John 20: 1-9 4-17-2022 (As built, Amite #493)
- One more step… can you just take one more step…
- It’s the year 33… I live in the city of Jerusalem… I’ve been there most of my life… and I got to tell you… I’m probably the only Gentile that lives in the city walls… I live on the south side of the city… I’ll tell you this I live near the pool of Siloam… maybe… a hundred Cubits from it… you know that’s the one where this guy they call the Messiah… this guy’s been on his mat for thirty years… I know him by the way… I got to tell you… I was there… that was… I’m a gentile… if there ever was a Messiah… this is the closest I’ve every seen it… I knew the guy on the mat… I’m telling you that was a cripple… and when he walked… I got to tell you… the shock waves lasted forever and ever… it was… it was unbelievable… I digress… I am a simple farmer… I am a laborer… I like working the fields… I like helping people with construction… I’ll do anything from houses… to roads… you know why I like it… because it’s a simple life man I get to use my hands… I get to work… I get to sweat a little and at the end of the day man… the worries and the anxieties stay there… I don’t take it home… okay now look I don’t make a lot… and I understand that… but it’s still a simple life… I mean my house is… ten by ten… I mean it’s made of cobblestone that’s true… I did do it myself… you use clay… and as a result I had a thatch roof… the bricks on the bottom on the floor were made out of clay… and they’re not all shaped the same… and I’m going to be honest with you some of them are cracked… but I got to tell you I simply love it because it’s mine… I got a little table in the corner that I bet you it’s not three foot long… Got me a little chair… put in the little window… someday I’ll be able to put the little shutter on it… and I got to tell you man I just like the day… but you know there’s something different about today… I haven’t seen my friend John… you know the one I told you about… the one that man everybody… everybody… knows John… I mean how can you not know him… I mean he is pure love… I bet you he’s not twenty years old… Johns not much taller then this… and I’m going to tell you… there ain’t a razor that touched that mans face yet… he’s got blonde curly hair… kind of thin… but I got to tell you if you were to ask people in Jerusalem who’s your best friend… everybody… would say John… I haven’t seen him in three days… as a matter of fact the last time I saw him… was when he invited me to that… what do they call it… oh yeah yeah... the Passover… I got to meet the twelve… and let me tell you… the same guy that I met there that night… that’s the guy I saw at the pool of Siloam… I’m telling you… there was something different about that guy… but with that being said… man I haven’t seen him in three days… I’m in my house and I’ve decided man I think I’m just going to get outside… somehow or another it’s gotten awfully dark out here… I go to light a candle and I’m thinking wait a minute… what am I lighting a candle for… it’s three o’clock in the afternoon I mean why… and man I walk outside… and when I tell you it’s dark… it’s pitch black…you’re lucky you can see fifty cubits in front of you… and I’m telling you that black has an essence… I’m telling you that darkness has life… it’s got a heartbeat… when you walk outside I’m telling you… you’re walking around it’s as if man it’s like a thousand eyes were watching me… it was almost like I’m waiting for something to reach out and grab me… and not a good thing… you can tell there was an essence to it… a life to it… like it had it’s own being… and I remember thinking… what… is going on… it’s the height of the afternoon… and I don’t even get the words out of my mouth… and when I tell you the earth quaked… it quaked…I’m telling y’all not for ten seconds… not for thirty seconds… for several minutes the world quaked… I remember falling to the ground… trying to get up… falling again… get up… I fell again... I decided man just stay on your knees… man I live in Jerusalem… everything is stacked side by side… I’m watching houses fall… I’m watching walls crack open in the city walls… I’m watching people at fountains and water going everywhere… animals going to and from… people are screaming… I’ve never seen anything like it… I’m telling you it put a fear of the Lord in me… like I had never heard… seen… or touched… I remember seeing family and friends just staring at the rubble… I remember going up to one couple that lived next door and just talking to them…and they just… they ignored me… they just kept staring… I remember going to look and helping another family… man they’re trying to get through the wreckage… I remember another person man just running frantically… I heard one guy scream that he actually saw his in-laws and his grandparents… and they had been dead for years… I’ve been knowing him my whole life… I remember it was almost like I heard one rabbi come running by saying that the curtain in the temple… you know the big one out front… it tore from top to bottom… he said he watched it… and as it was tearing he blacked out… he said the only person that could have ever done that was God… my brothers in Christ I never seen so much anarchy and mayhem… even soldiers and horses… man people were running every which way… it was mayhem… and then I see him… at the other end the street… it’s John… John is noticing what’s going on… but I got to tell you… he’s looking for somebody you can tell… he’s yelling out names… and I see him… and I yell for him I said John… and man he picks his head up… and man on a deadbolt run… he says you got to help me… and I’m thinking man everybody has got to help John… he said man I’m looking for Peter and Judas… you see I met them the other night… I met them at the Passover… man you’ll never forget Peter… man let me tell you… that man… is the vicar of Christ… all the apostles recognized him… I remember shaking his hand and it was like shaking hands with a catcher’s mitt… I remember shaking it and thinking… wow… that guy was thick as he was tall… but I also remember Judas… I’ll never forget that night… that darkness I felt… that was him… that’s it… when he sat next to me at the last supper… I remember looking at him and feeling that same thing… that there’s something in him that’s tangible… almost wanting to pull me into him… I remember trying to scoot down from Judas… just because I didn’t want to be close to him… man John tells me… he says look… you need to go to this house on the other end of town… when you knock there will be a little house not much to it… there will be a few women in there I want you to go inside… he says… and wait for me there… I got to go get Peter… I got to go get Judas… I go… I finally get to the house… I knock on the door… and this lady answers the door… now hear me out… if a guy that was tall… that was so tall as soon as he opened the door you’d say man you’re tall… if you open the door and the guy was massive you’d probably said man you’re a pretty big guy… when she opened the door… that was a striking woman… I even made the comment… I said wow wasn’t expecting that… and she said come in… and when I realized it’s Mary of Magdalene… it’s Lazarus’s sister… the prostitute… but man… she looked totally different from that regard… almost very reserved… so I come in and there’s Mary of Salome I recognize her… there’s another lady there Mary of Cleophas I visited with her… there’s another person there I wasn’t sure… but as soon as I walked in I got to remember… I got to tell you this house ain’t twenty by twenty… it’s got two little cubby holes if you want to call them rooms… maybe six by six… and I remember… them saying come in… and all of a sudden I hear that voice…, y’all if a choir of angels could speak… that’s the voice I heard… when she walks out of that room and says who is this… y’all when that woman walked out… I almost started walking backwards… I tripped on the threshold… she looked at me as to say… where are you going… come stay… y’all… she… I was afraid she knew me my whole life… I was afraid she knows all the bodies buried… she… man it was almost like she could read my soul… but at the same time… it’s almost like you just want to run up and say… I’m just… I’m sorry… I’m sorry for putting you in this spot… I didn’t even really know her… oh but I did now… man it was the mother… this is the one I had heard about… well man she was most gracious… she just nodded… but you could just feel the love… y’all there was a love that when you opened… I’m going to tell you that must have been the only building in Jerusalem where you can feel like you have peace and safety… once you walk out that door… I’m telling you it’s a whole other world… man no sooner then I slide over… you know who comes in… one of my closest friends… let me tell you… you think I’m poor… you haven’t met Veronica…man my brothers in Christ she could barely afford the veil on her head… and she walks in… and she shows… this veil… y’all… the picture on the veil… that’s the guy… that’s the guy at the last supper… I’m telling you it was real… it was as if somebody painted it… and I remember thinking… Oh my God that’s him… and then she takes the veil… and she just embraces it… I mean it’s as if she almost wrapped it up and almost like the rest of us just vanished… she goes into a room… her little hole if you will… she prays in the form of a crucifix… she puts it on the ground… and she puts her face on top of it… and she prays… I just stood by the door and just stared at her… Mary Magdalene says she’s been doing that for three straight days…and I’m thinking wow… man she shuts the door… I bet the door hasn’t been shut ten seconds and here comes John… you know what he’s got… he’s got Cephas… Peter… the one I met… he’s holding him… and carrying him into the room… John is carrying Peter into the room… that man has been crying… according to John he has been wailing for three straight days… I’m telling you he just slouches by the door of where Mary’s room is… and man you hear Mary call out… Peter come… he just wails… even louder… she says yet again… man the voice is angelic… Peter… come… man he wails even louder… she does it three times… what makes you almost think yeah that’s right that’s the denial…Peter please… please… just come… finally she gets up and comes to him… he’s trying to explain that he denied her savior… all be it three times …and man she grabs his face… and I’m telling you forehead to forehead… tells him… Peter… Cephas… he makes all things new… listen to me… he has already forgiven you… you need to forgive you… man my brothers and sisters in Christ and then John speaks up… and says… Mother I found Judas… he’s hung himself… she just kind of nods… and she says… remember… he will rise on the third day… and then she goes back… she lays prostrate… my brothers in Christ it’s about as much as I can handle… I walk out of the little room … I’m standing outside and it’s still mayhem… soldiers going every which way… and then all of a sudden I just decide I’m going to sleep outside… the very next morning can I tell you… Mary Magdalene is up at the crack of dawn… I didn’t sleep because what’s the point… she says I’m going to the tomb… I’d rather be near a dead savior… then live people… I’m going to take one more step… within the hour… I see her running down the path back… she is screaming at the top of her lungs… I’ve seen him… he’s gone… he’s gone… I’m telling you he’s gone… and I’m thinking… gone where… how could he be gone there is a boulder in the way… there are soldiers there man where are the soldiers… she said they’re not there… the boulder has been moved I’m telling you… the garments… they’re there… the shroud… is in one place… his death mask is by the door… I’m telling you he’s gone… man Peter gets up with John and they go… I follow them… and I got to tell you John is the height of respect… he gets there… a lot quicker than Peter… myself included… he literally stand at the door… and waits for Peter to come… and when Peter looks in…I’m yelling out… Peter what do you see… what don’t you see… say something… Peter just drops to his knees in the middle of the door… and says My Lord my God… my brothers and sisters in Christ we go all the way back… the Blessed Mother is up… and he says Mother… and she says did I not tell you… that he will rise on the third day… and that the gates of heaven will now forever be open… she looked at Peter and says you will be the vicar of his church… what you bound here on earth will be bound in heaven…John you will be the apostle that will live beyond time… people will come to you… teach them how to love… that’s all there ever is… and then she looks at me… and says… just take one… more step… and you too Father Mark… will stand next to me… at the alter of our savior… my brothers and sisters in Christ… just take one more step… one more prayer… one more phone call… one more thank you… one more I’m sorry… I promise you… he will make all things new…
