SEEING IS BELIEVING!

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON - Easter Sunday, 2010

St. John 20:8  “Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed.”

There was a race to the empty tomb on that first Easter day.  John, the beloved disciple, and Peter, the leader of the band, couldn’t wait to get there.  John arrived first, but he didn’t go in.  Perhaps he was afraid that what Mary Magdalene had said was true - that they had taken the body of Jesus away?  Perhaps, in his heart-of-hearts, John did believe, but did not want to be disappointed?  In any case, he let Peter enter the tomb first.  From that moment on, Peter would proclaim the resurrection of our Lord, and would become the rock of faith, which Jesus had declared he would be.  

We can see that in Acts 10:34-43. Peter boldly declares that Jesus rose from the dead.  He said, “God raised Him on the third day and made Him manifest.”  He goes on to say, “We ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.”  There was no doubt in Peter’s mind that Jesus had truly risen in His body.  They ate and drank with Him - even though He had died.  This was no spiritual phantom.  This is resurrection. 

Peter says that Jesus rose on the third day - A phrase embedded in our creeds.  The third day.  The first day was, of course, Good Friday.  That was not a day when Peter was a rock of faith.  On that day, he was shown to have feet of clay.  He had denied Jesus three times, and went out and wept bitterly.  The third day was significant, not only for the resurrection of Jesus, but for the change in St. Peter between the first and the third day.  We can only imagine the emotions that St. Peter went through – from those tears and shame on Good Friday to discovering the empty tomb on Sunday.  The result was that he became a fearless preacher of the resurrection. 

In the days after Easter, Peter would have more experiences of the risen Christ.  There would be breakfast on the lakeside in Galilee, and a threefold restoration of him by Jesus in the words, “Do you love me?”  Then the threefold command by Jesus to be the leader of his church: “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, tend my sheep.” 

St. Peter is able to convey the resurrection to us because he is a real person who has encountered Jesus as a real person.  That encounter with Jesus awaits all of us again on this Easter morning. 

By contrast, St. John, the other disciple who raced to the tomb, was there on that first day, Good Friday.  He was faithfully standing at the cross with Mary, watching our Lord die. Perhaps only St. John can put into words the experience of standing at the cross and also standing at the empty tomb.  His experience is not proclaimed through preaching like St. Peter, but through the written word as we find in his gospel.

John was there at the Last Supper, John was there at Calvary, and John was there at the empty tomb. John wants to show us what he experienced and point to its meaning. The gospel from John chapter 20 is a description by one who has experienced both Good Friday and Easter Morning.  He describes vividly - with just a hint of what is to come - how Mary Magdalene, having found the tomb empty, rushes to tell Peter and John. Then they hurry there.  John believes instantly.  John will describe Mary Magdalene’s return to the garden after this, and meeting the risen Christ face-to-face. 

John doesn’t just observe this as a bystander, but he experienced it with his understanding and with his senses.  He is the beloved disciple, and we can only guess at the emotions that he goes through - quite different from the emotions of St. Peter.  It is because of what John experienced on Good Friday that he wants to convey to us, not just the impact of what happened on this Sunday, but its full meaning. 

John’s gospel begins with that wonderful statement: “and the Word was made flesh.”  His gospel finishes with that same flesh crucified, and then raised from the dead. 

All the things John records in his gospel come to fruition this morning, as Jesus, in His flesh, is raised from the dead.  What John experienced enabled him to understand how Jesus was truly the Resurrection and the Life, the Good Shepherd, the Bread of Life - and perhaps most supremely, how Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Everything John said in his gospel about Jesus Christ is fulfilled this morning.  As John gazed into the empty tomb, he was in no doubt of what Jesus meant when He said all those things we find recorded in his gospel.” And no doubt, John also had in mind what John the Baptist said about Jesus the day He was baptized: “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.”

In his gospel, John records that on Good Friday when Jesus died the soldiers did not break Jesus’ legs like they did the two thieves.  John had in mind the Jewish law that the Passover lamb should not have its’ legs broken.  On the cross, John presents to us the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. 

John also records on that day that they pierced Jesus’ side and out flowed blood and water.  This was symbolic, firstly, of the sacraments of the new covenant - baptism and Holy Communion.  John also knew that, in Jewish law, blood had to flow from a sacrifice so that freedom could be gained by those who offered the sacrifice.  John sees clearly that Jesus is indeed the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the word and by His resurrection is able to give freedom and life to those He has redeemed by His blood.  For St. John the fact that the Word was made flesh leads to Calvary as its purpose - and then is completed by the resurrection.  The whole purpose of that life and that death was the Resurrection.  There, in the resurrection of Jesus, we see our hope and our promise for our own day and our own time - unending life, joyful life, and resurrection life.