1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes. 11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They 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.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” 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.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because 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.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:1 - 18 (NRSVA)
If someone were to come into the building right now – someone we all know – and announce, “I’ve just seen Jesus,” we would have perhaps a few questions immediately come to the foreground:
• What have you been smoking?
• What planet are you from? And…after the radical thoughts kind of died down…
• What did he look like?
That’s one of the driving issues a lot of people have about the resurrection; if the dead man, Jesus, really did come out of that tomb – what’s he like?
That was in the back of Peter’s mind when he hurried to the tomb that morning. Peter knew he’d blown it big-time by denying he even knew Jesus. Now, if Jesus really was alive again, Peter would have to face that.
John ran like the wind…faster than ever before…he got there first, but hesitated. Those thoughts of having promised Jesus he would follow him always…what if Jesus really was alive; how could John face the failure of his own unbelief?
And Mary - Mary wondered if anything else could go wrong, now that the body was missing; even in death her son was disrespected. She couldn’t even have a peaceful memory of him now.
Peter wanted a Jesus with a short memory; John needed a Jesus to forgive him; Mary just needed a body. And what about us – what kind of Jesus do we want?
I was impressed recently with a list I read of the kind of Jesus people want:
• A Jesus who taught about love, but not a Lord who commands us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44).
• A Jesus who helped the unfortunate, but not a Lord who challenges us to sell what we own and give the money to the poor (Mark 10:21).
• A Jesus who paid visits to the temple, but not a Lord who cleanses and reforms all our traditional practices of worship (John 2:13-17).
• A Jesus who was a friend of tax collectors and sinners, but not a Lord who encourages us to embrace the very people we feel are beneath us (Matthew 11:19).
• A Jesus who supported family values, but not a Lord who predicts that he will cause divisions in families, father against son and daughter against mother (Luke 12:52-53).
• A Jesus who accepted people as his disciples, but not a Lord who challenges us to walk the way of the cross, to lose our lives for his sake, and to find new life through sacrifice (Mark 8:35). [1]
Again – when they got to the tomb Peter and John were confused. John hesitated and Peter rushed right in. Both went home shaking their heads; it wasn’t what they expected.
Mary jumped to a wrong conclusion that the Romans or somebody was up to no good. But she hung around.
Incidentally, that’s a good thing if you’re struggling with how (or if) you want to follow Jesus – hang around. Mary did, and she was the one to first see the resurrected Lord. Hang around for more than Easter and Christmas – more than just when you have a special invitation.
Hang around for Bible Study and fellowship with the believers. Hang around until the resurrected Lord talks to you, even if He looks like a gardener.
What kind of Jesus DO you want?
The most telling part (for me) of this whole event, at least from the standpoint of human reaction, is the fact that none of them, Peter, John or Mary, got it. Confusion, shame, misdirection – but not understanding; they did not “get” the resurrected Jesus.
Even after Jesus spoke to Mary and she recognized that it was Jesus, she couldn’t do the one thing she’d been heartbroken without – hug him! Jesus told her, “not now,” and sent her to spread the word.
Interesting Question
If the ones who were closest to Jesus when he walked the streets of Palestine did not get the “kind of Jesus” they wanted, what makes us think we will?
I have two responses to that interesting question:
You cannot have the Jesus you’ve constructed in your mind – that’s only an idol
That Jesus is an idol. God told us our minds cannot come up to His standard
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9 (NRSVA)
The true measure of who Jesus is not constructed in our minds – that’s only an idol we built on our own wisdom.
You cannot have the Jesus you demand…that’s only an illusion
There are plenty of people who read an isolated verse in Scripture and decide – THAT’s the Jesus for me. What they do is set up a fence and demand that Jesus only operate in their lives within those parameters.
For instance, you could read the verse in Malachi about tithing…bring all the tithes into the storehouse…see if I don’t bless you more than you can hold. Some folks take that to mean God will operate like a holy ATM; you put the tithe in – and presto – out comes big time return. (When it doesn’t happen they start thinking of God like Bernie Madoff….took my tithe, He did, and left me holding the religious bag!).
The problem is illusory. We read something that fits our agenda and demand that God act that way.
In the 17th century there was a great fire in London. Along with St Paul’s Cathedral, more than 80 churches were destroyed, along with hundreds of buildings. Sir Christopher Wren was the architect who was responsible for restoring more than 50 churches and many other buildings.
One of the buildings was Windsor Guildhall which still stands today. The arches of that building’s ground floor supported in baroque-style a spacious second story.
Some of the king’s counselors objected to Wren’s daring construction of such a pavilion as unsafe and demanded pillars to support the inner ceiling surface. Bowing to pressure Wren had the columns installed.
It was not until years later anyone noticed that Wren had constructed the columns about 2” short of reaching the ceiling. If you look closely at the column tops, you will see they are lovely decorations supporting nothing!
Have you constructed a Jesus? Have you demanded your kind of Jesus? Friend, you could think you’ve put in some lovely columns to support your way of thinking about the way God ought to behave. In the end you find that is just a little short of His glory, short of making everything firm in your world. Like Peter, John and Mary, you could find something different in the tomb.
The alternative is to simply present yourself to God, trusting that He is God, and you are not.
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ENDNOTES
1] Jesus On Ice, © 2009 COMMUNICATION RESOURCES, INC.
