called her by name, “Mary”, that she turned and recognized that this man was no stranger, no gravekeeper, but was truly Jesus her Lord. And she did what any of us would do under the same circumstances, male or female, we would rush to and embrace the one whom we thought was dead, but now proved to be alive. 

     But Jesus, as he had done so often before, surprises us with what he says to Mary.  His comment is perplexing and feels insensitive and uncaring.  “Do not hold on to me.” What does he mean, do not hold onto me? How does one not hold onto and embrace and hug one whom you believed was dead and gone, forever gone, but now, miraculously, is alive, and here, standing there right before your very eyes? Afterall, hugging someone you love whom you’ve been separated from, is the most natural thing in the world.  Witness families being reunited at the airport. Witness soldiers returning from war to their hometown families and friends.  Witness Mary discovering that her Lord whom she believed was captured by death,  had now been released and freed and liberated for new life.  Under these circumstances, hugging is the most natural thing in the world.

     But resurrection, we have to understand, is not natural.  Resurrection is not normal. It is the most unnatural and abnormal thing in the world.  Flowers blooming in the spring is natural.  Little chicks hatching from their eggs and stepping out into life is normal.  Spring and all of its promise of new life awakening from hibernation and rest is natural. But resurrection, is something altogether different. It is unnatural. Death following life is natural. But life following death is unheard of.  Death is what everyone expected and had come to accept.  You’re born.  You live. You die. That was the natural sequence which everyone came to accept.  Even in nature, when plants or animals died, they stayed dead.  Resurrection, however, disrupts this natural chain of events. Resurrection is about the disruptive intrusion of God into the natural sequence and customary ways of life. Resurrection is the divine power of God breaking the bonds of the natural order of death’s finality.

     Jesus told Mary not to hold onto her, not to cling to her, because he had not yet ascended to the Father.  He told Mary to go tell the others “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Jesus divine work on earth was not yet complete. His death had mysteriously yet profoundly reconciled the world to God and witnessed to God’s assurance of forgiveness of sins.  Jesus’ resurrection had revealed God’s ultimate power over death and vindicated Jesus and all that he did, all that he taught, all that he embodied. Not only was Jesus, who was dead, now alive, but his revelation of God’s purpose and plan for all creation, that all will be healed and redeemed, that the kingdom of peace and justice will come, this vision and this hope was now also more alive than ever. And yet, even though he had lived, and died, and been risen by God from the grave, Jesus’ work was not yet complete.  He would still need to ascend to the Father, to ascend to heaven, so that God could send the Holy Spirit, the advocate, the living presence of Christ to be with us always and everywhere. Remember when Jesus said to the disciples when they gathered in the Upper Room the night he was betrayed and the night before he died. “In my Father’s house are many rooms.  I must go and prepare a place for you, that I may come and take you to myself, that where I am, there you may be always.”  We almost always interpret this scripture as a reference pointing to our life after death and our resurrection from the dead. That when we die, which we all surely will one day, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the risen Christ, will come and take us to heaven.” But maybe Jesus meant us to understand something more.   Jesus needed to ascend to heaven so that the Holy Spirit could come and take us, not only to a place following our death, but to a relationship following our life. For without the Holy Spirit, present and alive in our world, can there truly be life after life.  Without the Holy Spirit, there can be existence after life, there can be survival after life, there can be the pursuit of happiness after life,  there can be lots of good things for everyone after we are born, but there can be no love of God in our lives, there can be no compelling and lasting vision of peace and justice in our lives, there can be no release from the powers and the principalities who control and dominate, no freedom from bondage to self and slavery to sin. Oh yes, without the Holy Spirit the natural, customary order of things will continue and go on, there will be no disruption to business as usual, to the natural and normal.  Which means, there will be no end to death, no end to suffering, no end to fear, no end to the assault of evil upon the sacredness of life and the goodness of creation.  For just as birth and life are the natural order of things, so finally, in the end, is death and decay.

     Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension are all about a disruption to this natural order of things.  Salvation is God’s gift to a broken and lost world which cannot on its own save itself nor promise that things will ever change for the better. But in order for salvation to come, for resurrection to occur, God must break into the normal and natural and bring about a radical change in the ebb and flow of our lives., our politics, our commerce, our culture, our ethics and our values.   God’s gift of salvation, God’s gift of himself, God’s gift of grace, is disruptive,  and because of that, met by some with resistance and as unwelcome.  For the activity of disruptive grace in our lives will bring change to us all. As Paul the apostle writes, “If anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come.”  And change as we all know, is not something that we oftentimes welcome with open arms. I mean, who of us here this morning is going to volunteer for a radical u-turn in your life and dramatic change to your present situation? No, because we who are blessed with so much are afraid of giving up  a way of life that we have come to see as normal and natural. But for well over half the world’s population, what is normal and natural for them is hunger, and poverty, and suffering, and despair, with no hope of a better future.  And that is why Christianity is exploding and growing in places like Africa and Asia.  Because the disruptive grace of God is welcome by these Christians, for it is a promise that life will indeed get better and that the promise of shalom and abundant life is a hope they can live and work for.  George Hungsinger, one of our most distinguished living theologians, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, says it like this. “Grace that is not disruptive is not grace.  Grace, strictly speaking, does not mean continuity, but radical discontinuity, not reform but revolution, not perfecting the virtues but forgiveness of sins, not improvement but resurrection from the dead.  The grace of God really comes to lost sinners, but in coming it disrupts them to the core. It is necessarily unsettling as it is comforting.  Grace is disruptive because God does not compromise with sin, nor ignore it, nor call it good. On the contrary, God removes it by submitting to the cross to show that love is stronger than death.”

     When Mary held onto Jesus, as if for dear life, Jesus told her not to hold him. I think what Jesus was trying to tell Mary was that there would be no turning back to things as they were.  No matter how hard she held on to him, there would be no return to the past and the wonderful way she remembered things being. Resurrection is always and ever future oriented. God is always doing a new thing in our midst, especially when we are in the throes of death and suffering, for God is always closest to those who are the weakest and most vulnerable. His strength is made perfect in our weakness, as the Bible says. In rising from the dead, Mary hoped that Jesus would settle back into their former way of life, their customary way of doing things, the way they used to be. But Jesus was telling her there is no turning back.  For regardless how good you remember things being,  the work of salvation is never complete, and God is at work to complete the work he first began in you and me and all the world.  For by holding onto Jesus Mary was hanging on to her understanding and definition of the good life and salvation. But by letting go of Jesus, and letting him ascend to the Father, that he might return in the power of the Holy Spirit, by clinging now to the risen Christ, the saving work of God in the world would move forward through disciples and followers led and empowered by God’s spirit of truth and grace. 

     I think it is fair to say that those who hold onto Jesus are those who believe more in the past and are ultimately suspicious and fearful of the future, untrusting that God can bring about new and abundant life in the future, as he has in the past.  And the ones who cling to Christ, who trust in the Holy Spirit, though grateful for the past and forever cherishing its memory, now live in the present, embracing the risen Christ, clinging to the Spirit, who promises to lead us in the saving ways of God and free us from the decaying ways of the world.

     Princeton Theological Seminary has no corner on the market of brilliant scholars and faithful interpreters of the scriptures.  Tom Troeger teaches at Yale Divinity School, and muses on this Easter in particular, which is the earliest we have celebrated Easter in the past 100 years, just three days away from technically being celebrated in winter. I’ve heard of celebrating Christmas in July. Now we’re almost celebrating Easter in winter. This will be an Easter without daffodils breaking through the soil of our gardens as they open up their pedals.  This will be an Easter when snow flurries will just as easily awaken us at Easter dawn as any sparkling sunrise.  Let us not forget that the first Easter took place in a tomb, in the darkness of death and despair. Cold and bleakness and sorrow is the natural environment where the new life of resurrection breaks forth. When we are most happy and the sun is shining and all is well in our world, we are more likely to miss that radical new thing God would do in our lives; we might be blind to the guidance and leading of God, because we are holding onto Jesus, and may be resistant to the disruptive grace of God that comes with the risen Christ.  Troeger says it like this.  “Perhaps an early Easter, especially if there is a chill in the air or snow on the ground, can be a way of framing resurrection with deeper understandings than an allusion to blossoming flowers.  Instead of associating Easter with the natural order of things, we can associate the resurrection of Christ with the radical disruption of finititude, with the intrusion of grace when we have reduced existence to the bounds of human limitation, with the renewal of life when we think death has triumphed, with the persistence of love when we think hate has wiped it out, with the restoration of our visionary powers when we think we have lost the power to dream great dreams, and with the stranger who turns out to be, not the gardner, but the very one whom the world has crucified.”

     It was only by letting go of Jesus, that Mary was able to follow the risen Christ, and boldly and courageously venture into the future.  Beginning today, this Easter, may you and I cling to Christ, look for his disruptive grace in our lives, and welcome this grace, not as an intrusion, or an inconvenience, or an unwelcome disruption, but as the very power of God working to bring about our salvation and the salvation of the world.