"AT THE MARGINS - JESUS AND RESURRECTION"

“AT THE MARGINS – JESUS AND RESURRECTION”

            One of the oddities of the Resurrection narratives in all four Gospel accounts is that the women disciples are the primary witnesses to the Resurrection.   Though the names of the women differ a bit, all four Gospels agree that the women are primary.  Why is this so odd?  Because the women are at the margins – in Jewish society, their testimony in court is not considered valid unless corroborated by a male.  So…….that creates a big problem for the followers of Jesus – the primary witnesses to his Resurrection are unreliable from the cultural point of view.  This situation also points us to the underlying truth of these accounts – if it had not happened this way, why would patriarchal writers include these accounts, which themselves and their culture will consider to be “fake news.”

            There is also another fundamental truth underlying these accounts of the Resurrection of Jesus – they are in line with his ministry.   His ministry before he was given the death penalty was to people on the margins – those deemed unworthy, unclean, unloved and unlovely.   One of the reasons that the Roman Empire executed him was that many of those on the margins were beginning to believe his message that the primary definition of their lives came not from Rome but from God.  From Rome’s point of view, those are dangerous thoughts, and they executed Jesus as a revolutionary, using the terroristic tool of crucifixion.

            All of Jesus’ followers seemed to think that it was over.  All the male disciples deserted him at the Cross – only the women disciples stayed with him through death.   The women even stayed loyal to him after death – they come to his tomb as soon as possible to anoint his body for burial.  The culture interpreted this as women’s work, but the men could have come.  Fear, shock, and disappointment held the men back, but it did not deter the women.  And the Risen Jesus chooses to appear to these women, to those on the margins.  Some commentators seek to dismiss the power of this metaphor of Resurrection at the margins by indicating that the only reason that the women were the primary witnesses was that they were at the right place at the right time.  There are two problems with this attempt to diminish the witness of the women and the emphasis on Resurrection at the margins of life.  First, as we see in all four Gospels, the Risen Jesus seems able to appear whenever he chooses to appear – he appears to the folks in the Upper Room, to Thomas, to the women on the road, to the travelers to Emmaus, to Peter and the other males who are out fishing.  No, the Risen Jesus chooses to appear first to those on the margins:  the women disciples.  There’s a second and even more definitive answer to this desire to downplay the significance of the witness of those on the margins, and we see it in John’s account of the Resurrection.

            In John 20, Mary Magdalene comes alone to the tomb of Jesus – she is the only disciple mentioned in all four gospels who comes to the tomb of Crucified Jesus.  She’s not looking for a risen Jesus – she comes to anoint a dead body.  When she sees the stone rolled away from the tomb, she is afraid that the body has been stolen, and she runs to get some of the males to come back with her.  Peter and the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (presumably John) race to the tomb and find it empty.  So, these two male disciples are at the tomb with Mary, but Jesus chooses not to appear to them.  They leave, and Mary is left alone at the tomb.  It is then that Jesus chooses to appear to Mary – he CHOOSES not to appear to the men, but he CHOOSES to appear to one at the margins, a disciple named Mary.  We must always keep this fundamental aspect of the Resurrection story in front of us – the Risen Jesus chooses to announce his Resurrection at the margins of life.  The gritty and uncomfortable work of his earthly ministry continues in his resurrection – at the margins of life.

            Mary is no beatific here – she doesn’t immediately recognize the Risen Jesus.  She sees him and talks with him, but her perceptual apparatus is still captured by death – she knows that the world does not work this way.  Only when he calls her name “Mary” does she recognize him.  She runs to tell the other disciples, women and men:  “I have seen the Lord!”   And the tradition and the church has sought to dismiss the importance of her testimony ever since. 

            But, as we begin this Easter season, let us linger a bit with this fundamental truth of the Easter story.  Jesus lived his life and did his ministry on the margins – the church has often tried so hard to deny that.  Yet, his Resurrection reminds us of that truth.  The life-changing and society-changing event of the church, the Resurrection of Jesus the Jew – it happened on the margins of life.  If we’re wondering where to find the Risen Jesus in our day, if we’re looking to hear the Risen Jesus call our names, let us join the Risen Jesus and Mary and many others at the margins.  That’s where we’ll find Jesus, and that’s where we’ll find our lives.