[EASTER, YEAR A (2026)]
John 20:1-18 1
I’ve been thinking about smell-the sense of
smell-and how we often remember things
when we smell certain things. When we lived
on Highway 12 the detached garage and its
smell took me back to my childhood in my
grandparents’ garage because it smelled the
same. It is a pleasant smell to me: old dust
and the lingering odor of motor oil and old
wood. My grandfather’s wood shop was
completely separate and it smelled of sawdust
and I love that smell, too. That family line had
carpenters so maybe that is a genetic trait:
loving the smell of wood freshly planed.
So, smells make me think of the stories we’ve
been hearing the last several weeks. Scents
and smells would have been familiar to the people Aaron Scott often called Jesus’
broke-ass friends. The stories leading up to that
were very much about overwhelming odors
or scents. Mary anoints Jesus with luxurious
nard-a very strong scent-a pleasant scent.
And she didn’t use a puny amount like the
bishop did with the chrism when he anointed
the three boys a while back-Mary poured out
a whole jar of it just on Jesus’ feet. “The house
was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”
It was excessive. It was abundant. And pricey-
someone in Jesus’ group wasn’t broke-ass!
Then, we heard the story of how much spice
was used to quickly prepare Jesus’ body for
burial: 100 pounds of spices! Now when we
go to the store and buy spice, we might be
purchasing 1 and a half or 2 ounces of spice-
and we pay a premium for it! 100 pounds!
Again, maybe excessive-Jesus probably
weighed, at the most 150 pounds as the
Semitic peoples don’t tend to be tall or large
so 100 pounds of spices is a lot! Again, the
guys Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
were not some of Jesus’ broke-ass friends. So I
would like you to think about 100 pounds of
spice closed up in a tomb for a couple of
nights and what that might have smelled like
when it was opened again.
And think about this: Jesus was crucified on
the Friday and the Sabbath-(shaboth)-began
at sundown that evening. And the women
who had followed Jesus knew it was their
duty to prepare the body for burial. They
knew he had been laid in the tomb because
they had stood near the cross and observed it
all. The smell of the sweat and tears and
probably worse. The smell of blood and sour
wine. And they knew where Jesus’ body was
placed-in a hurry to beat the sunset.
And this wasn’t the regular Friday evening,
this was Passover-where families would
gather, leaving a place for Elijah, and the
youngest child would ask the father questions
about the great escape from the land of Egypt,
the land of slavery. The smell of cooked lamb,
hyssop, salty water, unleavened bread, and
wine.
And the whole time, during this Passover
Sabbath, the women are thinking about the
body of Jesus. The teacher who had
transformed their lives had died this horrible
death. They had to be thinking of how much
they wanted to be able to wash those wounds
from the scourging, properly care for the body
of this man who meant so much to them.
And there was the horror of what that would
mean: to touch the body that was so ill-
treated, beaten until bloody, skinned knees
from falling in the street under the weight of
the cross, the cuts from the crown of thorns,
the piercings from being nailed to the cross
and the wound in his side. I don’t know how
they were able to spend this time with family,
friends and set this thought aside that would
have invaded everything they were doing
until sundown on Saturday. They made their
plans to leave at dawn and go to the tomb
even though they weren’t sure if they would
even be able to get inside to do the work they
needed to do.
In today’s gospel, it is only Mary Magdalene
who approaches the tomb. The story tells us
she arrived when it was still dark. She was
startled to find the stone rolled away from the
entrance of the tomb and the tomb was
empty! All those spice odors wafting out of
the opening! In John’s account , she
immediately goes to find Simon Peter and
another disciple and tells them the tomb is
empty. Like when the police take away a
beloved’s body and tell you they will get back
to you eventually, Mary didn’t know what else
to do. Let the men sort it out, I guess.
Peter and the other man RUN to the tomb!
Peter must have been older because he can’t
keep up. This other disciple stops at the
opening of the tomb and Peter catches up and
goes right into the tomb. The smell of spices
must have been overwhelming!
Imagine standing at the opening of the empty
tomb: perhaps the sun was just beginning to
rise and the light inside of the tomb was
about the same as the light outside. They
expected that Mary didn’t know what she was
talking about-Jesus was dead-where could his
body be? It had to be in the tomb! Where had
it been taken? And there are the linen
wrappings neatly folded on the ledge where
the body should have been. Remember, when
Lazarus was raised from the dead, he had to
be unwrapped by others. And, the smell of
fresh spices just as expected! These men were
filled with grief and probably fear for their
own safety and now the MAN had Jesus’ body!
In the story, we are told the other disciple
stepped inside the tomb and faith took hold of
him and he believed that God had done a
wonderful thing. He may not have known
exactly what–but he believed. The two men
left and Mary began her vigil at the tomb.
She was weeping and she bent down to look
into the tomb. Two angels were sitting at
opposite ends of the body ledge and they said,
“Woman, why are you weeping?” I don’t know
about you but I definitely, at this point, would
have thought I was hallucinating. Mary told
them her master had been taken away and
she didn’t know where. She stood upright and
turned around-I don’t know about you, but I
don’t know if I would have trusted turning my
back on a couple of angels-just sayin’.
And, the story just gets well, weirder. A man is
standing there and he asks her why she is
weeping and who she is looking for. She asks
him if he took the body away-that she would
come get it if he had. The man spoke her name,
“Mary-or likely, Miriam,” and she
recognizes him as Jesus. Apparently her first
reaction was to reach out and touch him in
her joy but he asks her not to touch him. He
sends her to his broke-ass fam to tell them, “I
am ascending to my father and your father
and to my God and your God.” So she tells the
disciples she had seen Jesus-I don’t know if
she mentioned those crazy-ass angels or not.
All those men and women who followed Jesus
were transformed by this experience of Jesus’
resurrection from the dead. I can’t explain it-I
just know the guy who found his faith, his
belief when he stepped into that empty tomb
was probably the only one to believe that
quickly that something phenomenal had
happened. God had moved and nothing would
stand in the way-not even a brutal death.
These were the broke-ass folks who hung
with Jesus and they became leaders who told
others about their experiences with the man,
-his life, his death and his resurrection.
Today’s followers of Jesus are like that
beloved disciple: he saw an empty tomb and
believed. Except we have not seen the empty
tomb and yet we believe-we have not seen the
risen Christ and yet we believe. We believe
that broke-ass folks are where Jesus would
hang out if he were here today and we want
to hang out there, too. Of course, most of us
have no choice about whether we are broke-
ass or not.I believe this: there were angels in the tomb,
the linen wrappings were folded and left
behind, the tomb smelled of spices, Jesus
suffered and died and rose again. I can be part
of God’s kingdom here and now-especially
when I hang out with broke-ass people. I can
smell the spices for the dead and I can see the
risen Christ. Allelujah, Christ has died, Christ
has risen, Christ will come again! Allelujah!