Resurrection Sunday

Hear Her Out!

Resurrection Sunday

April 20, 2025

Sermon – “Hear her out!”

Easter Sunday. Over the past couple of years, I started referring to Easter as “Resurrection Day.” It is the day that we celebrate the raising of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the dead. It’s so important that even people that don’t come to church share “He is Risen” memes on Facebook and other social media platforms! How about that, huh? (Laugh). So, naturally, I am not going to explicitly talk about the story of the resurrection today. Instead, I’m going to talk about women and what they have to do with the resurrection. And I would like to start it off with a question for the women here. Ladies, have you ever told men, whether it be one man, or a group of men, a story that was so crazy but so true that they looked right at you and dismissed what you were talking about? It sounded like complete nonsense to them, and they didn’t believe it? What a complete feeling of rejection it must have been. Well, what if I told you that the very essence of our faith began with one of these stories. So, hear me out, alright? Or better yet, hear HER out!

In chapter 20 of the gospel of John that we read earlier, verse 1 says, “On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.” All four of the Gospels mention that Mary went to the tomb first that morning. The only one that does not say it in the first verse is the Gospel of Luke, which you don’t find out it was her until verse 10. So, Mary, a woman, was the first to discover that the tomb was empty. Why is that a big deal? Why is it a big deal that a woman, or women, were the first to discover the empty tomb on Easter morning? Let me give you a little background on women during that time period.

Flavius Josephus was a first-century Roman-Jewish historian. He is best known for writing “The Jewish War” which is a work of Jewish history. In fact, biblical historian, Steve Mason, described Josephus’ work as “perhaps the most influential non-biblical text of Western history.” Josephus was born in Jerusalem in 37 AD, just four years after the crucifixion of Jesus. He was praised at a young age for his remarkable understanding of Jewish law. Josephus has some interesting things to say regarding women. He once wrote, "The woman, says the Law, is in all things inferior to the man. Let her accordingly be submissive, not for her humiliation, but that she may be directed; for the authority has been given by God to man." In an article written by Maria Oberg, she draws from Josephus and Play-writer Elizabeth Cary on the representations of women over a period of nearly sixteen hundred years that separated those two individuals. She notes this, Female speech was also strictly controlled. In Jewish society, one's spoken words—in particular, one's vows—were extremely important. 31 A father had absolute power over his minor daughter's vows (that is, he could void any vows spoken by her). 32 Likewise, a husband could void his wife's vows if he felt that her vows "afflicted the soul." 33 Silence was the best thing for women. On rare occasions when she left her home, a woman was forbidden to speak to men in public. 34 Funerals were the only occasion in which women were authorized and encouraged to make a lot of noise—as "wailing women," they had an important role in frightening away demons and expressing grief. 35 Author L.J. Archer suggests that women, instead of men, performed this task at funerals because the "keeners need[ed] to be both noisy and visibly emotional—matters which were deemed incompatible with society's constructed notions of maleness but totally appropriate to its ideas regarding femaleness." In other words, women and what they said was not very highly regarded, aka they had a better chance of a bag of rocks listening to them, than men. After reading that, it sounds like it would have been perfectly acceptable for women to be muzzled, and for it to only come off when excessive wailing and noisemaking needed to be done at funerals. I mean no offense, but this all sounds completely barbaric. And yet, jokes like this, targeting women’s inferiority to men, are still made to this day.

But not Jesus. Jesus had a unique relationship with women, especially when we look at it from the perspective of how women were generally treated during that time period. We see in John chapter 8, while he was traveling from one town and village to another, preaching and telling the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary, called Magdalene (seven demons had come out of her); 3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others who were supporting them from their possessions. Jesus forgave the woman of her many sins as she washed his feet with her tears and kissed his feet many times in Luke chapter 7 and 8. He looked at the woman who had been suffering from excessive bleeding for 12 years with no cure in sight, healed her, and said to her “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.” (Mark 5:25–34). On a sabbath day, He looked at a woman who was bound by Satan for 18 years, who was bent over and could not straighten up at all and healed her in public. And then He rebuked the religious leader and his other adversaries when they tried to call him out for it (Luke 13:10–17). And should I even mention the Samaritan woman at the well? Jesus approached her and asked her for a drink, and she was like, “are you talking to me???” Jews did not associate with Samaritans let alone a Jewish man talking to a Samaritan woman. And not only did he ask her for a drink and talk to her, but he told her everything she had done and told her that he was the messiah. Even his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. (John 4:7–27). And people might not have believed her, but she left that jar of water and took off running, telling EVERYONE about him. Jesus cared about women, and everyone for that matter. Things were different with him.

So, what a way to kickstart the very foundation of our faith, then, by trusting it to women. In John’s Gospel he says that Mary went running back to Peter and another disciple and said, “they’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!” So Peter and the other disciple went out heading for the tomb. The disciples eventually both made it there, looked around, examined the scene, saw that the linen cloths were laying on the ground, and that the head cloth was folded up in a separate place by itself, almost as if Jesus knew what he was doing (laugh). And then they left. But, who showed up at the tomb and found out that it was empty? Mary and the other women.

But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb. [12] She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus's body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. [13] They said to her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "Because they've taken away my Lord," she told them, "and I don't know where they've put him." [14] Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus. [15] "Woman," Jesus said to her, "why are you crying? Who is it that you're seeking?" Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, "Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him, and I will take him away." [16] Jesus said to her, "Mary." Turning around, she said to him in Aramaic, "Rabboni!"-which means "Teacher." [17] "Don't cling to me," Jesus told her, "since I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." [18] Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them what he had said to her.

Church, we’re talking about a time of deep sorrow and sadness. Jesus, the Christ, was just brutally killed. And God, determined, even before the beginning of time, that he was going to first entrust women to deliver the testimony of the Risen Lord, to men. Angels proclaimed to Mary and the other women, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen! Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, saying ‘It is necessary that the Son of Man be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and rise on the third day’?” And they remembered his words. (Luke 24:5-8). And as we read earlier, Jesus himself appeared to Mary and told her to “go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Mary returned to the apostles and said, “I HAVE SEEN THE LORD!” Mary was a part of Jesus’ ministry, she was close to Jesus, had direct encounters with Jesus, she knew Jesus. So, when she says that she has seen the Lord, she knows exactly who she is talking about and knows exactly who she saw. In the other gospels, it notes that Mary was accompanied by the other women as well. And Luke writes that these words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women. So, in natural men’s fashion, they did not believe her, or the women. We have the most important moment in human history, being told to Jesus’ most trusted followers, and it was rejected. Now luckily for us, and spoiler alert for those of you that don’t know, a short time later, Jesus makes it known to Peter and the twelve that he is, in fact, alive and well. That he is risen indeed!

Paul argued in his epistle to the Corinthians, (1 Corinthians 15:12-14 NLT) “But tell me this-since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? [13] For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. [14] And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.”

Paul says that our faith is useless if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. His resurrection, the most important moment in human history, is the very foundation of our faith. If the resurrection didn’t happen, then our faith is useless. And that great and glorious news was first proclaimed from the mouth of women. You know when I sit and think about it, not only is it cool, but it just seems like such a God thing to do. I think I’ve mentioned watching the Chosen before and I’m sure many of you have heard of the show. If you haven’t you need to. But in that show one of the famous phrases from the man that plays Jesus is “Get Used to Different.” I can’t think of a better time to apply that phrase. Recognizing that women were the first to share the news of the risen Lord, in a time where women were very much underappreciated and, unfortunately still are today. God said, get used to different. Because everything changed going forward. The New Testament was born. No longer were jews the only ones being saved. Gentiles were coming into the fold. All who believed in this monumental moment in human history, will experience eternal life with God. We have not seen the first female president of the United States yet, and who knows when we will. Times have evolved and there are many important women in important places, and I’m sure they are still underappreciated. But one thing, ladies, that you can forever hang your hats on, is that you discovered the empty tomb first. And here we all are, celebrating it!

So, men, the next time a woman approaches you with a testimony that sounds like the craziest thing that you’ve ever heard, we may want to just hear her out.

Amen.