[AI translation] It's a two thousand year old story, heard many times, which I've just read from the Bible. Unfortunately, we are so used to the familiar words that there is nothing surprising or special about it. It passes our eyes when we read it again. Yet here John the Evangelist describes the Easter experience with a special nuance of Greek, an almost exciting intensification. I want to point out something in it that can only be discerned with some knowledge of the original language of the Bible. There are three characters in the story: Mary, Peter and John. All three of them are said to go to the tomb on Easter morning, and all three of them have the word 'see' repeated. So it is in the Hungarian translation. But not in the original Greek text! There we have three very different kinds of vision. All three actually see the same thing, but all three see the same thing in different ways, i.e. the tomb being opened. Or I could say: all three see the same thing, but all three see different things! So, in fact, the question that could be asked in relation to this story is: who sees the mystery of Easter, who sees what?1) So first Mary Magdalene: "she went... to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb" (Jn 20,1) Here John uses a word that means something like looking at something, but actually seeing nothing! He sees only what is visible in an external, superficial glance. That something has happened, because the stone is rolled away from the entrance to the tomb. But what really happened, he doesn't even think about. Perhaps the body of the Lord has been stolen? His soul is just shaken by some mystery he can't understand. He doesn't wonder where the truth is, but runs excitedly from the tomb, turning his back on the mystery, and hurries back the way he came. There remains in his soul an unsolved mystery. He does not even come to the thought that Jesus has risen!
Even today there are many who come to church on Easter morning without actually seeing any of the true mystery of Easter. They see only the externals, those lovely folk customs: red eggs, cheerful sprinkling, the spring-like celebrations that make these two days stand out from the monotony of everyday life. Perhaps there is a tingle in their hearts, a sense of mystery that is incomprehensible. The thought that something must have happened, undeniably, because even today, two thousand years later, the custom of crowds of people flocking to churches is still alive. All over the world, a holiday is celebrated in memory of what happened on that first Easter morning. But what it really was, and what it means to them, is something they no longer think about. They may hear that someone has risen from the dead, and perhaps that gives their souls a little shudder. But whether it really happened, or whether they are just proclaiming it because it is the custom, the right thing to do, they no longer wonder. The Easter service is over, they turn their backs on the mystery and hurry back to enjoy the delicious Easter ham and the pleasant rest that the holiday season brings. Is it not true that we often see only so much of Easter? It's not much! In fact, nothing! But for many churchgoers, it is enough!
2) The apostle Peter sees more: "He went into the tomb, and saw the linen cloths lying there. And the linen cloth that was on his head was not with the linen cloths, but rolled up separately in one place" (vv. 6-7) Here John uses a word to express vision that already means more than the previous one. It is already theoretical vision, the searching vision of the inquiring soul, the inquiry of the critical spirit, when one looks into things and contemplates what one sees. Seeing the shroud left behind and the folded casket, he tries to deduce what actually happened here. He thinks about it and tries to unravel the mystery.
Even today, there are many people who want to see the mystery of Easter in this way. Theoretically, theoretically, dissecting it, pondering it, seeking a common sense explanation for it, trying to make sense of the incomprehensible. I, too, have long been stuck with this kind of vision. I was desperate to unlock the mystery of Jesus' resurrection by logical means! But I couldn't get my head around it! In particular, the rationalist theology of the last century has developed many theories to explain the resurrection. From the theory of the so-called subjective vision to the theory of the so-called objective vision, all sorts of ideas have been put forward in dogmatic minds to somehow make the incomprehensible comprehensible! Needless to say, in all this effort, the miracle itself, the true essence of Easter, was completely lost. Such is the theoretical vision of those who "see" only a human train of thought in an Easter sermon. They see the sheets and the carefully folded cassock, and then perhaps discuss within themselves or among themselves how good this or that thought was or was not. They are happy to discuss the secret of Easter, saying: I have my own idea of things. And in the process they theorize or theologize away the point! Isn't that how you see the mystery of Jesus' resurrection? In human speculations?
3) We also read about John: "the other disciple who came first to the tomb came in and saw and believed" (v.8) Here the word for seeing is used by the chronicler, which actually means to go beyond what is visible to the eye, to see beyond appearances, to see, to grasp the essence! It is somehow seeing within, seeing with the eyes of faith! That is why it is recorded of John that "He sees and believes". This is the true seeing, the "seeing" of faith grasping the Easter experience. John already sees that Jesus has folded up the sheets and the linen baptismal font, and the power of the grave and of death, counted them up, set them aside for ever! John does not wonder, he does not want to unravel the mystery. He sees the mystery itself, that Jesus has conquered death! He does not yet see the reality of the risen, living Jesus, but he believes! His soul is overwhelmed with the majestic certainty that Jesus, who was killed, is alive! Risen from the dead!
This is the true Easter experience! God's Word now invites us to see beyond the trappings of Easter, beyond the pleasant folk customs. Let us see beyond our ideas, theories and worldviews that do not fit the miracle of the resurrection! Let us look beyond the letters of the Bible, and even beyond this sermon! For it is not this that is important, but the One to whom the whole feast, the Bible and every sermon points: the living Jesus! Let us let the great divine miracle that Jesus is alive flow into us! We don't want to understand the miracle of the resurrection, we want to believe it! We cannot understand it, but we can live it by faith! So let us dare to believe! Faith is the true vision! Faith is seeing directly, experiencing the essence!
So the whole Easter proclaims that Jesus is alive! Is he not alive? Of course he is! For a piece of the living Jesus is here now, pulsating in this congregation! We, as we are here now, are a piece of the living body of Jesus. In this sermon that speaks of Him - listen: He Himself speaks! He is so alive that, behold, he invites us to his table, he welcomes us! He gives us His own body and blood as soul-strengthening food in our hands, in our mouths! Let us then see and believe, as John saw and believed there at the open tomb! Yes, let us see beyond the grinding cares of our daily lives and believe in Jesus! Let us believe in Jesus, Who promised to take care of us! Let us see beyond the threatening temptations of our sins and believe in Jesus, Who can help us overcome them! Let us see beyond our seemingly insurmountable problems and believe in Jesus, who has the power to calm the storm! Let us see beyond the sadness that grips our souls and believe in Jesus, Who can comfort us! Let us see beyond the often confusing absurdities of life and believe in Jesus, to whom be all power in heaven and on earth! Let us see beyond the great pain of mourning and believe in Jesus, who promises, "I am the resurrection and the life: he who believes in me, though he die, yet lives" (John 11:25).
And even further, if this is the Jesus whom men killed by their evil hands on the cross, let us see from this also, and believe that, behold, love is stronger than hate, Christ's gentleness and goodness are stronger than human violence and evil. Grace is more powerful than sin, life is more powerful than death! For behold, Jesus Christ is indelible from this world! And that means that then there is a reason to fight for every good and just cause on this earth. Then it is worthwhile to be pure, to live honestly, to love, to serve, to resist the deadly forces that threaten life. For if Jesus is not among the dead, but among the living, then He can be counted on, then God is on the side of those who see and believe in the happy future that has already begun with Jesus' resurrection, and who work for its realization with good hope!
This active Easter vision and faith is of particular importance today, when the horror of cosmic destruction, the vision of the meaninglessness of life, the paralysing feeling that everything is in vain, threatens us with the increased dangers of the atomic age. Easter proclaims precisely that death has lost its centrality and has been replaced by the Prince of Life, Jesus! He who, like the Apostle John, sees and believes with Easter eyes, is freed from the spell of death! Whoever sees and believes with Easter eyes, even in times of discouragement and weariness, will always find the source of new strength in the joyful certainty that Jesus has the last word, Jesus has the future!
This is how John the Evangelist saw and believed in the resurrection of Jesus. That is why he was able later to become, as the word has spread to this day, an apostle of love! I wish we could say that now my soul sees and believes! And with the power of triumphant Easter vision and faith, we too could go forth from here as apostles of love! Out into the world, into the world of people and everyday life!
Amen.
Date: 29 March 1970 (Easter).
Lesson
1Pt 1,3-9