John 20:11-16

Mary stood outside near the tomb, crying. As she cried, she bent down to look into the tomb. She saw two angels dressed in white, seated where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and one at the foot. The angels asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

She replied, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve put him.” As soon as she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she didn’t know it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabbouni” (which means Teacher).

When I was in the youth group at the Concord United Methodist Church, our sunrise service featured a dramatization of this passage in John 20. I could not believe how well our Mary (played by Connie, a year older than me) delivered her lines from verse 15: “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him.”

She was serious. Her voice held the urgency of grief. It had power in it that I had not seen in her before.

Resurrection reveals the ongoing power of God’s love over finality. Resurrection is not merely something that happened once or will happen someday. Resurrection is an ongoing process of renewed life in a living hope.

For Wesleyans, resurrection is an ongoing process of life being renewed in love. This ongoing power of love mends grief and makes us empathic. The ongoing power of love refuses to let us go or let us off. We are not our worst moments or poorest decisions. In God’s love, we are more than our puny and petty definitions.

Easter people are being shaped in love, not limited by what we can see or what we have known to be true in the past. Resurrection people are in process with the God who brings newness of life. We don’t have to have it all figured out or be courageous every day, but by faith, God’s love is a lure forward into courage and into possibility.

I love that in this passage, Mary confused the risen Lord with the gardener. Sadly, racial profiling and immigration enforcement erosions of due process reveal many of us are not seeing Jesus in gardeners, cooks, roofers, mothers, pastors, and other immigrants. The resurrection is alive in faith communities' being renewed in love—especially when we are clear about our solidarity with Jesus.

And yet, Mary calls the risen Lord “teacher.” Yes, Lord, may the risen Lord be our teacher. Most of life is full of Holy Saturdays—moments of not knowing when the grief will be easier, when the rent will be paid, when the church will turn around, when the brutality of racism will leave us, and when wars will cease. You may have a Holy Saturday or two in your life this year.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a decisive event whose life-giving power continues to move forward, shaping what is still becoming possible in the world.

Resurrection names the victory of life over finality—not just over physical death, but over despair, and all the death-dealing dynamics of empire. Christ’s presence is relational and transformative, and in Christ God persuades, lures, and invites creation toward richer forms of life.

I believe resurrection reveals the ongoing power of God’s love over finality.

I believe resurrection is an ongoing process of life being renewed in love.

I believe the resurrection is alive in faith communities growing by grace and love.

May Easter and your Eastertide be alive with the practice of this hope.

Peace,

Dan Schwerin, Bishop
Northern Illinois-Wisconsin Area
The United Methodist Church

Hear Bishop Schwerin's video Easter message (different content)