"Easter Hope"
John 20:11-18
A sermon for 4/9/23
Resurrection Sunday
Pastor John Bright
John 20 “11 But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13 Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”
14 Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, 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, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher).
17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ”
18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her.”
Pause right there. Those words I just read; they were “Breathed by God”! God wants you to hear His Word right now! So, what is your response? Do you want to be transformed by that Word or do you want to be informed about the words? You must choose.
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I think the world has a twisted view of Jesus. For folks that are not Believers, they celebrate the birth of Jesus focusing on a jolly fat guy and giving each other lots of presents. Those same folks celebrate Jesus being raised from the dead by having an overside bunny put lots of chocolate on green, plastic grass. I am not complaining or condemning. It just seems odd to me and I will not spend one ounce of my energy trying to find hidden meaning in what the world does on our most holy of days in the Church.
Easter Sunday, or Resurrection Sunday, holds a special place in the hearts of Believers. I have memories of Sonrise services that started before the sun came up. We were sitting in metal chairs just off the parking lot behind the church. At the regular service, all the ladies were dressed up with new hats. Those sermons I heard back then assured us that all Believers would rise again – just like Jesus did – when the trump would sound and Jesus would return on the clouds as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 “16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.” Those preachers wanted to give us hope. That’s a good message for Easter.
A Biblical Understanding of Hope
I want to give you a shorthand way of remembering the difference between the hope in our Bibles and the hope out in the world. Hope ain’t hoping. Today, folks plan outside events and say, “I sure hope it doesn’t rain.” Every Sunday, some folks may show up here and say, “I sure hope PJ doesn’t have a long sermon.”😊 When I was growing up, I had some food allergies that kept me from getting chocolate in my Easter basket – I got carob instead. It is not the same thing! You better believe I hoped for a day when I could eat what everybody else was eating. All of this hoping is doubt about the outcome of something in the future.
Biblical hope is the opposite of doubt. Having hope is having assurance that what God has promised will surely come to pass. Hope ain’t hoping. Last week, I read from 1 Peter chapter 1 and we head about a “faith that is more precious than gold.” (v. 7) Where does that kind of faith come from? It comes from true hope described in that same chapter, 1 Peter 1:3-5 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Listen to that again from v. 3 “By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” I don’t think there is any question that Easter is all about hope. Yes – we have certainty about the future! We have a home, eternal in the heavens. (2 Cor. 5:1) We all need that hope, but we also need hope for today – just like Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene at the Tomb
We are introduced to Mary from Magdala (a city on the southeast coast of the Sea of Galilee) in Luke 8:2 “and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and disabilities: Mary (called Magdalene), from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna the wife of Cuza (Herod’s household manager), Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their own resources.” Mary gets special mention as having been delivered from seven demons, but there seems to be more women who had also been delivered from evil spirits. Often in the Gospels, the disciples are the focus of most of the description of events. Here we see that women played a vital role. They were certainly involved in providing for the material needs of Jesus and his followers.
Have you watched “The Chosen”? Each of the disciples and the women who follow Jesus are all given back stories. The creator of the series, Dallas Jenkins, has been criticized for “adding to the Bible.” Here’s a take on that – “As with all storytelling based on historical events, some artistic license is evident. In retelling the gospel accounts, the writers have inserted or modified some characters, storylines, and details of the inspired original. The changes are respectful and designed to give each episode a feeling of being grounded in real life. One example of these artistic choices is that the disciple Matthew is depicted as a young man on the Asperger’s/autism spectrum. There’s no direct biblical evidence that Matthew had this disorder, but it’s a plausible detail, so the writers felt comfortable using artistic license to insert this additional trait to Matthew’s character. Since no one is claiming that the show is God’s Word or that it is on par with the Bible, such license is acceptable, and even expected in a medium such as television. As long as viewers remember that what they are seeing is art and not real life—and they compare what they view with Scripture—there is no danger of confusion. We all know intuitively that, for all its historical accuracy and attention to cultural context, The Chosen is simply one idea from one group of people about what they think it might have been like to be near Jesus.” https://www.gotquestions.org/The-Chosen.html
On “The Chosen,” the back story of Mary Magdalene is quite graphic. She has periods where the demons completely control her. The rest of the time she is hanging out with a pretty seedy crowd that gathers in a dark bar where they gamble and seek female companionship (‘nuff said). The radical change in Mary Magdalene is a powerful image for the young people who have made “The Chosen” a huge hit.
On that Easter morning, long ago, the Gospel of John describes Mary Magdalene coming early and then running back to get the disciples. They come, find the tomb empty and leave. Mary Magdalene returns and remains. She sees two angels but they do not give her any hope. Then she sees someone that must be the caretaker of the tombs – so she begs him for information. Instead of a location of a dead body, she hears this person speak her name! I wonder how many times Jesus had spoken her name since the very first time when He set her free from demonic oppression (spoiler alert – this is the end of season 1)? Jesus calls her by name and she has hope!
She has hope to erase the grief of losing the one she loved. She has hope to believe that this is NOT the end of the story. She has hope that her past will never come back to haunt her. She has hope to face the future unafraid. Is that the kind of hope you need this morning? For the last six weeks, we have been talking about being named and loved by God. That’s what Mary Magdalene experienced on that Sunday morning. It’s available to everyone who has trusted the blood of Jesus for salvation.
Finding Hope in Our World of Hopelessness
Those in the younger generations today, especially those we call Gen Z (age 11-26), are living in a world that sells them hopelessness every day. I want to share a story of hope with you. Danielle Strickland describes herself as a spiritual leader, justice advocate, communicator, and peacemaker. Her latest book is entitled “The Other Side of Hope” and it tells her own story. Danielle shares about stealing her first car at the age of 12 and how her uncle started giving her vodka in her Sprite at the age of 11. I will pick up reading her story - “I wanted to be bad. I didn’t want the consequences of my actions, but I also didn’t really mind them that much. I became drug-addicted, cold-hearted, and completely out of control.
That brought me to a day in court for over twelve charges. I had stolen another car. I had led the police in a high-speed chase around the city. I was with my partner who I had been forbidden to see by court order. I had robbed a store and injured the owner in an escape. I had damaged property. I had drugs on me and was high as a kite. The court wanted to try me as an adult or sentence me to the maximum for a young person – three years in a maximum-security prison.
On the inside, it did not matter to me if I lived or died. I was not at all remorseful. As the court was deciding if we would be released or held, the plaintiff called forward the man whose car we had stolen. His name happened to be Mr. Rogers. And even though my friend and I were handcuffed and facing jail time, we could not stop laughing. I mean seriously – Mr. Rogers! My friend started singing “It’s a terrible day in the neighborhood.” And even though the judge was ticked off, I said, “Boys and girls, can you say criminal?” And we both laughed.
They remanded me to prison because they believed I was a threat to society. They were right. Soon, I was in a holding cell in the basement of City Hall in downtown Toronto. But then the guard let in a woman named Joyce Ellery, a member of my parent’s church. I rolled my eyes and cursed under my breath. I was not interested in the lecture or the invitation to change my ways. I couldn’t take the perpetual disappointment of my religious upbringing. Joyce entered my cell and handed me a lawyer’s card – which is the kind of practical Christianity that brings tears to my eyes. And then she did something I did not expect. She hugged me. She wrapped her warm arms around my cold-hearted, drug-infused, bristling body. And what she didn’t do spoke volumes. She didn’t lecture me. She didn’t scold me. She didn’t even advise me. She whispered in my ear while hugging my resistant teenage frame: “I love you.” That’s it. That’s all. That’s the whole thing. Then she nodded at the guard, who promptly opened the door for her to leave.
I was dumbfounded. But when that cell door closed, I heard the bang of finality. I was alone. I was stuck. I was lost. And then the most wonderful thing happened. Jesus showed up. Was it a vision? A feeling? I have no idea. Here is all I know: Jesus showed up. I felt him. I sensed him. I heard him. I experienced him. Jesus came with his arms open and wrapped me in his love. He whispered in my ear, “I love you.” And all the fear and pain, and shame and guilt, and hardness and badness started to loosen and leave, and I felt loved. Unconditionally loved. It was like someone turned on a light inside of me and I could finally see that the place I was in was not good. That I didn’t belong there.
That encounter with Jesus did something that can never be undone. However, it did not make me magically better. Love made me alive, but it still left me human. I was still addicted to drugs. I was still in prison. I was still stuck in cycles of thinking and living that would be very difficult to break. I was still captive to a lot of pain buried deep inside that would take decades to uncover and bury. But I was alive, I could feel, I could see, and I had hope. I’m so thankful for Joyce. And Jesus. And even Mr. Rogers. For that day truly was the most terrible, wonderful, beautiful day in the neighborhood. https://www.daniellestrickland.com/othersideofhope (HOW I FOUND HOPE, Mar 21, 2023 – Good News Ministries)
I believe we tend to think Jesus is ours and if folks want to know “Our Jesus,” they should come in here. In fact, we spend lots of time and energy hoping they will fill these pews… as long as they are not demon filled, or drug addicted, or covered in tattoos and piercings, or just, plain not like us. The Risen Jesus is hope for us because He shows up in my office when I am struggling, and when folks have hit rock bottom, and when the despair and fears make you not want to live one more day. That’s when hope is real, just like one morning long ago when Mary Magdalene was found at an empty tomb and Jesus – who was dead – speaks her name. He is risen – He is risen, indeed, and that’s our hope. Amen.
TEACHING SHEET
"Easter Hope"
John 20:11-18
Teaching sheet for 4/9/23
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
A Biblical Understanding of Hope
Hope ain’t hoping.
The world’s way of hoping is doubt about the outcome of something in the future.
Biblical hope is the opposite of doubt. Having hope is having assurance that what God has promised will surely come to pass. Hope ain’t hoping.
1 Peter 1:3-5 v. 3 “By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” We all need hope for the future, but we also need hope for today – just like Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene at the Tomb
We are introduced to Mary from Magdala (a city on the southeast coast of the Sea of Galilee) in Luke 8:2 “and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and disabilities: Mary (called Magdalene), from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna the wife of Cuza (Herod’s household manager), Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their own resources.”
Have you watched “The Chosen”? Each of the disciples and the women who follow Jesus are all given back stories. The creator of the series, Dallas Jenkins, has been criticized for “adding to the Bible.” Here’s a take on that – “As with all storytelling based on historical events, some artistic license is evident. In retelling the gospel accounts, the writers have inserted or modified some characters, storylines, and details of the inspired original. The changes are respectful and designed to give each episode a feeling of being grounded in real life. https://www.gotquestions.org/The-Chosen.html
On “The Chosen,” the back story of Mary Magdalene is quite graphic. On that Easter morning, long ago, the Gospel of John describes Jesus calling her by name. I wonder how many times Jesus had spoken her name since the very first time when He set her free from demonic oppression (spoiler alert – this is the end of season 1)? Jesus calls her by name and she has hope!
Finding Hope in Our World of Hopelessness
Danielle Strickland is pastor, author, and justice advocate based in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of several books and host of DJStrickland Podcast, ambassador for Stop the Traffik, as well as the co-founder of Infinitum, Amplify Peace, The Brave Campaign and the Women Speakers Collective. This article was excerpted from The Other Side of Hope by Danielle Strickland. Copyright © 2022 by Danielle Strickland. Link for this article - https://goodnewsmag.org/how-i-found-hope/
The Risen Jesus is hope for us because He shows up in my office when I am struggling, and when folks have hit rock bottom, and when the despair and fears make you not want to live one more day. That’s when hope is real, just like one morning long ago when Mary Magdalene was found at an empty tomb and Jesus – who was dead – speaks her name.
He is risen – He is risen, indeed, and that’s our hope. Amen.
