Woman, Jesus said, why are you crying? Who is it that you are looking for?

Thinking He was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him so I will get Him….and He said to her, “Mary.”

A farmer back in the Midwest was caught in a flood. When the depth of water was three feet, the sheriff waded out to get him. He declined his help saying, “I expect God will save me.” When the water rose up to the second floor the firemen came by in a boat. He declined their help saying, “I expect God will save me.” When the water forced him up and on to the roof the National Guard came by with a helicopter. He waved them off yelling, “I expect God will save me.”

That night he drowned. When He came face to face with God he said, “God, I don’t get it. Why did I drown? I expected that you’d save me.”

“I tried” said God, “I sent the sheriff, the fire department and even the National Guard.” …Sometimes our expectations get in the way of what God has done for us.

Jesus Came to Change Our Expectations

In our Gospel lesson Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. What was it she expected to find? Most likely a cold stone upon which to weep, behind which lay her one and only Savior. She went with the expectation of finding a dead Jesus. At the tomb she unexpectedly finds that the stone has been rolled away. The angels meet her frightened and curious looks with the words, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?”

This makes no sense to her. Mary had seen Him on the cross, His blood pouring from His body until there was no more. She’d seen Him give up His Spirit. She had seen them certify His death by piercing his side with a spear, a sudden flow of water splattering down. And now this open tomb and vision of angels, this isn’t what she expected. She runs back to the others with the news, not that Jesus is alive, but the news They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.

Mary went to the tomb expecting to find a dead and distant Savior, but let us not be too hard on her, for many of us live as though our Savior is far away, as well. We live with the expectation of heaven and life with our risen Savior some day. Yet, we go through each day as though He were still dead and not able, or capable of being with us today.

We long to hold Him even for just a moment and when all that is God is placed in our hands in communion we fail to recognize it. We long to hear the voice of God sharing His wisdom, forgiveness, and comfort, and when the Word of God is read we fail to recognize it, because it, like communion, fails to meet our expectations- they aren’t what we expected- not what we were looking for.

At the news that someone had taken the body, John and Peter took off running for the tomb. I wondered what they expected to find. It says that John got there first, looked in at the linens lying there but didn’t go in. Just what did He expect to find? I’m not sure he even knew.

How often do we have expectations of God that are fuzzy? We hope to see an angel or maybe a miracle, but when God sends us one we miss it completely. Baptism is a miracle. There the spiritually dead are raised to new life. God is there in full measure washing away sins, granting new life, and we often miss it.

Peter arrived next, I’m sure out of breath. I think he came with fearful expectations. He was, after-all the one who after pledging never to abandon Christ, had denied Him three times. “How can I be forgiven if He’s dead?” “How can I be forgiven if they’ve taken the body?” “What if He has risen - what will He say to Me? I expect and fear that He may deny me as I did him.” “I don’t know if it worse to expect to find Him or hope He’s gone.”

How often are we so like Peter? We think what we’ve done is so bad that some of us expect it is even beyond God’s ability to forgive or maybe it isn’t the gravity of what we’ve done, but the number of times we’ve done it. We humbly confess if You’ll forgive us this one time we promise never to do it again. And before the words of absolution have had time to dry on the memory of my mind, we’ve done it again or something even worse.

Peter ran with the faint expectation of being forgiven. But, His forgiveness and our forgiveness is wrapped up in the words, He has risen! The disciples did not yet understand and we often fall short as well. In those words are God’s declaration of peace with sinners. As Jesus was dying on the cross, He declared, It is finished. Those words are God’s declaration that all our sins, even those sins of denial and compromise, sins of monstrous proportion, and even those sins too numerous to count have been atoned for. Were they costly, yes, but are they paid for, yes! The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1.7) Jesus rose again that we’d know Christ’s sacrifice was acceptable to the Father for it was written, He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Rom 4.25)

Peter and John left not knowing what to expect or whether their expectations were met or not. They knew something had happened but they couldn’t put it all together. Mary stood outside the tomb crying, not knowing what to expect. Jesus came to her to change all that. He comes to us as well.

He came to her asking, “Woman why are you crying?” And she still didn’t expect to see the risen Savior, especially one whose body had been glorified. Jesus’ Words created a new expectation; a new reality. With the word, “Mary!,” everything changed.

God’s Word comes to us, as well. It comes in ways we often do not expect, but it does create a new reality. It is God’s word that comes to us in Baptism with the promise: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. (Mark 16.16) Not just water but the Word in and with water creating faith to believe the new reality that the Holy Spirit dwells within us, and that the Spirit and our Savior speak our name before God.

It is God’s promises of forgiveness that I speak to you: If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. (1st John 1.9) We may often not feel forgiven, but forgiveness isn’t about a feeling. It is about a promise from the risen Jesus. It is Jesus who comes to us in a most unexpected way- The voice of God we are to hear comes to us “in, with, and under” the bread and wine of communion, forgiving up and strengthening us in a most unexpected place. This is Boulder after all, and many expect to hear the voice of God revealed after heavy meditation or medication or under a broom tree. No, the voice of God comes to us only through His Scriptures which have their origin not in the will of man but are God breathed words. (2 Peter 1.21a & 2 Tim 3. 16a) His Words come to give us a new reality.

After all this, we don’t understand it all, and apart from the working of the Holy Spirit we’d understand none of it. Only by the working of the Holy Spirit within us are we brought to understand that God came in the most unexpected ways to do the most extraordinary things. Paul writes it this way in his letter to the Corinthians, God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things and the despised things- and the things that are not- to nullify the things that are so that noone may boast before Him. (1st Cor 1. 27,28)

So what are we to do with all of this? …The same thing Mary was told to do: Go and tell the others. That commission has not changed one bit. We are to tell the others that Jesus is the Christ, the one who was anticipated and expected, and Who came to save us from our sins. That saving took place on the cross. There He died and three days later He rose just as He said He would. He has ascended into heaven and from there He will come again.

We are sent to all those who are crying because they are confused, lost, and disoriented by unmet and failed expectations. We are sent to those who think in worldly terms they’ve got it all figured out because they don’t, and we wouldn’t either if God hadn’t come to us as He came to Mary. It is in the telling and retelling of what Jesus has done that faith may be created in them. It is in that telling that our faith grows as well. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Amen