Called by Name
John 20:1–8
Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
Rev. Sandy Messick

I. The Easter story begins with a lot of running around.

First, Mary goes to the tomb and sees the stone has been rolled away. So what does she do? She runs, to the other Disciples, and tells them, “The tomb is empty.”

Peter takes off running for the tomb, followed closely by the other disciple, you know, the one who Jesus loved. It becomes a kind of footrace, but one ran faster.

The beloved one skids to a stop at the entrance to the tomb and peeks in. But Peter…impetuous Peter, doesn’t even slow down, he runs right in. And sure enough, Mary was right! The tomb is empty. There’s nothing left but the burial cloths.

We don’t know what Peter thought, but the other disciple, we are told, believed. Although we’re not sure what he believed, since they didn’t yet know about the resurrection. And then, inexplicably, they go home. It doesn’t say whether they ran or not.

As one commentary described it: “John tells us that for awhile there was a lot of running back and forth to the tomb. This is still what we disciples of Jesus do when he is missing. We run around a lot.”

II. But Mary, she stopped running.

For awhile, she just wept outside, but then she peeked in again. Perhaps she was hoping that Jesus might have reappeared. Perhaps she was checking to make sure he really was gone.

Only this time, she saw an angel, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

Then a voice behind her echoed the question, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

Now we get to know that the person standing there is Jesus. But Mary doesn’t know that. She doesn’t recognize him. She thinks that perhaps he’s the gardener. And so she cries out in anguish, “If you’ve taken him somewhere, tell me! Then I’ll go get him.”

But the gardener, who really is Jesus, simply says, “Mary!” And that’s when she knew.

III. It was in the moment that Jesus called her by name, it was in that moment that she knew that he knew who she was, that she was able to know him in return. We are enabled to know Christ, because we are already known by Christ. As Jesus said to his disciples at the Last Supper, “You didn’t choose me, I chose you.”

And don’t we all want to be known, for whom we are, called by name? This week I filed my income tax, being sure to put my Social Security number on the form. When I pay bills, I make sure to put the account number prominently on the check. I call the doctor’s office and before they even ask my name they want to know my birth date, my telephone # and my insurance #. Then, after they have all my numbers, they tell me who I am. I’m known as Pastor Messick, or Sarah and John’s mom, or Tom’s wife, or account # 58072425-1. And I’m all those things. But I also have a name. And it is those who know me best who call me by name. The risen Jesus knew Mary not as the woman at the tomb, or the woman in the garden, but as Mary. And he called her by name.

Mary’s experience of being known by Jesus wasn’t unique. Especially not in the gospel of John.

In John, Chapter 4, Jesus encounters a Samarian woman by the well. And she was only able to recognize Christ when she realized he already knew her. “Come,” she said, to anyone who would listen, “Come and see the Lord, who told me everything about me.” Come and see the one who already knows me.

In Chapter 10, Jesus says “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. The sheep hear the shepherd’s voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” And Mary’s eyes were opened. “Rabboni! Rabbi, teacher, Jesus.”

IV. Today we celebrate Easter, the glorious day when the tomb was empty and Jesus appeared to the Disciples. But we aren’t here just remembering a day long ago that had some significance once upon a time. No, we celebrate not only that Christ is risen, but that Christ is still present in our midst. Our faith proclaims that the Risen Lord is here! And like Mary we too can know the one who first knew us.

• We recognize Jesus in the life-giving community of believers who know us, and welcome us, and call us by name.
• We recognize Jesus in the life-giving bread in which we hear the echo of Jesus’ words, “This is my body, given for you.”
• We recognize Jesus even in the life-giving ministries that bring us face to face with the most vulnerable. It is there as we are serving others, when we recognize that we are receiving more than we are giving, that we recognize Christ in our midst.
• Christ is Risen! Indeed. But even more, Christ is here. Calling us by name! Urging us to turn around and acknowledge Christ’s presence. To hear his voice calling our name and sending us out to proclaim the good news. Mary! Go and tell my disciples what you have seen and what you have heard. And Mary went, convinced she had seen the Christ, because she had heard him call her name.

Christ still calls to us. But perhaps we miss that. Perhaps we miss it because we’re too busy running back and forth and around the empty tomb. Running around because that’s what we do when Jesus is missing. Only Jesus isn’t missing. He’s here. He’s in the faces of those around us. As preacher Barbara Brown Taylor puts it, “Never get so focused on the empty tomb that you forget to speak to the gardener.”

Christ isn’t in the tomb. He is in the community. In the midst of God’s people, wherever 2 or 3 are gathered, whenever and wherever love is proclaimed, and strangers are welcomed in. Christ is here, in this place, and when we’re at our best, Christ is found in us. By God’s grace, may Christ be recognized in us, as we call others by name.