Snapshots from the First Day

There is nothing complicated about today. It’s a world altering, time splitting miracle. The resurrection of Jesus turns the world upside down and has led to the transformation of how we mark time itself- from BC to AD.

The death of Jesus on Good Friday- the despair of the disciples and His family, gives way to a zeal that is unexplainable without a literal resurrection.

In our 21st century minds, it would be easy to see the manipulation of events with AI, conspiracy theories, and a charismatic leader, but the first century when all this happened was not the 21st century.

The Jewish men and women who would tell the story of the resurrection lived under the boot heel of Rome. They were pariahs to the Jewish leaders of the day, and insignificant in the eyes of Rome, unless they challenged the Emperor in which case they were insects to be crushed through torture and death.

Which makes what happens to the followers of Jesus and the birth of the church all the more remarkable. Not an elaborate marketing scheme or some grand deception, but the simple testimonies of people who saw Jesus after He died.

Turn with me to John 20:1-10.

John 12–21 (1) Mary Magdalene at the Tomb—Part 1 (20:1–2)

In Johannine fashion she serves as a model or representative of a type of person, here the women. This evangelist is interested in painting word portraits of people such as John the witness, Andrew, Nathaniel, Nicodemus, the Woman of Samaria, the Blind Man, Thomas, Martha, Mary the sister of Lazarus, the High Priest, Pilate, Peter, and so on. As such these people are not to be viewed merely as exclusive units/persons but as identifiable representatives of their kind of people.

The first day of the week dawns and Mary Magdalene, among other including Jesus’ mother, make their way to the tomb. And find a very unexpected scene- guards scattered, tomb open, Jesus gone.

John 12–21 (1) Mary Magdalene at the Tomb—Part 1 (20:1–2)

The “we” in 20:2 at least forewarns the reader against a misreading of the evangelist’s intention

Mary goes and grabs Simon and John- 2 of the three closest disciples to Jesus- and tells them, the body is gone and her only assumption is that they have taken His body away to do something more to His corpse.

John 12–21 (1) Mary Magdalene at the Tomb—Part 1 (20:1–2)

The contemporary thought that they could create a resurrection hoax or experience a joint encounter with some mystical Christ as some have suggested is absurd, given the defeatism that enveloped Jesus’ followers after they realized Jesus was truly dead. The only possibility that crossed Mary’s mind was that the body must have been stolen in clear violation of Jewish burial integrity and of Roman practice

A foot race ensues, and John gets there first, and sees, peering through the opening, the linens wrapping just lying there. And Peter, actually walks in, and finds something else even odder, the face cloth folded and set aside.

John 12–21 (2) Peter and the Beloved Disciple at the Tomb (20:3–10)

In this story, when the beloved disciple arrived at the tomb, he bent down to look into the tomb at the linen bandages. The sight of those linen strips must have left an indelible impression upon his sensitive mind because they are mentioned both here and at v. 6. That sight was apparently enough to stop his progress. It is doubtful that he merely stopped to wait for Peter as Beasley-Murray suggested. Body robbers leaving body wrappings? Do those ideas connect? They must have started his mind into a computing mode that ended in believing

These details are interesting, because they are not indicative of grave robbers, but of intention. And that intention, as seen in verse 8, is enough for John. He believes that Jesus is alive.

John 12–21 (2) Peter and the Beloved Disciple at the Tomb (20:3–10)

it is particularly noteworthy that the beloved disciple is the only person in the Gospels who is recognized as having reached a point of believing as the result of seeing the empty tomb. Given the trauma of the crucifixion, the fear and bewilderment of most of the followers of Jesus was not allayed by the sight or reports of the empty tomb (cf.

Then they leave.

But they leave behind a grief stricken Mary Magdalene. and the story shifts from them back to to her. Look at verses 11-18.

John 12–21 (3) Mary Magdalene—Part 2: The First Appearance (20:11–18)

The term is used for the anguished crying or wailing associated with mourning as at funerals and in times of bereavement. Morris adds that it would hardly be viewed as “a quiet, restrained shedding of tears, but the noisy lamentation typical of Easterners of that day.”35

Obviously Mary’s lament was not merely over the death of Jesus but because she was sure that the body had been violated as well. Proper burial was regarded by the Jews as an inherent part of their faith.

For the first time, Mary looks, and she sees something else- 2 not human, but angelic beings, sitting where Jesus had been laid.

And they ask her- why are you crying?

John 12–21 (3) Mary Magdalene—Part 2: The First Appearance (20:11–18)

Mary’s answer to the angelic visitors was that her wailing was because she thought the burial tomb had been violated and the body had been removed. It seems apparent that her presence at the tomb was to get close to the corpse as though in revering the tomb the presence of the dead person might seem close at hand.

And when she answers she turns, and sees someone- who asks “Who are you seeking” and she does not recognize Him until He says her name.

John 12–21 (3) Mary Magdalene—Part 2: The First Appearance (20:11–18)

The transforming process of Mary coming to recognize the risen Lord took place when Jesus called her name, “Mary,” or more precisely at this point “Miriam.” It is fascinating to note that the Johannine evangelist has described transformative recognition occurring through the use of one word at this point

Church we live in a time where Jesus has been made, for so many, unrecognizable. He has been co-opted and disguised and repurposed. But He is still who He is. He is not those fakes, He is the risen Son of God, and He knows your name.

Notice that it is when Jesus speaks her name that Mary realizes who He is.

I want to share with you this morning, that Jesus is still calling names. Your presence here, or your watching online, is proof of that. Jesus is still, despite all the noise, calling people to Himself. He has not given up on us. He has not given up on you.

Scripture is so clear that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. That He came to demonstrate the love of God to all of us- both in how He lived, how He died, and how He was resurrected from the dead.

He is our hope.

In this moment, in this garden, Mary has her hope restored.

Some of you are here this morning and you are looking for hope, and Jesus comes to give you that hope.

Some of you are looking for that hope to be restored. You had it once, and a season of life came and snatched it away. Jesus is there for you too.

Hear me when I say this today, on this day when we celebrate the birth of an eternal hope, Jesus is for you. God is for you. He is reaching out to you and it is not to slap you down or reject you. It is to meet you where you are and call you to a place you would never have gone without Him.

I love Mary’s reaction here. She grabs on to Jesus like she will never let go, so much so that Jesus has to tell her- we can’t stay here, you’ve got work to do!

John 12–21 (3) Mary Magdalene—Part 2: The First Appearance (20:11–18)

The purpose of this ascent statement must have been to indicate to Mary that the way of relating to the resurrected Lord would no longer be through the physical senses because the ascent would terminate such encounters. Accordingly, clinging to the physical patterns of the preresurrected Lord was no longer possible. Even her efforts at revering a body in a tomb were gone because the tomb was empty.

Nevertheless, the physical reality of both the preresurrected and resurrected Jesus was according to John an absolutely crucial part of the Christian confession about Jesus. Moreover, in his first epistle John makes it clear that the early Christian witnesses had heard, seen, and touched or handled this Jesus (“the Word of life”), that he unmistakably appeared to them, and that this living Jesus was the basis for eternal life (

He sends Mary to tell the disciples the good news. The first evangelist, a woman, to the men who had followed Him, so they could believe as well.

John 12–21 (3) Mary Magdalene—Part 2: The First Appearance (20:11–18)

In this case Mary was instructed to communicate to the brethren (the nascent Christian community) that the final stage of the lifting up of Jesus was being accomplished. Instead of speaking of the ascent, however, she reported to the disciples: “I have seen the Lord.” Thus concludes the first appearance story in the Gospel of John. It is a detailed, fascinating story of a grieving woman whom the evangelist chooses to be the first one to report as seeing the risen Lord.

Church, we are still doing that. Still taking the good news to places where despair reigns. Where hope is a distant thought. Where people are shut up in hiding thinking all is lost.

That’s the good news of the Gospel, the message of Jesus, the hope of the world!