It’s easy to expect too much from Jesus. Maybe that’s not the right way to say it…it’s easy to expect Jesus to do all the things we think are best. After all, he said, “Ask and it shall be answered…” but laying all our demands on him is not exactly what he meant. But it’s easy to think it is. And it’s easy to get frustrated when Jesus doesn’t do what we ask. But Jesus isn’t a genie. He doesn’t nod and flicks his wrist to complete our requests. Jesus is the incarnation of God here on earth meant to connect us with the Divine and all that God offers and to show us the gifts of
living as he did with compassion and care.
We have to be careful of looking too hard for the Jesus we’re expecting—so focused on what we believe *should* be that we almost entirely miss the Jesus who is.
Last week’s story showed us the competition between expectation and reality. The hope that God would do what God had done before—battle, conquer, win—against human forces vs what God was doing now, on earth and in heaven. This week in the Easter passage that competition hasn’t ended. Mary went out before dawn looking for what she expected—the body of Jesus secure in the tomb. Peter and John then went chasing after her story, expecting either to prove she was mistaken or to find clues to find the missing body. They all expected a body. No-one stopped and said, “Remember, Jesus said he’d resurrect the temple on the third day and he was really talking about himself, so he’s probably going to walk through the door any minute, so we should just wait here…” No one said that because no one expected it. The disciples weren’t looking for what Jesus predicted. They weren’t looking for hope or life. They were looking for what they expected. They went looking to soothe their hopelessness by staying close to death.
We’ve seen over and over again that the biblical stories aren’t isolated to their time…. they are timeless, and through the work of the Holy Spirit, they continue to speak to us. So, as we see different things revealed in the scripture, we’re invited to apply those to ourselves. We’re invited to ask ourselves, “Am I looking for the things I believe and expect should be happening? Or am I open to seeing the new thing God is doing?”
Mary was at the tomb anxious and afraid, and so fixed on what she thought might be that when she did see Jesus, she didn’t even recognize him. Now, we don’t know how he looked, or what might have been different. Was the resurrected Christ so different that he wasn’t even recognizable to his friends and followers? Or, was she so ready to see the dead man they had buried that she couldn’t even imagine seeing the living Jesus before her? We don’t know. What we do know is that she was not expecting to see Jesus before her, and she didn’t recognize him when he spoke to her.
But Jesus was able to transform the moment by doing something simple and powerful…he called her by name. In recognizing and naming her, he restored her sight. As soon as he said “Mary”, she knew it was him! And it was good.
But, even with Jesus alive, it wasn’t all roses and sunshine. I mean, that’s how we like to celebrate, but think about it…. sure he was alive but what did that even mean? What were the implications of that? Would he conquer the Romans after all? Would he perform more miracles? What would he do now that he was alive again…?
Quite frankly it was not obvious. Not on that day and maybe not even in the coming weeks. Jesus was alive but what was different? The understanding, the realizations, the transformations all took time. The power of the resurrection is not shock and awe, not suddenly this then that. The power of the resurrection, the deep implications take time to develop—in the disciples then and, now, for us.
And boy do I hate to say that. I hate delayed gratification and practicing patience and I really wish I had the Easter miracle in the palm of my hand. But that’s not who Jesus is. To journey with Jesus is exactly that—it’s a journey, a process, a progression. He wants us to keep going to the next place, the next person, the next miracle—to keep growing in faithfulness and understanding---to acknowledge we don’t have this whole Jesus thing figured out. After all, if we did, we’d probably just walk away and do things on our own. But to journey with Jesus is to be dependent on him as a rabbi—a teacher and mentor—who continuously helps us grow and take our next steps.
Easter is not the same this year. But maybe it shouldn’t be. Maybe this year we can be grounded in feeling what the disciples felt...grief, fear, confusion, and wonder, and maybe with that we can know that despite what wasn’t understood or known, Jesus was alive...he had faced the worst and he had conquered death. He rose victorious and then journeyed with the disciples as they muddled their way through it all. Maybe we can find hope in encouragement in knowing, Christ is Risen, and he will walk alongside us as we muddle our way through our own grief, fear, confusion, and wonder.
Amen.