April 23, 2008

I Thought He Was the Gardener

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

John 20:1-18

The message this morning is that the resurrection isn’t just a nice story about someone who was mistreated having the last laugh.

The story of Easter in John’s gospel is about better things to come. It is about victory over death and the promise of eternal life for each of us.

Three Easter stories seem to be interwoven.

Mary Magdalene sees an empty tomb and two angels sitting in it. She returns to the disciples and tells them the body has been removed.

John and Peter hear Mary’s report and race to the tomb themselves. John is faster than Peter and less impulsive. John believes, but Peter doesn’t.

Mary has an encounter with a man whom she mistakes for the gardener. When she hears his voice, she recognizes Jesus.

Jesus’ resurrection is not like Lazarus’. Lazarus comes out of the tomb with grave clothes. Jesus’ grave clothes remain in the tomb, as if he had vanished.

Jesus’ resurrection is somehow spiritual. He is able to enter the room where the disciples are meeting even though the doors are locked.

John is contrasting the earthly and the heavenly. (Slide)

He is the resurrection and the life – those who live and believe in him will never die. He demonstrates this now with his own resurrection.

Message of Easter for John is that Jesus has opened up a whole new way of living. It is not limited by time, by human frailty, or by the physical properties of the universe.

John invites us to consider a new way of life:

No fear of death – Jesus has conquered death.

No fear of God’s punishment. If we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit, we will not need to constantly worry about whether or not we’re doing the right thing.

Life not defined by the limitations of this world. Jesus turned water into wine, walked on water, healed blind man. Told his disciples they would do greater miracles than the ones he did.


Sounds like crazy talk to most people. I can see why people would say that kind of thing.

Unless you have faith in Jesus, this kind of thing makes no sense.

How can people not fear death – how can they expect to come back from the dead? I’ve never met anyone who did.

This passage redefines life and death. We believe that life in the Spirit begins when you come to faith in Jesus and never ends.

Jesus told Nicodemus in chapter 3 that unless you are born of the Spirit you wouldn’t understand how it works. So don’t be surprised if this doesn’t make sense when you look at it through purely rational, human eyes.

I’m asking you to look at this story through eyes of faith. When you ask yourself whether or not water can be turned into wine, most people think that’s ridiculous. But when you look at it through eyes of faith, Jesus is like the wine – the best God had to offer, saved until the time was right.

If you asked your friends whether or not a blind person can be healed by putting mud on his or her eyes, most of them would say that’s ridiculous. But when you look at it through eyes of faith, you realize that we are all like the blind man, and the Jesus alone can help us see what God wants for our lives.

If you asked your friends whether or not someone can take a few loaves of bread and some fish and feed 5000 people, most people think that’s ridiculous. But when you look at it through eyes of faith, you realize that unlike the food we eat which leaves us hungry again in a few hours, Jesus fills the spiritual hunger inside us so that we’re never hungry again.

Mary Magdalene looked at some guy in the garden near Jesus’ tomb that day. Her doubt and her fear and her grief limited her perception to the earthly possibility that this guy was the gardener.

But when she looked at him through eyes of faith, she realized that it was Jesus himself, that he did rise from the dead, just as he said he would, and that because he lives for ever, we will too. It all depends on how you look at it.

I’m challenging you to take a second look at your life this morning and ask yourself, “Am I seeing the world in the way the world has trained me to look at it? Am I seeing what I expect to see? What would life look like through eyes of faith?”

Final Illustration – Man in Perth Australia is auctioning his life. "It's time to move. A completely fresh start. I want to see where life takes me," Ian Usher, 44, told Australian television on Tuesday from Perth in Western Australia state.

Usher said he was auctioning his life as "a package" with his house in Perth valued at around A$420,000 (US$385,000). "Hi there, my name is Ian Usher, and I have had enough of my life! I don't want it any more! You can have it if you like!" reads his Web site, which has a link to eBay for bidders.

Usher said his life auction, which starts on June 22, included not only his house, a car, a motorbike, a jet ski and a spa, but also an introduction to "great friends" and a job at a rug shop in Perth for a trial two-week period.

I think people get that depressed or frustrated with life because they allow themselves to be limited by what they can see, what they can imagine, and what they expect. Who’s to say that his new life will be any better?

But when you look at life through eyes of faith, when you allow the Holy Spirit to guide you to possibilities you never imagined, you will realize just how wonderful, how beautiful, how sacred our lives are.

Life is not defined by clothes or cars or homes or jobs or friends, or even by our families. When we look at life through the person of Jesus, when we allow him to open our eyes, when we feed on his teachings, when share the meal he asked us to observe, when we realize that any hope any of us has for eternal life can only be anchored in him, then life looks really different. It all depends on how you look at it.

I’m asking you this morning to take another look at your life. When you leave this building this morning, most of the things in your life that were there this morning will be the same. You’ll live in the same place, drive the same car, maintain the same friendships, work the same job.

I’m not asking you to start over. I’m asking you to look at yourself through a different lens. I’m asking you to put on a different pair of glasses. I’m asking you to allow the Holy Spirit to give you a new perspective.

To help us visualize and reframe our lives, I’m going to ask you to join me in a profession of faith.