He Is Risen

Welcome to Easter Sunday service. I am so glad that we can be here together and that this year not only were we able to have online services but we were able to meet in person. What a year it has been and I am so thankfully for where we are at now and it is. Easter sunday is always an interesting one because it becomes for many preachers what do you preach on. Do you stick with the traditional passages and try to find a new spin on it? Do you go outside the traditional passages? So many variables and things to think about when preparing. As i thought about it an idea came to my head what Easter Sunday becomes and it isn’t a bad thing.

Greatest Hits

I remember buying my first album of greatest hits. I remember getting into music that my friends would listen to at our gatherings and a lot of it was some classic rock from the 70s and 80s. It wasn’t your typical music you would have heard. So as i was listening to this i remember going and buying a couple of CDs of the bands. As i was shopping i was trying to decide what albums to get. This was the moment that i first found out about greatest hits albums. They really are an amazing thing. It is a great way to introduce yourself to a band and enjoy some of their best songs. Now i know some people that would say that you are missing out on so much more, but at the end of the day greatest hits are greatest hits for a reason. These are the songs you always go to because they are just great.

It was this that got me thinking about this message and realized there is nothing wrong with doing the greatest hits and preaching from familiar passages and being reminded of why we have the faith that we have and why we believe what we believe. We can see it in new ways and in fresh ways and even if it isn’t we can still enjoy being reminded of the amazing stories that are in the Bible.

The Empty Tomb

This is by far one of the greatest hits that we have in our faith. The very idea of the empty tomb is what gives us hope and helps us look to the future. This is where it all becomes real for us because it is in the Resurrection of Jesus that we place our hope for our salvation. Let’s look at the scriptures together.

John 20:1–9 NIV

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

The Empty Tomb

One of the first things that stands out to me when i read this passage is that it is still dark when Mary is heading to the tomb. This is particularly interesting because not that different than today the idea of a women walking alone in the dark in a place that crime wasn’t uncommon (the graveyard) is amazing. Now the different gospels present this slightly differently and more than likely Mary wasn’t alone. In fact some commentators wonder if this was Johns way of reflecting not only on the actual time of day but the place that Mary was at emotional. That her life is in a state of darkness because she had lost her Lord.

Then she walks up upon the tomb and the stone is rolled away and i imagine her heart was racing and she was panicked because she knew what that ment. Unfortunately Graves robbery wasn’t uncommon in that day. Actually it had become so bad that Emperor Claudius had to raise the punishment of graver robbery to a capital crime. In fact you could even get it for just disturbing the stone that was blocking the tomb. This was the state though that Mary found the tomb and she knew that she needed to Get Peter and John.

When they return we have this nice little side note that always makes me laugh because John notes that he was able to beat Peter to the tomb. Yet, though he arrived first he didn’t enter the tomb he just looked in to verify that Jesus body was gone. Peter who was coming behind him as was typical of Peter went right in and he saw the strips of linen lying there. They also noticed that the cloth that would have been around Jesus head was folded up and laying there. It is at this point that John also enters and sees the same things.

A couple of interesting things to notice in this is that the linens and the cloth were still there. This is what marks this Resurrection as different. When we look back to when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead Lazarus came out with the strips of linen still on him.

John 11:44 NIV

44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

The linens and the cloth were still there. This suggests that something totally different and even more majestic happened with Jesus. Its amazing to me because it marks such a vast difference. Jesus was completely removed from the signs of death. He didn’t exit the tomb still wearing the clothes of death. Instead he is free of all of those things and they remain in the tomb.

The other point that stands out is something curious about John.

John 20:8 NIV

8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

John saw that the tomb was empty and that the linens remained and he believed. We see here that John starts to gain faith. He knew that something was happening. I honestly look at this and i think that John knew that something was going on and he believed that something miraculous had happen. He knew in his heart that something was going on and he knew that he had to have faith in who Jesus was. I do think though that he did not know exactly what was happening.

This story is amazing because it helps us see what it was like in those first hours of Jesus Resurrection and the fact that so much uncertainty was going on and what was happening. We have to follow it though with one of the greatest stories connected to the ressurection in my opinion.

John 20:10–18 NIV

10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Jesus Appears to Mary

It is in this story that we capture a moment that always speaks to my heart. Mary is crying she is broken because her Lord has been taken away. She is in tears because she is afraid of what has happened. Even when she sees two angels sitting in the tomb she still hasn’t full accepted or seen what has happened or is happening in the moment. Then she encounters who she thought was the gardener. Still crying she doesn’t recognize who she is talking to until he does one thing.

It wasn’t until he said her name that she recognized who he was. It is in the personal recognition that Mary realizes who she is looking at. That in that moment of tenderness that Mary realizes that Jesus has risen and that he is standing before her.

This moment makes me think to my own moments of those personal experiences of faith that i resonate with tis moment of Jesus calling out her name that i realize what this means. IT is in these moments that we can connect to the fact that we have a God who knows who we are personally and not just as a some distant being. He calls our name and in it we can recognize him. It is a beautiful moment.

It is such an amazing moment that Mary runs back to share the good news with the disciples of what she has seen.

We likewise must be reminded that joy and that passion of knowing that Jesus is our savior that we have to share it with those we know. It is a reminder that days like Easter can be seen just as a day we live out our greatest hits or it can be a day to remind us of who our savior is that he came died on a cross and rose from the grave, and that he wants to have a relationship with us. This is something to celebrate not just today but everyday.

Let’s Pray.