Glass Houses: The First Christian Series

We are in the middle of our Glass Houses Lenten series. We have been sharing a lot of information about our faith and trying in this season of repentance not to judge. It has been an incredible learning time for all of us. The title of the series comes from the old saying about judgment; “People in glass house shouldn’t throw?…..stones.” Right. The reality is we are almost always judging. We judge everything from the clothes someone wears to the way a person eats. We are creatures who judge and sometimes our judging comes back to teach us a lesson.

Today, I would like to throw a really big rock through the window of a traditional Easter scripture by asking the question, “Why didn’t the disciples camp-out near the tomb?” I mean really Jesus tells them a number of times during their three years with him that he was going to die and rise again. Before we go there, let’s take a review of the scripture and unpack it a little. If you have your bible or an app on your phone, please open with me to John 20. We will be covering the first 18 verses this morning.

Verse one opens with an early morning visit by Mary Magdalene who was there at the place of the skull where Jesus was crucified. She and some others were wandering up to the tomb on Sunday morning only to find it opened. She runs back to tell the other disciples. John and Peter have a foot race back to the tomb. John wins. But he waits for Peter to enter. They find the burial linens with the head covering folded and now can verify what Mary had told them. If someone did steal the body they would have taken the linens to. They wouldn’t have taken the time to fold the head scarf either so it must have Jesus. Peter and John are flabbergasted by what they’ve seen. In fact, the event crystallizes their belief after which they return home not knowing what to do. Mary, however, stays outside the tomb crying. In her tears she meets a couple of angels and a gardener who use the same words, “Woman, why are you crying?” And then Jesus adds, “Whom are you seeking?” Mary is really struggling at this moment and when Jesus uses her name, she recognizes him. He she calls out as the “rabboni” – what would soon become the highest category of Jewish leader. She then grabs on to him. To which Jesus instructs her let go and go to the brothers and tell them what she has seen. It’s interesting to me that Jesus would use the words whom are you seeking because the word’s are very similar to the words Jesus used with the calling of his first disciples in John 1:38 where Jesus says, “What are you seeking?” After all, Mary is the first evangelizing Christian – a woman in a male dominated society, a reformed mental patient in a world of bright people, a support team member and not a leader in the Jesus tribe.

The scripture screams the question, “Why were they so dull?” How come the rest of the disciples didn’t recall what was told to them so many times over the past 3 years? The answer is simple but telling. They had their own rational and culturally acceptable ways of knowing how God and the messiah would intersect the world. They believed the Messiah would be a conquering king. They had faith in what they had seen and knew his power. However, they couldn’t see that real faith requires daring the soul to go beyond what the eyes can see. George Mueller, a nineteenth-century evangelist who aided over 10,000 orphans and helped over 100,000 poor children receive a Christian education said, “Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.” – Today in the Word (moody) 3/24/14 Daniel study.

Let’s just say faith is a different level of trust. A trust we, as failed and flawed human beings, aren’t capable of creating or even knowing without God’s intervention. Jesus physically shows up to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb to comfort her in her hour of need only to once again have her grab a hold of his tangible body thinking that’s what’s best. Jesus has to instruct her to let go because without his ascension, the rest of the world and the future world will never be able to grasp him, to be in relationship with him through the power of the Holy Spirit.

My journey has been a continual process of encountering Jesus in new ways. I’ll never forget 21 years ago when I was holding my new son in the shower and when the water came upon him he grabbed on to me for dear life and I immediately understood that if God loved me even half this much, he really did die for me. Or there was the time at the end of seminary that I had to quit work for a year to finish my degree and chaplaincy. I had no idea how we would make ends meet but we stepped out in faith knowing He would provide and He did. We never missed a monthly payment. I went on a three week mission trip that summer. And at the end of the year, when I tallied the expenses for the tax man, we had spent $20,000 more than we brought in but we still had money in the bank. It didn’t make sense. Jesus was real in that moment: providing, loving and standing in front of me asking me “what are you looking for?”