Text: John 20:1-18
The Empty Tomb
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
New International Version - for other versions see 
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Sermon
Mary thought Jesus' body had been stolen; a very logical conclusion we too might have drawn. No one was expecting a resurrection! Upon receiving Mary's information, the beloved disciple out-runs Peter to the tomb, looks in and sees the neatly arranged burial cloths. It hardly sounds like the scene of a stolen body, but there is no proof of a resurrection.
Belief in the resurrection isn't based on what we can see and measure. Peter and Mary both saw the same things as the beloved disciple, but came to a different conclusion. This disciple didn’t use logic to come to believe. Something else was at work – or rather, Someone else was at work.
This disciple is called ‘the beloved disciple’ – the disciple whom Jesus loved. We are not even told that this disciple had an exceptional love for Jesus. Rather, he has this name because of Jesus’ love for him. What we discover through the resurrection is that the term could now be applied to any of us. We too are the disciples whom Jesus loves.
How did being loved create belief in this disciple? To know we are loved isn’t just head knowledge. Peter and Mary were trying to work out what had happened based on what their eyes saw, rather than what their hearts saw. Our whole being comes more alive in the knowledge of being loved. The beloved disciple knew Christ's love and, despite what his eyes saw when Jesus was crucified, he continued to experience that love. The one who loved him still loved him. His love was alive, despite what the disciple saw happen on the cross. Christ may have died but his love didn’t. It wasn't just the neatly folded cloths that convinced him, but the love he knew. It must have been quite an extraordinary love since he has been recorded in the Bible as ‘the one Jesus loved.’ A love that death could not overcome.
We too have that love, and nothing can separate us from Christ's love for us. Not even death. Because we have known Jesus’ love for us, we too can believe in the resurrection. There is no logic here – it is by faith. He is alive, and the love we experience confirms it. We have eternal life now because of Christ’s love for us. Death has no power over us. We have come to know the resurrected life we have in Christ. In John's gospel, to see is to have the eyes of faith. Along with the beloved disciple we ‘see and believe.’ (v8b)
Maybe you’ve stood at a grave of a loved one at some stage? When we do, are we ever tempted not to believe? Death is very powerful. We see death daily: on the evening news, on the Internet, in newspapers. There is a lot of concrete evidence against our faith in what we believe about Jesus and death. We wonder, ‘where is the love the disciple at the tomb knew in the lives of so many desperate people in our world?’
We have an opportunity at Holy Communion today to be strengthened in that love. Flesh and blood is placed on that love. And now it is our turn to put flesh and blood on love -- as God did for us in Christ. Now we leave the grave of Jesus, seeing and carrying with us what we believe – that we are loved. What we know and experience will affect how we treat others.
- Will our words and actions let them know how loved they are by God?
- Will we forgive them as we have been forgiven through the cross of Easter?
- Will we stand with them when they are in need and cannot see the love of God, like Mary?
- Will we grieve with them at the graves of their loved ones?
- Will we be there when others have stopped caring or have forgotten them?
At the tomb today, Jesus seems absent. He also seems absent in many people’s lives today;
When a relationship decays;
When lives disintegrate;
When sickness gets the upper hand;
When a marriage falls apart.
The tombs that contain death and decay seem to follow us through our lives, and have the upper hand. But Jesus' tomb doesn't contain death and decay – it is empty. But for the believer the empty tomb is actually far from empty. It is filled with hope and promise.
The risen Christ is with us always. He walks with us on every road. He is with us in joy and celebration, and he is with us in terror and despair. His presence is the glue that holds the world together and also our lives. There is absolutely nowhere you can go, and nothing you can do, without having the living presence of the risen Christ with you. It’s not a question of whether he is or isn’t there, it’s a question of whether we see him or not.
May you continue to see the risen Christ with you always and everywhere.