Jesus said: “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

The first thought Mary Magdalene had when she found the tomb empty early in the morning was grave robbers. Why else would the big stone that guarded the entrance be rolled away?

In her distress, Mary ran to tell Peter and John someone stole Jesus body. Of course they ran to the tomb to see for themselves. What the two men found was the empty tomb, which could well confirm Mary’s fear.

But when they also found the body linens neatly rolled and put aside, this was no grave robbery. It had to be something else. Both John and Peter as Pharisees believed in the resurrection. John saw the folded linens, and the Gospel account simply says that he believed. Jesus had risen from the dead, just as people had risen from the dead in the Old Testament stories of Elijah, Elisha and Ezekiel…John and Peter grew up in a tradition that prepared them to believe.

Mary Magdalene as a woman probably had not been exposed in any way to religious tradition. She was a woman on her own, and religion was men’s business. She was not prepared to see anything but grave robbers, and she was inconsolable that she could not at least look once more on Jesus face. She returned to the tomb, weeping as she bent over to look inside. What she saw were two angels….angels who had not been there for Peter or John…angels sitting at the foot and the head of the stone bench on which Jesus body had been laid. A special grace God gave Mary, the sight of those two angels, but she still didn’t begin to understand and told the angels that Jesus body was gone, and she didn’t know where to find it.

Then it was that Jesus appeared to her, and she was so unprepared for him that she didn’t believe even then. “Mary”, Jesus said as he had said so many times before, and her heart burst with joy. She reached for him, and he drew back and actually rebuked her.

Mary had watched them take the body of her beloved Lord down from the cross on Friday afternoon before sunset. How could it be that he was now standing at her side calling her by name? Too much for her to grasp.

The Evangelist who wrote the Gospel of John was making an important point as he describes Mary’s and John’s very different responses to the empty tomb. Post-Easter followers of Jesus had to shift from relating to a man and learn to relate spiritually to Christ the Risen Lord.

When John the Beloved Disciple saw the folded grave cloths and intuitively believed, he gives an example of believing in Jesus as risen Lord, a spirit, not as a man. Jesus followers would have to learn to relate to Jesus in an altogether different way…relate to Jesus spiritually.

But Mary didn’t get it. First of all, I am assuming that she was not acquainted with the Pharisaic belief in resurrection. She was probably ignorant of it. Such things went over her practical head. She needed to see him, actually touch him…to believe he was real. But as we know, Jesus pulled back from her. From then on it would be a new kind of relationship he was telling her.

We have only known Jesus spiritually. We have never had to make that transition from human friend to spiritual Master. It may be hard for us to imagine Mary Magdalene’s confusion, even her hurt, when Jesus pulled back from her.

But Easter had freed Jesus from the human bonds of time and space. A new thing had happened…a new thing meaning all generations might know Jesus too. As spirit Jesus became the Christ, God’s promised one, free to be everywhere, anytime to nurture and guide, to comfort and embolden and protect…. free forever from all human limitations.

Yes, Easter freed Jesus from the limitations of a human body. And Easter faith frees us…frees us from ordinary human inhibitions and fears, emboldens us to live with integrity and love and hope, and even daring…. led by the Spirit of Christ in our lives and unbound by society’s values and taboos. Easter freed Jesus from the bonds of death. Easter faith frees us to live abundantly.

Easter faith, the kind that Paul proclaimed and lived…the kind of faith on which he bet his life is a risk as well as a hope. It is a believing in spite of…. in the face of doubt…the doubt that Mary Magdalene felt. By faith we may entrust ourselves to the Easter truth, foregoing guarantees. Faith is not rational, nor can its truths be proved in ordinary ways. Faith is of a different realm.

For those who require some kind of proof of Easter morning, as Mary Magdalene did, as many do, the greatest possible proof is that a frightened band of peasants and fishermen, about to flee home to Galilee, suddenly were transformed into an aggressive mission force. Jewish theologian Pinchas Lapide who believes in Jesus resurrection says: “No hallucination or vision could explain their transformation.” Their experience was real.

Albert Schweitzer asks in his book The Quest of the Historical Jesus, how can it be explained that against all plausibility Jesus followers did not scatter, were not forgotten and that the cause of Jesus did not reach its infamous end on the cross?

The Christian church sprouted from an empty tomb. As Jesus earthly life ended, the Church became the Body of Christ. Easter is the most crucial, the most non-negotiable Teaching of the Christian faith. Christmas, Good Friday, Holy Thursday…all would be forgotten without Easter. The Church has become the living Body of Christ on earth, sometimes empowered and led by the Holy Spirit, sometimes subject to human weakness.

Twenty to thirty years after Jesus death and resurrection, Paul had his vision of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. He was reborn to be the greatest of apostles. Paul’s writings are of great interest because they were written the earliest after Jesus lived. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul says: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith in vain.”

It is evident from Paul’s letter that some like Mary found it hard to believe. But here is a story of one young woman who did believe, and I’ll call her Grace. She had been diagnosed with a serious illness and given three months to live. As she was getting her things in order, she contacted her pastor and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in.

Everything was in order and the pastor was preparing to leave when Grace suddenly remembered something very important to her.

“There’s one more thing,” she said excitedly. “What’s that?” the pastor asked. “This is very important,” Grace said. “I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.” The pastor stood looking at the young woman, not knowing what to say. “That surprises you, doesn’t it? Grace said. “I’m puzzled,” said the pastor, and Grace explained. “My grandmother once told me this story and from then on I have tried to pass her message along to those I love and those in need of encouragement. “In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, I always remember that when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, ‘Keep your fork’. It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming…like chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie. Something wonderful, something with substance. So I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder ‘What’s with the fork?’ Then I want you to tell them: ‘Keep your fork…the best is yet to come’.”

KEEP YOUR FORK…THE BEST IS YET TO COME…HALLELULIAH!