While reading the passage for this week this morning, the words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount echoed in my ears, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt. 5:4). There have been lots of tears between this past Sunday’s text and this Sunday’s text. Through tears, we see the world more perfectly as God sees it. For, “God so loved the world…” His love for the world moved him to meet his world in its brokenness, to weep for it, and to seek redemption and reconciliation for it. It is through tears that Mary and Martha invited Jesus to “Come and see” where Lazarus was laid, and it was through tears that Jesus invites them to “come and see” what he can do with their mess.
I love the resurrection story in John’s Gospel because of the exchange between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved are in this story, but they are quick to leave. Mary lingers and weeps over the tomb. Through her tears, she mistakes Jesus to be the gardener. Jesus calls her by name and here tears are cleared, and she proclaims the gospel, “I have seen the Lord!” Mary is the first evangelist with the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. The message is simple, “I have seen the Lord!”
I love the detail John gives to this story. John, as usual, draws on imagery from the biblical narrative. He begins his Gospel with “In the beginning…” calling the reader to think about the creation narrative. The one who spoke creation into being then came to be part of that creation. The creation rejected him but could not overcome him. He came to bring life and light to a world filled with death and darkness. Here we are at the end of the story. Jesus is mistaken for the gardener. John could have simply said she didn’t recognize Jesus, but he draws our attention to Jesus’ identity as the gardener. He is the one who brings life to a ground that continues to produce death. He is the one who cultivates light in the darkness. Jesus is the Gardener this world needs, and he has called us to join him in his gardening. Where are you bringing life and light into the world? Or are you only pointing out its death and darkness?
Through tears Mary saw Jesus as the gardener that he is, and it is through tears that we need to look at the world to see the gardening that needs to be done. When you see the brokenness of the world do you get angry, or do you have tears well up inside you for the life that needs to be cultivated? When you see the sufferings and crisis of the marginalized, do you get angry that they need to get their life together and quit being a drain on society, or do you, through tears, look for how you can bring light into their darkness? When you see people struggling with a crisis of identity, are you disgusted by their mess, or through tears do you meet them where they are and shine light and life?
Each of us has a mess that Jesus has met us in and brought life out of death. What is your story of redemption and reconciliation brought through tears? What has Jesus done in your life? Are you comfortable sharing your story of how Jesus brought life and light into your life? God is willing to meet us here in our mess and plant life and light into our lives through Jesus. He calls us to go into the world in the same way Jesus did, meeting people where they are, and through tears invite them to “come and see the Lord!” This is what Easter reminds us! We aren’t only people who have come into the resurrection with Christ, but we are people who bring the resurrection to the world. Easter calls us to mission where we share that Christ has risen, “I have seen the Lord!”