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It is Easter Sunday morning! The darkness has passed. The dawn has come. The tomb is empty.

But Mary… is weeping!

It is a day for lilies! And joyful music! And gathered families! And Easter egg hunts!

But Mary… is weeping!

All around us, we hear words that describe the miracle:

He is not here! He is risen! He has gone before you! Come and see! Go and tell! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

But Mary… is weeping.

Why do you suppose Mary is weeping on such a beautiful day as today?

I’m not sure we can fully grasp the wonder and power of Easter until we are able to answer the question, “Why… is Mary weeping?”

It is before dawn on the first day of the week. Mary Magdalene – along with the other women – goes to Jesus’ tomb. They discover the stone has been rolled away. The burial garments are rolled up. Men who appear to be angels suddenly appear asking, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here! Now go tell Peter, and the disciples!”

And the women explode out of the tomb like bolts of lightning! They run without stopping all the way to the place where the disciples are hiding. Gasping for breath, they tell the men what they have experienced. The men are not sure whether to believe them or not. Peter and John run to the tomb to see for themselves. It is exactly as the women reported! The tomb is empty! They dash back to the others, and the first Easter worship service begins! Everyone is there, arms upraised in joyful celebration!

Well, not exactly everyone.

Mary is missing.

Mary Magdalene.

The woman out of whom Jesus cast seven demons.

The woman who loved Jesus with all her heart, for he was the only man to ever treat her as a person worthy of being loved.

Mary is missing from the joyous Easter crowd.

She is still out in the graveyard garden.

Alone.

Weeping.

From John’s description of Mary’s anguish, it is clear that she believes someone has stolen the body of Jesus. And for her, it is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Horrible enough to lose someone you love, let alone not being able to be with him by his grave.

So there is Mary – still in the garden – weeping.

And we need to ask, “Why is Mary…weeping?”

As I try to put myself in her place, I can see some possible answers to that question.

I think Mary is weeping, first of all, because – like many of us – she has loved, and lost. One of the most painful experiences in all of life is learning that love produces not only laughter and joy, but also tears and sorrows. When the tragedy of my brother’s divorce came into our family a number of years ago, it was amazing to me how it felt like a body blow to all of us who love him, and his wife, and their children. It is still a painful thing to watch and experience. When one of our church members was recently diagnosed with cancer, I was touched by a conversation I had with his wife. She was in deep anguish for him – troubled by being powerless to do something to make things better. “I feel so helpless!” she said, with tears that flowed out of love. Loving others places burdens on our lives, and it becomes painful when we see them hurt, or going through hard times, or when we have to face the moment of saying, ”Goodbye.”

There are some who think it is better not to love other people, so as to avoid future sorrow. But most of us are not wired that way. We see our grandchildren for the first time, and we simply love them! We catch the eye of a stranger across a crowded room. Suddenly we find ourselves running to them in slow motion as Frank Sinatra appears, singing, Strangers in the Night.  Doo-be-doo-be-doo…

Most of us just can’t help it. We love. And we hurt terribly at times because of it. I think that’s one reason Mary is weeping today. The one she loves has died. And, in some way, so has she!

A second reason for Mary’s tears may be that – like many of us – Mary has tried to build her new life on a kind of faith that turned out – in the end – not to work. I think the most disappointed people I have ever met in my life are those who once thought that faith in God would solve all their problems, resolve all their difficulties, and immunize them from future disaster. But when the time came that they needed God to intervene and do what they wanted, there was only silence from heaven. When I was twelve-years old, I prayed desperately that God would not let my grandfather die. But he died. A friend of mine – now a recovering alcoholic – says that he used to stop at night at a church that was always open. Into the sanctuary he would go to pray that God would take away the desire to drink. It never happened. Even now – years later in recovery – the desire is still there and he wrestles it every day. And isn’t it true with you? The Christian faith is not all that great for manipulating life the way we want it to go. Ask for the sun to shine on your picnic, and it’s bound to rain! Ask God to make your spouse into the person you want him or her to be, and you’re sure to be disappointed. It does not appear that God asks, “How high?” when we tell Him to jump.

If Mary was at all like me, she must have fallen on her knees and literally begged God to not let what happened to Jesus happen. But it did. And now Jesus is dead. And Mary – like all who want a faith to make life easier, to get their own way, to eliminate life’s tragedies – is weeping.

And I think there’s a third reason for Mary’s tears. She has come to a point in life where she is facing a worst-case scenario in which she is utterly helpless and which she knows she cannot overcome. Perhaps you have heard about a very popular book – Joshua Piver and David Borgenicht’s The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. On the back cover, the book is described as “the indispensable, indestructible guide for surviving life’s sudden turns for the worse. Survival experts provide illustrated, step-by-step instructions on what you need to know FAST.”

Such as how to deliver a baby in a taxicab. How to escape from killer bees. How to survive if your parachute doesn’t open. How to wrestle free from the mouth of an alligator. And other “indispensable” instructions. I’m anxious to see if there’s a church section in there! Or – better yet – a section on the worse-case scenarios of golf!

And the book’s popularity is indicative, I think, of the fact that many of us believe there simply has to be a way out of all of life’s challenges. And yet the day comes when the doctor says there’s nothing more they can do. Or the day comes when the relationship is over and there’s nothing you can do or say to make it better. Or the day comes when your life falls apart, and you’re left with a million broken pieces.

Mary is facing an experience she cannot fix. So Mary…is weeping.

Now John tells us that a man draws near the weeping Mary Magdalene. Hidden by the mist of the early pre-dawn, Mary thinks him to be the cemetery caretaker. He asks, “Why are you weeping?” Mary tells him her tale of woe – how she has loved and lost, how she has tried a faith that failed, how she has run head-on into the ultimate worst-case scenario – a situation she simply cannot resolve. And besides all that, someone has taken his body, and she cannot find it.

Then the figure in the mist says, “Mary!”

And – with a sudden jolt – Mary recognizes something familiar – about the voice – about the shape – about the face! 

“MASTER!” she gushes, recognizing that it is Jesus. And Mary runs to him. And throws her arms about him. And covers him with her kisses, and her tears. She is filled with overflowing joy!

But Jesus tells Mary to let go! In fact, John sort of describes the scene as Jesus prying Mary off of himself.

What a strange thing for Jesus to do! To not let Mary grasp him in joy.

Why do you suppose he did that?

I think I know. You see, Mary was trying to reclaim the past. She was attempting to grasp and hold on to yesterday! She wanted back the love she’d lost. She wanted back the faith she once held. She wanted back some sense of power over the worst-case scenarios of life. That day was Sunday, but she wanted to get back to how things were three days ago – before the tragedy of Good Friday! And if Jesus had let her do that, Mary would have missed out on the new world born by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

And it is a new world, you know. We followers of Jesus can no longer cling to the past.

For instance we can no longer think of death as we used to. Death is no longer an ending, but a passageway carved by Jesus into a life much larger than the one we now know! We followers of Jesus can no longer be content to think of ourselves as belonging only to our own families, our own neighborhood, our own church, our own race, our own country. Now, we belong to everyone, for Christ has bridged every divide! We followers of Jesus can no longer hate people and hold their sin against them, for Jesus took the sins of the world to the cross, and paid the price for them all, so that we can forgive and be forgiven! We followers of Jesus can no longer be indifferent to those who are poor, and taken advantage of, and left out of life’s blessings, for when Jesus poured out his love on the cross, he poured it into our veins, and sent us to pour out his love to the whole world!

The resurrection changed EVERYTHING!

You can’t get to the Kingdom of God by clinging to yesterday!

Because of Easter you have to take up a whole new way of living…and thinking…and being!

One Good Friday long ago, I had a most wonderful conversation with a young man – a nine-year old boy named Tommy. He’s the grandson of one of our church families. Tommy came to talk to me because he’s decided he wants to be baptized. I asked him why he wants to be baptized.

“So I can be a better follower of God,” he said.

I asked him if he knew what happens at baptism. “I’ll know my sins are forgiven, and that Jesus has come to live in my heart, and that the Holy Spirit dove will land on my shoulder like it did on Jesus.”

I asked Tommy how things will be different for him once he’s baptized. And with the beautiful innocence of a nine-year old, he answered, “When the kids at school are mean to me, I’ll still be nice to THEM!”

You see, you can’t get to the future if you cling to the past. You have to let go of the old ways, and take up the new ways, and trust God to build you a future that will last forever!

Why is Mary weeping?

Because it’s hard to let go of yesterday.

So Mary weeps…but then she turns and walks into the future with Jesus…and finds the joy of Easter!

Friends, may you find the joy of Easter, too!

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