Our journey through lent, from darkness to light, from misunderstanding to seeing more, has taken us many places.  We went with The Beloved Son of God into the desert to watch Him reject one strategy and choose another for life to the full for all.  We have climbed physical mountains with him to see Him transfigured on Mount Tabor.  We have followed Him through the twisted labyrinths of a loveless world to find a mercy as sustaining as bread and as intoxicating as wine.  And we have listened to the story of His refusal to embrace violence as a means to any end; His utter faithfulness to His mission to bring health and well being to the world.
 
Now we are ready to follow love into mystery.  It begins on the first - and never ending - Easter Day.
 
Mary of Magdala has visited His tomb to complete the burial ritual, and finds herself being surprised by Angels.  St. John tells us it is the first day of the week and it is dark. (a new creation story).  Something is happening.  Something that can be dimly seen in the morning light but which will come into full view as the day unfolds when  darkness will give way to the light.  But it won't happen all at once.
 
Magdala runs to tell Peter and the Beloved Disciple.  They start out together and they end the day together.  But for now, the Beloved disciple is faster than Peter.  Faster and fitter because he has access to Jesus' Heart and knows how to read the 'signs' as they appear.  Simon Peter follows him.  This indicates that he is in a learning position.  That only the Beloved disciple can teach him how to read the signs, how to enter, how to see and how to believe.
 
Now the key sign which is waiting for understanding is the face veil which has been rolled up and put in a special place.  The reader is expected to remember the veils of Adam, Moses and Lazarus.  For Adam it was used to wipe the sweat from his brow, now that he has condemned himself to working in a broken world.  For Moses it was the veil which he wore because the touch of God had made him into light.  For Lazarus, it is a discarded veil as he is freed from death and restored to life.
 
The other clothes - the death clothes - symbolise those Adam and Eve wore when they discovered they were naked.  The new Adam has no need for these.  And although loves ability to read these signs comes first, the leadership of Peter is reverenced because both are needed to sustain the community.  St. John's Gospel describes them as walking home together - another Emmaus Walk - where they have time to reflect, put the pieces together and let their hearts savour what has happened.
 
I think it was Gabriel Marcel who once wrote, "To love someone is to say, 'Thou, Thou shall not die.'"  When we love someone more than ourselves we enter the world of self giving, of sacrifice, of investing ourselves and our resources in their wellbeing.  We become fiercely protective of them, and do everything we can to defend and shelter them from any harm.  And even though we can have short term success in this endeavour, we know that ultimately we will fail.  Marcels promise is one that we cannot keep.
 
Or perhaps we can.  Perhaps we want that 'somehow' the Beloved will survive the death event and that their presence will be continued in another way.  For St. John and for St. Paul the question of life after death can only be asked in the context of love.  Notice how Martha and Mary begin their conversation with Jesus within loves embrace and how it ends with the declaration 'See how He loved him'. .  Notice more how it is the Beloved Disciple and Mary of Magdala who begin, each in their own way, to uncover the meanings hidden in the empty tomb.  And notice how St Paul places Love in tension with death and how in the beautiful hymn of 1 Cor 13, it is love that never ends.  In all of these sacred texts it is both human and divine love that questions the finality of death.
 
Easter is an invitation to follow that love into mystery.  Somewhere between what we know, and what we do not know, the truth begins to show itself.  St. Paul will speak of the grace of divine love in mysterious language.  He speaks of the things which no eye has seen and no ear has heard, what God has prepared for those who love Him.  Easter is only the first day of the week of the new creation.  It is real but it has still to rise like the dawn in our hearts.  And it seems that the loving heart creates the right space for God to dance to the music of Resurrection.

The Beloved Son of God has returned to the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives.  I want to focus on this part of the Gospel for this Sunday because it is important.
 
The disciples have been at prayer with Jesus and have seen Him at prayer many times.  Remember the visit to Mount Tabor where The Father reveals by illumination and by declaration who Jesus is.  This was a stop-over on the deadly journey  to  Jerusalem,  and  although  the  disciples  continued  to  follow  Him  they  were  still  holding  back.   They  couldn't understand why Jesus walked headlong into fierce opposition.  Their lack of understanding needed to be corrected and they could only do this by following the command to 'Listen to Him.'   If they can remember the radiance when the darkness comes, they might find the strength to be faithful.
 
Another time in Luke 11, the disciples ask Jesus for a teaching about what it means to be a prayerful person.  He calls them to seek, to ask and to knock on the door of God's heart, not because God needs persuading but because they do!  Disciples have to do the groundwork in their contemplative hearts if they are going to receive the fullness of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
 
And here, in the Garden of Olives, the Beloved Son of God teaches them, 'Pray, lest you enter into temptation.'   Something is  about  to  happen,  and,  if  they  do  not  pray  themselves  into  these  events  they  will  be  overwhelmed  and  captured  by them.  The strength to say no when a no is needed, and the strength to say yes when a yes is needed will only arise from praying and listening hearts.  Tragically it is a lesson that will be learned in the very moment they fail to live it.
 
As Jesus kneels and touches the earth, He sees the conflict that will erupt from the religious and political powers.  He does not want to suffer and He does not seek  it.   But  as  He  kneels  and  touches  the  earth,  He  finds  that  He  loves something  more  than  His  fear  of  suffering  -  His  commitment  to  his  Fathers
will.  Now let's be absolutely clear here.  It is not God's will that Jesus suffers and dies.  Much more, it is God's will that the power of forgiveness and reconciliation be continued in all circumstances.  This is what the Beloved Son has pledged to do.  In the events that will unfold, Jesus will not be drawn into violence.  He will forgive  those  who  persecute  Him  and  offer  the  Kingdom  to  the  repentant thief.  He can only do this because His centre is centred on God.  It is from here that  His  actions  flow.   He  is  about  to  enter  a  contest  where  the  strength  and steady flow of love will be all that is needed.
 
But His disciples have not stayed awake and He finds no strength in them.  For St Luke, this means they have abandoned their contemplative hearts.  For them, the situation that is coming is beyond their resources.  They are overwhelmed and overcome.  The world, and its violence is too much for them.  When Jesus asks them, 'Why do you sleep?' it is a prophetic question that disturbs the sorrowful slumber of the disciples.  No answer comes because there is no answer.  He can only repeat, 'Rise, pray lest you enter into temptation'.  But they cannot do it and everything begins to unravel in their hearts.   
 
Suddenly, the violent are upon them.  A mindless crowd, led by Judas (one of the Twelve) do not believe in Jesus' way of seeing and acting.  But Jesus is awake. He is integrated.  He holds as one and will not let go of, His love for His Father and for His people; the power of forgiveness and reconciliation.  The Way of the Son of Man, this expression of human potential, is  present  in  Jesus  and  possible  for  others.   And  it  is  this  potential  which  Judas,  even  though  he  walked  with  Jesus, contradicts.  On the outside, he offers Jesus the kiss of loyalty, but on the inside his heart is full of betrayal.  If you like, Judas is the perfect example of the very split which the Son of Man has come to heal.
 
The other disciples, sensing the violence which is to come, act to stop it.  They ask Jesus if they should strike with the sword.  The sustaining momentum of prayer is not available to them because they have not listened.  An ear falls to the ground.  As far as they are concerned the dialogue is over.  But the One who has spent his life giving people ears to hear says, "No more of this,' and follows these words by restoring the ear to its rightful place.  As Jesus prayed and stayed awake He teaches powerfully that loves dialogue is never over.  The power of forgiveness and reconciliation continue to flow through Him even when it is halted by His disciples.
 
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is treated like a terrorist.  He allows the burden of the sins of the violent to fall across Himself.  Perhaps this is what the Gospel writers mean when they call it, 'His Hour'.  It is His because He reveals the Fathers persistent and non violent love even for those who harm the Beloved Son.  It is this 'Hour' of eternal time which moves forward to meet the darkness and the hatred and the futile attempt to kill Him.  And His Cross, is the eternal declaration that in the contest between Divine Love and Human Sin, there will only ever be one winner.

​According to one tradition, the Divine Glory once resided in the Temple in Jerusalem.  But the sins of the people were so awful that God departed, leaping from the Temple to the Garden of Olives and then up to heaven.  Now God is back.  Jesus, the bearer of Divine Glory is returning to the Temple by the same path.  It is early - a new day - so we can expect something new. What will happen when divine glory encounters sin once more? 
 
St. John sets the scene, "All the people came to Him..."   This teaching is for all people and for all time because they need it. Jesus is seated and is about to teach but there is an interruption.  This teaching will be a masterclass in relationships, taught relationally.  The lost tribe of the scribes and Pharisees are at it again.  Clearly the Parable of the Prodigal  didn't  have  the  desired  effect.  A  woman  (who  was  clearly  committing  adultery  all  by  herself)  is  'caught', 'brought' and 'made to stand there'.  This is what the Pharisees do really well - holding people in their sin.  Notice too how they make full use of a favourite tool of the self righteous - the stare.  It is used to demote a person to an object, to hold them in the sin and to close off the flow of time and the newness it might bring.  Their real agenda is to trap Jesus, to hold Him.  But in their haste they have unwittingly given Him the raw material of His response. 
 
'Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground'. (v.9). It doesn't matter what He wrote, but that He wrote twice with his finger, on the earth, and that twice He bent down and straightened up.  The One who writes with His finger  is  close  to  God  (Ex:31:18)  like  Moses,  who  having  witnessed  the  sins  of  his  community  goes  back  up  the mountain to plead for them. When Moses asks if he can see the diving glory, God accepts but hides him in the cleft of a rock.  Then God tells him to cut two more tablets with these words. "I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablet which you broke".   As the Glory of God passes by, Moses is treated to the beautiful words of Exodus 34, 6-8.  You can read it for yourself!   So God writes a second time, God frees what people can only hold. 
 
For Jesus, the Pharisees and Scribes have not truly understood the law of Moses.  The true interpretation is that God always writes twice.  What happens between the first and second writing?  An understanding that there are no people who are without sin and that they live only because of God's infinite mercy.  If all live by Grace, who can throw the first stone?  The need to ask for forgiveness for myself takes precedence over the need to condemn another?  Jesus alternative to the holding stare of the Pharisees and their followers is to hold up a mirror and then bend down again.  He will not use their staring strategy.  He gives them the self knowledge they need to change.  The divine glory does not have to return to heaven as it has found another way to heal the sins of the earth. 
 
Jesus writes with his finger as a sign that God is speaking.  He writes twice as a sign that God is forgiving.  He writes 
on the earth as a sign that this teaching is for all peoples of all times.  He refuses to stare as a sign that sins are not 
held.  And when they got what He was trying to say what did they do? Did they let go of vengeance in favour of 
forgiveness?  Did they give up judgement in favour of friendship? No! They walked away, preferring to live in isolation - one by one - than in the joy of the community.  They remained alone and unconnected.  A tragedy which proves that the longer we choose to live as judge, jury and executioner of the weak the harder it is to see the truth and power of the alternative. 
 
But Jesus keeps faith with her.  He stands and looks without staring.  And just as those who walked away needed to see their  distorted self in order to repent and have life, she needs to see her true self reflected in His gaze so that she can 'see and believe'.  He calls her 'Woman' - a title of honour - and points her to her true self.  He asks her, 'Has 
no-one condemned you?'  This is the first and only time she speaks and her answer is powerful.  "No-one,  Lord".   The  suffocating  neck  brace  of  condemnation  has evaporated.   When  she  calls  Jesus  'Lord'  she  knows  He  speaks  from  the  heart  of God.  She knows she must now Go! But she also knows that as she goes she must walk 
without sin. 
 
The Divine Glory has returned.  Sin will not drive it away.  He has written the truth of twice upon the earth, and built a new Temple of forgiveness in the precincts of the old.  The woman is free to take her first steps into the future that is coming. The question is, are we?