Looking for Life in all the wrong places

Luke 24:1–7 CSB

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 They went in but did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothes. 5 So the women were terrified and bowed down to the ground. “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” asked the men. 6 “He is not here, but he has risen! Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, 7 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’

Intro

One of the first things i notice in this passage is how the followers of Jesus have such a hard time remembering and trusting what Jesus told them. He has told them multiple times what was going to happen to him. And then they are completely shocked when he does what he said he would do. But this is nothing new, we see this throughout their time following Jesus. However, by now you would think that they would have learned their lesson. I mean especially Peter who just had a conversation about how he would never deny Christ, and Jesus tells him “oh but you will” and then Jesus is right. Or like that other time when Jesus tells them to get into a boat and says “we are going to the other side” but then think they are going to die in the storm. We even read this story today and think “how did you not know he would rise again? He literally told you this would happen?”. How often do we live in disappointment and despair simply because we can’t pallet the truth of what he has said? Or because we have created our own reality of what he has said? The result is we cling to the circumstance more than his promise and it leads us to looking for him in a place that he already said he would not be.

Don’t look here

The Bible tells us that they were preparing to go tend to what they thought was a dead Jesus. They had just watched the one they loved so dearly die a brutal death. They saw the one who raised the dead, die. The one who healed many others, who saved many, not save himself. They witnessed the one who they put all their hope and trust in leave them. Perhaps it wasn’t that they forgot about what he said but rather the trauma of what they witnessed and experienced killed their faith in what he said. They show up to the tomb to tend to this body of Jesus but instead are met by angels, and an empty tomb. Even in John’s account they thought he might have even been stolen or moved. They went looking for comfort, hope and life for their own souls at a tomb but found something greater.

Can we first talk about the fact that they were trying to find comfort in a grave yard? I understand that even today people go visit the gravesite of the loved ones they have lost as a way to remember the life they lived and the memories they shared. But if we can look at this on a spiritual level, why is it that so many people go to dead places to find some life? I’m not talking about visiting the loved one you lost, I am talking about we go to places that only contain death, we do things that only take life in an attempt to find life. You will never find life in a tomb! And you certainly won’t find Jesus in those places.

Jesus came to defeat death not lead us to it. He came to defeat sin not comfort us in it. He came that you could have life and life more abundantly (John 10:10). Stop looking for Jesus who is “the way, the truth and THE LIFE”, in places that only contain death. You will never find what you are looking for in a tomb. Whether you realize it today or not, that thing you are searching for that you don’t quite know what it is, its Jesus. its life, hope and purpose that only he can provide. And its not in a grave!

So why do we miss him so often?

John gives us a deeper look at what happens that resurrection Sunday. He takes a deep dive into the experience of Mary.

John 20:11–18 CSB

11 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.

She was blinded by grief

When Jesus called her name then she realized it was him

So what?

Colossians 2:12–15 CSB

12 when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.

Romans 8:11 ESV

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.