Still holding on to the good news

Written by Marv Thiessen

Pastor Marv Thiessen

Calgary First Mennonite Church

April 4, 2010

 

STILL HOLDING ON TO THE GOOD NEWS

 

I told you last Sunday that, with Lent concluding, we were finished with the holding on and letting go theme of our Lent series. But as I focused on the interchange between Jesus and Mary Magdalene in the Easter story as told in our biblical text for this morning, I could see that the holding on and letting go idea was resurfacing. I decided that I wouldn’t let go of that theme after all since I couldn’t escape the words of Jesus as he told Mary to not hold on to him. And then a title, "still holding on to the good news," occurred to me, inspired by remembering a song title by singer-songwriter Scott Anderson. While Mary was to let go of Jesus, she was to hold on to the good news. How might that thought inspire us on this Easter morning in 2010?

I find it interesting to think about Mary Magdalene on this occasion. She plays an important part in the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus after having only been mentioned once before in any of the four Gospels. In that single mention, Luke speaks of her in company with other women in Luke 8:2 when he tells us that this Mary Magdalene was one from whom seven demons had been expelled. But then, each of the Gospels tells us that Mary Magdalene was present observing the crucifixion of Jesus on Friday and then was one of the people who first discovered that the tomb of Jesus was empty on Sunday morning. As a result, we pay attention to her.

In the story as John tells it, Mary was the first to discover that the stone had been rolled away from the opening of the tomb of Jesus. To her, that meant that someone had taken the body of Jesus from the tomb and she ran to tell Peter about this. After Peter and John investigated the situation, they went home while Mary remained at the tomb. I don’t know what to make of the image of two of Jesus’ closest disciples simply returning to their homes when this important event has just occurred. But I do know that the reaction of Mary is important. She stays and weeps. Jesus has meant much to her. Through her tears, she looks into the tomb and sees two angels who ask her (compassionately, I take it) why she is weeping. She says it is because Jesus has been taken away. Then, behind her, someone else asks why she is weeping. She thinks it is the gardener, who might be responsible for the movement of Jesus’ body and wants him to tell her where the body has been moved to. Then, when Jesus addresses her by name, she realizes that Jesus stands before her.

Mary knows that Jesus died. She was there at the crucifixion. But now he stands before her. He is alive. One who means much to her, one who delivered her from great oppression, and one who died just a few days earlier, stands before her alive. What happens next? John doesn’t tell us this but I imagine that Mary immediately moved toward Jesus to embrace him and cling to him. That would make sense because the next words that John records are Jesus telling Mary to not hold on to him. She should let him go.

Mary could not keep Jesus for herself. Mary could not determine the movements and actions of Jesus. Jesus implied to her that she should let him go because he wasn’t leaving just yet. He also implied that she would have to let him go because he would yet return to his Father God. She would have to let Jesus go.

But she should hold on to this experience and to this good news. This was so important that she should treasure it. It was also so important that she should not keep it to herself. Jesus told her to go to his brothers and tell them about his resurrection and about his eventual departure and destination. When Jesus spoke of his brothers, he likely meant his disciples. Mary followed his guidance and went and told the disciples of Jesus that she had seen the Lord. She followed the direction of Jesus that encouraged the letting go of the story.

On this Easter morning, I believe that we should find inspiration in this story. We are inspired first of all by the importance of the story. This is tremendously good news. We who place our trust in God and make the decision to follow Jesus are convinced that the story of Jesus is what our world needs and desires even if it doesn’t know it. We think of God coming to earth as Jesus and bringing new ways of thinking about peace and justice to humanity and we reflect that this is very good news. We think of Jesus dying as part of God’s plan to offer forgiveness to humans for their sins against God and we reflect that this is very good news. And we think of the resurrection of Jesus demonstrating God’s victory over Satan and the power of sin and evil and we reflect that this is very good news. If we agree that this is very good news for the world, we agree that the world around us should hear this good news.

And that’s where our second point of inspiration from this story applies. If the world should hear this good news, someone needs to tell it. The Bible makes it clear that God’s plan for this telling is the same for his followers in all time as it was for Mary on that Easter morning when Jesus told her to go and tell his brothers about what she had experienced. God continues to direct us, his followers, to not hold on to the good news to such an extent that we keep it to ourselves. From that perspective, we need to let go of the good news. We do that in various ways. One is to be supportive of our church and denominational initiatives that aim to let this good news be known in the world. But more significantly, each of us needs to own the call to let this good news go by sharing it with others. We need to be interested in developing relationships with people who do not know this good news in order to find ways to let this good news be known to them. We need to be willing to say to others that we hold news that is so good, they should hear it and consider its call on them.

In Phil Wagler’s column in the March 22, 2010 issue of the Canadian Mennonite, he challenges us in this direction by asking us if we are willing to call people around us to conversion. He tells us if we become unwilling to do this, the church will die.

So, on Easter morning, when we think about resurrection and life, we do well to heed that challenge. Death is not what we’re about as followers of Jesus. We’re about life. This is good news. So in the end, having said that we should let go of the good news, I reflect that we must also hold on to it tightly. Jesus is still good news. The death and resurrection of Jesus is good news. It is our reason for living. It is the life-changing experience that we believe people everywhere should know. We demonstrate that we value that good news by holding on to it so tightly that we are compelled to let it go in sharing it with others.