The Wound of Death Is Vanquished!
John 20:11–16

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

St. John 20:11-16 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to Him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher.)

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… He is risen!

We just heard the discomfort of Mary’s experience at the empty tomb. It doesn’t matter how many times you encounter it, it never feels natural, never feels right. Death always feels wrong. Something inside of us does not accept that we will not hear that voice, we will never see that face, we will never touch that hand, we will never experience that laughter ever again. The grief counselors can all talk until they are blue in the face about how death is simply a part of life and how we must accept it as inevitable and natural. But we never do. We never will.

Mary did not accept death. Oh, she had no doubt that her Lord, her Teacher, was dead. She had witnessed the horror of it just two days earlier, and the sights, the sounds, the smells, and the strength of it were still very much with her. Standing beside Jesus’ mother, she had seen the light die in His eyes as He hung gruesomely upon the cross. She had seen them take His limp body down from the wood. She had heard the horrid sound as they pulled nails. He was dead. She had no doubt about that.

But it wasn’t right. She knew it wasn’t right. And she simply had to touch Him again. It was imperative to her that she see that body again.

But the body was gone. She had run to tell Peter and John; big help they were. They checked it out and told her she was right: the body was gone. Then they left her, but she remained. She did not know what to do, where to go, to whom to turn. So she just stood there and cried.

And her tears were not the easy, gentle tears of one who is merely sad. Oh, no. Mary wept the gut-wrenching, full-voiced, body-shaking, uncontrollable sobs of the truly grieving, something I am sure many of you know..
Death. It wounds not only those it takes from us, but it also wounds those who are left. And sometimes it wounds us so badly, so deeply, that we think it will kill us right then and there. Mary knew something of that as she sobbed deeply and looked into the tomb.

But something was different now. The tomb was not empty after all. There were angels there, clothed in white. One was sitting where the Lord’s head had been, one where His feet had been. And though Mary’s sorrow could never shake or destroy their joy, they are concerned for her.

“Woman,” they ask, “why are you weeping?” Jesus’ death was such a given that she did not say, “Because my Lord is dead.” Instead, her answer was, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” Not knowing about the location of the body was absolutely tearing her up. Death was horrible enough, but not to be able to find the body?

Those who have lost loved ones at sea, those who loved ones’ bodies were obliterated beyond recognition in the 9/11 tragedy, those whose loved ones’ bodies were never found after a disappearance – they know this feeling. And for Mary, not to be able to tend to her Lord’s body and give it her last services was simply too much, and she would not accept it. She had to know where Jesus was. She had to touch His body once more. How else could she face tomorrow? How else could she face the rest of her life?

Mary’s grief is of such a magnitude that not even a conversation with angels fazes her. So, she straightens up and turns and almost runs into the One who had never been far from her, the One who stood right beside her in her grief, though she did not know it.

Jesus gently asks, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Hope rises in Mary’s heart. Is it the gardener? Perhaps he is the one who moved her Master’s body. “Sir,” she cries, “if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”
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Mary’s tears blinded her eyes that morning. Her grief made all the world seem to move in super-slow motion, unreal and phantomlike.

And it all changed when He said one word. He called her name: “Mary.”

Not long before this, Jesus had said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). Although she had not recognized Him before, yet at the sound of her name Mary’s heart pounded, her breath caught, and she stared in awe, in terror, in joy rising like a flood.

“Rabboni!” she cried. “My teacher!” And she lunged for Jesus and held His feet. Beyond hope, beyond her wildest dreams, there He stood. This was not a ghost. This was not a spirit. This was not an illusion or some wishful thinking. Her Jesus – flesh and blood, the wounds still visible, but transfigured, shining in glory – her Jesus was right there in front of her!

And the tears came again, but this time they were of another sort, for these tears were not the sobs of despair, but the tears that brim from a cup that runs over with joy.

It was a beautifully tender moment, but the joys were only beginning, for Jesus had work for Mary to do, a job for her to carry out. He sent her first to His apostles to give them the message that He lives and that He is preparing to ascend to His Father and their Father, to His God and their God. Death was not the end of Him, and so it will not be the end of Mary or of the disciples.

Nor, dear friends, will death be the end of you. Jesus has changed forever how we live, how we grieve, and how we die. Oh, we still feel in our bones how wrong death is, how unnatural, and we hate it with a passion. But Jesus has made it something we never have to fear, not ever again.

For by His death and resurrection, Jesus has wounded and destroyed death itself. He has dealt it a mortal and final blow from which it will never recover. He came out of its stinking gullet alive again, never to die again. And His promise to Mary, to His apostles, and to you, His baptized children, is that He will bring each and every one of you through the hole He punched in death into the home He has prepared for you with His Father.

To strengthen your faith in His resurrection victory, Jesus continues to put into your dying bodies His very same body that was on the tree, atoning for all your sin. To strengthen your faith in His resurrection victory Jesus continues to place into your dying bodies His same body that was in the tomb, sanctifying your grave, the same body that Mary held in the garden that first Easter Day.

To strengthen your faith in His resurrection victory Jesus pours down your throat the very same blood that He shed to wipe out the sin of the world. And He reminds you that it is all for you.

Death could not hold Him, and death will not hold you. You who have been baptized in Christ’s death and resurrection have the sure and certain hope of the resurrection as sure as Jesus rose from the dead.
And on the Last Day, death, dying, sin, sadness, sickness – and all the other things of this sinful words – will be no more. Christ guarantees it.

This is the prayer for all who die in the faith; it is your prayer. Let us pray: God of all grace, You sent Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to bring life and immortality to light. We give You thanks that by His death He has destroyed the power of death, and by His resurrection He opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Strengthen us in the confidence that because He lives we shall live also, and that neither death nor life nor things present nor things to come will be able to separate us from Your love, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!