The
Greatest Joke In History
Pastor Mathew Magera – 4/1/18 – Sermon 281
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
A young boy and his family
left church after Easter worship and headed to his grandparents’ house for
their annual Easter celebration. Everyone in the family was there. As it came
time to eat the Easter dinner, everyone took their place at the table or on nearby
couches with TV trays and awaited the amazing feast that had been prepared.
When this young boy received his meal, he began eating it immediately, shoving
the hot food directly into his mouth, not even caring about how hot it was
because it tasted so good. His mother who was sitting next to him gave him the
motherly elbow and said, "you shouldn't eat yet, we haven't blessed the
food." The boy looked at his father and said, "I don't have to."
"Of course you do. We always say a prayer before eating at our
house." The boy replied, "Yes, at our house. This is grandma's house.
She knows how to cook."
I share this story with you
for a very important reason. Being that Easter Sunday also falls on April
Fools' Day this year, I thought it might be worthwhile to view the
transformation of Mary Magdalene on Easter Sunday through the mechanics of the
telling of a joke. A joke in and of itself is something someone says to cause
amusement or laughter. Winston Churchill once said, “You cannot deal with the
most serious things in the world unless you also understand the most amusing.” The
story of the resurrection happens to be an amusing story, one that has the
power to interpret the very seriousness of our lives. The very resurrection of
Jesus can interpret our sickness and health, our marriages and relationships,
death and dying and it can do so in a new way. Mary began her Easter morning
without any idea as to what was going to happen to her that day. By the end of
the day, she was a believer in the resurrected of Jesus and a preacher.
Like a good joke, Mary's
transformation follows the following three stages. First, a story is told and a
pattern is established. Second, the pattern is changed. Lastly, joy is created.
Our response to the resurrection is not unlike that of Mary either. We follow
within a similar pattern and like Mary we also have the joy that is created
within us.
Mary’s
Transformation: Established Patterns
The first step in Mary's
transformation begins with a pattern being established. A good joke always
begins with a good story, a story that we identify with and can follow. The
story that Mary finds herself in on Easter morning is the reality that Jesus
was killed by crucifixion on Friday. Mary's story is that of disappointment,
tragedy, despair, and pain. Her Lord was murdered. He was innocent. He was her
savior and he was gone.
Being the third day after
his death, Mary Magdalene was on her way to the tomb to care for the body of
Jesus. This morning was an ordinary morning for her. She goes to the tomb
expecting nothing but the same. You don't go to a tomb to anoint a body wondering
if the body will still be there. Focused only on the job she was to do, she
looks up to see the stone that had been used to seal the entrance of the tomb
had been moved away. Mary assumes the very worst. Mary runs to the other
disciples and says to John and Peter, "They have taken the Lord out of the
tomb, and we don't know where they have put him." There was no other
explanation for what she had seen. Her experience taught her that dead bodies
do not just get up and walk away, nor do they just disappear from sight. We
cannot blame Mary Magdalene. Someone took him from the tomb. That is the only
logical explanation for what took place. The pattern of death had been
established since the beginning of creation. Once somebody dies, they are dead.
Death has the power to
control our imagination. As we grow it takes a long time, even longer than you
might think, for us to realize that there is no other way out of this physical
life we live in except through the experience of death. We may spend part of
our life denying this fact or trying to identify other ways around this
inevitability but when this realization is finally made, the grip of death
around us grows even tighter. We become more convinced that death is going to
have the last word. Because of this, Jesus wants to assure us that he is the
last word. Jesus is wants to assure us that death itself is going to die and
that he will bring us into the new.
Our brains are looking for
patterns. Both in the telling of a joke and in the seriousness of our lives, we
are wired to look for patterns so that we can respond quicker to those
patterns. When we flip a light on in a dark room, we have learned to close our
eyes before doing so because we know the light is going to be hurtful to our
eyes once it comes on. When someone pushes us, our body instinctively moves one
of its legs to catch our balance in lieu of falling over. Mary had come to
understand the pattern of life and death, as have we. If there is no explanation
for him to be alive, she must assume that Jesus' body had been taken from the
tomb and moved somewhere else.
Mary’s
Transformation: The Pattern is Changed
This second stage in Mary's
transformation is when the pattern is changed. After Mary tells the disciples
about the missing body of Jesus, she returns to the tomb and is approached by
Jesus himself. Her experience was about to change in a way that she would never
have anticipated. The pattern of life and death was about to be broken right
before her very eyes.
We have no doubt seen the
patterns of life. We see the pattern of life that leads to death. We see
patterns of sickness and health, peace and violence. We know when things go bad
they tend to get worse. We follow the story, we follow the pattern in life just
as we do in the telling of a joke. We construct enough information to create an
ending to these patterns. In humor, no matter how long or short the joke is,
our minds follow logical patterns and attempt to perceive a fitting outcome.
The change in the pattern is where the real miracle begins to take place. The
change that we never see coming. The change that is done to us to teach us
something. Let me give you an example.
Two couples were on a walk
in the park one day. The two women were walking together up front while their
husbands dragged behind. One of the men turned to the other and asked,
"So, what did you two do last night?" The second replied, "Oh
boy let me tell you, we went to a new restaurant. It was fantastic. Great
service, the food tasted amazing. You should go." The other responded,
"That sounds great. What is it called?" The man looked puzzled as he
thought. "Hmm. Hey, what is the name of that flower? It's red on top and it's got thorns coming
out of its stem?" The other responded, "That sounds like a
rose." His eyes lit up and he called out, "Hey Rose, what was the
name of the restaurant we went to last night?"
Our brains follow logical
patterns whether we know it or not. Our minds are ready for the name of the
restaurant having to do with the word rose. We are not expecting the final
outcome, it breaks the pattern we have already established. For Mary Magdalene,
that change in the pattern is Jesus Christ himself, standing right in front of
her. She thinks he's the gardener. He calls her name and she recognizes him. He's
standing there and talking to her. The pattern of life and death has been
changed. It has been altered and Mary is the first one to see the change that
has taken place.
Just like a good joke,
Mary's transformation leads from known logic and patterns to a learned miracle
and a change. Alone she could not understand. Only when Jesus brings her that
miracle could she believe. The resurrection, then, becomes more meaningful to
us when we let it interpret our story and our patterns. When we look at death,
all we are going to see is death. But, when Jesus comes to us in the Bible, in
worship, in Baptism, in Holy Communion, then and only then are we able to see
the punchline, new life, hope. Without Jesus coming to Mary in the garden,
there is no knowledge of the changed pattern. Without that miracle coming to
us, we are left within what is like a joke that has no punchline. We are left
in the humorless pit of our limited human abilities that will never understand
that which is humanly impossible. The resurrected Jesus comes to us in our
weakness, in our disbelief, in our sorrow and in our disappointment. He comes
to us in our stories and he changes the ending, filling us with the delight
that only he can. The Good News of Easter is that we are not left in the
patterns of the world but raised up in the miracle of the change that Christ
completed for us when he emerged from the tomb.
Mary’s
Transformation: Joy is Created
The third and final stage of
Mary's transformation is the joy that is created within her. In a joke, the
punchline is never the real ending. Sure, the story teller has stopped talking
but the joke continues straight into the reaction of the listener. The purpose
of the punchline is to create something, not finish something. The miracle of
laughter, something within you that is unable to be suppressed or shut down.
This is the reaction of our souls at the news of the resurrection. This is what
takes place deep within us when Jesus comes to us with the miracle of new life.
It's a spiritual laughter. Joy. The unsurpassable alleluia!
Joy in the resurrection is
not something we can create by our own doing but it is created through faith,
seeing and hearing the change in the pattern. This miracle was done to Mary
Magdalene in the Garden when she met Jesus. It was done to the disciples when
she preached to them. It was done when they went out and preached to the
multitudes. It is done here right now. Jesus' presence and care for her creates
the joy within her. Joy that had now replaced her fear. Now she runs from the
tomb a second time, only this time with that spiritual laughter in her short
and simple sermon, "I have seen the Lord!" And now you’re wondering
why Pastor can’t preach short simple sermons like that. Now, think about the
joy created in you by that pattern I just broke for you. Mary’s transformation
had been complete. She went to the tomb early in the morning within a pattern.
She ran from the tomb later that day removed from that pattern and released
into the freedom of new life.
* * *
You might say the
resurrection became the greatest joke in history. It's meant to amuse us and
bring us delight. The story picks up in the middle of a pattern. The pattern is
changed when, in unanticipated fashion, Jesus appears to Mary in the garden.
Then, in a miracle nearly as amazing as the resurrection itself, Mary runs from
the garden now full of joy.
I'm almost certain you have
never thought about comedy and Easter being related. Still, if you can think of
how we respond to the changing patterns of a joke, the delight that is created
when new patterns arise and the reaction that comes as a result, you might now
be able to see how Jesus changed the pattern of life as we know it. He stopped
the consequences of sin. He put death to bed. He closed the door of despair.
Jesus released the benefits of forgiveness. He gave birth to new life in his
name. He opened the door to joy and our spiritual laughter.
So, the next time you find
yourself laughing at changes in the patterns of a joke, patterns like
"This is Grandma's house, she knows how to cook," or "Rose, what
was the name of that restaurant?" or “why can’t Pastor preach short and
simple sermons like that,” may those changes in patterns also make you think
about the greatest joke in the history of the world, the story that changed our
pattern from death to life, the pattern that was changed when Jesus came to us,
alive once again. This is the good news that created joy within Mary Magdalene.
This is the good news that fueled her as she ran from the tomb the second time
and this was the good news that prompted the first announcement of that change
when she so proudly proclaimed, "I have seen the Lord!" Ha! There is
no better ending than that. May this good news now fill you with joy on this
Easter day and for days to come. He is Risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia! To
God be the glory, now and always. Amen.