"HAVING EYES TO SEE"

 “HAVING EYES TO SEE”

Our kids David and Susan used to love having egg hunts at our house during the Easter season.  Sometimes they would last for two weeks or so, with all of us taking turns hiding the eggs –  we were not using real eggs at that point!  One of the fun parts of the game was seeking to hide the eggs in plain sight, just hidden enough not to be obvious, but visible if the seeker had eyes to see.  “Having eyes to see” became one of our mantras about the egg hunts, but also about life – our orientation towards a particular subject often determined what we were able to see.

In this week of Resurrection, I always think first of the Gospel of John, where the accounts of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth begin in chapter 20.  Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb alone, coming to anoint the dead body of Jesus.  She is the only disciple named in all four Gospels who comes to the tomb of Jesus.  As she approaches the tomb, she sees that the stone has been rolled away, and her first thought is not: “Hallelujah!  Jesus has risen from the dead.” No, her first thought is that the body of Jesus has been stolen, and she is in great despair.  She runs to get some of the male disciples to help her, and Peter and “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (commonly known as John) race to the tomb to see what has happened.  They go into the tomb and see that the body is gone, but then they leave Mary alone by herself at the tomb.

Mary is weeping over the situation, but she steps into the tomb.  There she sees two men who ask her why she is crying.  She tells them that the body of Jesus has been stolen, and she does not know where it is. Then she turns to see another person in the tomb – it is the risen Jesus, but she does not recognize him.  She assumes that he is the caretaker of the cemetery, and they have a short conversation about the disappearance of Jesus’ body.  I’ve always been intrigued that Mary cannot recognize the risen Jesus standing right in front of her – she does not have eyes to see!

Why doesn’t she recognize him?  She has traveled with him and worked with him for months and months, but now she does not recognize him at such an important time.  It is not like he looks like a ghost – she sees that he is a human being, and indeed thinks that he is the caretaker.  There are many reasons given for this lack of recognition, but my thought is that she is so captured by the power of death, that she cannot even see the risen Jesus standing right in front of her.  Her perceptual apparatus tells her that Jesus is dead, and she sticks with that.  I know that process in my own journey.  Though I “saw” Black people every day when I was growing up, I was a young adult before I had my eyes opened and saw that they were human beings like me.  Prior to that, I did not have eyes to see.

When does Mary recognize the risen Jesus?  When he calls her name: “Mary.” Then her eyes are opened, and she hears from Jesus that she will be the first preacher:  “Go to my brothers and sisters and tell them what you have seen.”  Mary does this – she tells them: “I have seen the Lord!”  Mary has eyes to see, but her colleagues do not.  Luke’s account in chapter 24 lets us know that the male disciples think that her testimony is nonsense, and she is dismissed.  The dismissal continues a long history of the testimony of women being discounted by men, but Mary (and Jesus) prevail, and the men come around too.

    We should note that the 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. 

    As we think about the Resurrection of Jesus this week, let us remember that he appears to a woman, to a witness on the margins of life.  Indeed, in all four of the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, it is the women who carry the water – it is the women who become the primary witnesses to the Resurrection.  If we want to see the risen Jesus, we must go the margins of life, because that is where Jesus did his ministry and then lived in his Resurrected life.  There we will have the opportunity to hear our names called, and we will be given the gift of sight for the kindom of God.