We live in uncertain times – Droughts, bushfires and now a dreaded pestilence!
• Isn’t it amazing how quickly our priorities change when events like this occur?
• Instead of striving for that new job, that new house, that new car, that new outfit, suddenly simple things like toilet paper takes on new meaning.
• Survival instincts kick in and they now becomes a more important priority as our very lives and way of life are threatened.
• Yet we are privileged to live in the first world with its many benefits while many in the third world live in survival mode for most of their lives.
• However, as we are now experiencing, some things even in the first world are beyond our control.
• There’s a shadow hanging over humanity, not only are there dangers from other humans, but there are dangers lurking within nature.
• Unexpectedly, life takes a turn for the worst, it is uncertain, it can be fragile, and eventually we all end up in that place we would rather not think about.
• As the Psalmist says in Psalm 23 “we do walk through the valley of the shadow of death” not knowing what the future holds for us.
• But reassuringly there is a future guaranteed for us and it all has to do with what happened on that first Easter morning 2000 years ago.
There was a dark shadow hanging over Jerusalem on that Sunday morning
• Momentous events had taken place over the past week.
• The “so called” conquering Messiah who had been welcomed into Jerusalem with great fanfare just a week ago had been captured and crucified like a common criminal.
• That was one thing, but the accompanying earthquake and the unusual darkness that descended on the city was another matter.
• His was no ordinary death.
We pick up the story early on Sunday morning in John 20
• This is the scene in the garden and the tomb where Jesus was laid after His brutal crucifixion.
• The positioning of the characters and the props used in this garden scene are important.
• John 20:11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb
• In front of Mary was the tomb lifeless and foreboding, a scene of death.
• 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
• The positioning of the angels is important as the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament had two angels positioned on either end of the Mercy Seat (Exodus 25:17-25).
• On the most solemn day of the sacred calendar, the Day of Atonement, the blood of the sacrificed goat was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat for the forgiveness of the Israelites sins (Leviticus 16:15-16).
• That Mercy Seat was a throne in the Holy of Holies occupied at the time by the invisible merciful and forgiving God who had led the Israelites out of Egypt.
• This now visible God, Jesus, had just spilt His blood for an atoning sacrifice so God could offer mercy and forgiveness to the whole world.
• Just another of those archetypes or shadows we find revealed in Old Testament scripture nearly a thousand years before it became the reality in Jesus Christ.
• We should not miss the deep symbolism imbedded in this scene.
• 13 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.”
• Mary of course was overcome with grief over the cruel and vicious events of the crucifixion, but now that the body was gone she could not even say a personal goodbye.
• 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 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.”
• Now as she turned around in front of her she saw what appeared to be the gardener.
• Behind her was the tomb carrying the stench of darkness and death, now in front of her through a veil of tears, she caught a totally different scent, an other worldly scent carrying the fragrance of the supernatural.
• It was a fragrance that had not been experienced on earth since that fateful day in Eden.
• You will remember access to the Garden of Eden was forbidden after the sin of Adam and Eve.
• Prior to that, humans had communion with the supernatural God.
• Ever since that fateful day when Adam and Eve turned their backs on God and decided to be their own gods mankind has been living in the Shadowlands.
• Dark forces in opposition to God ruled this landscape.
• And instead of having the comfort and security of faithfully relying on their Creator and Father, they would now have to rely on their own wits for survival.
• This Shadowland is the world we occupy today with its many evils and threats.
Now we need to remember just who Mary Magdalene was, a woman out of whom Jesus had cast seven evil spirits (Luke 8:2)
• Judging by human standards, someone possesses by demons would be up there with the worst of sinners as they represented the dark forces in opposition to God.
• Yet she is not rebuked nor shunned by Jesus, instead He uses that most personal word of acceptance, her own name, “Mary.”
• She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
• Overcome with joy at this unexpected development, Mary would have collapsed in front of Jesus possibly reaching for his ankles in an act of worship.
• 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
Now why would Jesus prevent Mary from holding onto Him?
• Well again we need to go back to the Old Testament to understand what is happening here.
• It revolves around the spring harvest where God commands the Israelites to bring a sheaf of grain from the first harvest to the priest to be made as an offering to the Lord.
• It was called a “wave sheaf offering” and it was offered on what was called the “Feast of Firstfruits”.
• Leviticus 23:9-12 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.
• Just as a garden played a significant role in the original creation of man, now again here in a garden, we see a new creation event unfolding.
• However, this creation is very different from the original one, as this is not talking about a physical recreation, but the arrival of a new spiritual creation inhabited by immortal beings.
• And being the first one to be raised and pass from mortality to immortality, Jesus is the “firstfruit” of this new spiritual creation.
• 11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf;
• Notice those words, “to be accepted on your behalf.”
• Who died on our behalf to pay the sins of the world so the justice of God would be satisfied?
• And on what day was this offering to be made?
• on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord.
• Notice too that a lamb without blemish was to be offered along with the wave sheaf.
• So what we see represented here on this day after the Sabbath, is the sacrificial Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, as the firstfruit of the new creation being presented to God the Father on behalf of all those who would follow in His footsteps to be part of the new spiritual creation.
• And as Jesus has not yet presented Himself to the Father to receive His blessing and approval for all of His salvation work in redeeming mankind, He didn’t want human contact until that formality had occurred.
• Of course later that night He appeared to the astonished disciples in the upper room and he freely mingled with them.
Now notice Jesus’ words to Mary about how the events of what had transpired that weekend affected the standing between Jesus and His disciples.
• John 20:17 Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
• No longer was humanity cut off from God. The rending of the curtain in the Jerusalem temple demonstrated the partition separating a sinful humanity from a holy God had been supernaturally torn apart.
• There are no longer flaming angels preventing entry to Eden and the Tree of Life, symbolically representing access to the very presence of God.
• Jesus, using intimate familial language now calls His disciples “brothers”, and includes them in the intimate relationship He personally enjoys with God the Father. ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
So In the aftermath of Gethsemane, Golgotha, and the Garden Tomb, we recapture the fragrance of Eden…. The resurrection of Jesus is the first day of the new creation.
• Access to Eden denied so long ago had now been thrown open to all through the saving work of Jesus Christ.
• But not only was Jesus’ resurrection to eternal life an amazing event, but the promise of being included in that new life is now made to all humanity.
• This is the promise made in the most famous verse in the entire Bible.
• John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
• The promise of resurrection and access to Eden is open to all who want to accept that invitation.
But believers, like Mary, like the disciples, and you and I also play a special role in this Shadowland in which we live, because we too carry within us the fragrance of the supernatural.
• 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
• Through the gift of the Spirit, believers carry the fragrance of the supernatural in us.
• Do you ladies put on perfume just for your own enjoyment or is it to also make you attractive to others?
• Paul gives us instructions on how we are to share the fragrance of the supernatural.
• Ephesians 5:1-2 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Yes, life is fragile in this Shadowland
• At times it can take a turn for the worst, it is uncertain, it is unpredictable, it can be fragile, and it can be dangerous.
• However this is not how it all ends, God will see to that.
• And reassuringly there is a future guaranteed for us and it all has to do with what happened on that first Easter morning 2000 years ago.
• And we can take comfort from knowing there is One who personally knows your name just as plainly as He knew Mary’s name and the accompanying baggage she brought with her.
• But in His eyes, and because of His love, He has forgiven her many sins and wants to spend eternity with her in the glorious new creation.
• He has so much more in store for us and we need to regard this life as preparation for the new life to come.
• Let me finish with this passage from 2 Corinthians 5:1-4.
• 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 (NLT) For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.
• We were not created to live in the Shadowlands separated from our God. Instead we were created for a much grander purpose, and that is to live with and to share communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
