Sermon 5: Easter Questions Series

“On the seventh night after my abortion, I discovered...I was bleeding heavily. …I thought I should call a doctor…but I was so disgusted that I had gotten so drunk one week after my abortion that I just couldn’t wake someone up and ask for help. I got in bed, shaky and sad and too wild to have another drink or take a sleeping pill.

After a while as I lay there, I became aware of someone with me, hunkered down in the corner…the feeling was so strong that I actually turned on the light for a moment to make sure no one was there—of course, there wasn’t. But after a while, in the dark again, I knew beyond doubt that it was Jesus. I felt him as surely as I feel my dog lying nearby as I write this.

I was appalled. I thought about my life and my brilliant, hilarious progressive friends. I thought about what everyone would think of me if I became a Christian, and it seemed an utterly impossible thing that simply could not be allowed to happen. I turned to the wall and said out loud, ‘I would rather die.’

I felt Him just sitting there watching me with patience and love. I squeezed my eyes shut but it didn’t help because it wasn’t my eyes that were seeing Him. I finally fell asleep, and in the morning He was gone.

The experience spooked me badly and everywhere I went I felt as if there was a little cat following me, wanting me to reach down and pick it up. Wanting me to open the door and let it in. And when you let a cat in and feed it a little milk, it stays forever.

One week later, I went to church. I was so hung over I couldn’t stand for the songs. This time I stayed for the sermon. I thought it was ridiculous, like someone trying to convince me of the existence of extraterrestrials, but the last song was so deep and raw and pure that I could not escape. I felt as though the presence of God was washing over me. I began to cry. I raced home and felt the little cat running along at my heels. I opened the door of my house and I stood there for one long minute, and then I hung my head and said: ‘I quit.’ I took a deep long breath and said out loud, ‘All right, You can come in.’

She found who she was looking for all along. Have you?

III. THE LAST QUESTION WAS NOT VERBAL, BUT MARY ANSWERED IT BY HER ACTIONS.

Jesus couldn’t conceal His identity any longer. When He saw the love Mary professed, He simply spoke her name. When she heard her name spoken by Jesus, Mary realized it was the Lord, her despair was turned to delight and she could only utter one word, “Rabboni.” Luke in verse 16 that the Aramaic word, “Rabonni,” literally meant “Master.” She was declaring that Jesus was her Master.

Have you, like Mary, fallen on your knees and declared that Jesus is your Master? You may consider yourself a skeptic. There was a skeptic among the disciples, a disciple by the name of Thomas. That first Easter night, Jesus appeared to the disciples, but Thomas was missing. When he returned, they told him the good news—that Jesus was alive. But Thomas was a skeptic.

He said, “Yeah! Right! I won’t believe that cock-and-bull story until I can place my fingers in the nail prints in His hands.”