PAGE 1 Text: John 20.1-18 April 15/16, 2017 St Stephen s Easter Weekend The First Witness A very blessed Easter to you all! I have a special story for you today, the story of the first witness to Christ s resurrection; you will love it, because it is not only her story, but it is your story, too. And it is the story of the risen Lord. Her name is Mary. There are a lot of Mary s in the pages of the New Testament; this is the Mary from the village of Magdala, Mary Magdalene. We catch sight of her several times in the gospel, and I want to visit three of those moments. The first happens two years earlier when we meet her. Haunted by Demons He went on through cities and villages, bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Mag'dalene, from whom seven demons had gone out and many others, who provided for them out of their means. Luke 8:1-3 Luke introduces us to Mary by telling us that she was among a group of women who had been healed by Jesus, who then travelled in a large group, and provided for the needs of Jesus and his disciples. They were supporters and partners in his ministry. So Mary probably was a woman of means, likely born into a wealthy family. If that was an upside to Mary s background, there was a downside. Luke tells us that she was a woman who had been possessed by many demons. This was a woman in deep trouble. I don t want to spend too much time on that, but I need to make a comment. Demons are real. They are angels gone bad, able to influence people like us and, sometimes, to possess us. The effects are always disastrous. I have had my own share of difficulties with the
PAGE 2 demonic over my life and ministry, and I think there is a rising presence of demonic activity in our own culture. There is much I don't understand about demons, and some things that I do... but we do well neither to overestimate them nor to underestimate them. We are told Jesus cast the demons out from her. What no earthly power or compassion had been able to do, he had done. She was freed from the darkness, from the haunting, the anguish, the suffering of an evil beyond control. What a wonderful day that must have been! She had her life back, was "clothed in her right mind"; the shame and torment were gone! GONE! He had given her sanity, love, worth and dignity. From that hour on Mary had a loyal love for Jesus; he was her life. She was safe when she was near him, so she would stay close and serve him, and supply his ministry, and she and other women did that for about 2 full years. Isn t that something like what you do, too? Crushed at the Cross Our second moment with Mary comes at the cross. Matthew says: "Many women were there, watching from a distance. Among them was Mary Magdalene..." Matt 27:55,56 All the men fled, but she stayed. She saw the soldiers nail him to the cross and lift him up. She watched as they gambled for his clothes. She heard the taunts and heard probably some of his words. She watched as they thrust a spear into his side at the end, and then later as his body was taken down. It was the worst day of her life. Pilate gave his body to two secret believers, Joseph and Nicodemus, who wrapped his body in spices and linens, laid him in his tomb, rolled the great stone across the entrance and departed late at night. Matthew's account of the evening closes with these words: "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb" It would be hard for Mary to leave; I wonder how long she stayed!
PAGE 3 For years she had been near him - all the way up through Galilee, back down to Jerusalem and then through his suffering and his brutal death. She was there. When they took him down and laid him in the tomb, she was there. The question must have come to her as she saw him wrapped and buried... was she safe? Would the demons return? Would the tormenting begin again? Would the voices come back? Standing next to his dead body seemed to be the safest place in a world that was not safe at all any more. Much later in that darkest of nights, Mary would take a heart-broken, hopeless walk home. By early morning, the soldiers had sealed the grave, and all day Saturday was the Sabbath - we are told the women rested, and wept, and waited. Astounded at the Tomb And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and others bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. Mark 16:1 Our third episode comes on Easter morning. Just after sunrise, the women came back to the grave to complete his burial. But the stone was rolled away, and the body was gone. She had only left him for a little while, and now even his body had been taken from her! What would they do to him now? Throw him in the garbage or hang him up in the city as a warning? Romans did those kind of things. It was more than she could bear! When she thought this couldn't get worse, it did. John tells us She ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." John 20:2 John and Peter ran back to the tomb and Mary followed. They saw the grave clothes laid out in order, as though he had passed right through them. But they had no sight of Jesus. They were startled, and left to tell the others the tomb was open and empty. Mary
PAGE 4 arrives shortly after that, and John tells us Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb John 20:11 She saw two men who would prove to be two angels... They asked her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" "They have taken away my Lord," she said, "and I don't know where they have laid him." Then we are told, "she turned round" - maybe alerted by the faces of the angels. I suspect that a sudden look of reverence and awe came over them as they saw someone approach Mary from behind. She turns, and another man gently asks her the same question... "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" In the midst of tears and despair and early morning darkness, she thought he was the gardener... "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." It was not the gardener. Knowing exactly the love in her broken heart, Jesus calls her name... "Mary!" Then she knew... beyond all hope it is he himself!! Alive from the dead! Speechless with joy, she says, "My master!" and drops to grasp his feet... tight!! After a brief conversation he tells her... Go to my brothers and tell them Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord! John 20.17,18 Isn t it amazing that he first appeared to Mary Magdalene? When he rose from the dead, he could have gone straight to the door of Pontius Pilate and dragged him out of bed! Look me in the eyes! But he didn t. He had more important people to see... When he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. Mark 16:9
PAGE 5 I close with two Easter thoughts: The Reality of the Risen Lord We like to spend time on Easter weekends going over the hard evidence for the resurrection. It is important because we live in a culture that is now disconnected from the events we celebrate here today. It is important that you have confidence that the resurrection of Jesus is not just opinion or a wishful thought or a pious legend, but historical happened in history fact. If you are not confident of this, you will drift with the culture. So let s quickly look at the evidence. Mary Herself is a compelling part of that evidence. The evidence always falls into three buckets: The Events: Jesus was certainly dead and the tomb was certainly empty. No serious historian disputes that. The Eyewitnesses: By the end of the day the Lord had appeared once, then twice, then more the reports were coming in, and then at the end of the day behind locked doors he appears to the disciples and others. Over the next 40 days, Jesus appeared about a dozen different times to hundreds of his followers. They saw him, touched him, talked with him, ate with him. The details are specific, graphic and clearly designed by the Lord to remove all doubt. He wanted them to be certain. He wants you to be certain. There will be no greater help to you than taking up you Bible and reading the resurrection accounts for yourself. We have copies of the Gospel of John for you today. I hope you will take one with you and read it carefully. Mary herself is the first of the eyewitnesses. That by itself is another compelling piece of evidence for the accuracy of the accounts. If someone had wanted to make up a convincing work of fiction, they would never have made Mary the first witness, not in a patriarchal culture where women were not even allowed to be witnesses in civic events. Not in a hardened culture where people with personal disorders of any kind were moved to the
PAGE 6 margins. No fiction writer would take a demonized woman and make her the lead witness to the resurrection. But Jesus did. The only reason it is written this way is because it happened this way. The Martyrs: The eyewitnesses of his resurrection would go to the far corners of the Roman empire bringing the good news to a dark world. Almost all of them met sharp opposition, hardship and even death but with courage and joy. We call them Martyrs. There have been more martyrs in this last century than in the first 19 centuries combined. These men and women bear witness to a different kind of life, an eternal kind of life. They had lost their fear of death. No one would do that for a hoax. No one could do that for a hoax. Thousands and thousands of people have done exactly that for the truth. The witness of the martyrs turned the Roman world upside down. The evidence is clear and compelling: the crucified Lord Jesus is Risen from the dead! My second Easter thought is the The Tender Power of the Risen Lord I think Jesus comes to Mary first because her heart is broken, and she is at risk, on the edge of a return to the darkness. He is like the physician walking through the emergency room in a war zone going straight to the ones who are in greatest danger. He comes first to Mary. Look how tender Jesus is with her! Why are you crying? Who are you looking for? He has no hint of rebuke, not for her, nor for all his disciples who deserted him - just gentleness and compassion. He calls her by name, Mary Mary! That was when she knew that it was he, not a stranger. She knew the sound of her name on his lips. He had said that he calls his sheep by name, and His sheep know his voice. You love it when people remember your name. It means they have spent time thinking about you, maybe even praying for you. It means you are on their heart.
PAGE 7 When someone you admire greatly and love deeply calls you by name it lifts you and moves you, and maybe even points you in a new direction. This is all that and much more. Mary is the first one, ever, to stand in the presence of the crucified and risen Christ. When she laid her eyes on him, in that single moment, history has changed course. Before her stands the one who has carried sin, her sin, our sin, and conquered death, her death, our death. Human history moves from BC to AD right at this moment. Never again does human brokenness or demonic haunting or bodily decay have to be the last word on a human life. Christ has risen! Mary will know as well, instinctively in her heart if not yet clearly in her mind - that all through the last days, through his suffering and death, through his resurrection, she has been on his heart. Her name is first on his lips when he rises from the tomb. Jesus names her with her old name, but now it is a new name, spoken with new life. Mary, he says, I have suffered and died for you, I have risen for you. The old is life gone, new life has come. He gives her that kind of name, that kind of life. We live in a culture that is obsessed with identity, and moderns tend to believe that identity comes by naming ourselves and branding ourselves and asserting ourselves. And if we get bored with that identity, we will reinvent ourselves and rename ourselves. We are free, we think, to change our bodies or change our genders. We will change more than that in decades ahead. It is a technological and shallow and destructive solution to a very real problem. We need to find a new kind of life, and everyone is looking. What we need is someone above us, far above us who has lived among us, walked with us, born our griefs and carried our sorrows - who loves us, knows us, who has us on his heart, our names on his lips, who can heal us, and give us the kind of life we
PAGE 8 long for and look for. That someone, that man rose from the dead 2000 years ago. When you are called by name by the risen Christ, it alters the course of your life, the kind of your life. He has come back from the dead for you, too, and he has your name on his lips today. Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord has risen indeed!!