Understand: For Sunday

Understand: St. John 20:11-18, especially vs.15: “Jesus said to her,‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’” St. Paul does usgreat service when he points out that our understanding of God haslimits beyond which we cannot go. The Apostle helps us come to termswith being in relationship with God - as we have come to know Him inChrist Jesus. So much comes to us from God! It simply “surpasses allunderstanding” (Phil. 4:7), whether it be God’s peace, love, power,gentleness, forgiveness, righteousness, or His commandments. How is itthat we may aspire to “being rooted and grounded in love” so that we are“able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length anddepth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge”(Eph. 3:17-19)? Who can say! Yes, we understand, but at the same time weknow we shall never comprehend the ways of the Lord. They are not our ways. Consider Mary Magdalen, the very first of us to meet the risen Christour God. With all the help she received from angels - yes, and fromChrist Jesus Himself - still she struggled to “take it all in.” Watchher grow in understanding. Study her struggle to comprehend. It helps inappreciating the limits that face us, those boundaries beyond which wecannot go. In the end, I come to rest in the only choice available to us- to acknowledge the relationship you and I have with God through ChristJesus. The love of God in Christ Jesus was plainly manifest to Mary (asit is to us) by the grace of God; and we can let “the roots of ourheart” be grounded in that love, but, when all is said, we shall have toconfess that God’s love is beyond our comprehension. The two angels in the tomb help us understand. Mary “stood outside bythe tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into thetomb” (Jn. 20:11). It helps to go to the graveside and look down intothe depths of the grave. The truth “comes home,” it “sinks in,” weabsorb the pain that “all are dust, all are ashes, all are shadows.”Whatever we had, the one we knew is gone, “for when death cometh,all...things vanish utterly.” But, no; stop there! The angels sitting inthe Lord Jesus’ tomb, “one at the head and the other at the feet, wherethe body of Jesus had lain” (vs. 12), ask us “why are you weeping?” (vs.13). They know that the inexorable rule, the ubiquity of death, theinvariable pall over us has given way before God. But they are Hisgentle messengers, kind and loving; they simply start us towardunderstanding. Then something, or someone, behind us moves. We do not see Him, we onlysense His presence. When this indefinite, unspoken awareness happenedfor her, Mary “turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did notknow that it was Jesus” (vs. 14). Grief at death is a very great power.“I weep and I wail when I think upon death, and behold our beauty,fashioned after the image of God, lying in the tomb, disfigured,dishonored, bereft of form” (Funeral Service). Of course, she did notknow that it was Jesus! Seeing is not believing; believing is seeing! Wesee what our mind permits. When we come up against the barrier of death,what else is there but weeping? The Gospel tells us: Jesus is standingthere. Who can comprehend that! God is gentle with us and kind to our grief. He wept Himself at thegrave of Lazarus (Jn. 11:35). He understands; He comprehends all thingsutterly. He also presses us toward His new creation. He asks, as theangels did, “why are you weeping?” (vs. 15); but he takes us to a realmbeyond when He asks, “Whom are you seeking?” Not “what,” but “Whom” (vs.15). He drew Mary as He draws us to Himself. He continues in the waythat is reserved for friends, between those who trust each other: “Jesussaid to her, ‘Mary!’” (vs. 16). He calls us by name. She did notcomprehend, so He restrained her clinging to a past understanding(vs.17). Christ is risen! He calls like a shepherd to the bleating lamb; truly, my good Shepherdis calling me.