Whom Do You Seek? (Easter Sunrise)

Gospel Reading:    John 20:1-18

The New York City Rescue Mission and the Silver + Partner Ad Agency set up what has been described as a “stunning social experiment”.  The point of the experiment was to prove how much we block out the sight of homeless people.  In the experiment, a member of a family dressed up as a homeless person and sat on a busy street where they knew that their loved one – a husband, wife, sister, brother, mother, father – passed by every day on their way to work.  The film crew recorded video to document whether the family member passing by would recognize their loved one dressed as a homeless person.  The results were shocking, depressing, even disturbing:  in the experiment, not one – not a single solitary one – of the passers-by recognized their husband or wife or brother or sister or mother or father when dressed as homeless persons.  As much as we may love somebody, the experiment showed that if that somebody is in a context we wouldn’t expect them, especially when disguised as someone considered undesirable – a homeless person – we avert our eyes. 

When I read about this experiment, I gained a bit more understanding for Mary Magdalene’s behavior in our reading from John’s gospel.  Each of the resurrection accounts in the four gospels has its own distinctiveness, it’s own “secret sauce”, you might say.  An element of the “secret sauce” that flavors John’s gospel is the recurring character referred to as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” – who turns out at the end to be the author.   In John’s gospel, it is Mary Magdalene who goes to the tomb alone, discovers it empty, and runs to tell Peter and this “disciple whom Jesus loved” what she saw.  The two men engage in an odd sort of footrace to the tomb, the beloved disciple reaching the tomb first but afraid to venture inside, Peter reaching it second but entering it first.  This may have had to do with some sort of jockeying for position among Jesus’ closest disciples.  So they get to the tomb, see that, “yup,  it’s empty, just like Mary Magdalene said”, see the grave clothes….and go home.  And if it had been up to the guys, that would have been the Easter story….empty grave, graveclothes wrapped up, something happened but we don’t know what, have a nice day.  Thank goodness Mary Magdalene went back to the tomb with the guys, presumably at her own pace, since she’d already done quite a bit of running that morning.

The guys go home, but Mary hangs around the tomb a while, crying, and eventually poking her head in.  She sees two angels, who ask her, “Why do you cry?”  Mary tells them, “they’ve taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve laid him.”  Then Jesus himself comes up behind her, and asks her the same question: “Why are you crying?  Whom are you looking for?”  Mary mistook Jesus for the gardener, and asks him, “Sir, if you’ve taken him away, please show me where you put him and I’ll take him away.”  Jesus says her name – “Mary” – and something in his voice prompted her to recognize him.  “Rabbouni” – meaning “Teacher!” – she says.   Apparently she also embraced him, because Jesus told her, “Don’t hold onto me….but go to my brothers and tell them, “I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and to your God.”  And Mary goes back to the disciples and tells them what she saw and heard.

As I read this story, a few things struck me.  First of all is the difference in reactions to the news of the empty tomb.  In all four Gospels, the women are the first ones to reach the tomb, but only in Luke’s and John’s gospels do we read about Peter going to see the empty tomb.  In Luke’s gospel, Peter goes alone, but in John’s gospel, there’s this odd competition between Peter and the “disciple whom Jesus loved” – and when they get to the tomb, they take a look and go home.  It’s Mary Magdalene who stays, and for her faithfulness is rewarded with appearances, not only of angels, but of the Risen Christ.  But she doesn’t recognize Jesus.  There are similar accounts in other gospels; Luke tells us about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who don’t recognize Jesus over the course of a seven-mile walk, until they are at table with Jesus and he breaks the bread.   In John’s gospel, the disciples are fishing - unsuccessfully – and it is not until Jesus tells them where to cast their nets and they pull up a big haul of fish that they recognize Jesus. 

Would we do any better?  To me, it’s a bit ironic that so few recognized Jesus after his resurrection, because today,  Jesus is one of the most recognizable icons in our culture.  Seemingly everyone has an idea what Jesus looks like.  You know the general look – long face, white, brown hair, blue eyes, generally looks “sensitive” or, put another way, perhaps a bit wimpy.   Even those who don’t go near a church, even those who hate everything the church stands for, can see a painting or illustration and say, “Oh, that’s Jesus.” 

I’d encourage those of you who didn’t already toss your bulletin inserts to look in the bulletin at the color insert.   There are pictures on both sides of the paper, and I apologize in advance for the poor quality of some of the printouts; for any interested, I can email the original files..  The one side has four photographs that I took at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, said to be where Jesus was crucified and buried – and, of course, resurrected, which is why local Christians in Jerusalem call it “The Resurrection Church”.   The other side has nine depictions of Jesus.  They are all very different, and I tried to pick a fairly wide range of images.  Some are quite old, others are quite modern.  I think the range tells us, among other things, that when we try to depict Jesus, we consciously or unconsciously end up putting quite a bit of ourselves into the depiction.  For example, to our eyes, the image of the Asian Madonna and Child may look a bit jarring.  On the other hand, given that the real earthly Jesus was a middle-eastern Jew, probably dark-skinned, born in what is now the West Bank, Palestine, our white Jesuses are just as inaccurate – and probably just as out of place in predominantly non-white cultures.  The images on the right side of the page are all fairly modern, and are strongly shaped by the perspective of the images’ creators.  There’s a “reward” poster of Jesus that was first printed in a socialist publication about 100 years ago, and depicts Jesus as a low-income worker who hangs out with the riff-raff of his society, and was killed by the respectable, good people of his day.  There’s a drawing called “Christ of the Breadlines” – and this is a popular motif within the Catholic Worker movement.  And then, of course, I couldn’t resist having a little fun by including a picture of Buddy Jesus from Kevin Smith’s movie Dogma. 

It is true that our sense of Jesus is shaped by our own formative experiences, our own views and life experience.  The Christ of the Breadlines or the socialist depiction of Jesus may be anathema to some; on the other hand,  younger viewers may not resonate with the more classical depictions.    A key insight of the Quakers is that everyone has “that of God” or “that of Christ” within them.  Will that of Christ within me recognize that of Christ within you?    And will the Christ within each of us recognize when Christ is doing something utterly new. Or will we mistake him for the gardener?

“Whom do you seek”.  May God grant us eyes to recognize Jesus, ears to hear his call, feet to take us where he is, hands to serve, and a tongue to proclaim good news.  Amen.