Why are you Weeping?
April 20, 2014
John 20:1-18
Whether we want to admit to it or not . . . we all have dreams. We set out at a young age, with dreams. Oftentimes they’re little boy and girl fantasies. And sometimes they become realities. We dream about fun and exciting stuff, glamorous careers and plans for the future. As we get older, our dreams and hopes aren’t quite so lofty. We’ve experienced the highs and lows of life, we’ve adjusted our dreams, and sometimes, we give up on our dreams.
Life has a way of killing dreams, doesn't it? We set out with high hopes — school, career, family, the kids, the grandkids, the golden years. You have plans, aspirations, expectations. But things don't always turn out the way you expected. Plans fall through. People let you down. You let yourself down. Suddenly the life you’re living isn’t the life you dreamed of.
We may find ourselves in places we never expected to be. We know how it feels to be disappointed, discouraged, and it feels as though all hope is gone. If it’s not true for you right now, it’s probably true for someone you know, and maybe for someone you love.
“Well, Happy Easter . . . Pastor Michael!” I know that seems like a strange way to start an Easter message. Easter’s supposed to be about bunnies and chicks. New day clothes, a new lease on life! And it is! But that’s not where it began. It began at a grave, with a weeping woman.
In the 4th gospel, the apostle John tells us some of the story about the first Easter morning. If you have your Bible, please turn to the 4th book of the New Testament, the gospel of John. Let’s look at what John tells us in chapter 20 ~
1 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.
2 So 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.”
3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.
4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there,
7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.
8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead.
10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.
12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
13 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.”
14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
15 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.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
17 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.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord” — and that He had said these things to her.
As we read this passage, understand that Mary made 2 trips to the tomb that morning. When she and the other women found it empty, they hurried back and shared the news with the disciples; two of whom ran out to see for themselves. Mary followed them back out again, notice that she stayed there, but the 2 disciples went home. This left Mary alone at the open ... empty ... tomb. She did the only thing left to do. She cried.
Now, who is this Mary Magdalene? There are all kinds of legends about her. All we really know about her comes from Luke 8, when Jesus delivered her from 7 demons. She was also one of several women who became followers of Jesus and helped support Him in ministry. We don’t know what that possession looked like. People in her situation usually were hurting themselves more than others. People like that were often locked up or lived on the streets. Whatever her past had been, Jesus delivered her from it. He set her free from that darkness and gave her life, and in return Jesus became the center of her life.
Now, suddenly He was gone. Slowly, Mary enters into the empty tomb and meets 2 angels. They ask her what must have sounded pretty ridiculous, “Why are you weeping?” Why shouldn’t she be weeping!? Jesus was gone. Verse13, ‘they have taken away my Lord away and I don’t know where they have laid Him.’ You can hear the anguish and sorrow in her comments.
After years of torment she had begun to dream again — of good things. But life had killed that dream; a Roman cross had seen to that. What now? Would the demons that once haunted her return? What would she do? Who would she be? What did the future hold without Jesus? She might as well have said, “They’ve taken my hope away, and I don’t know where they put it.”
Ahh . . . Hope. Honestly, where would we be if we didn’t have hope!? I read . . . ‘Hope is to the spirit . . . what oxygen is to the body.’ Without it, we die. When a team loses hope, the game is over. When investors lose hope, the stock market tumbles. When a patient loses hope, death is near. Dostoevsky said that “to live without hope is to cease to live.”
All of which to say Mary had no reason to hope that morning. There was no wishful thinking. No naïve optimism. She expected nothing more than a corpse, badly in need of spices. She watched Jesus die. She saw Him laid to rest. As far as she’s concerned, it’s over. The 2 closest disciples to Jesus thought that. They returned went back home. The empty tomb didn’t speak of resurrection. So she did what we all do at a fresh grave. She wept. Hope was gone!
Then Mary turned and saw a man standing near her. She thought he was the gardener. Don’t you love Jesus!? He asked her – “woman, why are you weeping Who are you looking for?” Really!! I love it.
So, Mary asks, ‘if you’ve taken Jesus, where did you put him?’
You know what folks, Mary couldn’t find God. And that is one of our lessons this morning and one of our big problems in life. We have this overwhelming sense that God just isn’t there. So, we move along with so much of the world, as we grieve our unfulfilled dreams and hopes and expectations. We sense, God just isn’t there. And that’s where Mary was that morning when she asked, “where is Jesus?”
So on that first Easter morning, Christ comes into a world filled with sorrow and asks such a penetrating question ~ “Why are you weeping?”
It seems bizarre to ask. You’ve lost someone you love, you should be crying. Yet, I wonder if what underlies all of this is the fact that Mary, just like the world doesn’t recognize Jesus. Why is it Mary wouldn’t have known and recognized her Lord and Savior . . . and I wonder if this is the bottom line answer, and maybe it applies to us more than we really believe . . . the reason . . . ?
Mary didn’t expect to see Jesus there. So it is in a world so filled with grief and sorrow. Jesus is there with us — all the time — but we keep staring into the empty tomb, at the losses and disappointments of life. And even when we do see Him, we don’t recognize Him.
We never will until we respond to His personal call (“Mary!”) and turn toward Jesus as she did.
Notice, Jesus doesn't say to Mary — "Ta Da! It's me — Jesus!" He doesn’t say, “Stop crying, woman. It’s all good!” And He doesn’t scold her for lack of faith. He meets her where she is.
In fact, let’s give Mary credit for staying in the moment. Remember what the other two disciples did. I don’t want to admit it, but they raced to the tomb, didn’t see Jesus, then go home! Mary stays in the moment, and Jesus meets her there.
Grief is real. Loss is painful. Unemployment stinks. Relationships can break your heart. And we need to say so; we need to feel it. If someone in your world is hurting, if you want to share hope with them, the best thing to do is meet them in that moment. Ask them to tell you about it, and then sit still long enough to listen.
Jesus said, “Mary,” he says. And there was something about the sound of His voice; something about the mention of her name, that opened her eyes, and her heart. It was Him! “Rabboni.” It’s a term of affectionate respect.
And suddenly, she had a reason to believe. Notice that it wasn’t enough for Mary simply to confront the evidence of the resurrection — the empty tomb, the angel’s announcement. That wasn’t enough to convince her. She needed something more personal than that — a real encounter with Jesus.
And we need the same thing, those of us who struggle with the resurrection. We need evidence. And there’s plenty: an empty tomb; written records, biblical and non-biblical; the transformation of the disciples; the emergence of a brand new faith; the great divide in human history — BC/AD; the changed lives of people you know. But we also need something personal, something experiential.
And that’s what the Lord offered Mary, there, at the tomb. Suddenly, He was there. More real, more powerful, more glorious than she had ever known Him to be. And because of that, she had hope. Jesus had proven that He was stronger than death; stronger than evil; stronger than all the bad things that can happen in this world.
And as Jesus starts talking to Mary, she threw her arms around Him and was clinging to Him. The way a baby clings to mom or dad when they are leaving. She didn’t want to let go, she didn’t want to lose the moment. Yet, Jesus said to Mary, “Stop clinging to me!”
He’s telling her that He’s still going to be with her — with all of them — but not in the same way He was before. He’s going to return to the Father and send His Spirit to be with them, to be in them, always, everywhere. And He still has work for her to do — a message to share — more life-changing, more earth-shaking than she ever imagined. “Go and tell my brothers, tell the world: Death is defeated.
I am risen! And that’s what she did as she told them “I have seen the Lord!”
You see, hope is not a what, or a when, or a why. Hope is a “who.” And Jesus Christ is that someone. His resurrection proves He is stronger than any setback, any failure, any loss, any disappointment. If life has a way of killing dreams, Jesus has a way of bringing dreams and new dreams to life.
That’s not to say we always get what we want, or that every bad thing can magically be un-done. Life doesn’t work that way. But it is to say that God can and will do something good with our future.
Mary didn’t get exactly what she wanted. Jesus wasn’t going to be with her the way He had been. But He was going to be with her in ways she never dreamed possible. There was still a lot she didn’t understand. And she didn’t know exactly what the future held, but she knew it would be good, now that Christ had risen.
And that’s what hope is. Hope is the confidence that God can and will do something good — in this life, and the life to come. Whatever circumstance you may find yourself in this morning, whatever pain, loss, or disappointment you may be dealing with, God can do something good with it, or in it. That doesn't minimize the pain or loss or evil of it. It means the story isn’t over yet. God can and will meet you in that place, in that moment — as sure as He met Mary in her dark place.
In this life, we can still find joy, beauty, forgiveness, healing, purpose, restoration, and the reality of God’s powerful presence in our lives . . . every day. We can do more than we ever imagined, we really can, but we must look towards Jesus, not just with our eyes, but with our heart and spirit, as well.
Hope isn’t wishful thinking — it's confident living. It’s facing the future knowing God can and will do something good, in this life, and the life to come.
If you find yourself in a tough place right now, have the courage and honesty to stay in that place and invite Christ to meet you there. If you know someone in such a place right now, someone who’s dealing with pain, disappointment, or loss — share hope with them. Ask them how they’re doing. Listen to them. Be with them. Pray for and with them. And when the time is right, point them toward Jesus. Because life has a way of killing dreams, but Jesus has a way of bringing them, and us, back to life! Mary had the courage and honesty to hang around the tomb for a while. Sometimes, we must stay at the tomb — — in order to find life!
