Easter 2025 – John 20:1-20

Podcast

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord and join us here today
We take this world to be a certain way
Matters seem settled or maybe just set
Death and taxes and all that
People don’t change, never will
Life is hard and then you die.

And then you came
And you lived among us
And taught us about your path
Your ways
Your kingdom
And you loved people
And you healed people
And you set people free
We killed you for this Lord
But then you overcame death

And then you came to us
Each of us
And now that overcoming is ours as well
We can change
We can become great lovers
Of all the people
We can help ease the suffering of others
We can be a part of the healing of this world
We can be a part of setting people free

Life is no longer fixed
No longer dreary or a drudgery
Even in the midst of suffering or pain
We now live our lives enveloped in your overcoming
And we are overcoming too
Unbelievable
Remarkable
Amazing
Astonishing
Thank you Lord for this life
This life
Hallelujah
Amen

Today’s Talk: chuck smith, jr.

John 20:1-20

INTRO: Every Easter, until COVID, my dad would host a Sunrise Service

(First at the Pacific Amphitheater and later the Verizon Amphitheater)

And most every year he would tell the same story; this one about Mary Magdalene

• you might expect people to say, “Oh no, not this story again,”
  ~ but instead it was, “Oh! This is one of my favorite sermons”
  ~ about forty years ago, a Sunrise Service was held at San Clemente High School
  I went because I heard Eddie Piorek was going to speak
  He also told the story of Mary Magdalene
• I’m don’t intend to recover or carry on a tradition today
  ~ but last week—Palm Sunday—we read the story about another Mary,
  the one who poured perfume on Jesus’ feet
  ~ it felt right to spend a moment with the Mary in today’s story,
  who lost Jesus and then found found him

John, in fact, highlights three Marys who appear in connection with Jesus’ death
Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who prepared Jesus for his burial (Jn. 12:7)
Mary Magdalene, who stood by the cross and later came to the tomb,
And Mary the mother of Jesus

• but we discover something odd regarding Jesus’ mother
  ~ although there were three Marys near the cross, John names only two of them
  “standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene” (Jn. 19:25)
  he does not mention Mary’s (the Lord’s mother) name
  ~ early in John’s Gospel, John tells the story of Jesus’ first miracle — at a wedding
  again there John doesn’t use her name, but says,
  “and the mother of Jesus was there” (Jn. 2:2)
• it’s not as if this were of great importance,
  ~ but John never mentions his own name either,
  even when talking about himself in the third person
  ~ here is how he refers to himself when Jesus spoke to him from the cross,
  “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby . . .” (Jn. 19:26)
• tradition tells us that later on Mary and John were very close
  ~ that they even traveled and ministered together
  ~ is it possible that they agreed that knowing John was writing the story of Jesus,
  neither one of them wanted attention drawn to themselves?
  so John did not identify either himself or Mary by name?
  If that were so, it’d be a great example for celebrity pastors and church leaders today

Anyway, three Marys are highlighted, and each one had given attention to Jesus’ body

• one of them touched his heart by washing his feet
• one of the touched his heart by desperately searching for his corpse
• and, of course, one of them had swaddled his infant body and placed him in a manger
  ~ three Marys, and at the end,
  Jesus was watching out for each of them, and caring for them

Had the events reported in the Bible not taken place in sexist cultures,

We would have more stories of heroic women

• most of those we meet in scripture are strong, brave, wise, resourceful, and devout
  ~ there’s a character type in the Bible, in which an intelligent and astute wife,
  is married to a dense and clueless husband
  ~ the scenes with Manoah and his wife, Abigail and Naval, Ahab and Jezebel
  are comical—at least that’s how I read them
• so, along comes Mary — and right away, she’s special
  ~ though the other gospels tell us that several women came to the tomb together
  John singles out Mary to give us a look inside her heart
  ~ she believed she owed Jesus a huge debt of love
  she owed him her life,
  which was haunted by several demons until she encountered the Lord
• I want us to hold this in our minds and imaginations while re-living this story

From a literary point of view, John expertly takes us to the tomb in the garden

Through the eyes of the characters, we see everything

• Mary saw the stone had been moved from the entrance
  John stooped to look into the tomb
  When Peter rushed into the tomb, he saw the burial cloths
  Mary eventually looked into the tomb—and saw angels
• and so on it goes

Subtle attention is given to the postures and positions of people and objects

• both John and Mary, “stooping” to look inside the tomb
  The placement and disposition of the linen cloths lying there
  We Mary where she “stood” weeping, and then saw Jesus standing there facing her
  The angels, however we’re sitting in the tomb
• all of this visualization carries us there, that early morning

Action is also highlighted

• it begins with Mary coming to the tomb
  The stone over the door had been moved
  She ran and found Peter and John,
  And they went, and they ran
  So the action goes, all the way to the moment Mary was clinging to Jesus
  (at least, trying to cling to him)
  Jesus told her she could not hang onto him, because he had to ascend to his Father

The importance of all this information—all the details and embellishments—

• is the way the richness of these descriptions work on our imaginations
  ~ we’re able to be there, to see what they see and feel what they felt
  ~ at first, they didn’t know what to think
  and neither do we — at least, not at first, and not all the time
  we venture through periods of unanswered questions,
  and serious deep, dark doubts
• allowing ourselves to feel the Scriptures is one way of getting them into our hearts
  ~ and getting them into our hearts is as important and maybe even more so
  than getting them into our heads
  ~ desire and determination, passion and motivation, love and empathy
  live in the tissues of our hearts

I speak only for myself when I say rational “proofs” of Jesus’ resurrection leave me cold

• if we’re honest, we must admit they work only for people who already believe
• living this many centuries since his resurrection took place,
  ~ it is not something that needs to be proven as much as believed
  now it’s about putting our faith in God and his Son
  now it’s learning to trust him, when there’s no rational reason why we should
  ~ the reasons we have for trusting God reasons are personal more than rational

I’ve heard preachers make statements like,
“We do not judge the Bible by science; we judge science by the Bible!”

• I would agree with the first half of that statement
  ~ we do not judge the Bible by science,
  we judge our interpretations of the Bible by science
  (although science is not infallible)
• the Scriptures are inspired, our interpretations are not
  ~ in fact, we have to have some flexibility in holding onto our interpretations
  ~ but let’s get back to Mary

Mary headed to the tomb before sunrise

Obviously, she was eager to get to the task at hand

• now this whole first half of the chapter is about the body of Jesus,
  ~ but the word, body, occurs only one time in the chapter (only five times in John)
  ~ Mary can’t bring herself to think of Jesus as a lifeless body—a corpse
  she consistently refers to him as “the Lord” or “my Lord”
• the instant she saw the stone was no longer blocking the entrance
  she turned and ran
  ~ she didn’t know why she was running, but assumed grave robbers had been there
  ~ breathless, she tells Peter and John,
  “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him”
  she cannot identify those who committed the terrible crime
  she can only say, “they”—everyone is a suspect
  Of course, she could not have
  guessed that the Heavenly Father had awakened and raised his Son

After Peter and John left the garden, Mary stayed there, crying

Where would she go?

• ever since she met him, her whole life was Jesus
  ~ even tending to his body would have given her existence a meaning
  as long as our crises, our emergencies require action,
  as long as there are things that must be done—or can be done—
  we hold off crying
  ~ but when the dust settles, when there are no more distractions,
  when we’re forced to give up hope, that is when we cry

Bible teachers have offered explanations for why Mary didn’t recognize Jesus at first

• and that, even though John says she turned and looked at him
  ~ but not recognizing Jesus is a recurring theme in the post-resurrection stories
  Luke give us two clear examples
  for instance, with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus
  and there it seems Jesus had a little fun with them
• Jesus knew Mary would not recognize him at first
  ~ and the way I read this, is he started to have a little fun with her too,
• feigning ignorance, as he did with the two disciples
• so he asked her,
• “Woman, why are you weeping?”
•     ~ but it’s as though, when he sees how devastated she is,
• when he hears the anguish in her strained voice,
• he drops the charade, and simply says her name
• CONCLUSION: Everything about this encounter reveals Mary’s desperate love for
• Jesus
• And why did she have this great depth of love for him?
• Because he was good to her
• Because he was good!
• Because he showed her kindness
• Because she knew she mattered to him
• Why did the other Mary pour perfume on Jesus’ feet?
• Why did this Mary cling to him—or at least try to cling to him?
• Perhaps these were the only ways they knew to express their love
• And Jesus accepted and received their love 
• This is why I’ve wanted to demonstrate how John tries to pull us into the story
• He wants us to have an experience of the love of Jesus
• And to love him in return
• God gets so much more from us when he has our love,
• than when we are merely doing our duty
• So, go, enjoy the remainder of this Easter Day
• And for heaven’s sake, HAVE AN EXPERIENCE!