Call to Worship: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Scripture: John 20:1-18
Candid Camera
Quite a few years ago, there was a popular television series called “Candid Camera.” Remember it? They would video someone in an unusual scenario to see how they’d react. Maybe it was a desk that wouldn’t let you close all the drawers at once, or a light switch that wouldn’t stay on, or a cashier that insists you buy milk with an earlier expiration date, or something completely inexplicable: like the pens at the bank were on such short chains they could be picked up but not actually used to write.
After a few moments of fumbling around, Allen Funt would walk into the scene and say, “Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!” And the person—no doubt feeling a bit foolish—would smile good-naturedly at the camera.
In some ways, the show’s success ended up being it’s downfall. By the late 90’s, Allen Funt’s line had become a cultural cliche. I remember people in awkward situations literally looking around for a hidden camera and asking (as many did in those later episodes) “Am I on Candid Camera?”
This type of proto-reality tv had to change if it was to survive, and others took up the torch where Candid Camera left off. But they knew they had to up the ante if they were to succeed, so they abandoned the kind of even-keeled practical jokes that were Candid Camera’s stock and trade in favor of more extreme—and in some cases cruel—pranks. Allen Funt’s son and successor Peter spoke critically of these, saying:
“We’ve always come at it from the idea that we believe people are wonderful and we’re out to confirm it. Our imitators and other shows, whether it’s Jamie Kennedy or Punk’d, often seem to come at it from the opposite perspective, which is that people are stupid, and we’re going to find ways to underscore that.” (source)
An Empty Prank?
On that first Easter morning, Mary and the disciples do not feel like they’re on Candid Camera—they feel like they’re on Scare Tactics. They feel as though they’ve been made into the butt of a cruel joke—and at the moment of their deepest grief. There’s some funny business going on, and it’s just not funny. I mean seriously: how twisted do you have to be to steal a corpse just to make someone look bad?
Mary tells the other disciples that the tomb is empty, and some of them investigate. Here are the grave clothes. Here’s the cloth that was over his face. But why……why would those be left behind?
Let’s not forget what verse 9 reminds us: “as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (John 20:9 NRSV). The disciples do not know what’s happening.
They think it’s a cruel prank making fun of how Jesus suggested the grave couldn’t hold him.
Or they think the authorities have taken his corpse to spite his followers and keep them from mourning him.
Or who knows what—but how do you explain it?
Well, the men in the story do what men tend to do: they go back somewhere, circle up with their buds, and try to figure out what’s next.
Mary
But thank God Mary is there.
More than the others, Mary seems to realize that the Way of Jesus involves living in the present, instead of the future or the past.
Mary seems to know that “What Would Jesus Do?” is to grieve, just as Jesus did do when Lazarus died.
Mary seems to be more aware than anyone else of the silent magnetism of this empty tomb, which draws all people to it.
Have you ever thought about how the risen Christ could have appeared to anyone? Any one of the disciples or manifold followers of Jesus could have been the first evangelist—the first to bear the news of our risen Lord. It could have been Peter, on whom Jesus says he will build his congregation. It could have been the disciple Jesus loved—traditionally identified as John. Both of them came to investigate the tomb at Mary’s prompting.
But it was Mary Magdalene who is chosen for this auspicious task.
It was Mary Magdalene who was ordained by God to preach the first Easter sermon.
It is Mary Magdalene who has to teach the Jesus-bros what Jesus meant by “resurrection.”
It is Mary Magdalene who helps them see that this is (in fact) “no joke.”
Proof
Over the years, there’s been a lot of ink spilled trying to prove the resurrection.
There are references to Jewish traditions.
There are complicated arguments about social dynamics.
There are explanations of communal trauma.
There are manipulations of archaeological data.
But for me, none of that really matters. Because there’s really only one “proof” that makes any impact on anyone—and that is the way Jesus’ disciples live.
Clarence Jordan may not be a name you know, but he’s someone worth knowing about. Clarence Jordan was a farmer—and also a Greek scholar. He was instrumental in the founding of Habitat for Humanity. Way back in the 1940’s he also founded an interracial, intentionally-Christian farming community in an effort to live a radically Christ-like life.
Jordan once wrote:
“The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.”
This is it for me—this is the proof of the resurrection.
I’ve travelled to Jerusalem; I’ve seen the grave of Jesus—and it was moving.
But it wasn’t convincing. It was just a space. What has been convincing to me has been the Christians I have encountered who absolutely overflow with a love that surpasses understanding. It has been the courageous stands taken by those who do not fear death because they know the grave cannot hold them, just as it was unable to hold Jesus.
As much as I may be an academic at heart, all the words and arguments and logic and supposed evidence in the world is nothing to me, compared to life of a single Christian who follows Jesus with a pure heart. Being true and authentic bearers of the light of Christ’s love proclaims the resurrection more loudly and completely than any social media platform or news station.
This is our greatest evangelistic tool.
This is the key to overcoming the divisions within our families and churches and neighborhoods and nation and world.
This is what truly draws people to Christ, what transforms the very elements of creation, what enables Christ’s Kingdom to come to earth.
Jesus says in John 13:35: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (NIV11). That love is the proof of the resurrection that a reluctant world wants to see.
Will we prove it? Will we put our money where our mouth is, so to speak? Will the world “know we are Christians by our love,” as the song proclaims? Will we settle this “funny business” once and for all, proving with our lives that Jesus is “no joke”?
I hope so. I hope so.
Because this I believe, and this we confess: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ is coming again.
rogueraconteur 