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Scripture: John 20:1-18 (ESV)
- Over the course of our lives all of us
occasionally experience overwhelming circumstances.
- Because we live in a world where death, disease,
and decay are normal, in a world where people make mistakes, where accidents
happen, and people do bad things to intentionally hurt others or to indulge
their own desires (let's call that what it is, SIN), because we live in this
kind of world, we all experience grief, emotional and physical pain, tragedy,
and even injustice or oppression.
- We all go through times when we find ourselves
wondering why bad things happen to us and those we love.
- The truth be told, we really ought not to wonder
why bad things happen to us when we ourselves have occasionally been the cause
of bad things happening to others.
- There are times when we are left wrestling with
the question, "why?" "Why did this happen to me? How could this
have happened?"
- When we experience overwhelming circumstances
that cause sorrow and grief, we question things.
- We cry and wail. We grind our teeth and stomp our
feet. We place blame and we get angry. We try to bargain our way out of it or
we resign ourselves to the supposed fact that this is just the way things are.
- But what if we don't have to bargain and throw
our hands up in resignation? What if there is a way through whatever
overwhelming circumstances we face in life, a way through the grief or the
turmoil
- What if there is a way to find acceptance, peace,
and joy?
- What we need to know before we can answer that is
that the problems and tragedies of this life really come down to the problem of
sin, and when I say sin I don't mean as much your sin and my sin as much as I
mean all our sins as well as the sin of Adam and Eve and everyone since then.
- Because of Adam and Eve's sin, God cursed the
ground, death entered the world and with it disease and suffering of every
kind.
-While we live in a world that accepts death,
disease, and decay as normal, we need to understand that is not the way God
intended it to be.
- He intended that life be something wonderful all
the time, and all we had to do was not eat the fruit of a certain tree in the
garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- God gave Adam a warning about what would happen
if he ate from that tree. In the Hebrew the warning sounds especially
troubling.
- In English it literally says, "then dying
you shall die." That warning has an ominous ring to it, doesn't it?
- But Adam and Eve did not heed God's warning.
- It is for this reason and this reason alone that we
all experience the overwhelming circumstances of grief and tragedy. Sin is
ultimately responsible.
- It is also for this reason and this reason alone,
that Jesus of Nazareth, the one called Christ and Messiah, went to the cross.
- The Scriptures testify that Jesus led a perfect
life and only a perfect person could pay the penalty for all the wrongs ever
committed.
- The Scriptures also tell us that it's impossible
for the blood of bulls and goats to wash away the sin of humanity yet they also
tell us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
- Ultimately, only God can forgive and only God in
Christ Jesus could offer his life's blood to cleanse and pardon the sins of the
whole world.
- Beyond a reasonable doubt, the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the grave proves that not only was Jesus God's man but that
Jesus is God.
- The resurrection of Jesus from the grave proves
beyond a reasonable doubt that sin and death no longer describe what is normal
for humanity. Death is a defeated foe.
- The story of that very first Easter is the story
of the resurrection of Jesus, but it's also the story of our broken,
short-sighted lack of understanding and the insight that only the risen Lord
Jesus can bring.
- Just like us, the disciples of Jesus thought that
with his crucifixion and death and burial it was over.
- They had placed all their hopes on Jesus, but
their hopes had more to do with the restoration of the earthly kingdom of
Israel and getting out from under the thumb of Roman rule, than Jesus' agenda.
- They didn't understand that God had much bigger
plans in mind.
- So as we come to our Scripture text and we read
the story of the resurrection, we need to read it with the mind and heart of
someone who had all their earthly hopes in Jesus dashed.
- At the beginning of this sermon series, I
reminded everyone that women in the ancient world were seen as less than men something
like possessions, but Jesus saw women for who and what they are; persons,
together with men, created in the image of God.
- Jesus came to restore God's vision of humanity in
man and woman. Let's keep that in mind as review this passage.
- The Scripture that we read a few minutes ago
describes bewildered, confused people.
*- Mary, who was already stricken with grief and did
not understand that Jesus was going to rise from the dead, assumed that someone
had removed Jesus body from the tomb taken it away.
- Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved,
presumably John, ran to the tomb.
*- Peter leaves baffled, only John looks upon the
empty tomb with the eyes of faith and believes. Everyone else in all four
biblical gospel accounts has to see the risen Christ with their physical eyes
before they believe.
- The confusion of the disciples at the empty tomb
is true to life. We would have reacted the same way, with confusion, at finding
the tomb of Jesus empty.
- If the Roman authorities or the Jewish
authorities had taken the body, then they could have produced it to end what
they saw as all this Jesus nonsense, but they didn't and they couldn't because
Jesus rose. There was no body to produce.
- But we have these disciples, only one of whom
sees the truth of the empty tomb & the rest of whom are numb with grief,
and Mary openly weeps with sorrow.
- Sometimes grief makes certain people stubborn and
Mary was one of those people.
- Mary was determined to find out where the body
was so she could go and get it.
- Mary was so concerned about the body because in
the ancient world they did not have the convenience of embalming.
- She would've only had at most one more day to
finish preparing the body so that she and the others could grieve at his tomb.
- Without a body, it is very difficult to grieve by
today's standards.
- In the ancient world it would have been
impossible.
-After four days in the Palestinian climate the
body would begin to stink and it would be unbearable to grieve at the tomb.
- So, she hung around the tomb to see if she could
get to the bottom of things.
* - John tells us that Mary looked in the tomb and
saw the Angels which is interesting because most people when they see Angels
their response is fear, more like stark terror, but Mary's lack of fear upon
seeing the Angels to me is telling.
- It tells me that Mary's grief is so great and so
fresh that she is still reeling and numb with shock even after three days.
- All she can think about is where the body is as
evidenced by her interaction with the Angels, who asked her, "Woman why
are you weeping?" To which she responded, “They have taken away my Lord,
and I do not know where they have laid him.”
- So overwhelmed by circumstances, so distraught by
her grief was Mary that she could not see the plain truth in front of her very
eyes.
- Two and two always add up to four. The empty tomb
and the presence of the angels should have added up in her mind, but it didn't.
- After responding to the Angel's question, she
turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
* - Jesus said to her, repeating the question of the
Angels, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”
- Blinded by her confusion and her tears, Mary,
"Supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, “Sir, if you have carried
him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
- Remember how I pointed out that Jesus came to
restore the image of God in both woman and man and we are looking at the
evidence right now.
- Mary is the first person that Jesus has personal
interaction with after his resurrection and Jesus comes to her to wipe away her
tears, reveal to her that the specter of death is conquered, and heal the pain
of her grief with this personal touch.
* - To deal with her grief, Jesus simply said her
name, Mary.
- At the sound of her name, Mary recognized that it
was Jesus and suddenly her grief disappeared because he was right there.
- Mary is so overwhelmed by her grief over
everything that happened that she is unable to think and see from the Angels
and the empty tomb that Jesus is alive, so he appears to her to purge her grief
and clear away her confusion.
- That's why John includes Jesus appearance to Mary
in his Gospel,
because, not only is he restoring feminine dignity,
Jesus loves us enough to enter into our grief at its deepest and drive away the
darkness of death with his living voice.
- More than we want to hear him speak our name, he
longs for us to say his.
- Mary went to the others and exclaimed, "I
have seen the Lord."
- After meeting the risen Lord Jesus, Mary was
filled with peace and joy and her first impulse after falling at his feet was
to share with others her experience and act as a witness to his resurrection
because of her joy.
- When
overwhelmed by life, look to the risen Christ and he will give
you Life.
- When you are overwhelmed by life's circumstances,
then bring them to the risen Lord Jesus and he will give you the vision to look
beyond them.
- Jesus died and rose again so that we could walk
through life's darkest valleys and fear no evil.
- Jesus can drive the darkness away because he has
traveled
through the veil of death and come out the other
side victorious.
- Friends, Jesus is risen and he has risen for you
and for me.
- We don't have to fear life's overwhelming
circumstances anymore because Christ will be our life if we let him.
- When
overwhelmed by life, look to the risen Christ and he will give
you Life.
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