“Good News Beside the Garden Tomb”

Fourth in my series on Most Loved Hymns, commenting on “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” and “In the Garden”

Scriptures: Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 and John 20: 1-18

July 17, 2005

Rev. James W. Moore

As we continue our sermon series on most-loved hymns I’m bringing together two hymns that initially seem to have very little in common. One we sing without fail every Easter, Charles Wesley’s stately, inspiring, joyful hymn, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” Don VandenBroek listed it as one of his favorites, writing that it brings back a special memory of his father, a minister, singing this at the Easter sunrise service. It was also chosen by Carole Pickering as her number one hymn, and she said that her favorite verse is the one that says

Soar we now where Christ hath led,

Following our exalted head.

Made like him, like him we rise,

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies.

Carole wrote, “It succinctly speaks to the leadership of Christ, and my required followership.”

Charles Wesley, as many of you may know, was a prolific writer of hymns, over 6,000 of them in all. He didn’t write music, only words, and would borrow existing tunes – classical melodies, ballads, folk songs, etc., all kinds of songs - to amplify his words. Many of the early Methodists were poor and uneducated, some were illiterate, but Wesley’s hymns, set to tunes they already knew, were a perfect way of teaching and reinforcing the basics of the faith, as well as a great way of bringing crowds of people together. When criticized his use of so-called “secular” melodies, Wesley is reported to have said “Why should the devil get all the good tunes?” “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” was written in 1739 for the opening service in the first Wesleyan chapel, an abandoned iron foundry in London that was converted for use as a church, and became known as “Foundry Chapel.” What tune they used that Sunday we don’t know, but it appears that the tune we know was written some time later, by an anonymous composer, and all the “alleluias” were added to make Wesley’s words fit the joyful tune. In any case, it seems like a perfect fit, and I can hardly imagine an Easter without this triumphant, stately, joyful song.

“In the Garden” is also an Easter song, though I didn’t know that until a few years ago, and none of our people who chose it as a favorite mentioned that association. Their affection seems based more on connections with people, rather than anything about text itself. Sandy Hait wrote “I remember my mother singing “In the Garden,”, and I feel especially close to God when working in my garden..........”

Revealing a side of himself some of us haven’t known, Ron Brand listed this hymn, and several like it, saying

“These bring back memories of Parsons and Brand family songfests around the piano with my mother playing and a roomful of folks singing. My grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, and my brothers are all deceased, so I am the last and this will not happen again in this life. Singing hymns like these in church takes me back to these good times.....

And, exhibiting a side of herself that many of us do know and love, Eilene Peeling wrote of “In the Garden,”

“My sister (a soprano) and I sang this as a duet at least twice a year in our church, beginning when I was 13 and continuing throughout our teen years.” And then with typical modesty Eilene writes, “We must have wowed them!”

But what’s the song about? Is it just any garden? And what kind of experience is it that can make someone claim such an exclusive relationship with Jesus, saying that “The joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known?” That’s a line that always stuck in my craw when I was younger, and I wondered about this seeming arrogance on the part of the author (and perhaps the singer.)

But “In the Garden” isn’t about just any garden. It was written to tell a particular story, the story of someone who had a unique encounter with Jesus, the like of which no one else has ever had. It’s the story of Mary Magdalene meeting Jesus outside his garden tomb.

Back in 1912 a music publisher, Dr. Adam Geibel, asked the composer C. Austin Miles to write a hymn text. With typical Victorian flair and sentimentality, he said that he was looking for a hymn that would be “sympathetic in tone, breathing tenderness in every line; one that would bring hope to the hopeless, rest for the weary, and downy pillows to dying beds.....” Mr. Miles has given this account of the writing of the hymn:

“One day in April, 1912, I was seated in the dark room where I kept my photographic equipment and my organ. I drew my Bible toward me; it opened at my favorite chapter, John 20 – whether by chance or by inspiration let each reader decide. That meeting of Mary and Jesus had lost none of its power and charm.

As I read that day, I seemed to be part of the scene. I became a silent witness to that dramatic moment in Mary’s life when she knelt before her Lord and cried ‘Rabboni!’ (which means “my rabbi,” or “my teacher.”)

My hands were resting on the Bible while I stared at the light blue wall. As the light faded, I seemed to be standing at the entrance of a garden, looking down a gently winding path, shaded by olive branches. A woman in white, head bowed, hand clasping her throat, as if to choke back her sobs, walked slowly into the shadows. It was Mary. As she came to the tomb, upon which she placed her hand, she bent over to look in, and hurried away.

John, in flowing robe appeared, looking at the tomb; then came Peter, who entered the tomb followed slowly by John.

As they departed, Mary reappeared; leaning her head upon her arm at the tomb, she wept. Turning herself, she saw Jesus standing, and so did I. I knew it was he. She knelt before him, with arms outstretched, and looking into his faced cried ‘Rabboni!’

I awakened in the sun light, gripping the Bible with muscles tense and nerves vibrating. Under the inspiration of this vision I wrote as quickly as the words could be formed the poem, exactly as it has since appeared. That evening I wrote the music.

(cited in Amazing Grace, 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck.)

That’s the story of which we are singing when we sing “In the Garden.”

Her name was Mary, and she had lost everything, everything that mattered to her. That early Sunday morning she was on her way to the graveyard - not that she expected to find any relief for her pain there, but perhaps at the grave she would at least begin to make some sense of things, sort out the nightmare that had enveloped her.

Jesus had given her a new life, a reason for hope, but now how could she go on? After all she’d seen in the last few days – angry mobs, terrified disciples, cruel soldiers, mocking leaders, torture, lashing of the whip, crown of thorns, crucifixion, death........ She had believed in Jesus, and in the God to whom he pointed, but what could she believe in now?

It was just a few years ago that he had come into her life, there in her home town of Magdala. She was so sick, so confused. Looking back she couldn’t even remember all the details – sometimes illness is like that. She’d heard the gossip that would probably never go away – people saying “Mary, that loose woman, Mary, the whore....” Well, there was nothing she could do about that. People will always look for the worst, but she knew the truth. Jesus had come to her and delivered her of seven demons. Seven of them! Oh, she had been so troubled, so sick – but then, restored to her right mind, restored to health, it was like being born to a new life.

Mary had no reason to stay in Magdala – nothing but bad memories and a terrible reputation – but Jesus said “Come, follow me,” and Mary did. His male followers are the ones we call disciples, but in the group that traveled and shared his work there were also a number of women – Mary, Joanna, a woman named Susanna, and others. According to Luke 8 some of these women had financial resources and helped provide for the needs of Jesus and the others.

So Mary left behind her old life in Magdala, that life of illness and confusion, and gradually Jesus helped her to build a new one – a life of worthiness, respect, honor and peace. As she followed him she saw miraculous happenings – the lame walking, the deaf hearing, the blind restored to sight. She heard Jesus teach of God’s Kingdom, a realm of justice and love, and truly wherever Jesus was it seemed that this Kingdom was taking root and growing..... She began to forget the old life, the life of shame and regret, as Jesus and the God he called Father were forging a new life for her.

At first she may have wondered, “Is this real? Can this new life last, or am I just fooling myself?” but with each new day, each new sign of God at work, she began to trust her healing and believe in her new life – until those awful days in Jerusalem and the horror of Jesus’ death.

What a nightmare! Jesus, who had seemed so powerful, was stripped of everything. His enemies humiliated him in a public spectacle, to make sure everyone knew that this was no messiah. Mary stayed near when most of the men had fled in fear or grief. Perhaps she hoped that even at the end he would miraculously turn the tables, but as the tragedy dragged on, with victory less and less likely, and then impossible, Mary stayed, keeping a vigil of love. And then, when Jesus drew his last breath and died, it must have seemed to Mary that she was dying too – her new life crushed, her reason for living stripped away.

That was Friday; then came the Sabbath, and now as the Sabbath is over, Mary makes her way to tomb in the garden where her friend had been buried.

Easter brings a message of good news – but this good news is born in the most hopeless, mournful sorrow. Oh, Easter faith is good news for everybody, including those people whose lives are usually calm, ordinary and stable, but it’s especially good news for those like Mary Magdalene, for those in despair, for those who wonder “Can I ever trust God, or anybody, ever again?”

We come to church and we put out best selves forward, and we try to emphasize the positive, but every person on earth has some times of struggle, some times of pain. Everybody has some experiences of loss, whether we are upfront and open about these or not. I hope you’ve never been wounded like Mary Magdalene, but maybe you have, to the point that you wonder if God cares, or exists. If so, you this is a story of possibility – profound possibility – for you.

Mary comes to the tomb, and at first it seems that life has delivered one more insult, one more slap in the face. The tomb is empty, and all that Mary can think of is grave robbers. She runs to the disciples, saying “They have taken away the Lord....” Peter and John run to investigate, and Mary runs back too, though more slowly, and she’s alone as she re-enters the garden.

Through teary eyes she sees someone, the gardener presumably, and this man asks her a question: “Why are you weeping?” Well, why shouldn’t she be weeping at the graveside? “They have taken away my Lord,” she says, and what a depth of meaning there is in the phrase. It’s not only the body that they’ve taken. They’ve taken away everything – hope, self-respect, the new life she thought she’d live with Jesus help, the trust in God she was starting to re-develop; all these things have been taken away. Of course she’s weeping!

The man replies with a single word, her name: “Mary,” he says, and suddenly she knows. She knows that this is the risen Lord.

There is good news here, in the place you’d least expect to find it, beside the garden tomb. Oh, it’s not magic. It’s not a time machine that will turn back the clock and erase all the horrors Mary has seen, or somehow make life the way it used to be. Jesus won’t be there to walk the hills of Palestine, or sit to eat a meal with his friends, or teach with parables, or to hold Mary’s hand. He says “Don’t hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.” Mary knows that things won’t be as they were, and yet this is good news beside the garden tomb.

Mary knows that Jesus is alive. The power of God that was at work in Jesus can’t be vanquished. He was crucified, dead and buried, and yet he lives! And the power of God by which Mary had received new life – this too is alive, not blotted out by death. Mary’s healing, her hope, her reason to trust God – these remain, and cannot be taken from her.

The message of our faith, our Christian faith, our Easter faith, says “There is

good news for you, good news even in the graveyard, good news by the garden tomb.” Whoever you are, like Mary, you have reason to hope, reason to trust God.

And now, as we remember her story, let’s sing of it together. Please turn again to #314 in the hymnal, listening to an introduction and to the singing of verse 1, and then joining in as we sing verses 2 and 3 together.