Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 20:1-18   Jesus: There and Here   Mary was in the dark.   Early on the first day of the week, while the world was still shrouded in darkness, Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb.   After the shock of Friday and the overwhelming grief of that empty Saturday, she was finally ready to confront what she knew but still could not believe: Jesus was dead.   The one who loved her and healed her and saved her was lying dead in a cold, stone tomb.   It was dark that morning but, during her bitter walk, her eyes had just enough time to adjust to the lack of light and she could see that the tomb, sealed on Friday, was standing wide open.   Her heart dropped further, if that was even possible.   It was yet another bad twist in her waking nightmare.   It was Easter Sunday and things just kept getting worse.   Mary was in the dark; she was devastated and spiraling.   The stone was rolled aw...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Good Friday 2023   The Body Burden   Jesus’ hands were tied.   In the garden, where they found him, they bound him, bound his wrists.   So much happens to Jesus’ body in this Good Friday story – so much pain, so much trauma, so much horror, even death.   But the first thing that happened to that body, on Thursday night, was that it was bound.     Those who hated Jesus, and those who simply needed the work, took hold and control of his body – a humble body in which dwelt, mostly unknown, the fullness of God; they tamed his bones; they subdued his muscles; they stopped his precious hands – from movement and miracle.   Before everything that happened on Good Friday, before the crown and the nails, they bound him.   But we know the Good Friday story and so we know that wasn’t enough.   It wasn’t enough to simply stop him; they wanted to punish, punish that body that encroached on their ...