John 20:1-18
“No More Tears”
By: Rev. Kenneth Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
It was Christ’s resurrection that made the Christian Church…
…that transformed a huddle of dispirited and frightened people into that valiant band who were willing to dare anything for the sake of Christ!
It was Christ’s resurrection that brought into being and set in motion this mighty Gospel which has been proclaimed to nearly the entire world and has changed the face of humanity!
And the words of the New Testament itself leap for joy first of all, most of all, and last of all over the empty grave!
The resurrection is the hinge on which the doorway to history swings!!!
It is worth mentioning that the first person to see the risen Christ was a woman.
For one thing, in Jesus’ day, women had absolutely no rights whatsoever….
….Of course, God does not pass judgment on people like we do.
And that sure is a good thing to know!
Mary Magdalene was a woman who Jesus Christ had saved from a life of open and ugly shame.
He had changed her world something fierce!!!
Of her, Christ had said that she loved much because she had been forgiven much.
And she loved Jesus Christ---Who had saved her….
…Jesus Christ…probably the first person to ever treat her like a human being…with her whole soul and being.
So, it’s really not surprising that it was Mary Magdalene who was at the garden “while it was still dark.”
After Mary had found the tomb empty, “the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying.”
Mary kept searching here and there, not knowing where to search, yet unable to stop searching; and by and by she peeped into the tomb once again…with some idea in her mind that the whole thing was impossible…that it must be some hideous dream!
And it was then that she “saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.”
Sensing that someone was behind her—Mary “turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
‘Woman,’ he said, ‘why are you crying? Who are you 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, ‘Rabbonni’ (which means teacher).”
Why didn’t Mary recognize Jesus right off?
Well, for one thing, Mary was looking for a dead Jesus…
…but Jesus was not dead—He was alive.
Many of us make this same mistake.
The Christ that many people know lived in Palestine 2,000 years ago.
The record of what He did and taught and suffered moves and impresses them.
In thought, many people often take their stand on Calvary with a very real emotion in their hearts and a new inspiration surging up in them….
But they have had no experience with the risen Lord…and they do not walk with Him day by day.
John Wesley called these people… “The Almost Christian.”
He even has a sermon with that title.
A distinguished leader in the church was writing an Easter sermon…
…when…
…the thought of the risen Lord broke in upon him as it had never done before.
“Christ is alive,” he said to himself; “alive!” and then he paused; ---“alive!”…
… “Can that really be true?…living as really as I myself am?”
He got up and walked around repeating “Christ is living!”, “Christ is living!”…To him it was a new discovery.
He had thought all along that he had believed it; but not until that moment did he feel sure about it.
He then said, “My people shall know it;
I shall preach about it again and again until they believe it as
I do now.”
….the founder of Methodism had a similar experience on Aldersgate Street.
Anyway, back to Mary….
For all her searching, it was not really Mary Magdalene who came upon Christ, but it was Christ who found her!
And that is the normal experience!
That is the whole point of the gospel---that God is seeking us…
…not only when we have lost Him and cannot find our way home to Him again….
…no matter how hard we search….
…but even when we are alienated from God and do not miss Him…
…when we are shamelessly and deliberately rebellious and set upon our own selfish and destructive ways.
Even the wonderful story of the prodigal son is much less than the whole gospel.
Because, after all, the wayward boy considered his ways, and repented, and came home hesitatingly, and by no means sure of the reception he would get…
…still he returned home and reached it.
And the sheep that was caught in the thicket…
…we can be sure that it made all kinds of noise to let people know where it was….
…although the shepherd did do all the work rescue it.
But think of the parable of the lost coin.
The little piece of silver had dropped and been lost and could do nothing for itself at all.
But despite this fact, groping hands were seeking for it, drawing nearer and nearer till they found it at last!
If you have lost Christ…
….If your spiritual life has dimmed and become thin and drab and inadequate…
….you can be sure that Christ is searching for you---for He will not let you go easily---He has missed you, and He wants you back with Him again.
As the Scripture says, He seeks “until He finds.”
If this is the first time you’ve been to church in a long time…this is a good time to start again.
Back to Mary again…
Although Mary was seeking Christ with her whole being, she did not recognize Christ when she saw Him.
Instead, she thought that He was the gardener.
This is often the way life is for all of us.
Sluggishly or bravely we might accept some future for ourselves that doesn’t look so bright.
And this is all we see in it.
Yet God Himself is in it…
…and has come very close to us…
…and is calling us to some kind of service for Him; and with His own hands He is creating us into the instrument He needs to achieve some great end.
But our eyes are not looking up, so we don’t see Him.
Saint Francis of Assisi was terrified of leprosy.
And one day, he was traveling down a narrow path, when he saw horribly white in the sunshine—a leper!!!
Instinctively his heart shrank back, as he was recoiling from the idea of being contaminated by that horrible disease.
But then he became ashamed of himself, and ran and cast his arms around that leper’s neck and kissed that leper and kept on going.
A moment later he looked back, and there was no one there…
…only the empty road in the hot sunlight.
For the rest of his life, Saint Francis was sure that it was no leper but Christ Himself whom he had met on that narrow path.
So often, all that we see is some needy and perhaps not so attractive soul…
…someone who does not appeal to us…
…but someone who lacks friendship just the same…
…or someone who needs some assistance.
“Did you not recognize Me?” asks Jesus.
That was Me.
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
“Thinking he was the gardener…
…thinking he was the gardener…”
…How blind we can be.
“Jesus said, ‘do not hold onto me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
And that was Christ’s message to His followers after they had deserted Him and failed Him.
Here there is no word of condemnation or reproach.
Instead, stepping across the wide gulf of their shame…Jesus begins again on the old friendly and trustful terms…
…He even draws closer to them than ever.
But these “brothers” that Jesus is telling Mary to run too had not done God’s will…they had failed miserably.
But Christ does not lose faith in them…
…and He does not lose His love for them.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters…but, let’s face it, He has every right to be ashamed.
As someone put it long ago, “We have no cause to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, but the gospel of Christ may justly be ashamed of us.”
Nevertheless, Jesus Christ is not ashamed of us!
His loyalty and undeserving love for us is so great that as we limp back out of the messes we make of things…without a shadow of an excuse for our behavior…
…Jesus never disowns us…
…He never looks the other way…
…He always comes out eagerly to meet us!
“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.”
“Why are you crying?” Jesus and the angels had asked Mary.
That’s a good question to ask in light of the resurrection of Jesus.
We may still have reason to weep because life inflicts great wounds…
…but we need to know why we are weeping.
Are we weeping for ourselves?
Do we feel sorry for ourselves?
That’s a futile kind of weeping.
Do we weep because someone we love has been hurt or has died?
Such tears can prove healing if we get them out and then move on.
Do we weep because we are mourning after God?
If that is the case, Christ will come and console us.
We may not recognize Him, at first, but the Living Lord stands ready to speak our names and wipes the tears away from our eyes.
