1511-01P 1

“WHYARE YOU WEEPING?”

(John 20:11-18)

SUBJECT:

F.C.F:

PROPOSITION:

INTRODUCTION:

A. There’s an old joke about a small man who drove up to diner and accidentally bumped into a Harley Hog motorcycle which fell over with a crash. An angry biker came racing up carrying a tire iron. With the sharp end of the iron the huge man drew a circle in the dirt around the little guy and said, “Don’t leave that circle.” Then he went up to the man’s car and broke out both of his headlights. When he came back the little guy was smiling broadly. So the big guy went back and broke out his side windows. When he returned the little guy was snickering. So the big guy went back and broke out both his windshield and back window, and when he returned, the little guy was openly laughing. “What’s so funny?” the big guy demanded. And the little guy said, “Every time you turned around I stepped outside the circle!”

B. What if we knew a secret so great that it rendered all sadness, fear, discouragement, and despair truly unfitting and inappropriate? The Bible fully acknowledges that there is plenty of that kind of misery in this broken world. In fact, there is a whole book in the Bible devoted to an experiment to determine if there is anything at all in this world that makes life worth it, that does NOT lead to discouragement and despair. In the book of Ecclesiastes, the wisest and wealthiest man of his day, King Solomon, conducteda quest to see if life was worth living apart from God. He sampled the best the world had to offer, and his conclusion at the end of it all was that apart from God, all life on earth is meaningless, empty, and vain. Some of the philosophers of our day have conducted a similar experiment and have agreed, and a few have even killed themselves in their despair.

C. But what if there is a truth so grand and so compelling that it truly, truly neutralizes all of the negativity of this world? What if we find in the gospel good news that truly prohibits grief, discouragement, and even sadness? That’s what we find in John’s gospel and the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We see this clearly in the experience of Mary of Magdala.

I. A NEW RAY OF HOPE.

A. Before we explore this great hope as we should, I need to point out three small details from our text which add to the assurance that what John writes is not mere conjecture, myth, or wishful thinking, but true earmarks of authenticity.

1. The first is the description of the angels Mary saw as she looked into the empty tomb: “12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.” What’s so significant about that? Well, how did she know which end was the head and which end was the foot? The only way she could have known this is if the winding strips of linen had retained some of their shape. And that could only have occurred if Jesus’ body had truly risen from the dead and had not merely been removed, leaving the unwound strips in a heap. Jesus’ transformed body passed through the graveclothes: this was a true resurrection.

2. The second detail, obviously, was the appearance of the risen Christ himself, which Mary saw, heard, spoke to and touched. If ever you see a person alive after they have died, truly died, you can be sure of one thing: they have risen from the dead. This was a real resurrection.

3. And the third detail was in the gender of the first eye-witness to the risen Christ. John reports that it was a female, a woman, Mary. And that is remarkable because women were not recognized as legal witnesses in a Jewish court of law. Now if John had simply been fabricating a tale he made a colossal blunder at this point. Why would you create an eyewitness who had no legal standing to testify to her experience? The only reason John would do so is because this is the way it happened and he was dutifully reporting the truth.

B. Mary stood weeping. On one level, her grief is certainly understandable and excusable. She had just experienced a double shock. Not only had her dear Lord been crucified, executed as a condemned criminal, and put to death, but now to add insult to injury, she had been robbed of the final dignity of paying her last respects to his body. It appeared that someone had removed his body. She then had no place to lay her flowers, no marker to return to in order to weep out all her tears, no closure on the sadness and grief and the deep pain of loss.

And instead she was asked a simple question, a question that was repeated for emphasis: “Why are you weeping?” The question obviously was not asked soliciting any information. Those who asked it already knew the answer. The question rather had the subtlest hint of rebuke. Of all days, this day made weeping impossible! Grief had been rendered obsolete and unsuitable, for a new hope has dawned, a hope beyond all hope.

C. I think John wants us to see that this truth was not simply for that particular day, but now extends to all days. Yes, we will continue to face setbacks and disappointments, we will suffer losses and heartaches, but now all that has changed. The dominant mood that blankets every day is not sorrow or fear or despairing, but glad hope. Depression and discouragement are out of place for the follower of Jesus Christ. We now belong to the One who is named “the resurrection and the life.” And the truth is that he has not authorized us to be sad. Weeping is improper, unacceptable, out of place.

Not only does the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead mean a new ray of hope that cannot fade, it also reveals

II. A NEW REALITY.

A. When Mary turned to see what she presumed to be the gardener, she did not recognize the risen Christ. Some suggest that it was because her eyes were blinded by tears. In fact, once I heard a whole sermon once that focused exclusively on Mary’s tears and how our grief may blind us to hope. That may preach well, but Mary was not the only one who failed to recognize the resurrected Jesus at first glance. Luke tells us of two disciples walking home to the city of Emmaus on the first Easter Sunday. Jesus walked and talked with them and stopped by their home, but they were “kept” from recognizing him. John tells us in the next chapter how several disciples were fishing and Jesus called to them from the shore and they recognized neither his appearance nor his voice immediately.

B. The point is that even though this was the same Jesus, there was also something different about him. Bible scholar Don Carson notes: “(T)he resurrection accounts provide a certain tension. On the one hand, Jesus’ resurrection body can be touched and handled…, bears the marks of the wounds inflicted on Jesus’ pre-death body…, and not only cooks fish…but eats it…. On the other hand, Jesus’ resurrection body rose through the grave-clothes…, appears in a locked room…, and is sometimes not (at least initially) recognized.” He points us to 1 Corinthians 15 for an explanation.And as I read Paul’s explanation of the difference between Christ’s natural and resurrection body, I want you to remember that we share the same hope, that no matter what happens to our body in this age, we who know Christ share in the resurrection of the coming age.

“35But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

“42So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

“50I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.51Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”
C.Eventually she did recognize him, and she clung to him. But there was definitely something different about him. He was in a new reality, already now in the age to come, in the resurrection state. And our great hope is to share in that state as well.

What Jesus said to her next revealed

III. A NEW RELATIONSHIP.

A. One Bible scholar points to Jesus’ statement to Mary in verse 17 as among the top ten most debated texts in the New Testament. Why did Jesus forbid Mary to cling to him, and what did his impending ascension to the Father have to do with it? Though the text is debated, I don’t think it’s that difficult to understand.

Once Mary had reacquired Jesus, her great desire, she made it clear that she was not going to lose him again. And so she naturally clung to him. “16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

B. Here Jesus was explaining the new and exalted relationship he would now have with his people. It would not be as it had been before, the hit- or-miss presence of the incarnate Jesus with some of them as circumstances would dictate, followed by long stretches of time when he would be elsewhere and not physically present with them. Now, he would be with them always through the immediate access of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And he would be with them through their bond of fellowship with their fellow believers. All this was the result of his ascension to the Father and the subsequent giving of the Holy Spirit.

Now this truth at once offers a powerful comfort but also a sobering obligation. Jesus was ascending to the Father, but they would be in a better situation, not worse. How is this true? In Mark 10, Peter voiced a very honest question: “28Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” As if to say, “What’s in it for us?” Now Jesus’ answer is instructive: 29Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Jesus would be with them always now through their brothers and sisters in Christ, through the grace of Christian fellowship. What’s my great reward for following Christ? Well, there is eternal life in the age to come, and that is wonderful. But right now my great reward is…you. I get you. I get to enjoy Christ through you.

C. People sometimes say, I don’t need the church, I don’t need small group fellowship—I have plenty of friends already. And they are missing the point. Jesus promises that he will be with us through his people, and if we refuse Christian fellowship with others, we are breaking his promise. There should never be a lonely, neglected, destitute believer in our midst because Jesus promises to give himself to all of us through our Christian fellowship, and that’s both comforting and sobering. What believers do you know that long to enjoy Christ through your Christian fellowship? And how can you reach out to them, and bring Christ to them?

Think of how this truth would have spoken powerfully to John’s first readers, Jews who were being excluded and ostracized for their faith in Jesus. Some had lost their homes, others had lost their families. But no matter, they had homes and families with their fellow believers. And all of this because the risen Christ did not leave them as orphans, but has given the indwelling Holy Spirit and the grace of Christian fellowship.

CONCLUSION

And I think we are to understand that these great truths: the and unfading ray of hope, the new reality of the resurrection age to come, and the new and immediate relationship with Christ through his Holy Spirit and through Christian fellowship, these great truths are gifts of God to warm us and cheer us in every circumstance of life.

For a while it became fashionable in Christian circles to make much of the need for believers to grieve. This was borrowed, I think, from some of the secular, psychological thinking that was popular at the time, the need to recognize the so-called “stages of grief,” and allow people to go through the process without interjecting too much hope or happiness at the outset, until they were ready to hear it. But I wonder, in view of this text, whether that is wise.

When I was a young man living at home between college and seminary, my younger brother woke me up early on a summer Sunday morning. “Dad called,” he said, “it’s Grandma. It’s bad. We have to go right away.” I pulled on some clothes and we drove quickly the ten miles to her home. I think it was my Dad who broke the news: “Grandma died in her sleep last night.”

I had never known my other set of grandparents and my grandfather had died a few years before. But I was very close to my grandmother, and I took it hard. I don’t cry very much at all, hardly ever, but that day the tears would not stop. And soon others began to arrive. One was an older cousin of my mother’s, a godly woman who had served several terms as a missionary to Nigeria. And she broke all the rules.

According to the best counsel of the grief experts, letting people grieve was the most important thing. People needed to pass through various stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

But this dear woman didn’t know all that, thankfully, and she quietly and somewhat scoldingly reminded us of the hope of heaven and the resurrection. She told us that my godly grandmother was now walking with Jesus, she was beyond the reach of all aches and pains, that she would never again know sadness or loss or pain or death.

And those words of hope were so healing, so consoling, and I drank them in. And even though I dearly missed my grandmother, and still think of her at times, I did not grieve as those who have no hope. I was comforted, I was strengthened, the flow of tears was stanched, and my sad heart was strengthened by those great truths.

Jesus wants to surprise us with the good news that is beyond imagination, and he wants us to be helped and held forever in that hope.

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