I guess you might say that I am a shade tree mechanic. I like to work on things,  much to the chagrin of my wife in particular.  I do usually save us money, and I enjoy the satisfaction of fixing things.  I recently repaired a leaking kitchen faucet and it only took me two hours plus two more digging a metal sliver out of my thumb.  I once put down a new floor in our kitchen and it only took nine months.  I really like fixing cars, started working on them when I was a teenager.  But with the advance car-tech nowadays I have to read the manual to find out how to check the oil. I am thinking of entering myself as an expert at allexperts.com.    Of course, I am pretty good at breaking things too, so there is no shortage of work.

I once had the pleasure of changing the antifreeze in my car.  I bought a Radiator Flush Kit where you insert a t-shaped valve into the heater hose that allows a simple back flush of the radiator with a simple garden hose.  Well, after the job was done, the hose leaked at that location.  So I bought new clamps, tightened them down, and I even siliconed the connections.  The hose still leaked.  I then replaced the hose with a brand new one, knowing that this action would stop the leak.  Sure enough, no leak.  But when I went to kill the engine I noticed my floorboard full of antifreeze.  You see, when I changed the hose I broke the heater core, and when I broke the heater core, I burned out the water pump.  It was a very expensive back-flush!  My wife unfairly compares me to Tim “the tool man” Allen.  I’m glad his show was canceled, he gave men like me a bad name!

But the truth is, most of us like to fix things.  Maybe you won’t work on a car, but maybe your speciality is fixing up relationships- or match making- or solving the world’s problems.  Maybe you have ideas about politics or for revising the tax code.  Maybe you know what to do about the misguided youth in America, or you know how to fix the economy.  Maybe you know how to solve computer problems or fix your phone.  Uh, I tried that one time. I believe that we all wish to fix something at heart.  Every chaplain student I had for 35 years at the office, and there were hundreds, went through a “fix it” phase.  We sometimes, somehow, feel responsible to correct the problems that people bring to us, no matter how difficult they are to fix. 

The truth is, that there is plenty in the world that disturbs us, besides our current unprecedented dilemma of CoVid 19.  We see heartache, grief, sickness, death, poverty, crime, war, and a host of other big concerns that impact us on a day to day basis.  On a smaller scale, we hear of peoples’ hurts, and we hear their cries and sad stories.  We shake our heads and wish we could do more.  We offer comfort, a listening ear, prayer, and emotional support.  Yet, we wish we could do more to ease the pain, “to fix” the situation.

The central character in today’s verse of scripture, The Gospel of John chapter 20, is Mary Magdalene.  Mary was evidently there when Jesus was on the cross, and she is the first to arrive on that Easter morning finding the empty tomb.  Not much is known of Mary in scripture.  Some have suggested that she is the same as Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume.  This is only conjecture, however.  Some have suggested that she was a prostitute, again only a guess.  What is known is that she had seven devils cast out of her in during Jesus ministry, she was with Jesus mother at the cross, the last to leave him, and she was the first to see the empty tomb.  Seeing the risen Christ was not enough, but when Jesus called her name, hearing became believing.  She quickly told the disciples of her seeing the lord.  The other thing we know, is that Mary was crying at the tomb.

“Why are you crying,” a refrain that echos twice in these the account in John 20.   These are words that echo in our own lives with a haunting realism as we face life on a day to day basis.  I don’t have to affirm the obvious to you, but life is difficult.  It is hard.  It is not fair.  There is someone every single day who was on top of the world yesterday who has the world turn on top of them today.    There is much that needs fixing if we only knew how. 

Very early on in life we learn to soothe our pain, to self medicate.  We cry till momma comes and holds us.  We suck our thumb or hide under the blanket.  We soon discover more socially advanced ways to numb our pain.  We get a good grade, make somebody laugh, make friends even the wrong kind at times, we get dressed-upped, fixed-upped, we do what we can to get compliments.  We escape through the movies, TV or the Internet, sports or even work or school.  We drink colas or beer, pop chocolates, smoke cigarettes.  We manufacture adrenaline by watching scary movies, driving fast or engaging in risky behaviors, getting angry or filling our time full of activities.  We exercise, and we even go to church. But the bottom line is, we still have pain BECAUSE LIFE IS DIFFICULT!!!  There is a lot of pain out there– and in here, in our hearts, and there are a lot of broken things and people. Brokenness is the human predicament.

I don’t know what Mary Magdalene’s seven devils were, and I shutter to guess.  But I do know most of us have come face to face with all kinds of devils.  I’ve seen brokenness, and I have been broken, sometimes unexplainably so.  Many times my own fault. I have seen so, many people that I have wanted to fix but could not.  So the stupidest thing I have ever read I the Bible is in John chapter 20, not once mind you but twice, “WHY ARE YOU CRYING?”

We know all too well that all we can do is cry when a loved one has died and left us all alone.  All we can do is cry when life caves in around us and we pray to a seemingly silent God.  All we can do is to cry, because life is difficult and we don’t know what else to do or how else to behave.  All we can do is cry because we learn in life that there are some things that simply cannot be fixed, and even after we work through them, things will never be as they were before. 

So Mary Magdalene at great risk, in the middle of a great grief, finds and empty tomb and she cries.  The two angels asked her why she was crying, and then the resurrected Christ asked her why she was crying.  She reports she was crying because Jesus was dead, and to make matters worse, she had feared that his grave had been robbed.  But with one word- her name, MARY- her tears melted to unbelievable joy.

Whatever else the cross, that ultimate expression of brokenness, that ultimate injustice, the ultimate proof that life is difficult meant it meant this: What ever is broken can be fixed.   Because Jesus died but more importantly, because he was raised to life, What ever is broken can be fixed.   Paul said it best in Romans 5:10

“If we are reconciled to God through the death of Christ, how much more then being reconciled,  are we saved by His life!”  It was his death that set us straight with God, but it is his life that fixes us.  We are reconciled to God by his death, that is, we are made right in God’s sight by his death.  But it is by his life that we are continually being saved (present continuous action).” 

It has been said that Christians are optimistic about the future and pessimistic about the present life.  Albert Camus, a famous historian and atheist, said he was just the opposite, he optimistic about the present life and pessimistic about the future.  Christ death takes care of the pie- in- the- sky- bye- and- bye part of it.   But because of the empty tomb, and because we are being constantly saved by his life we can be optimistic about the present. Because of the empty tomb, the living Christ lives in us.   Because of the empty tomb we have hope not only for tomorrow but especially for today.   Because of the empty tomb, Whatever (or more importantly whomever) is broken can be fixed, because we are saved by his life.

Because of the empty tomb, sadness is no longer a part of human destiny.  Its sting will not always have power over us.  Granted, we only see in part thru a glass dimly, but because of the empty tomb– Whoever is broken can be fixed!!

The empty tomb helps us to make sense of a sometimes senseless world.  But the empty tomb is only part of what Mary found.  Here tears were turned to joy when Jesus called her by name, and then and only then she saw the Lord.  Because of the empty tomb, he is still calling us by name, and many of us have indeed seen the Lord.  And it is a vision that will forever change us.  A vision that helps us endure the hardest hardships of life; a vision that helps us to make sense of all that happens in life.  A vision that gives us hope.  And it does not ultimately matter if you have seven devils or seven times seventy, if you have seen the Lord.  It is a vision that helps us transcend our brokenness, and that is the Good News that has changed the world.

I am at best, a shade tree mechanic.  And I have learned, the hard, expensive way that I can’t fix things or people very well.  I can’t even fix Stan Wilson, I can’t fix you, I can’t fix anything about Providence Baptist Church.  I can’t heal the sick and I can’t change the world.   But because of the empty tomb, I know that there is one who can!  

So today, the best good news ever, the central message of Christianity, the reason to go on, the reason to have hope, the reason to risk life and love is the reason that helps us to answer the question that Jesus asked.  And the dumbest question I have ever heard becomes the sharpest test at the core of our faith.  “ Why are you crying ?”  For you see, the risen Christ calls us by name and says to us, whomever is broken can indeed be fixed.  And when we grasp that fact, your tears will take second stage.  Because the ultimate example of brokenness has just been fixed, Jesus has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of all of us who will do likewise.   At the end of the day, if you are broken, because He lives, you can be fixed. And shade tree mechanics, need not apply. And that is the Easter message, the Good News of Jesus Christ! Thanks be to God!