Easter Is Everything

The word “everything” refers to “something that is extremely or most important.” If you believe someone or something is everything, you’re saying that person or that thing is most important in your life. Barry White made these words popular in a song from 1974: “My first, my last, my everything and the answer to all my dreams; you’re all I’m living for.”

What or who is your everything? Is it a person or a possession? A career or a car? A pet or a place?

Here’s the deal. When your “everything” disappears or disintegrates, it’s easy to feel like you have nothing or that you are nothing.

That’s how Mary Magdalene felt on the first Easter morning. There are a number of women named Mary in the Bible so it’s easy to get them confused. This Mary is mentioned 12 times in the Gospels, more than most of the disciples.

Unfortunately, she’s been the subject of some nasty gossip over the years. Thanks to Pope Gregory in 581, who confused her with a prostitute. The film, “The Passion of Christ,” incorrectly associated her with the woman caught in adultery in John 8, but there is no biblical evidence for this either. The DaVinci Code also maligns Mary Magdalene and blasphemes Jesus by depicting them as married.

Some of you feel misunderstood and maligned as well. Perhaps Covid protocols have not affected you much because people have been keeping their distance from you for years. Maybe you’ve been cheated on, or you’re struggling through divorce, singleness, depression, mental health issues, infertility, or just feeling unimportant. Others of you might feel you are not taken seriously because of your gender, race, background, or past.

Mary was from a town called Magdala on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. Luke 8:2 says Jesus cast seven demons out of her. She’s living proof of John 8:36: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” After being set free from bondage to sin and Satan, Jesus becomes everything to her, and she devotes everything to Him in selfless service. Along with several other women, she traveled with Jesus, and provided financially for Him and His team.

Incidentally, the central facts of the Christian faith were primarily witnessed by women – especially the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. Women, you matter to God, you matter to this church, and we believe you.

Mary was among Jesus’ first followers, she was one of the last ones at the crucifixion, and she was part of the initial group gathered at the tomb where Jesus was buried. She was the first to see Him alive and hear His voice.

When we read about her in John 20:1 we’re given a metaphor for how she’s feeling: “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” Jesus was everything to her because He had brought light to her world. Now that He had died, everything felt dark and dismal.

Thinking the body of Jesus was stolen, Mary runs to tell Peter and John. After investigating, they’re convinced Jesus is alive, but then they return home. Mary is left by herself…or so she thought. Let’s pick up the narrative in verses 11-18:

“But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’—and that he had said these things to her.”

Here’s the main idea: “Because Easter is everything, Jesus must be everything to you.”

I see four facts we can apply from this passage.

1. Jesus sees your sorrow. When Peter and John headed home, Mary was left standing as if paralyzed by her pain. She wasn’t singing Easter songs because she was too empty. The word for “weeping” means she was “wailing and lamenting” and referred to constant, unrestrained sobbing. Her shoulders were heaving, her eyes were swimming with tears, and her heart was breaking. James 5:1 links this kind of weeping with howling. If you were to read the Easter accounts in the gospels, you’d find a wide array of emotions: crying, alarm, bewilderment, trembling and fear.