I HAVE SEEN THE LORD!
John 20:1-18
I suppose that one of the reasons that I like history is the fact that it is chronological. We had a high-school teacher in Indiana that would start the school term with the big current event of the day and then move backward through history to make it more relevant for his students.
History is like reading a book – the plot doesn’t change – and it’s not like a math problem or scientific theory. And when test time comes; if you know your facts you will do well on the test. History is rock solid.
And, in the historical account of Jesus, every legitimate historian validates that Jesus walked on this earth some 2,000 years ago. There has been a plethora of evidence both for and against the existence of Jesus. And after weighing all the evidence the pro-Jesus camp is on solid ground. The ministry and message of Jesus – his life; his teachings; and his miracles are widely accepted truths.
There is hard evidence that he was crucified on a Roman Cross and three days later resurrected to life again. Only a small segment of society deny these things. With that being said, What are we to make about the resurrection of Jesus? And, in the theme of this series, Have you seen Jesus?
One of the most striking things about the Resurrection accounts as they are written in all four Gospels is that women were the first ones at the empty tomb, the first to meet the Risen Jesus, and the first to tell others they had seen Him.
With the cultural divide, that may be difficult for us to understand today. But from a historical standpoint this is important. Women, at the time of Christ, were not considered to be credible witnesses. Jewish Rabbis are quoted as saying, "It is better that the words of the Law be burned than be delivered to a woman ."
And, no one in the ancient world would have made the story about the resurrection up! Jewish men would not have a conversation with a woman in public and even his wife would have to walk behind him. Women were considered chattel property and had no rights.
So, that is why the gospel accounts are so striking; so earth-shattering. The women were the first to the tomb. The women were the first ones to see the resurrected Savior of the world! They were the first to believe. Jewish men might well have liked to air-brush this story – but it is about the women – a segment of society that had no political, social or religious power.
To say the least, Jesus’ ministry was unconventional. His followers were not the upper-crust of society. His followers were commoners for the most part. They followed his teachings because of his heart. Love God and love others had deep meaning and appeal. Turn the other cheek was a radical and difficult application. Humility then as well as today is difficult to put into practice.
The man whom they had followed had been crucified on a torturous Roman cross and buried. Their hopes and dreams seemed to be buried with the man whom they had invested their beliefs. But, then … let’s read the text:
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
An irony of this text is that we learn that Christian faith is both impossible and rational. That troubles many people because they try to make it either/or. I’m not saying that it is impossible to have Christian faith. As, individuals, were are flawed moral and spiritual human beings. No one has within themselves the ability to produce a vibrant faith in Christ. Faith is impossible without divine intervention or help.
Remember, for many months, Jesus has been telling his disciples and his followers over and over again they he would die and rise on the third day. The gospel of Mark especially highlights and emphasizes the fact that “the Son of Man” would be killed and then raised to life.
And yet, despite his predictions, when Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb of Jesus, she is horrified because the sealed stone has been rolled away and she instantly concludes, “They have taken the body.”
Mary Magdalene was the one in chapter 19 that held vigil at the foot of the cross as Jesus died. She is pictured here as a model of devotion to Jesus.
She is one of the last ones at the cross, and the first one at the tomb on the first day of the week (Sunday). She is the first actual witness to the resurrected Jesus .
Have you ever wondered that with all the advanced statements about his death and resurrection, that his followers would have been so clueless? Mary had probably heard his predictions just as other followers had and you would think when she saw the empty tomb that she would have declared, “WOW! He said he would rise!” But that possibility doesn’t even seem to occur to her.
But, what about people today – are we any different? Is it any easier for people today to believe in the person and the work of Jesus? If we follow human instinct and reason, belief today is also unnatural and difficult. For too many people there are spiritual cataracts that keep them from seeing the truth. Just as with Mary Magdalene, it is difficult for many people today to connect the dots.
Our text today recorded the greatest act of redemption in the history of the world – God breaking through the resurrection of Jesus, His only Son. For months and years, Jesus had been teaching about this event and its meaning for the world and yet they didn’t see it. Mary, is standing there, right in front of the empty tomb – and yet she doesn’t see it. She cannot process everything that Jesus has said. And so faith is impossible without supernatural intervention by God himself .
From the very beginning, the enemies of the Lord tried to deny the historic fact of the Resurrection. The Jewish leaders claimed that the Lord's body had been stolen from the tomb. This statement is absurd, for if the body was stolen by His followers, how did they do it? The tomb was guarded by Roman soldiers and the stone sealed by an official Roman seal. Furthermore, His disciples did not believe that He was to be raised from the dead; it was His enemies who remembered His words . They certainly would not have taken the body! The last thing they wanted was anyone believing that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. If His friends could not steal the body, and His enemies would not, then who took it ?
Skeptics today often state that faith and belief are emotional and psychological crutches for those who embrace Christian faith. They say that believing in God is simply an intense form of wish fulfillment. For doubters and skeptics, belief in God; accepting His Word as truth is scary because it forces them to lose control over how they live their lives.
But really, it is healthy to doubt your doubts and be skeptical of your skepticism. It forces us to analyze our objectivity. The woman that I mentioned a few weeks ago who was raised in church but wants nothing to do with religion today was probably tainted by what I call ‘toxic faith.” It may have been her parents or some other Christian or maybe even her church. We are all products of our past and sometimes it isn’t pretty because it is tainted – we can’t be objective because of poor experiences.
The fact that John cites “the first day of the week” is significant for us today. The resurrection had a big impact upon the calendar. The "first day of the week" has never been the same.
It is not a remodeled Sabbath but a new day of commemoration. We should not apply the restrictions of the Sabbath to Sunday, but Sunday is a day of commemoration .
Faith and ministry are not dependent on perfection. I’ve heard people say, “I’m just not sure I’m good enough or have enough faith” to be a Christian. The Christian walk is not about getting our minds and our hearts in the right state. We all need help from outside ourselves. God’s Word, the life and example of Jesus, the urgings of God’s Holy Spirit all nudge us toward belief.
Mary Magdalene didn’t believe until Jesus met her. She was disturbed and in a panic, crying, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.” But Jesus gives her clarity and assurance. He does the same for people today. As with Mary, Jesus might well be at your side right now and you just can’t see it.
But, Jesus reassures Mary. And most of us needs help with our faith and belief. A few years ago, the Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University conducted a survey which found that most Americans do not believe they will experience a resurrection of their bodies when they die. When asked, "Do you believe that, after you die, your physical body will be resurrected someday?" Only,
· 36 % of adults surveyed said "yes"
· 54 % said they did not believe, and
· 10 % were undecided .
Much of our philosophy today comes from ancient Greece. If you go back some 500 years before Christ the common thought was that once a person dies – there is no resurrection. The Greek Philosopher Theocritus wrote: “There is hope for those who are alive, but those who have died are without hope.”
Sigmund Freud wrote: “And finally there is the painful riddle of death, for which no remedy at all has yet been found, nor probably will ever be! ”
Peter and John looked into the empty tomb and despite Jesus’ repeated predictions that he would die and rise again, they too doubted. Verse 9 states, “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”
What happened was not what they expected. The Jewish expectation of Messiah did not include an untimely death and resurrection of the Messiah did not enter their minds.
When John says they... did not understand from Scripture, he is referring to their incorrect messianic expectations. It was through later study of the Old Testament that the early church began to see that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection conformed to the prophetic intention of Scripture .
For some folk today – faith is a struggle because there is a rational component as well as a subjective component. Faith needs to be based on evidence as well as a personal encounter with Jesus.
At the time of Christ, neither Jews, nor Greeks, nor Romans believed that a bodily resurrection of a person was possible. Despite Jesus’ repeated predictions that he would rise on the third day was still a foreign notion to Mary, Peter and John. For Jews, the idea of a resurrection wasn’t conceivable. And the gospel accounts of the resurrection do not show the disciples expecting the resurrection of Jesus at all.
I find it interesting that the first believer was a woman – Mary Magdalene. Women in that era were not allowed to testify in either a Jewish or Roman courtroom because their testimony was considered unreliable. But, yet, here she is front and center in all four gospel accounts. Certainly, John would not have included this information in the text if it were not true.
Faith then, as well as today, has a rational component. So, notice the text as it says, “Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.” The word ‘saw’ [blepo] in the Greek encompasses seeing, but it also means to think, to ponder and process. So, Peter is looking for evidence, thinking through and testing every possibility.
So faith is more than rationality – whether it was those early disciples or seekers today. You cannot get to faith without reason. Faith requires our intellect as well as our emotions. Today, people may say, “There’s no objective truth. If you want to believe in Christianity that’s okay if it is relevant for you. Just don’t force it on me.”
But the appeal of Christianity is not about what is relevant or what is appealing . . . it is about truth. Jesus Christ is the only person who lived as flesh and divinity, was crucified and resurrected!
We may have doubts as we move along the continuum of faith but God also supplies an undeserved amount of grace. In her doubt, Mary Magdalene stood outside the tomb crying. As she looked into the tomb she saw two angels. They asked her why she was crying and she said, “They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him.” She is searching for answers. And Jesus is standing right there but she doesn’t recognize him immediately.
When Jesus asks her, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” and calls her by name the text says, “She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). And after her encounter with Jesus, she runs off and tells the disciples the good news, “I have seen the Lord!”
Good counselors ask probing questions and so Jesus’ question to Mary is a wake-up call. It was a penetrating invitation to see the big picture and to search her reason of devotion of him. And even with his gentle questioning she mistook him for the cemetery gardener. But, Jesus personalizes it by calling her name.
Jesus invites each and every person to faith, personally. Mary was looking for the deceased Jesus while the living Jesus was right there with her. His invitation to her is a beautiful interaction of faith and grace. She would not have found him had he not sought her. Mary was the first believer after the resurrection of Jesus!
And after her encounter he sends her to tell others. This was no accident – Jesus deliberately chose Mary to be the first recipient of his grace. Like so many other encounters, Jesus didn’t chose the most prominent – the most successful – the wealthiest, but he chose a woman from a society that gave them no rights.
Can it be any clearer? Jesus is saying, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done. Salvation is not based on your pedigree or your works – I’m here to save you by my work!” That is the gospel – the GOOD NEWS that we are saved by the work of Christ through grace.
Another lesson that we learn from these encounters with Jesus is that no two people come to faith in the exact same way. Mary, John, Peter and later Thomas are all approached by Jesus differently.
Faith comes through processing God’s Word through the filters of your life. In your encounter with Jesus you must decide who he is and what priority he will have in your life. You must believe that Jesus is and that he alone is your salvation by confessing his name. In baptism, to wash away your sins – you make Jesus, Lord of your life.
Do you need to respond to Jesus’ invitation this morning? If so, please come now as we sing a song of invitation.
Resources for this sermon include:
Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary (BE Series) Volume 1 electronic edition
The College Press NIV Commentary – John
Timothy Keller, Encounters with Jesus, Dutton, New York, 2013, page 85
Matthew 27:62-66
Butler’s Sermon Starters – Volume 7
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=RESURRECTION
Sermon by Jeff Strite, Logansport Church of Christ, August 22, 2010
