The New Creation in You
Easter 2023
April 9, 2023
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Some years ago, our son Sam and his wife Abby adopted a cute little Chihuahua-Pekinese-mini poodle mix named Sage. Sage is cute as she can be, all 4 pounds of her. But she had a problem when they first got her. She was covered with fleas. The poor dog was absolutely miserable. She looked frightened, cowering, and much smaller than her 4 pounds would indicate.
I suggested Sam should go get a flea and tic shampoo so we could kill the fleas and wash them away. Sam got a flea shampoo. It smelled really nice, but it claimed to be a repellant, not a killer. And it didn’t seem to bother the fleas at all. So, I ran to the store and grabbed the right product, came back and we washed her. The second bath killed all the fleas.
The change in Sage was abrupt and complete. She immediately became joyful. She couldn’t stop smiling and as soon as we got her mostly dry, she started bounding all around greeting everyone. It was quite a transformation. Sudden. Complete.
(You can see Sage and her brother Finn on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sage.and.finn.the.dogs/?hl=en, where they have over 3,300 followers.)
She’s super sweet to everyone, but I am confident that she has a little extra love for her grandpa because of that day. I may be imagining that, but that’s what I think, so there you go.
That joy of deliverance has changed Mary Magdalene.
We know very little about Mary Magdalene. She was presumably from Magdala, a thriving city on the NE coast of the Sea of Galilee. Some scholars and traditions have associated her with Mary of Bethany and/or the woman who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, but those seems unlikely. There have been other speculations about her, but none of that has any basis in scripture.
That’s not very much detail, but we know what we need to know. Most importantly, Luke’s and Mark’s Gospels both say Jesus had delivered her from seven demons. We all know the havoc and destruction that even one demon – say an addiction – can wreak on a person and everyone around them. Citing seven demons suggests to us that she had been very troubled, devastated and ruined, probably ostracized from her family and her condition would have cut her off from having friends. Those demons had been gnawing at her like Sage’s fleas, except in a much more awful way.
Then she met Jesus. He delivered her.
Can you imagine? Perhaps some of you do. Many of us only experience the life-long project with baby steps of grace that hopefully add up over many years. Eventually you can look back over a decade or two or three and see the progress. Receiving Jesus can have a dramatic and sometimes immediate effect. Addictions are broken. An ill-temper gets washed away. Guilt and shame are healed.
Mary’s deliverance appears to have been sudden, immediate, and dramatic. He healed her. He saved her, restoring her from a rather tortured life to a real life, a joyful life. It seems a little odd that a detailed account of her healing was not included in any of the Gospels, but, again, we know what we need to know. She was delivered from seven demons.
Of course she loves Jesus deeply. Once she was healed, she followed him. Way back in chapter 8, Luke lists her among a handful of women who traveled with Jesus and the 12 and who helped provide for their needs. She followed Jesus all the way through his trial and to the cross. She watched him die. She helped prepare his body for burial with oils and spices.
And so, early on the first Easter morning she goes down to the tomb to be near Jesus. She knows he is dead. She knows the tomb is sealed. She just needs to be near his remains. We understand that. We have a natural desire to hold on to the people we love once they are gone. We hold on to pictures, stories, memories and we associate places and even smells with them.
We understand her shock and grief when she finds the tomb has been disturbed and Jesus’ body is gone. We understand why she cannot absorb what the angels are telling her. We understand why she cannot see clearly through her tears of grief and despair. We understand her pleas to just be told where he is so that she can attend to his body. And we understand her joy when she hears Jesus speak her name and she knows it is him! The sheep know their good shepherd’s voice!
When Jesus tells her not to cling to him because he has not yet ascended to the Father, we see the reality of the new creation dawning. She must not cling to him as the itinerant rabbi, the teacher and healer she knew. She must wait and receive him as he is, the risen Son of God.
There are a couple of lessons for us to draw from that. First, we must grieve those we love but see no longer. It is good for us to have mementos and pictures, to tell the stories and have our places of remembrance like our memorial garden. But we must not cling to them as they were. We must love them as they are with Jesus, having stepped into his redemptive love. Let that assurance comfort you and bear you through the loneliness and longing for their company. Love them as they are with Jesus.
Second, we must remember that these promises were secured by Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection that first Easter morning. He gave everything to make those promises true and certain. We must consider everything Jesus said and did before his resurrection in light of his resurrection. His miracles, all of them, are peeks into the new creation. His teaching is not for this life only. It is preparation for eternity with him.
Some of you no doubt got a little itchy when I spoke of fleas. We all suffer irritations and pains, little bites that in great numbers can make us miserable. Some of you no doubt have suffered demons either in your life or afflicting someone you love.
Fleas and demons will not prevail. Jesus gives us a vital gift, hope, which sustains us through all the challenges we face.
We have this Easter joy because…stand up, get your bells ready…
Alleluia, Christ is risen!
Alleluia, Christ is risen!
Alleluia, Christ is risen!
May you have joy in the risen Christ, clinging to him as he is, to bring new life today and eternal life forever.
AMEN!