Encountering the Risen Lord

 

“Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.” The narration of the passion, according to John, ends in a garden as it began in a garden where Jesus was handed over. Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus but not openly because of fear of the Jews, along with Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night, was also fearful, now come out in the open. They take a bold step. They ask for the body of Jesus. They take down the body of Jesus from the cross to avoid a mass grave. Otherwise, it would end up in a common grave and lose total control of his mortal remains. But these two dared to commit themselves and to offer an honorable burial to Jesus.

Nicodemus even brought a significant quantity of myrrh and aloe for a royal burial. A large amount of aromatic oil to anoint the body of Jesus is laid in this new tomb. It is a special tomb where no one has been laid. Jesus is the first to inaugurate a new world.

The episode that follows immediately takes place in this garden around the new grave. The day of the Sabbath is not mentioned, the preparation (Parasceve). The vigil, the Greek term for Friday, the time of death and burial of Jesus. On that Sabbath, everything is at a standstill; it was the great feast of Passover. It was forbidden to do any kind of work; even the movement was minimal. Only in the morning of the first day of the week could they move. John presents only one woman in the scene, Mary of Magdala, who arrived at the tomb early morning when it was still dark.

Take note of the contrast. If it is morning, it means that light has dawned, but it says that it is still dark, and if it is dark, it is still night… it is not ‘morning.’ It is one of the many details regarding time, about the climatic condition that John reports with a symbolic intention. The physical light of the morning has dawned, but it is still dark inside the heart, the mind, and the soul of Mary Magdalene, who reached at the tomb only to weep, to remember the dead and not to expect the newness of the Resurrection.

She is surprised when she sees the open tomb and sees that the body is not there anymore. She could have imagined the Resurrection, but she did not expect it, not even thought about it. She still thinks in a human and earthly manner. Since the body is not found, she immediately concludes that somebody has taken him away; she believes that the enemies have taken him away and have no idea where they have kept him. Terrified, she runs to the disciples to alert them: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

A plural verb is used here: “… we don’t know,” which makes us assume that she was not alone. There were other women, and the Synoptics speak of a group of women going to the tomb in the resurrection morning. John chooses just one person because he wants to emphasize her symbolic function as a new humanity. The Gospel of John does not give us any details of Mary Magdalene. Other Gospels also do not provide information that she was a sinner. This is an incorrect way of identifying several personalities in the Synoptic narratives.

Mary Magdalene is presented at this moment as an image of the disciple, of the disciple who loves Jesus, who seeks and finds Him. She is the woman who encounters the new Adam in the garden on the first day of the week. A symbolic allusion comes to our minds. This Johannine narration helps us do these interpretative leaps to understand the depth of the narration. Mary of Magdala is a new humanity, still in need of the light; she is still in the dark, without understanding.

The two disciples, Simon Peter and the beloved disciple, the one loved by Jesus (always without a name), leave for the tomb. We have already seen him at the Last Supper, at the foot of the cross, and now in this third important scene, at the empty tomb on the resurrection morning. This disciple ran faster than Peter, arrived first, and did not enter the tomb. He stops and waits for Peter. These are important details. The beloved disciple represents the charismatic Church and the great spiritual example, faster, more emotional, reaching first, while Peter represents the institutional Church, he is the authority that arrives later. The charisma that went before waits and let the institution enter first.

They see the linen. John describes at length the burial clothes. He informs the reader how the linens that the disciples saw at that privileged moment were placed. We note that none of the evangelists narrate the Resurrection of Jesus. No one describes the fact, but what is said is what was seen, and from that indication, one recognizes the Resurrection event. The empty tomb and the linen placed in such a way and, above all, the encounter with the Risen Lord and the change in the disciples, and this significant effect shows that Christ is risen.

Therefore, the evangelist using the linen wrappings position’s specific details says they were ‘loosely empty.’ He uses a generic Greek word, ‘ὀθόνια’ – ‘ozonia’ = meaning ‘linen cloths.’ Imagine the old linen sheets, very thick. It was the white funeral linen. It was something special, not what was used in the bed. It was exclusively for burial, about one meter high and four meters wide. The body was placed lying on top of it, and this cloth was wrapped around the head and descending over the body. So, the cloth became joined to the body. The perfume, 30 kilos of myrrh and aloe, that Nicodemus brought are used to hold up the linen cloth, making it stick to the body.

Imagine, then, the consistency that the linen has, now soaked in the ointment. It assumes the form of the body. It is just one piece of cloth that envelopes the whole body. And it is sealed with laces at the high of the neck, at the waist, and at the ankles. Lazarus comes out of the tomb with the hands and feet tied and all the wrappings of funeral clothes. Instead, Jesus has left everything intact in the grave. The only particular descriptive note that John adds is that these ‘ὀθόνια’ = clothes were ‘κείμενον’ – keimenon = lying – loosely empty. Nothing was taken away. Nothing moved. Only that the clothes were lying there deflated because the body that was inside had disappeared.

Unlike Lazarus, who comes out with his flesh as before, he returns, therefore continues the earthly life, to get old and die again, but the Risen Jesus disappeared. A transformation happens. Something that cannot be explained. The body of Christ leaves everything intact, but it is not there anymore. And the linen deflates, except the ‘sudarium’ that was placed around his head. ‘Sudarium’ is a generic term corresponding to our ‘napkin.’ Imagine a big, square napkin, folded in a triangular way, and so it is wrapped and placed under the chin of the dead person and over the head to settle the face and maintain the mouth closed. It is a simple, elemental way, also known to us today, to preserve the shape of a dead person, especially if the person died in that condition and by asphyxia.

The scroll of that wrapped cloth did not move. Remained in the same place, ‘in uno loco,’ precisely where it was, with no movement. But created a thickness, a depth. The estrange effect that John saw is that the linen cloths were all at their place but deflated. It looked as it were the head because, on the part of the head, the cloth was swollen, bloated with the linen cloth rolled up in the same place. The Italian translation has improved a lot compared with the previous one that was wrong, but it is not yet accepted well. For example, in this text, they wanted to translate as ‘in a separate place’ while it would be better to translate: in the same place, exactly where it was. (Ed. Note: in English: “The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen” NABRE).

Finally, the disciple that Jesus loved “also went inside. He saw and believed.” He, a witness of the burial, saw the condition of the funeral clothes and believed in the Resurrection of Jesus. Understanding that no one will remove the body, leaving the linen and other clothes in that way. All these descriptions are given to understand the sign, the critical indications to understand the Resurrection. The clothes left in that way are the announcement of the Resurrection.

The two disciples return home while Mary of Magdala remained weeping at the tomb. She has not yet come to the faith in the Risen Lord and is still closed in her idea. She has no reason to weep, but she is convinced of the death of Jesus and that his body is taken away, and she weeps over it. Now the surprise comes from an unknown person. It is Jesus who calls her and asks: “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

It is an important question. We have found it at the beginning of the Gospel. The first phrase that Jesus uttered in John’s Gospel is this question, “what do you seek?” And again, in the garden, at the time of his arrest, to those who came to take him, he asks: “Whom are you looking for?” After the Resurrection, the first phrase that the evangelist places in Jesus’ lips are: “Who is it you are looking for?” Note the similarity and the difference. What is in neuter (what) is changed to personal (who), and what is plural is changed to singular. This is a decisive moment. Once again, Jesus uses the term ‘woman.’ Woman, who is it you are looking for?” We have seen the woman, faithful Israel – the mother, the Samaritan woman, that is humanity religiously wrong, the adulterous woman, the humanity cut off from God, and now we see the woman of the newness of Easter.

Once again, the symbolic feminine figure, an iconic figure of humanity. She took him for the gardener, the one who takes care of the garden. She is mistaken because Jesus is not a worker in the garden. Still, symbolically she is correct if we understand by ‘garden’ that symbol of origin where humanity was in friendship with God. Jesus is the custodian of that Garden and the one who preserved and cultivated that garden of friendship with God. Now he offers the possibility to regain that communion that was lost in the beginning. “She said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.'” And he calls her by name. Simply calls her by name with a particular tone, with a sweet tenor reproaches her. He says, ‘Mary.’ It is clear that He recognizes her, and she recognizes him and calls him ‘Rabboni,’ my Teacher. Jesus prevents her, don’t hold on to me. Don’t think that I have not yet ascended, don’t think that I have returned to resume the previous life.

By now, a new phase has begun, a new reality, a new creation. Go to your brothers and announce all that you have seen. She runs to be an evangelizer to the apostles, saying I have seen the Lord. This experience has changed her life. She signaled the birth of a new humanity. Mary of Magdala is the image of the paschal humanity.

John narrates that the evening of the same day, the Risen Lord is present in the upper room where all the disciples are united even though the doors were closed for fear of the Jews. The risen Lord is amidst them and greets them with peace, shalom, a standard Jewish greeting. But in this case, this greeting is much more. This is the messianic peace and realization of definitive wellbeing. “I leave you peace, my peace I leave you.” He said that in the same place before his death. Now he brings peace and creates good days, and brings about new wellbeing. He shows then the signs of the passion, not the wounds. He shows them the healed wounds. There are scars, signs of deadly wounds, but this situation is overcome. He leaves the signs forever, but the death is won over definitively. The disciples rejoice in seeing the Lord.

At this point, Jesus performs a significant gesture. He breathes over them. John uses the same verb used in the book of Genesis where the Lord God breathed on the bunch of clay to make it a living being. In Jesus, God accomplishes the work of new creation; it is the gift of the Holy Spirit. He gave up His Spirit on the cross. Now breathed saying, receive the Holy Spirit on the day of Easter. Death and Resurrection for John is a single event. It is the singly paschal mystery from which comes forth the gift of the Spirit, which is the life of God that empowers the disciples to continue the work of Jesus: to forgive sins – the Holy Spirit enables the disciples to communicate God’s forgiveness to the whole world.

The work of Jesus is accomplished through the Church by the working of the Holy Spirit given by Jesus, who is the truth, dead and Risen. The single paschal mystery communicates the gift of the Spirit of life.