Go, make disciples of all the nations; I am with you always, yes, to the end of time.

WORDS from the closing verses of St Matthew's Gospel.

HAVE just been looking again at the first of the Easter stories in St John's Gospel. The story of Mary Magdalen, Peter and the beloved disciple - John himself - discovering the empty tomb on Easter morning and proclaiming the Good News of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Where better to start this series of Paschal Stational Masses than with the Easter Gospel itself, a story which, like other good stories, continues to feed us and reveal its essential truth the more often we study it. And how often do we study it? We hear a version of it at the Paschal Vigil - Matthew's version in Year A, Mark's in Year B and Luke's in Year C - and we hear the beginning and end of John's account of it on St Mary Magdalen's Day, if we happen to be at Mass. But we hear it the first ten verses of John 20, only on Easter Day, when, so often, our minds are distracted or at any rate under-performing. By then we have heard and said and sung too much to concentrate on the fine detail of the Easter Gospel. Either that or our attention is drawn to the poignant encounter between Mary Magdalen and the Risen Lord in the garden (verses11-18).

So, what could be better now than to look at some of the details of these ten verses and ponder them in our hearts as, with our text, we prepare to receive him who is with us always, to the end of time and resolve to heed his command to 'make disciples of all the nations'?

Let me run through the outline of the story. It's early on Sunday morning, still dark, when Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb. She sees that the stone has been rolled away and notices that the tomb is empty. Understandably, she does not herself go into the sepulchre. She goes and tells Peter and John and they race off to the tomb to look for themselves. John outruns Peter but, no doubt out of respect for the leader of the apostolic band, stays at the tomb entrance until Peter gets there. Peter sees the linen cloths and the separate head cloth and goes into the tomb.

John then himself goes in and, we are told, sees the evidence for himself and believes, though, as yet, 'they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead'. The disciples then go to their homes.

As I was studying this passage and meditating on it, I also had at the back of my mind the election of the new pope, Benedict XVI, a cause for much joy amongst Catholic Anglicans. The pope, as our ecumenical documents have come to recognise, is indeed the successor of Peter and the leader in our times of the apostolic band. Though he is undoubtedly a father - the word 'papa', 'pope', means 'father' - he is also a figure of authority, a leader, the holder of the keys of the kingdom, the rock on which the Church is built. All of this is true even though, sadly, the Church is divided and Christians - even Catholic Christians - hold different views on what Peter's leadership truly means. I suppose I also had at the back of my mind as I was meditating some of the highly critical comments made of the new pope by the press and by liberal theologians.

So, for me, these three figures, going to the tomb of the Resurrection, took on new symbolic meanings. Mary Magdalen is 'the woman' in the story. She is there first. She doesn't abrogate to herself the right to look in the tomb and the position of leadership: she first goes to tell Peter and John. Peter, as we have already seen, is the authority figure, the leader of the apostolic band, 'the authority' in the story. John, the beloved disciple, is 'love' in the story. Peter, of course, loves Jesus and, later on, will be restored into full friendship with Jesus after betraying him. But here he is still the sinful, unforgiven, weak Peter of the betrayal. Not yet the Peter who has received and known the Paschal forgiveness which he will receive when the Risen Lord gives him chance three times to confess his love and cancel out the cock-crow betrayals.

Now you may wonder why I have ascribed the symbolism of 'love' to John and not to both John and Mary Magdalen. I straightaway concede the point. The story of Mary and the one she supposes to be the gardener shows us all too clearly that Mary Magdalen loves Jesus, indeed that her love is probably the love that would cling on to him inappropriately. She, like Peter, is a bereaved and broken figure at the outset of the story. She, like Peter, will know the transforming power of the Risen Lord's presence.

But let us, for now, keep the three symbolic meanings of 'authority', 'love' and 'woman'. The Easter story is one in which each of these three meanings is transfigured and given new content. Peter's authority had been almost destroyed when he ran away from the arrest and later denied even knowing Jesus. John's love must have been severely tested by the death of his friend. I was talking only a day or two ago to a nurse who told me that she had lost her faith when she had worked nursing young people dying after painful illnesses. The death of the young man, Jesus, must have been a real test for John. And that is true no less of Mary - though she had also had to endure the powerlessness of being a woman amidst the very male brutality of Jesus' torture and death. Women the world over look on as men brutally slaughter each other and destroy what women have given birth to, nurtured and done their best to protect.

Now see how these symbolic figures interact in the story. It is 'woman' who first discovers the truth of the Easter Gospel, the sign of the Resurrection. It is women alone, in all four gospels, who witness the appearance of angels at the tomb. As for 'love' and 'authority', we notice that 'love' outruns 'authority' in the race to the tomb. Not only does 'love' get there first - though holding back whilst 'authority' checks out the evidence and pronounces on it - but it is 'love' which is first to believe, St John tells us, even though, as yet, 'they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead'. 'Love' believes and trusts before ever it understands.

With a new Peter - a new father at the head of the apostolic band - we must be careful not to underestimate the importance too of 'authority'. It is 'authority' which first examines and proclaims the truth of the Gospel. It is 'authority' which safeguards - conserves - this truth. It is 'authority' which enters most fully into the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus - actually going into the tomb, looking at the linen cloths, discovering the absence of what one would expect to be there. It is 'authority' which leads the apostolic company even as they told by Mary Magdalen and, in the other gospels, other women too, of the depth and wonder of their experience.

'Woman' is a mystic. She sees angels. She meets the Lord in the garden. She is called by name. Sinful 'authority' and bereaved 'love' have to be told about these mystical - and real - experiences. 'Love' is quick to believe - wants to believe. 'Authority' is more circumspect. Church history is full of healings and miracles, legends and myths, visions and visionaries. Without these things our faith - if we had any - would be dour and dry, cynical and sceptical. 'Authority', always in the form of a father and the teaching of the fathers, has a particular vocation, one which, as the mixed public reactions to the election of Pope Benedict XVI show, is easy to mistrust and misunderstand. Even as we celebrate 'love', even as we are careful to give a proper voice to the insights of 'woman', we must pray for 'authority' and those who exercise it, episcopally and magisterially.

With more time, we could look at how this Easter story illuminates our task of making disciples of all the nations, baptising and experiencing the abiding Presence of the Risen Lord in our midst, as we do, every time we meet together for Mass. But I think I have said enough for now - except for just one thing. One vital part of the Easter story in John 20 is missing from the first ten verses we have been looking at - and it is often missing from our lives as Christian people, as a eucharistic people. We really need verse 18 to complete the Paschal Proclamation. In the first ten verses, Mary Magdalen tells Peter and she tells John. The 'woman', the 'mystic' draws a response from 'love' and she draws the attention of 'authority' to what she has witnessed. So often the Good News of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is confined to pulpit and church, house group and fellow-believers. Verse 18 tells us that Mary Magdalen 'went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her'. The 'disciples' here are not believers: they do not yet know and understand - and have not experienced the power of - the Resurrection. The 'disciples' here are representatives of the vast multitude of men and women of good will, who are open to the knowledge and understanding and power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and who wait only for us to share the Good News with them. And so I end by repeating the text, an exhortation to all of God's Easter People:

Go, make disciples of all the nations; I am with you always, yes, to the end of time.

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet
Bishop's House, Dry Sandford, Abingdon, OXON OX13 6JP
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 390746

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