Insider Knowledge (Sunrise Service 3/31/24) Jn 20.1-18

There is talk today about insider information on the stock market. This is taking information that only a person on the inside knows( whether it is the company going public, a merger, or a downturn) and playing the stock market with that information to either make a bundle or to dump before the price goes down significantly. It has been the focus of investigations of members of Congress and the crackdown of known traders. But it still goes on because the payoff cancels out the risks involved.

Now, why am I bringing up financial matters on Easter Sunday at a Sunrise service? How does that apply to the scripture just read? Stay with me for a few minutes and hopefully it will all make sense.

The scripture tells us of Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb of Jesus very early in the morning on the first day of week. It is still dark and probably cool like it is here. She has come to grieve the death of Jesus, her friend. And when she arrives there, she sees that the tomb is open. In seeing this Mary makes the only assumption that makes sense to her: someone has taken the body. So, she runs to the disciples and tells them that someone has taken Jesus out of the tomb.

Peter and another disciple run to the tomb in a footrace and see that it is empty. We are told that the “one Jesus loved” saw it and believed. Believed what? That indeed the body was gone? That the graveclothes were left where the body should have been? What exactly he believes we are not told, but it is almost certain that he did not believe that Jesus had been resurrected because we are told that they did not understand the scriptures and that they went home. That is the last that we here of the disciples until verse 19 where we are told implicitly that they did not believe that Jesus was alive and that they were afraid.

So, we come back to the tomb where we find Mary again. She is weeping and looks in and sees two angels who ask why she is weeping. Mary does not seem to realize these are angels. Then she senses someone behind her. She turns and sees Jesus, but she does not know who he is. We know because we are told. Mary believes that he is the gardener who has taken the body and left the tomb open. It is not until Jesus calls her by name that she realizes who Jesus is. Then she believes. She runs and tells the disciples that she has seen the Lord. Do they believe? Though we are not told in this text, they obviously do not because, again, the next time we see them, they are locked in a room and hiding.

So, again, what has this to do with insider information used in stock trading? Well, the disciples and Mary had insider information/knowledge. They were with Jesus throughout his ministry, and they heard him teach. They heard him speak about the Kingdom of God. They heard him tell them what must happen to him: that he must die. And they heard him tell them that he would be raised on the third day. One would think that with this information they would be believing when they first saw the empty tomb. But they were not.

But one thing to notice is that they belonged to Jesus. They belonged to the group who he told this information. And they belonged to God.

Paul Rock says that if you are here on Easter and do not know how to behave or even what you believe, then you are in the correct place. The ones who were most in the know, those with insider knowledge, did not know what was going on that morning. They were the ones who should have had their doctrine nailed down tight and should have been displaying behavior that told everyone what was happening; they were just the opposite. They were unsure that all this was real, and their behavior was strange. Then Jesus speaks to Mary and the penny drops. She believes because she is known and knows that she belongs to the one who spoke to her.

John Calvin states that before we have faith, God calls us to Godself. We have faith not because of anything we have done, but because of what God calls us to have. Methodists call this prevenient grace. It is grace that calls us to belong to God even if we have trouble believing. God says “I know who you are, and I know your name. You belong to me.” And that, friends, is what insider knowledge is all about.

Friends, I do not fully understand the resurrection and never will. I am guessing that you are in the same place as me. None of us will behave quite like we are supposed to. But we belong to God, and we have insider knowledge about what and who God is. And we should want to share that knowledge so that all will know and belong to God. Take your information and go, tell, and show. Amen.