Introduction
Mary Magdalene is stooped at the entrance of the tomb where the body of Jesus had been interred. Mary had seen that the seal had been broken because the great stone at the entrance had been rolled back. Mary had run home to tell the others this distressing news and there’d been a running race between Peter and John to get there. They had arrived to see the burial cloths but no body, and they’d gone home. But Mary had returned to stay close to the tomb. Now she is there, bent forward in the entranceway, at midpoint between life and light; and death and decay.
What follows is one of the most touching stories in the Bible. She looks out into the light and though she sees a person there, she doesn’t recognise him as the risen Jesus – her Lord and master – until he tenderly calls her name.
Looking at John
This year, we have been looking through John’s gospel at the way Jesus meets people. Everything that John has to say about Jesus is significant – it has something that points to who and how Jesus is.
This morning we are looking at his account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As I read it through a few times, I was struck by one question in particular…
John makes it clear that, with Jesus, there are no accidents. He is the Lord of all things. He was a brilliant project-manager who left nothing to chance.
Even in the last week of his life, he arranged for donkey to be ready for his procession into Jerusalem; he arranged a room for the last supper; I believe he made sure no one was there to wash his disciples’ feet so he could do that. On the night he was arrested, he knew exactly what was to happen. There were no accidents. People thought that they were controlling Jesus, but he was arranging every little thing, even to the nature of his own crucifixion.
Jesus was always in control.
So (and this was my question) – on the greatest day of the earth’s history – the day of the resurrection; why did Jesus choose Mary Magdalene to be the first witness of the resurrection? There had to be a reason. And what does this have to tell us about this resurrected Christ that we celebrate this morning?
As I thought about it, I realised that the witness chosen was completely consistent with the witnesses of the whole of Jesus’ life and ministry.
Strange witnesses
33 years earlier, when Jesus was born (and this is the greatest thing that had happened since creation itself); squadrons of angels lit up the night sky and sang music such as we mortals have never heard – and who did hear this, and see it? Who did God choose to witness this?
Shepherds. Shepherds were not people you would give the box seat to at the Olympics, or Royal Albert Hall, or the SCG, in fact – you wouldn’t give them a seat in the train in the same carriage as you. At that time, they were to be avoided if at all possible. They lived rough, didn’t have top of the range hygiene, and were considered as rogues and thieves. There were some ancient laws which exempted them from testifying in a court of law, because they were regarded as untrustworthy. So - who does God organise to witness the birth of the Messiah? Shepherds!
Years later, Jesus grows up and, in his own home territory, he goes to a wedding with his mother and his disciples. It’s here that Jesus performed his first public miracle – but it’s not public. Who gets to witness this miracle? The master of Ceremonies? Nope. He tastes the wine, but he hasn’t a clue where it came from. No the witnesses are the servants who had been working from sun-up to get the food ready and would be scrubbing plates and pottery for a week and cooking for the wedding celebrations. It’s the servants, from the back room who get to witness the power of Jesus.
Jesus chooses strange witnesses.
And this was the way of it. In the three years of Jesus ministry he brought great signs and wonders and teaching - who to? A great hodgepodge of people…
Jesus sat by a well with a Samaritan. You didn’t go there… …this person was also a woman (you definitely didn’t go there). And yet Jesus chooses her to be the first witness to Jesus admitting that he was the Messiah.
And so it goes on.
Again and again Jesus chooses outcasts, forgotten, broken people, small people, unimportant people to witness his miracles, and his love and his grace.
Gentiles, women, cripple, blind eyewitnesses. (Blind eyewitnesses!)
Some great, some small; many, many of them unloved, disliked, disregarded or unimportant. These are the ones he chose to love and teach and heal and bless – and who witnessed the power and grace of Jesus Christ.
So – coming back to that first Easter…
The first person to see the risen Christ, to touch him and talk with him and tell that he was no longer dead was Mary Magdalene.
Who was she?
Mark and Luke that tell us that she had been exorcised of seven demons by Jesus. When Jesus met her, she had been deeply unwell, emotionally, physically and spiritually. And Jesus had healed her. He had not just restored her, he had given her a whole new life. She had followed him and she had become a witness: of his teaching, his crucifixion (she was right there when it happened) and, on this day – of his resurrection to new life.
I think it’s really significant that Jesus chose her.
Jesus could have chosen anyone to witness his resurrection that day. Think about it. He could have knocked on the door of the Caiaphas the High Priest, or had another early morning visit to Pilate (it seemed that locked doors weren’t a problem to his resurrected body) – can you imagine how that would have freaked them out after they had seen him dead, 2 days earlier!??
Jesus could have chosen to reveal himself to Peter or John who had run to see him. But he didn’t. Have you ever wondered why Jesus was out at the time they arrived?
Because he had chosen Mary Magdalene, a woman who was probably the most grief-struck of all, who – in her grief - had carried spices to anoint his mutilated body. But, what a strange witness!
In those days, women, like shepherds, were not regarded as able to testify in public. When Mary and the other women went back home and told the men she had seen Jesus, their reaction was not positive…
They didn’t believe her, because she was a woman and the news just sounded too “out there”.
Can you imagine how many ‘I told you so’ points she must have carried for the rest of her life!!
Today
I have known Jesus long enough to know that he is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. His nature hasn’t changed from who he was, and how he acted in the gospels.
And today, he still chooses strange witnesses.
What’s a witness?
Most of us think of a witness as someone who testifies in a court of law, and speaks out what they have seen. But even before they utter a word, they are already witnesses, by virtue of the fact that they have already seen something.
We are witnesses
After the resurrection, when Jesus was about to physically leave his disciples for the last time …
(Luke 24:46-48 NIV) He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, {47} and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. {48} You are witnesses of these things.
He is saying to his disciples, “Whether or not you tell anyone – you have seen these things happen for yourselves.”
Later, when Peter speaks to people in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, he says…
(Acts 2:32 NIV) God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
Later Peter says this…
(Acts 10:39-41 NIV) "We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, {40} but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. {41} He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen--by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
These strange witnesses told people of the risen Christ - who told people of the risen Christ - who told people of the risen Christ.
And throughout history there has been a chain of strange witnesses which has blessed millions of people with the knowledge that Jesus is wonderfully alive and continues to heal and bless and save people even now.
I could never be a witness?
You might be saying – “well, I could never be a witness”. But if you have seen the power of Jesus Christ to bring forgiveness and the assurance of eternal life through the cross, then (even without saying a word), you already are witnesses of the resurrected Jesus. You have seen for yourself the power of the resurrected one. What you do now makes no difference to the reality of this truth. Jesus has already been crucified, been entombed, been raised. Jesus has already been given a name far above all names, and has Lordship over all things. Jesus has already been powerful to change lives and whole nations by his grace.
But, if you know this now… If you, like Mary that morning, have heard his voice and turned from a place of death and darkness, into the light and glory and promise of the living Jesus Christ; then, like Mary - be a strange witness – who not only observes the grace of Jesus Christ, but shares it.
And be faithful in telling people that “he is risen; he is risen indeed!”
