I have seen the Lord

[0:00] This is one of my favourite readings in the whole Bible and it's amazing to think this! is written by somebody who was right there on that first Sunday when Jesus rose from the! it's breathtaking that we have this translated into our own language that we might read it.

[0:24] ! So reading from John's Gospel, chapter 20, we'll start in verse 1. And before we go, before we do that, let's pray and ask for God to help us to understand what we read. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you and praise you for your words to us this morning, for us in the Bible. And Lord, we do ask that you'd help us to understand what we read.

[0:47] We pray that you'd help us not just understand what it tells us about Jesus, but also help us to understand how we might respond to what we read about Jesus. Father, we pray that you'd open our eyes, open our ears, help us, Lord, to be changed even in our seats as we hear your word to us.

[1:07] in Jesus name, amen. Well, John chapter 20, verse 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.

[1:29] 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.

[1:46] So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped round Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed. They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

[2:40] Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, and the other angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

[2:57] 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.

[3:08] At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

[3:20] He asked her, Woman, why are you crying? Who is it that you're 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. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.

[3:56] Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news.

[4:10] I have seen the Lord. And she told them that he had said these things to her. Now please keep that open as we spend some time looking at it together.

[4:21] Midterm break. It evokes thoughts of joy, a holiday from school, flinging your bag into the cupboard, never to be seen again for a number of days. A happy time, a joyful time, a school holiday time, going off on adventures with friends and siblings and so on. A time of joy.

[4:51] What it brings to my mind is that poem by Seamus Heaney. Seamus Heaney, a famous Irish poet, wrote Midterm Break, a poem. And in the poem, as you read it, you realise that this midterm break for Seamus Heaney was not going to be one of joy. He had been away at boarding school, and he gets the news that his younger brother had been knocked down by a car. And he's called home to the funeral.

[5:21] And so for him, Midterm Break was going to be torn apart by grief and sadness and loss. And if you've read the poem, you'll never forget that last line. A four-foot box, a foot for every year.

[5:38] It must have been a bit like this for Mary as we join her in John's Gospel. I mean, the birds must have been singing that morning. And she must have seen some beautiful things as she journeyed to the tomb. She must have seen a beautiful tree, a beautiful stream, a beautiful mountain maybe.

[6:02] And yet, her world had been torn apart. All this beauty perhaps around her, and yet it seems as though it has all been swallowed up in grief and sadness and loss and death. She's going to the tomb with the other ladies, with spices prepared to put on the body of Jesus, to preserve it and to keep it as long as possible.

[6:33] That's the world she's living in. Moments of beauty maybe, moments of joy, but ultimately she's on this journey towards the grave. A journey of grief and loss and sadness. But as the morning unfolds for Mary, where she ends up is in a place of joy and life and beauty. And the wonderful thing is, as we read this, that we too can make this journey from one world into another world, as we reflect on what John shares with us. And so what we're going to do is simply just think about the world that Mary starts out in that morning, and then think about the world that she ends up in.

[7:25] And we want to join her on that journey. The world she starts out in is a world of darkness. John, as he writes his gospel, he uses images of light and darkness very vividly. So you see in verse one, John draws attention to the fact that it was still dark. Now John isn't like the classic Irish person who is so obsessed with the weather that they have to mention it at every possible moment.

[7:52] But John here is drawing our attention to the fact that it was dark for a reason. And the reason is this, that Mary sees plenty of things and the other disciples see plenty of things. So in verse one, she saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. And in verse five, he bent over and looked in.

[8:14] And in verse six, Simon Peter came along, he saw the strips of linen. And in verse eight, the other disciple also went in, saw and believed. So they're seeing plenty of things.

[8:26] And yet the one thing they can't see is Jesus. There's a darkness there. She and the disciples had been captivated by Jesus. They'd never met anyone like this.

[8:43] He had authority. He had power. He taught people in a way that nobody else had ever taught people. He made sense of the world for them. He made sense of God for them. He made sense of themselves for them.

[9:03] And now that she can't see Jesus, his absence is tangible. It's palpable. It's like she's up to her neck in the absence of Jesus. It's as if she's drowning in his absence. There's a darkness that she cannot see Jesus. And so she is in this world of darkness. And it's not only a world of darkness, it's a world of unknowns. Verse two, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have put him.

[9:38] Verse nine, they still did not understand. Verse 13, they asked her, woman, why are you crying? They've taken my Lord away. She says, and I don't know where they have put him. Verse 15, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him. So she's in this world of darkness. She's in this world of unknowns. She's trying to piece it all together. And there just isn't enough pieces of the puzzle to make sense of it all. She sees the stone rolled away. She sees the empty tomb. She sees the linen cloths. She feels the grief, the sorrow, the tears. And the best fit that she can make sense of all this with is that somebody has taken the body, put it somewhere else. And this just makes it worse for her. The unknown of where the body has been taken.

[10:33] Now that there were countless more unknowns for Mary, how would she go on now that Jesus is dead? How would she be received in the community now that Jesus was dead?

[10:51] So it's a world of darkness, a world of unknowns, and as a result, it's a world of weeping. Verse 11, Mary stood outside the tomb crying as she wept. Verse 13, woman, why are you crying? Verse 15, woman, why are you crying? And the reason she's crying is not because she's weak. I mean, she's on her way to a tomb in the dark to put spices on a dead body. She's strong and not squeamish like I would be. And not only is she on the way to a tomb, she's on the way to the tomb of public enemy number one, of number one enemy of the Roman government, of number one enemy of the religious leaders. This is the tomb she's on the way to. She is strong and yet she is weeping because she is living in a world of darkness now, of unknowns, of uncertainty. And she's weeping because she takes life seriously.

[12:02] She takes relationships seriously. She takes death seriously. She has known Jesus' love for her and she has loved him. And this is why she's weeping. There's that quote from C.S. Lewis. He says, if you want to make sure of keeping your heart intact, you must give it to no one. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries. Avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change.

[12:42] It will not be broken. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. And Mary has loved Jesus. And now in her vulnerability, she weeps in this world of darkness and unanswered questions. It's as if she's shining a flashlight around the different pieces of this world that she now inhabits. And she can't see how it all fits together anymore without Jesus, in the absence of Jesus. And you know, we inhabit the same world as Mary.

[13:23] We inhabit a world of darkness. We inhabit a world of unknowns. There is lots of beauty. There is lots of joy. But ultimately, it feels at times as though the darkness and the unknowns and the weeping will win.

[13:43] And we comfort ourselves. I comfort myself sometimes by thinking, I do know. I know what the future holds. I know how things will turn out. I know my own heart and my own mind.

[13:56] And then in my clearer moments, I realize, I don't know those things at all. I don't even know what this afternoon will bring. And it's sometimes when we journey to a graveside, as Mary was doing on that first morning, that it dawns on us, the darkness and the unknowns of this world. And the grief just pours into us.

[14:22] Another poem. This is Emily Dickinson. The saddest noise, the sweetest noise, the maddest noise that grows.

[14:39] The birds. They make it in the spring at night's delicious clothes. It makes us think of all the dead that sauntered with us here by separation sorcery made cruelly more dear. It makes us think of what we had and what we now deplore. We almost wish those siren throats would go and sing no more. In the darkness and the unknowns that Mary was experiencing that moment, it was mocking all the joy and beauty of the world around her. And this is the world that she was inhabiting. And this is the world that we inhabit without Jesus.

[15:29] But that's not where she stays. She moves into another world. She moves into a world not of darkness, but of seeing. Verse 12, she saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. Now, she didn't see angels that often. In fact, maybe she'd never seen an angel before. This wasn't commonplace for them any more than it is for us. But it's undeniable that she saw two angels. And then she sees in verse 14, Jesus standing there as she turns around.

[16:15] He's not lying down. He's not wrapped in linen cloths. He's not breathless. He's not lifeless. He's not dead. He's standing there alive and well. On the cross, his breath had become air, to borrow a phrase, and now the air had become breath again in Jesus' lungs. And so Mary now is in a world of seeing, a world of understanding. In verse 15, she still isn't sure what's going on. Thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.

[16:51] How she's going to get him, we don't know, given that he's a fully grown man. But that's her heart, her courage, her strength. She enters into this world of understanding, though, in verse 16, when Jesus says to her, Mary. Jesus had already told his followers that my sheep hear my voice. I call them by name. And as Jesus calls Mary by name, suddenly, she understands. Verse 16, she turns towards him and cries out, Rabboni, which means teacher.

[17:38] Zach Eswine helped me to understand this. Why does Mary call him teacher in that moment? I mean, surely there was something better she could have thought of to say. But actually, it's perfect, because she has been in a world not understanding. And what do teachers do? They bring understanding.

[18:01] They make sense of the things that we don't know. And as Mary encounters the risen Jesus, and as he calls her by name, suddenly, understanding dawns on her. He is the one now who is going to make sense of all the pieces of the puzzle, the empty tomb, the stone rolled away, the linen cloths, and not only the pieces of that puzzle, but the pieces of the puzzle of her whole life, of her eternity.

[18:31] She now is no longer inhabiting a world of darkness and not understanding. She has moved into this world of seeing and understanding. And you wonder, is she still weeping? Verse 18, Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, I have seen the Lord. And I love to imagine, did she take a deep breath, before she walked in with this news? Did she wait for a pause in their conversation before she conveyed this?

[19:10] Peter and John just chatting to each other about the latest soccer match, and she's just sitting there quietly thinking, wait till they hear this. Or did she just burst in and not care about who she interrupted?

[19:25] And what they were saying, I think was the latter. And I think she was probably still weeping, but it was not tears of sadness, it was tears of joy. He is alive! I have seen the Lord!

[19:40] She must have been overcome with emotion. Because of course this changes everything.

[19:54] The fact that Jesus is risen changes everything, not just for Mary, but for everyone. Verse 17, Jesus says, And when you read that, initially you think, is Jesus kind of being a bit distant from Mary here?

[20:22] He's just called her by name, and now he's like, well, I'm going to move on to better things. Not at all. The resurrection of Jesus is like this stone dropped into a pool, and the ripples of this are going to be unstoppable. And the ripples are beginning right there.

[20:41] Jesus is saying, Mary, this is big news. It's big news for you, but it's big news for my brothers as well. We need to get the word out. And so he sends her to tell them that she has seen the Lord.

[20:58] And of course it's not just big news for those first century followers of Jesus. It's big news for us. The fact that Jesus is risen brings us from a world of darkness and not understanding and not seeing and weeping and weeping into a world of seeing and understanding and light and life and weeping tears of joy.

[21:33] Because Jesus is risen. Death has been defeated. He's won. Death has been defeated by Jesus.

[21:43] Death has been defeated for us. He's done this for us. He's done this on our behalf.

[21:56] Not only that, because Jesus is risen, we are his forever. Jesus had said to his followers that he calls his sheep by name.

[22:09] He's been defeated. He's been defeated by name. He's been defeated by name. He's been defeated by name. He's been defeated by name. But if they're only following him to the grave, then that's not much hope. That's not much consolation or comfort.

[22:23] But now that he has gone through the grave, it means he calls us by name forever and ever. As he speaks to us through his word and by the power of his spirit.

[22:39] You know this, don't you? It's not an audible voice. But you know when he speaks to you through his scriptures by the power of his spirit.

[22:51] He may as well be in the room with you. The fact that Jesus is risen changes everything.

[23:02] Because death has been defeated, what does that mean? Well, it means that sin has been dealt with. The apostle Paul says that the wages of sin is death.

[23:17] So you sin and what you get paid for that is death. So you clock in at the sin factory and at the end of the week, what you get paid is death.

[23:29] But now that death has been defeated for us, that means also that sin has been dealt with. The war is over between us and God. For all who cling to Jesus, who hold on to Jesus, who devote themselves to Jesus as Mary did.

[23:48] The war is over between us and God and between God and us. Look at what Jesus says in verse 21 when he meets the other disciples. Sorry, verse 19, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

[24:04] In verse 21, again Jesus said, Peace be with you. Again in verse 26, Jesus stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

[24:16] Now that's not because Jesus isn't very inventive when it comes to saying hello to people. That's because he's proclaiming to them the profound peace that he has brought about through his death and resurrection.

[24:31] Peace between them and God and God and them. Peace between us and God and God and us. That for those who see Jesus as he is, who trust that he is risen, that he is who he claims to be.

[24:48] That we have peace with God. A peace that will last forever. A peace that will last forever. A peace that will last forever. And what you start to realize as you dwell on the world that Mary was in and the world that she's now in.

[25:10] And if you trust Jesus, the world that you were in and the world that you're now in. Is that the second world is actually more real than the first.

[25:24] Because in the first world it was death. And dying and tears and sadness and darkness and grief and not understanding.

[25:36] And all those things are passing away. It's as if we're on a train pulling out of the station. And we see all these things standing on the platform and they're just passing away.

[25:47] And the world that Jesus has established and has brought us into. Is a world of life and goodness.

[25:59] Where tears are wiped away. Where sadness and sickness and death is no more. And that world is far more real.

[26:10] Far more concrete. Far more lasting. Far more lasting. Now we still have a foot in this world. We still suffer.

[26:21] We still grieve. We still shed tears at the gravesides of family and friends. And rightly so. And yet what Jesus has done through his death and resurrection.

[26:36] Is put one of our feet. In this new world that he has established and is making. And one day we will inhabit there.

[26:47] Fully. Perfectly. Forever. Because Jesus is alive. We see that. We know that. We rejoice in that. We have peace in that.

[26:58] And as Jesus says. To Thomas. Because you have seen me. You have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen.

[27:11] And yet have believed. And so we rejoice. Jesus is alive. Praise the Lord. And let's take a moment to pray.

[27:22] Father help us to get our heads and our hearts around what you have said to us in your word. Lord help us to know that what Jesus has done has the most profound consequences for this world.

[27:42] And for us. Lord help us to cling to him. To trust him. To see him. To know him more and more as he speaks to us through your scriptures.

[27:55] Father we rejoice that what Jesus has done is exactly what we long for. Exactly what we need. Lord to overcome sin and death.

[28:07] That we might forever live with you. In perfect peace. And joy. Lord we look forward to that. And we praise you in Jesus name.

[28:18] Amen. Amen.