sunday sermon snippet 05 April
“Woman,” Jesus said to her, “why are you crying? Who is it that you’re seeking?” — John 20:15
This week’s posting of the Sunday Sermon Snippet comes from this past Sunday’s sermon on Easter Sunday. As we are currently in a sermon series on John at Grace Church, we leapt ahead in the story to chapter twenty to see that in the resurrection of Jesus, what has broken into the world — among other things — is the truth that the Resurrection means anything’s possible!
See the snippet below…
And if you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
Jesus and Mary
….this is what they were doing, gathering around Jesus’ deathbed.
And then Jesus asks this bold question — it’s bold, isn’t it?
“Why are you crying? Whom are you looking for?”
It’s just a little bit cheeky, for Jesus to do this. But I think his question drips with affection and love for her. And then just one word from Jesus — her name.
“Mary!”
And friends, it must have been the way he said it, and he must have said that name to her that way many times before. Or maybe it was the same way he’d said her name when in the swirl of oppression from seven demons filling her world and mind — this is that Mary — Jesus had cast them all out. Maybe it was that in that moment he was actually calling her out, out from the darkness and bondage of such wickedness. Maybe his voice sounded the same here as it did then.
And this time, in the swirl of her grief and loss she could clearly hear the Master’s voice, and her hopes rose and her joy exploded, and she grabbed hold of him (we know she did, because he tells her not to cling so closely!), for here he was again, the one she loved so deeply, the one she thought was gone, the one she longed for — right here in front of her! Alive, and not dead!
Resurrected!
You know, I don’t believe in accidents with God. Isaiah has declared of him — he is the Creator of the ends of the earth, the everlasting One, who knows everything inside and out, and there is no limit to his knowledge and understanding.
And so, Jesus knew Mary would be there.
Jesus knew what she would need in this hour, in her grief and loss, questions and doubt. I mean, don’t you think it possible she was asking, “Why?”
I think so. I think she was just like those disciples who were at this same moment walking out of Jerusalem, on the way to Emmaus, who had heard the report of Mary, but, not seeing Jesus themselves, did not believe, and who would say, Luke 24: “Jesus was a prophet. He acted with power and he spoke with power, before God and all the people. Our chief priests and rulers handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. But we were hoping that he was going to redeem Israel!”
I think Mary felt the same way, had the same hope.
And as she’d been making her way to the tomb, she was feeling the pain and grief and loss of the one she so deeply loved. And I think Jesus meant to be there, just for her at that moment. I think he orchestrated it. Because Jesus knew what she was feeling.
How can I be so sure of that?
We know this because of the story of another resurrection in the Bible. Another man, raised from the dead. His name was Lazarus, and he was Jesus’ friend. He had died while Jesus was away, and when Jesus arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. And Jesus comes upon the funeral party, all of those gathered around and mourning the death of this one they so dearly loved, there, at the tomb, and John records the scene for us…
John 11: 32-36
When Mary came to where Jesus was, she saw him and fell down at his feet.
‘Master!’ she said. ‘If only you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!’
When Jesus saw her crying, and the Judaeans who had come with her crying, he was deeply stirred in his spirit, and very troubled.
‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked.
‘Master,’ they said, ‘come and see.’
Jesus burst into tears.
‘Look,’ said the Judaeans, ‘see how much he loved him!’
Friends, why was he deeply stirred in his spirit? (which can also be rendered that he was angry) Why was he very troubled? Why did he burst into tears? I mean, he knew that resurrection was coming, he knew it would be his saying of another name — “Lazarus!” — that would break open a tomb and bring life where there had been death.
So why?
Because like us, Jesus grieves over the pain of searing loss of those he loves and must go through death. He is angry at death as this hostile force that robs of so much. And so he knows.
Jesus knows how Mary felt.
And he knows how we feel, in the moments of darkness that sometimes threaten to overwhelm us. He knows how we feel in the darkest darkness of death, of a loved one, and of facing our own mortality in that.
Friends — at the heart of Easter is facing death and staring into a tomb. At the heart of Easter is looking at this enemy which we do not want to think about, that we do our best not to think about much, and yet we know it’s coming for us. And part of the power of Holy Week is that it forces us to confront this, to reflect on it, to teach our children and have conversations about this zenith of the darkness.
And our hope is the same as Mary’s. Do you see it?
I mean, look at what happened to Mary —
Life walked out of death.
Light overcame the darkness.
And it happened on the first day of God’s new creation.
Because that is what this story is about, new creation.
And so it is that John teaches us that Holy Week and Christianity are not about when you get to heaven when you die, but about….
If you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
