Three Ways to Meet the Risen Christ

The Three Ways to Meet The Risen Christ
A Sermon Preached by the Reverend Peter De Franco at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Clifton, New Jersey
Easter Sunday, 2008

Dark was that Easter morning when Mary Magdalene woke from sleep to hasten to the tomb of Jesus. Any of us who have lost a loved one know that feeling. After the funeral and burial, the grave becomes the new kitchen table where we sit with him and share morning coffee, the tombstone become the couch we sit on and talk about the problem child who just cannot adjust, the lawn of the cemetery the garden we share in the evening twilight and just know again each other’s love. Mary went to the tomb to find such comfort in being close to the body of Jesus. She dare not imagine the possibility of Resurrection. Hers was the simple hope of sitting on the other side of the stone that she might be close to the body of her beloved Jesus. On that dark morning, her heart lead her to the one she loved.

As she drew near to the tomb to pour out her grief at Jesus’ grave, did her eyes believe what they saw? Imagine her horror as she makes her way to the entrance of the tomb to find that the stone had been removed. She runs, says the Gospel, not walks, she runs to find Peter and the disciple Jesus loved. She runs to report that “they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have laid him.” The three of them then race back, Mary, Peter and the Beloved Disciple and each has a different experience at the grave. Each of them represents three types of faith when confronted with the empty tomb. Mary is the disciple of Love. The Beloved Disciple is the follower in Faith. Peter is the Disciple of hope.

When the Beloved Disciple gets to the tomb, he does not enter. He waits for Peter to arrive. Then the two of them enter the tomb. The place is a shambles, much like their confused souls. The linen wrappings were lying there and the cloth that wrapped Jesus face is rolled up in a place apart. The forsaken burial cloths might remind you of the abandoned cocoon from which Jesus, the butterfly, has emerged from this life to the new transformed life of the resurrection. The Beloved Disciple sees and believes. He sees the empty tomb and believes. He needs no further evidence, no appearance, no lunch with the risen Christ on the beach. The empty tomb is enough.

There are some of you like that first disciple. You are the ones who live your life by faith and not by sight. You have given your hearts to God and experience that God coming to you, walking with you. You might not always feel that presence but you know that presence as sure as you know your very selves. You are the disciples of faith.

Mary is the second disciple. The disciple of love. While the male disciples cowered in fear, terrified that the authorities will give them the same treatment they gave to Jesus, Mary shows the love that casts out fear. She stayed with Jesus when he died on the cross. She hastens to the tomb in the dark of that Easter morning. She is the one to whom the Lord appears on that first Easter day. Jesus comes to her for Christ knows that the heart who loves him will be the heart that sees him.

Many of you here are like Mary. Many of you approach Jesus by the way of love. Perhaps some of you are like Mary. Your lives might be a bundle of trouble and grief. You bring your burden to Jesus. You approach with love for you know that Jesus will heal them with love. You know that Jesus will come to you, will dawn in your hearts. You know that love brings your heart to God and opens the eyes of your soul to the vision of God. You are like Mary, the disciple of love.

Finally there is Peter, the disciple of hope. Peter comes from Missouri. He sees the empty tomb, he beholds the shroud that covered the body of Jesus, and he lays eyes on the linen cloth that covered the face of Jesus. These are all meaningless pieces of a puzzle that just do not fit together. Peter goes from the tomb as confused as when he came to it. At the greatest moment in Christian history, on the morning of the resurrection, he does not understand. The Gospel says that “He returns to his home.” He does not yet understand the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead.

Peter is like many of you. A disciple of hope. Like Peter, you do not yet fully understand. But you trust that Jesus will come through for you. It is just not now. Yet you will receive just as Peter received. For Peter will see Jesus. Jesus will come to Peter with the promise of forgiveness for his denials and with the commission to go and care for the flock of Jesus. Many of you are like Peter, a disciple of hope. You wait in expectation for the promise of Jesus to be fulfilled.

Some of you may find yourself as disciples of faith or of love or of hope. I somehow think that there is a part of Peter, a part of Mary and a part of the beloved disciple in each of us. Each of us comes this day to this great Easter mystery with something in our hearts of faith and love and hope. Each of us returns from this mystery with a deeper experience of the Risen Christ.
As we move ahead with the renewal of our Baptismal Covenant and the Eucharist of Easter Morning, may your hearts be expanded to know Christ’s presence in your souls and your lives reflect that love toward all whom you meet. May you know Easter Peace!