To download the text and/or audio file for this week's sermon, please go to the "Sermon Archive" page and follow the instructions you'll find there.

For a study guide to prepare for next week's sermon, please click HERE

The First Words of the Risen ChRist

April 8, 2007 – Easter Sunday

Pastor Bob Sanders

During the past few weeks we’ve been preaching a series of messages on the seven last words of Christ.  Each week we’ve gathered at the foot of the cross and listened to one of the final words of our Lord as he hung and died there.  But today is Easter.  Today we gather not at the cross but at the empty tomb.  Our Scripture reading is from John chapter 20, and we listen this morning not to last words but to first words: the first words of the risen Christ:

John 20:1-18

1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So 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.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Mary Magdalene

One of the reasons why I believe in the historicity of the Easter story as recorded in the Gospels is because of the people who were there to see and hear it – especially people like Mary Magdalene.  If you and I were making up this story to convince folks in the first century that Jesus rose from the dead, we’d have him appear to important people like Pilate the Roman governor or Caiaphas the high priest – influential people, reliable people.  The last person we’d want would be a woman (at that time women weren’t considered reliable witnesses) – and certainly not a mentally unstable woman or a morally questionable woman. 

But that’s who John calls as his first witness.  Meet Mary Magdalene.  Who is she?  In Luke chapter eight we’re told she was part of Jesus’ ministry team – that is, she and number of other women traveled with Jesus and his disciples and helped support his ministry out their own means. 1  We’re told that at one point Jesus cast out seven demons from her.  And we’re also told where she came from.  She’s called Magdalene because she came from Magdala, a resort town on the western shore of Galilee noted for its luxury and its immorality.  To be called Magdalene was no compliment, and there is a long tradition that says Mary Magdalene had been a prostitute.  We can’t be sure of that, and a lot has been written about Mary that is absolutely untrue (The Da Vinci Code being but the latest example).  What do know is that Mary came out of a very painful past.  We know she was a broken person, and we know Jesus put her life back together. 

Now, on this first Easter, she comes to the tomb and sees the stone has been removed.  She tells Peter and John about it, and they run to the tomb and look inside and see the graveclothes are still there, and they begin to think, “Why would anyone steal a body and leave the graveclothes?  You don’t suppose…”  But then they give up and go home, and Mary is left outside the tomb.

That’s where she meets the risen Lord.  And Jesus says three things to her – three powerful first words from the risen Christ.  First, Jesus finds her and says, “Woman why are you weeping?”  Second, he calls her by name: “Mary.”  And third, he commissions her – that is, he sends her on a mission: “Go to my brothers and say to them I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”  I want us to look carefully at those three words because we learn a lot from them about the risen Christ.  And because this same risen Christ is here today.  He wants to find you.  He wants to call you by name.  He wants to send you, to use you.  Look at this with me.

The First Word

First, Jesus finds Mary.  And that’s important, because unless Jesus found her, she’d never have found him.  In fact, when we look carefully at this story we see Mary missed all the clues about Jesus’ resurrection.  First, there was the empty tomb itself and the graveclothes.  That’s a pretty strong clue.  And then, second, she looked inside the tomb and saw these two angels in white, who ask her “Woman, why are you weeping?” and all she can say is, “They’ve taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve laid him.”

Angels in white!  Divine messengers!  Mary, don’t you get it?  Nope.  And then, third, it says, “She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she didn’t know it was Jesus.  And he said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?  Who are you looking for?’” 

It’s Jesus himself, but she thinks it’s the gardener, the caretaker of the cemetery.  Mary blows through three sets of signals – three stop signs that say “Hold it!  He is risen!”  But she doesn’t get it.  She believes in Jesus in general, but she doesn’t yet believe the main message, which is that He died and rose again.  She can’t see it.  She is absolutely certain he couldn’t be resurrected and she figures the body must still be around here somewhere. 

What this first word from the risen Christ tells us is that, like Mary, we can never find Jesus on our own, no matter how many clues we get.  We can never believe in Jesus on our own.  We always have to have help.  The risen Christ has to find us first.  Mary had all these clues – to say nothing of all the times Jesus had told the disciples and his traveling companions like Mary that he would rise from the dead.  And after all these predictions and all these clues, when she finds the tomb empty on Easter morning does she say, “He’s done it”?  No, she says, “They’ve taken him away – where’s the body?”  

We don’t find Jesus on our own.  He finds us.  Mary didn’t find him.  Jesus found her, and only then did she discover the truth about him.  Some of you are trying to find him.  Some of you are searching for a genuine, transforming relationship with the real Jesus.  And that’s good, but you need to know that left to ourselves, we’ll never get there.  Left to ourselves, we’re clueless.  There’s this thick impenetrable spiritual obtuseness around our hearts and minds.  You can see it here in Mary, and it’s true for you and me as well.  Jesus has to find us.  And the good news in this first word is – that’s exactly what he wants to do.  He finds us before we find him.  He reaches out to us so that we might take hold of him. 

You may think you’re here this morning because you chose to come (or because your spouse chose and you sensibly agreed).  I suggest there’s something deeper at work.  I suggest you’re here because the risen Christ wants you here and somehow – whether through your own preference or that of the person next to you – he led you here.  The risen Christ has found you, and he’s asking, “Who are you looking for?”  Some of you have been searching a long time.  Some of you have been running around for years saying, “I don’t where he is.”  Don’t worry.  He knows where you are.  He’ll find you.

Those of us who are believers need to see how this speaks to us too.  Mary is standing at the place of the greatest victory in the history of the world.  But she reads it as a defeat.  It’s the most glorious moment of all time.  But Mary sees it as a disaster.  Can you see any of that in your life?  Are you running around forgetting his promises, just like she is?  Are you desperate because you can’t see what he’s doing, just like she is? 

You’re treating him like the enemy.  Mary thought Jesus was the enemy.  She looked around and couldn’t see anything that was going right.  And maybe that’s how it is for you.  But if things seem to be going desperately wrong, if you feel alone, it’s not because God isn’t there.  It’s not because he’s abandoned you.  It’s because you can’t see him.  Like Mary, you’re reading things through the eyes of unbelief.  You’re running around thinking everything is falling apart and God has abandoned you and there are enemies all around.  But in fact his messengers are there (you’re just not hearing them).  He’s working (you’re just not seeing it).  Mary missed it.  But Jesus broke through.  Whether we’re seeking to find him or struggling to follow him, Jesus finds us.

The Second Word

That’s the first word.  Then comes the second word – Jesus calls her by name.  She’s clueless, but he breaks through with just one word: “Mary.” 

Notice she didn’t recognize him when he first spoke to her.  She didn’t know it was Jesus when he called to her and said “Woman…”  That’s because in all the years they’d been together, in all the times she’d heard him speak, she’d never heard him talk to her like that: “Woman…”  She didn’t recognize him because he never treated her impersonally or as an object.  But as soon as he says “Mary” she knows who it is.  She’s heard him say her name thousands of times. 2  And she answers, “Rabbouni (Teacher).” 

Of all the people in the world Jesus could have appeared to, he chose Mary.  Why her?  Look at this.  The risen Christ appears to a woman, not a man.  To a reformed prostitute, a mental patient, not a pillar of the community.  To an uneducated lay person, not a trained professional.  Why?  Why does he reveal himself to her, why call her by name? 

The answer is grace – amazing grace.  Mary is on the outside of every category you could come up with.  She’s a woman, not a man.  She’s poor, not middle class.  She’s deranged, not sane.  She’s immoral, not righteous.  But Christ chooses her.  Christ calls her by name.

This is the Gospel.  The Gospel says God’s salvation does not come on the basis of merit or gender or pedigree or socioeconomic status.  The Gospel does not say that the good are in and the bad are out, but rather that the humble are in and the proud are out.  The Gospel doesn’t say you give God a perfect record and you’ll be saved, but that God gives you a perfect record because of what Jesus has done for you on the cross. 

And this is what this second word is all about.  Jesus calls her by name so that the rest of us, Marys and non-Marys alike, will get it.  In sheer grace, the risen Christ calls us by name, no matter who we are or what we’ve been.  You may think you’re outside the reach of that grace.  Think again.  You may think you’re too bad, too weak, too afraid, too full of doubt, too lost, too broken.  Think again.  Jesus knows who you are and everything you’ve ever been or said or done.  He’s looking to find you, and what’s more, he’s calling you by name.  “Mary … Michael … Jim … Janet … Dorothy … David … (your name).”  It’s not who you think you are or aren’t that matters.  What matters is that he loves you and he’s calling you.  As Craig Barnes says in the quote on your bulletin cover: “There’s a risen Savior on the loose.  And He knows our names.” 3

The Third Word

The first word is when Jesus finds her.  The second word is when he calls her by name.  And the third word is when he commissions her for ministry.  He has special work for her to do, work for which she is uniquely qualified. 

Now, I want to show you something: this Mary Magdalene is one gutsy woman.  Why is she there at the tomb when everybody else is gone?  A lot of commentators say she’s there because she’s so emotionally wiped out she can’t leave.  Her eyes were so full of tears she couldn’t recognize the angels or see it was Jesus and not the gardener.  In other words, she was hysterical. 

Wrong.  Mary is made of tougher stuff than that.  Look at what happens when she sees the angels.  In the Bible whenever people meet an angel they panic.  They hit the dirt because angels are awesome, terrifying beings.  But when Mary sees these angels and they ask her a direct question, she goes by them without blinking an eye.  “I’m looking for Jesus,” she says.  Other people freak, but not Mary. 

What about when Jesus appears and she thinks he’s the gardener?  The fact is, almost nobody recognized the risen Jesus at first.  He was the same, but somehow he looked different.  It’s like when you meet somebody you haven’t seen for 25 years and you have to look for a moment, and then say, “Oh, it’s you.”  They had to look for a while to recognize Jesus.  But for Mary it had nothing to do with being hysterical.  She thinks he’s the gardener and she figures no one could have gotten in and stolen the body without this guy knowing it.  So she says to him, “Sir…”  (she’s very focused).  “Sir, if I personally have to go and find the dead, swollen, stinking corpse of my Lord and pick it up myself, I’ll do it.  Now where is he?” 

This is a woman of strength, I tell you.  She’s relentless.  She’s a laser beam, a drill.  She’s going to get through anything.  “Angels, shmangels.  Where’s my Lord?  Gardener?  I don’t care.  Where have you put him?”

Why is she there when everybody else has gone?  It’s simple.  Jesus said in Luke chapter seven that the one who’s forgiven much loves much. 4  That’s Mary.  She loved him more than anybody else.  She knew she was sinner.  She knew she was broken.  She knew how big her debt was.  And Jesus had forgiven her and given her a new life.  That’s why she’s here.  Don’t write Mary off as a ditsy female.  She’s a lot tougher than the men in this story, and she’s here not out of hysteria, but out of love and gratitude for what Jesus has done for her. 

And that’s why the Lord can use her.  Look what happens.  When Jesus called her name she must have grabbed him because he says, “Don’t hold on to me.”  In some translations it’s “Don’t cling to me.”  Why does he say that?  It’s because when Mary says, “Rabbouni!” she’s seeing Jesus the way he used to be.  She thinks she’s getting the old Jesus back.  When Jesus says, “Don’t hold on to me” he’s saying, “No, Mary.  I’m not going back to the past.  I’m ascending to the Father, where I’ll be available not just to you, but to everyone, everywhere, for all time.  Don’t hold on to me, Mary, because I have a job for you.” 

And look what he says: “Go to my brothers…”  (I love that.  Not, “Go to those miserable deserters,” but “my brothers.”  Grace again.)  Go to them, Jesus tells Mary, and tell them what you’ve seen and heard: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” 

Do you see it?  The risen Christ commissions her – Mary Magdalene, for crying out loud – with all her baggage and with all her intensity, with all her gratitude and love.  She’s the one Christ sends to preach the first Easter sermon.  Verse 18 says she did it.  She “went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord.’”  No wonder St. Augustine called Mary Magdalene “the apostle to the apostles.” 

Listen.  It’s the Marys of the world God uses to make a difference – the men and women who know the depth of their sin, who know that they’re broken.  They been forgiven much, and as a result they love much.  They are the ones the Lord uses.  Not the nominally religious folks who show up out of a dull sense of duty, but the people who stay out of love, the people who can’t get over what a difference Jesus has made in their lives.  People like many of you – people who’ve met the risen Christ, heard him call you by name.  People like you who are willing to tell your story, willing to say to others, “I have seen the Lord.” 

Jesus wants to commission you, to send you to reach others – people who need to hear what you’ve discovered.  Jesus wants to use you to bring his message of hope.  You don’t have to be a polished preacher or a trained professional.  You just have to be yourself and tell your story of how the risen Lord found you.  How he called you and how you experienced his grace and mercy.  The risen Christ wants to send you with that message, that story.  And like Mary Magdalene, what you’ve seen and heard can make all the difference in the lives of some people you already know – the people in your world, your web of relationships, the people Jesus wants to reach through you.

* * * * *

Whatever you need this morning – whether it’s faith in the midst of your searching and uncertainty, whether it’s grace in the midst of your failure and brokenness, whether it’s power to make a difference in the lives of others – it’s all in the hands of your risen Lord.  On this Easter Sunday, he’s here to find you.  He’s here to call you by name.  He’s here to commission you.  Go to him now.  Let’s pray.

1. Luke 8:1-3.
2. I’m indebted to Timothy Keller in his sermon “Mary Meets Jesus” (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York, New York, 1997) for this and several other insights.
3. M. Craig Barnes, “Savior at Large,” in The Christian Century (March 13-20, 2002) p.16.
4. Luke 7:47.