"The Fullness Of The Empty Tomb" Easter 2016

Easter 2016

“The fullness of the empty tomb”

The word empty itself often brings feelings of

Sadness

Despair

Fear

Disappointment

If you have ever been in the middle of nowhere

Miles from anything even resembling a town

When your gas gage hit empty- the needle on E- maybe a low fuel light blinking

You know the feeling that empty can bring

If you have watched as you’re youngest or last child still living at home

Packed up and drive away

Headed away for college or to start their own lives

Then you know the feeling of emptiness

Imagined waiting for months for Christmas or your birthday

And sitting there under the tree

Or on the table

Is a beautiful package

Just the right size to contain exactly what you had hope and wished for

Then opening the box to find nothing inside

Empty

Opening a paycheck envelope with no check

Signing your name on the final divorce papers

Ending a marriage that you thought would last forever

Getting bad news from the doctor

Losing a friend or loved one

Empty

Most of the times in our lives empty are not a good thing

Today is Easter

The day when we come together to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ

A joyous day

But it was not always joy as

Let me paint the scene for you this Morning from the eyes of a lady we all know

Her name is Mary Magdalene

She is what some would call less desirable

She has a sorted past

She had been outcast from society

The type of person who you look at but don’t see

A ghost I n society

But

Jesus

Took he in

Accepted her

And Jesus changed her life

She had been with Jesus for a while

Learning from him

Serving him

Filled with his love

But today she is empty inside

She had watched as Jesus rode in on that little donkey a few days ago

She had heard the cheers

But then she had seen the change in those who once praised and celebrated Jesus

She had seen the way Jesus was treated when he was arrested

She knew he had been betrayed

She had witnessed his torture

His trials

His crucifixion

She had been there at the foot of the cross

And had seen Jesus Christ

Her Lord

The one person in this entire world who had accepted her as she was

Die a horrible death

She had watched as they took his lifeless body down

She had followed as they took him to his tomb

She had sat across front he tomb at a distance

As the placed his body there

And she was empty

Hope was gone

Jesus was dead

Image the situations I descried earlier and then compound that empty feeling by 100

B y 1000

So Mary did the only thing she knew to do

She continued to serve Jesus

In her emptiness

She waited until after the Sabbath was over

And she went to pay tribute to her teacher

By preparing his body for the grave

Anointing his body with spices

As they did royalty

As they did a king

Please open your bibles to John 20

John 20:1-13

Early on Sunday morning,[a] while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— 9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then they went home.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”