Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, Resurrection (Easter) Sunday, 17 April 2022 by Captain Michael Ramsay
Many
things happened in our Resurrection Day text. Here we have the first preacher
of the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus rose from the grave. This woman, Mary Magdalen
is the first Christian teacher / preacher / proclaimer of the resurrection. She
doesn’t quite get it yet. But she proclaims what she sees to Peter and another
person, presumably John.
Next in our Resurrection Day text, after they hear the Good News John
and Peter run to the tomb as fast as they can, I assume, to see for themselves!
John gets there first and stops at the door, examining the scene and taking the
whole thing in. Peter – like a child or younger sibling – comes running up
behind him, roars past John, who is stopped at the tomb then seems to call out:
“I win! I was here first. I won!”
They take it all in. They see Jesus’ burial clothes lying there – but Jesus
is gone. It says John saw all of this and believed but he did not understand.
Then the disciples just went home. I can only imagine. What else could they do?
…if they don’t understand? They know Jesus is gone and maybe they will know he
has raised from the dead but they don’t quite understand, why? How? What next?
Where is He? What is happening? They don’t understand
Now it seems that Mary had gone back out to show them the tomb and, of
course, the boys went running off ahead. When she gets there Mary stays outside
the tomb even after the boys leave. She’s crying, and crying, and crying. So
much is going on. She loves Jesus every bit as much as the boys do. I imagine
she is completely overwhelmed by the immensity of it all. She bends over to look
in the tomb herself again and she sees two angels where Jesus’ would have been
laying.
They turn to her -I don’t imagine she recognizes them as angels yet but
maybe she does – and they ask her, ‘why are you crying?’ She answers them and
then she turns around and when she does, she sees Jesus. But she doesn’t recognize
Him at first – understandably: she is crying – she is probably trying to avoid
eye contact. And anyway, when is the last time you went to visit someone’s
grave and they tapped you on the shoulder and started speaking with you? No
wonder she doesn’t recognize Him immediately.
Jesus also asks her ‘why are you crying’? Why is everybody asking her
this? You’d think everyone would know why someone would be crying at a
graveside, really! Especially if the tombstone and everything was in place but person
you went to see wasn’t there anymore. But Jesus does ask her, ‘why are you crying?’
She thinks He is the gardener; so, He asks, ‘who are you looking for?’ I
imagine He is just waiting for her to look up and see who He is or even stop
crying a bit, take a breath, and listen to His voice. I imagine that is why He
keeps speaking to her like this: ‘why are you crying?’ ‘Who are you looking
for?’ So she will stop and pay attention. She talks to Him like He is the
gardener, probably looking away and the He eventually just says, ‘Mary!’ and then
she recognizes Him.
She cries out to Him and I imagine she tries to hug him but Jesus says, “remember
to social distance”, “No touchie”. No, that’s not what this means. He says, don’t
detain me, I still have to go see My Father, Our Father, My God, Our God.
Mary then begins to understand a little bit about what the boys didn’t’
understand and she runs off to tell them that she saw Jesus. Mary for the
second time in our text is playing the part of the first evangelist: sharing
the Good News of Jesus being raised from the dead and telling of her interaction
and relationship with the resurrected Christ!
That evening many of the disciples are gathered together. They are
concerned. They lock all of the doors – in light of everything that has been
happening and what they know and do not yet understand, they are afraid of the
Jewish leaders.
Picture this with me then. They are trying not to be noticed. They are
afraid. They are hiding. The doors are locked. And then in the middle of the
room, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “peace be with you”. I picture
a similar scene as when He was speaking with Mary earlier. I wonder how long He
was standing in their midst before they actually heard, listened to, and recognized
Him. After however long, He then shows His hands and His side, with the wounds
from His crucifixion. Everyone there is excited! No Kidding! When is the last
time you went to someone’s funeral and they showed up at the lunch afterwards?!
…showing you the scars from how they died.
He says again to them ‘peace be with you’ – I imagine this is after the
commotion has died down a bit and everyone has had their turn touching Him and
greeting Him. ‘Peace be with you’ He
says, Verses 21-23, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And then he
breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Now this is very important: On that first day of the week, right at the
resurrection, Verse 22, we have the Advent of the Holy Spirit infilling people
in the New Testament! Not forty days later in Acts Chapter 2. Acts Chapter 2 is
about something entirely different. But also this, of course, isn’t the first
time the Holy Spirt shows up in the Bible – He was present at creation – and before.
He is there at Jesus’ baptism. He is there in John Chapter One. Here, in John
Chapter Twenty, on this the resurrection day, Jesus breathes and His Holy
Spirit fills the disciples. They are filled with the Holy Ghost.
Now then Thomas, for some reason, wasn’t with them. They tell him the
whole story but he doesn’t buy it. He thinks they are pranking him or
something! So he says unless I see and touch Him too, I don’t believe you!
Now Jesus is nice enough to accommodate him. Later they are all in the
same house, with the doors locked again – and this time Thomas is with them
when Jesus shows up and says, “Peace be with you”. Jesus asks him to touch His
wounds, His scars. Immediately Thomas worships Jesus. Jesus then goes on to
perform many more miracles and signs and He does this again and again for his
disciples. So why does Jesus do all this? Why does John or whomever, and the
other Gospel writers, record all this? Verse 31: …These are written that you
may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you
may have life in His Name.
And that is my hope for each of us here. May we know so that we believe
that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and as we really are all sent, may we
be evangelists like Mary and the other disciples so that others who have not
yet seen Jesus may yet believe and so that they and we may all have life in His
Name. For now and evermore. Amen.
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