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Preached in Markham Baptist Church, March 23, 2008
 

How could Mary have missed it?  How could Mary have missed the truth of the resurrection?  It wasn’t like she hadn’t heard Jesus speak about it.   Jesus had been teaching about his rising from the dead  for some time.  As you read through the gospels there is this continuous theme in his teaching – John 10:17-18

“I am the good Shepherd … the reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord.  I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” (John 10:17-18)

or again, John 14, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live.”  (John 14:18,19)

And if that is too cryptic for you, both Matthew and Mark in their recounting of Jesus’ life and words tell us that Jesus taught them “that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  He spoke plainly about this …” (Mark 8:31-32; see also Matthew 16:21)

How could Mary have missed the truth about the resurrection?  Jesus spoke plainly about it. Mary would have heard this teaching, for she was a devoted follower of Jesus Christ.  She was with Him, supported Him and was part of our Lord’s inner circle of friends. 

But she did miss it and as we read the events as they are related in John 20 it seems furthest from her mind.  We learn from the text that early on the first day of the week - that’s Sunday – the third day – while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

Her first thought is – this is awful!  Someone has desecrated her friend’s burial site – even stolen the body – so she goes running to tell Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved – we are pretty sure that that’s John himself, the writer of this account. 

She finds them and says, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”   The resurrection is the furthest thing from her mind.  

So the two disciples run to the tomb – verse 4 tells us that John arrives there first – he must have been in better shape than Peter, maybe even younger – at any rate he was quicker and so he gets there first.  He doesn’t go in but he bends over and looks in at the strips of linen lying there, but he doesn’t go into the tomb. 

He misses the truth of the resurrection too.  No light bulb comes on for him yet.

Peter and Mary Magdalene come along after.  In verse 6 Peter goes straight into the tomb and he saw the strips of linen lying there - that is, he critically and carefully looks at the cloths that are there¹  - that’s what that verb means – he sees the strips of linen lying there as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus head. 

Now this is an important fact when we consider the truth of the resurrection.   This tells us that Jesus was not resuscitated. There are some who believe that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross – but that he was mistakenly declared dead and was put in the tomb, then the cool of the tomb revived the wounded Jesus and He walked out of the tomb on His own.  But if that was the case there would have been no grave clothes left behind.  He would have taken them with Him or if He had taken them off, they would have been in a heap in the corner of the room. 

But this is not the case – strips of linen are lying there – just lying there – like there once was a body in them, like a raft of deflated of air.  This suggests the resurrection. 

The text also tells us at verse 7 that the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head was also lying there.  “The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.”   That doesn’t mean that it was neatly folded in the corner. No, it means that the cloth which was folded around the head of the diseased to keep the mouth from dropping open – and is separate from the linen that covers the rest of the body - was folded as it was folded around Jesus’ head.   It was not thrown into the corner in a heap. 

It suggests the resurrection. 

Also note – there is no body. The resurrection of Jesus was not some spiritual, ghostly event – Jesus physically rose from the dead.  The grave clothes are left behind just as if a body had been in them but they are collapsed and lying in strips as they had been put on Jesus by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea on the previous Friday (See John 19:38-42).

Why did they miss the truth of the resurrection? 

Verse 8 tells us that John finally goes into the tomb, sees and believes.  But we aren’t sure how much he believes because in the next verse he says, “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”  It seems that there is a glimmer of belief and understanding in John, but he shows no evidence of it immediately because in verse 10 we are told they go back to their homes, apparently brushing past Mary without a word.

Why didn’t they get it?  How could they - how could Mary have missed the truth of the resurrection? 

And then we are told at verse 11 and 12 that when she looks into the tomb to see for herself, she sees two angels seated where Jesus’ body had been – one at the head and the other at the foot. 

They ask her, not harshly, but I believe with a puzzled expression – “Woman, why are you crying?”  And again she says, “They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him.”

So now she has the history of Jesus’ teaching about the truth of the resurrection, she has grave clothes lying there undisturbed – pointing to the truth of the resurrection – two angels present where Jesus’ body had been, and she still is missing it. And she turns around and she sees Jesus standing there, but she still doesn’t “see” Jesus standing there – her tears presumably have clouded her vision

And He asks her the same question, “Why are you crying? Who is it that you are looking for?”  She thinks it’s the gardener.  And she responds again, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 

She’s still thinking that someone has stolen the body.  There’s no glimmer of the truth of the resurrection even with Jesus standing right in front of her. 

In the words of Stuart Holden, “She was in the presence of the greatest of all victories without recognizing it.  The signs she saw were not of defeat but of triumph.  But she misread them all.  She had not lost Christ as she feared, but had really found Him more fully than she had ever before known him.  She was not at the end but rather at the beginning of all things.  It was a day for praise and great joy, not for weeping.”² 

Why did she miss it?

I think it is an important question because it happens all the time in my life – and in the life of other Christians.  We forget that we worship a risen Lord, A loving Saviour, a Victorious King, and the ever present, ever living Son of God. 

We forget that Jesus is actually alive and present among us.  We fail to believe it – and like Mary, Jesus is standing right in front of us and fail to recognize Him.  

I wonder if part of the reason Mary didn’t recognize that the resurrection had happened is that she just refused to believe that it could be true. Maybe it’s like that for you? The resurrection of Jesus Christ and His constant presence in your life is so far beyond our realm of experience that it can’t be true.  It’s so far beyond anything that we dare hope or believe that our tiny little minds tell us over and over again that it can’t be true.  Who expects Jesus Christ to actually be alive? Who really expects that the King of kings is actually present with us right now?????   Like Mary, we’ve heard the teaching about the resurrection, we’ve seen the proofs for the resurrection, and Jesus may even stand right in front of us, but we don’t actually dare to believe that He is alive, here.  

A couple of days ago I read on the internet of how the singer Bryan Adams was in Vancouver, his home city, giving an intimate concert in a church for the media and invited guests only.  The day of the concert he was checking into his downtown Vancouver Hotel, and he was at the hotel desk waiting for the key to his room.   And beside him waiting at the next terminal was a woman who was also waiting for her key.  They struck up a friendly conversation.  And Bryan noted that she was obviously from out of town and so he asked her, “What are you doing in town?”  She said, right to his face,  “I’m here for a Bryan Adam’s concert.” She didn’t know who she was talking to! He didn’t let on and went along with it and said, ‘That’s really cool.”

At the concert he told the story and made the woman stand in the audience and said, “Glad you could make it.”   Can you imagine how embarrassed she was? You can imagine her saying, “I didn’t realize I was speaking to Bryan Adams.  I never expected to meet him!”  

Sometimes I think we miss the truth of the resurrection because with our little faith we just can’t bring ourselves to admit that maybe through God’s great power Jesus Christ really is alive and here among us.  Just as we don’t expect to ever meet Bryan Adams on the street, we don’t really expect to meet Jesus Christ in our day-to-day lives. 

But my friends, this is the great truth of Easter and the truth that we celebrate every Sunday – Jesus is alive!  He really is in our homes.  He is alive and well and living in His people on Church Street, and Bay Street, and your street. 

And we say, “Nooooo”.  Yes!  and we need to ask ourselves - is anything too hard for God? And we need to remind ourselves - all things are possible with God.  

Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by God’s mighty power.   Paul writes to the Ephesians and he prays for them and says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened – that you may actually see, not just with your eyes but from the depths of your being, that you may actually believe in God’s incomparably great power – that’s his grammar – not mine. And he goes on to describe that power:  “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.”  (Ephesians 1:19,20).

Do we miss the truth of the resurrection and the constant presence of the King of kings in our lives because we fail to believe that our God is big enough and strong enough? 

Mary missed the resurrection – was it because she just couldn’t believe it to be true?  Or was it her grief that kept the truth hidden from her? 

We know that Mary thought a great deal of Jesus. She was one of His devoted followers.  We don’t need all the silly myths promoted by the likes of Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code or Jesus Christ Superstar that suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were lovers.  Nowhere in the historical gospel records is this even hinted at.  No, Mary was a devoted follower, a grateful follower, for she had been healed of demon possession by Jesus Christ.  Jesus had cast out of her not one but seven demons (Luke 8:2).  And Jesus cured her.  She was a grateful follower.

She was a devoted follower.  Luke also tells us that she was one of the women who supported Jesus and the disciples from her own means (Luke 8:3).  She believed in Jesus’ ministry and gave what she could to support Him as He went preaching and healing throughout Galilee.

She was a loyal follower.  John tells us (19:25 see also Matthew 27:56) that she is one of the few people bold enough to stand with Jesus as He dies on the cross. 

She is a devoted, loyal, caring friend of Jesus Christ and she’s in great sorrow over all that has happened.  You can imagine what is going through her mind. 

“The angry mob wasn’t satisfied with taunting him on the cross – now they are going to desecrate his body.  The rulers weren’t happy with his death – now they are going to parade his body around and say, ‘Hail, king of Jews.’ ”

She is in deep sorrow and grief.  And she says, “they have taken away my Lord.”  And we know grief can hide the presence of Christ in our lives, can’t it?  How many times have we gone through sorrow and grief and felt abandoned by God?  Disappointment, disaster and discouragement all seem to create a kind of tomb where Jesus is not present. 

But in reality like Mary Magdalene we are in the presence of a miracle and because of our grief we do not recognize it.  For the Risen Lord who began a good work in us – transforming us – is still working in our lives even during the painful experiences of life – to bring us to a fuller more intimate knowledge of Himself. We often miss Him and misinterpret His ways when we are walking through the dark times of life.

Don’t misunderstand, God doesn’t send sorrow and pain our way – they are part of life.  But God uses them to bring us up into a faith that is mature and strong.

I read of a woman who was experiencing great pain and sorrow – she wept and said to her friend over and over, “I wish I had never been made.”  Her friend, after comforting her said, “You know you are not made yet.  You’re only being made, and finding fault with the Maker’s process.”³

How many times in life it seems that “sorrow has taken away my Lord.”  and Jesus seems so far away but in reality He is here in many ways. He is here in the person of His Holy Spirit who ministers to our spirit and brings comfort and encouragement to our soul.   He is present in the prayers of His faithful people as they pray for us in the midst of our sorrow.  He is there in the caring of his people, as His body compassionately gives comfort to those in need.  He is there, he is here.  

One of the most comforting passages in the Old Testament is in the book Exodus chapter 20:21 where we read that, “Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.”    God was in the thick darkness.  And this truth is emphasized and made plain in the events of the crucifixion and the resurrection.  

God is able to take all the darkness of the crucifixion and turn it into the light of the resurrection. He is able to take all the pain and bring His healing.  He is able to transform sorrow into joy, the song of lament into a song of thanksgiving, the sob of grief into the shout of victory. 

Do you see it, Do you see the victory?  Do you recognize it?  It is there in the midst of our suffering and pain – the victory of the resurrected Lord leading you through the valley of the shadow and into maturity. 

Why did Mary miss the resurrection?  Why do we miss the resurrection – is it unbelief? Let it give way to the truth that with God all things are possible.  Is it sorrow? Let it give way to the truth that God can transform that sorrow into joy.

Or maybe Mary just had the hope beaten out of her.  The mob was so angry, the death was so cruel, the people so vindictive that any hope she had of the resurrection is swallowed up by the shouts of the crowd. 

It happens, doesn’t it? I’ve seen it happen.  Let me tell you the story of the saved church worker.  At one time she was totally devoted to Christ and telling others of his majesty and love, His compassion and His victory.  Her heart used to jump with pure joy every time she heard the Word of God proclaimed and her soul would dance during times of worship and praise of her Saviour.  She studied the scriptures with enthusiasm and great effect.  Her faith in God was boundless – no one was too difficult or too lost in sin for her God to reach, no situation was too hard for her God to handle – no dream for the expansion of God’s Kingdom was too big for her God to achieve. 

So when they were looking for church leaders in the church she was the obvious choice and like a faithful servant she prayed and she felt God was opening a door of service.  

And as she got involved in the work of the church – all important, all Christ-honouring - in budgets, and organizing, and programming and settling petty disputes, all good work in the church, what happened was she began to lose her focus of what really matters.  These were tangible things, easy to measure and easy to give her attention to.

She began to find it hard to trust in the unbelievable.  She lost her vision of that invisible Kingdom as she began to focus on what can be seen and touched and evaluated. 

And there were some people around her who began to tell her to be realistic.  So she began to scrutinize life behind furrowed brows and walk with cautious steps instead of steps of faith.  Whenever she heard testimonies in church of how God was working in people’s lives, she found herself dismissing their testimonies as people who were “immature” in the faith.  And one day they would see things more realistically like she now did. 

And anyone expressing any kind of exuberance was thought of as unnatural, a zealot – not really knowing what real life was all about. And that kind of enthusiasm is for young Christians – not for us seasoned believers. 

Her faith gave way to skepticism and her dreams folded under the weight of her cynicism.  She had little room in her life for miracles.  She found it hard to believe that God could do the very thing that He is best at – replacing death with life. 

Her dreams for reaching her community for Christ fell victim to doubt. The church really doesn’t need to evangelize – God can do the job on his own just fine. And because the strain of realism, her soul shrank and shrank and shrank, until one day she came to the realization, “They have taken away my Lord.”

It’s a true story repeated a millions times over in our churches.  Are you at that place? Have you had your once vibrant faith beaten out of you by those who preach realism?  Have you forgotten that impossible is one of God’s favorite words?  How is your sanctified imagination these days?

When was the last time you let some of your dreams elbow out your logic?  When was the last time you imagined the unimaginable?  When the was the last time you dreamed of a church on fire for Christ?   When was the last time you prayed for God to bring a revival to the hearts of His church and to begin with you?  When was the last time you dreamed of Christian fellowship whose sole purpose for existence was to proclaim the good news of the resurrected Christ in word and deed? 

When was the last time you dreamed of a whole community coming to faith in Jesus Christ because of our churches witness?  When was the last time you dreamed of every creature on earth hearing about the Messiah?  Has it been awhile since you claimed God’s promise to do “more than we ask or imagine?”

My friends, we need to realize that they haven’t taken away your Lord!   He is risen and He lives today as the head of His church guiding it, prodding it, leading, pushing, motivating it, loving it, with everything He has, influencing the world through it, proclaiming the gospel message because of it.  He is risen!  He is Lord! 

It’s almost like we need to put plugs in our ears to keep from hearing the voices that are always telling us that God doesn’t act this way or that way and that what we attempt for the kingdom of God can’t be done. 

As we study the closing verses of our text that Jesus Christ gave Mary, a wonderful revelation.  She had imagined Him to be lost forever, but then the one whom she thought was the gardener calls out her name in a voice so filled with compassion, so tender and loving that I cannot copy it. He says her name – Mary – and at once her soul is flooded with joy and wonder and awe and holy fear all at the same time.

Teacher, Can it be? It is you!  And at once she reaches out for Him – wanting to hug Him in her joy – and He gently rebukes her, and teaches her that she is not to hold on to Him. I don’t think that means physically, but mentally, spiritually – don’t hold on to the old ways – the way you used to know me – even though I have not returned to my Father.  He reassures her of the miracle of which she is the first to witness.

He proclaims to her an amazing new blood relationship, “Tell them I am returning to my father and your father, to my God and your God.”

And who can blame her if she went running to the disciples again – but this time instead of cry of defeat, “They have taken away my Lord” – she would shout, “I have seen the Lord.” 

O, that God would come to each of us today and that we would have eyes to see – that in the midst of our imperfect faith, the living Lord is there to expand and grow our faith. 

In the midst of our sorrow – the Risen Lord is there to meet us and travel with us through the valley of the shadow.

In the midst of times when the voices of the age tear down our Lord and limit Him in the box of realism and what is logical, our great Saviour is there smashing what is possible by doing the impossible.

O, that during those times when we are tempted to say, “They have taken away my Lord,”  our ears would be attuned to hear His voice calling our name – the eyes of our heart would be open to see the one who was dead but behold is alive for ever more!    Amen

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - March  2008

ENDNOTES:

1. See G. Campbell Morgan’s commentary, The Gospel According to John (New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company), 309 for a discussion of the word “to see” and its progression in this text.  

2. J. Stuart Holden, in a sermon entitled, “Unrecognized Victory”.  Warren W. Wiersbe, Classic Sermons on the Resurrection of Christ, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1991), 141.

3. Ibid., 144.