Three Blondes

Sermon for 12th April 2009 Isaiah 25: 6-9,John 20: 1-18) Easter Sunday

Three blondes die and arrive at the pearly gates. St. Peter tells them that they can enter if they can answer one simple question. He asks the first, "What is Easter?" The first blonde replies, "Oh, that's easy! It's the holiday in November when everyone builds bonfires and sets off fireworks. "Wrong!," replies St. Peter, and asks the second blonde "What is Easter?" She replies, "Easter is the holiday in December when we put up a nice tree, exchange presents, and celebrate the birth of Jesus." St. Peter groans and tells her she's wrong, and then peers over his glasses at the third blonde. He asks, "What is Easter?" The third blonde looks St. Peter in the eyes, "I know what Easter is." "Oh?" says St. Peter, not convinced. "Easter is the Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover. Jesus and his disciples were eating at the last supper and Jesus was later deceived and turned over to the Romans by one of his disciples. The Romans took him to be crucified; made to wear a crown of thorns, and was hung on a cross with nails through his hands. He was buried in a nearby cave which was sealed off by a large boulder." St. Peter is delighted. She continues, "Every year the boulder is moved aside so that Jesus can come out... and, if he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.

On Easter Sunday three women (although only Mary Magdalene is mentioned in John’s account), not blondes came to Jesus, tomb, expecting to start again, which is what Easter is all about. For them this was not a joyous starting again. This was the kind of starting again that comes to all of us sooner or later, when someone close to us dies, or we lose our job and like now there’s little chance of another one, or perhaps something really valuable has been stolen or destroyed by fire, or for some reason our cherished dreams become impossible. It’s a starting again, when you know you are alive because you are still breathing but life seems empty and purposeless, and all you feel is pain, and the ‘why?’ questions flow – ‘why me?’, ‘why should this happen?’, ‘why didn’t you stop this Lord?’, ‘why, why, why…..’ and ‘how do I go on from here?’ and feeling desperately helpless. For the three women it was all of that, the death of someone they loved, the end of their dreams, all that was valuable lost and wondering where God was in all of this. And feeling desperately helpless. So they decide to do something, to feel perhaps, that life had some purpose, some meaning, - they went to do the last thing they would ever be able to do for the man they all loved, to prepare his body for burial. So that cold Easter morning they set out to the dreaded tomb, wondering how on earth they were to get in to the tomb. What about the guards; what about he stone – too heavy for them to move! But when they arrive –no guards, and no stone. More disorientation – what they had expected was not there. In times of great loss what we need is some stability, some certainty – here was yet more uncertainty- what could this mean? It was all too much so they left in confusion. They did what any of us would do; they turned to those closest to them for help – they ran to the disciples. Mary blurts out what has happened and two of the men do the heroic men bit, go to rescue the women from their ‘dizzy’ confusion (perhaps seeing them as ‘blondes’ too?). But for them inside they too would have been panicking, too – what could all of this mean? Where on earth are you God!!!!!!!!!???

So they come to the temple, John outrunning Peter gets there first but looks in from outside. Peter, impulsive Peter charges straight in to find?….. empty bands of cloth that had been used to wrap Jesus’ body for the brief burial on Friday……….. and nothing else. Mary meanwhile must have followed more slowly after them, now desperate with anxiety and loss. Who can help? Who can make some sense of all that has happened? In times like these we turn even to strangers for help. So did Mary Magdalene. The stranger was the gardener. In answer to all her questions he replies simply, ‘Mary’. A stranger knows her name? Suddenly in all her confusion, she knows, she understands – not how, of course, but that Jesus was alive. For Mary, this was a new start that she could not in her wildest dreams have imagined.

In her loss she had questioned everything, even God. Now suddenly, before her is God himself, God incarnate, a second time made in the flesh. Jesus was there all the time. It’s just that Mary had not seen him. God was still in control and had a plan. Mary had not seen that either. Now she did.

Easter is a new start for Mary. It’s also a new start for all humanity. Easter says that no matter how dark life is, there is always hope. Easter says, no matter how much we doubt God being with us, he is there with us always. Easter says when so much of our life seems over, God offers us a new start.

On that Easter morning, there were perhaps, even more questions than answers. Mary Magdalene had so much more to learn, and she was no dizzy blonde. The fact that we have questions about Easter does not stop the reality of it being true. And the truth and hope of Easter is believed in, and lived out, 2000 years later by a third of the people in this world. As we say each Sunday. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again….. still alive, still with us, to take us home to be with him for ever.