Lechem Panim #44 "The Empty Tomb" (John 20:1-18) Pastor Cameron Ury

Christ is risen! And for that we give glory to God in a special way today. And I would like to read to you the account of Jesus’ resurrection given to us in…

John 20:1-10 (NIV) The Empty Tomb— 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. 2 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!”
​3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Night & Spiritual Darkness— Now our passage this morning begins in darkness.  And often when the Bible talks about something happening at night, it does so for a specific purpose. Because often times what accompanies that physical darkness is some sort of spiritual darkness. After Judas dipped his bread in the cup and Jesus said to him, “What you must do, do quickly”, it says that Judas went out and it was night. And that outer darkness reflected an inner darkness, as Judas left to betray Jesus to the Jewish leaders. Now darkness (especially during that time) was a terrifying thing. People did not have outdoor streetlights to illumine their paths. Even in their homes the lights people had were small. In our modern day we can control our environment; we can make our rooms as bright as we want them to be. But not so in the ancient world. In the ancient world, night was a time of darkness; it was a time when wild animals came out to hunt. It was a time of fear. There is a famous song from the musical Annie which says “The sun will come out tomorrow.” Right? But what if it never did? What if there was night that never ended? In a spiritual sense, that is what the world experienced after mankind fell into sin. Like with Judas, there was a spiritual darkness that descended on us as man left the presence of God after sinning in Eden; a darkness that flowed from our betrayal of God. It was a time of night that the world has been in bondage to ever since. And the darkness reached a climax as Jesus hung on the cross. It says in…

Matthew 27:45 (ESV)-- 45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

The Hour of Darkness-- Now this was not typical darkness. The sixth hour was noon and the ninth hour was 3pm. So it is the middle of the day. And yet it says there was darkness over all the land. It was a supernatural darkness that reflected the spiritual darkness that 1 Peter 2:24 tells us was descending upon Jesus Christ as the sins of the whole world were placed upon Him.

A Day of Burial-- And that day and the following night were perhaps the darkest the disciples of Jesus had ever experienced; and for the women who followed Jesus and who invested in His ministry and who looked forward in hope to seeing the glorification of their Messiah, I cannot imagine a greater pain; a darker night. It was the day the Son/Sun died. And the darkness of the night was matched only by the darkness that their loss of hope brought to their souls. And it is in that darkness that Mary Magdalene has come to the tomb. And Mary is perhaps one of the most profound followers of Jesus in the Gospel story. We learn from Luke 8:1-3 that she had been possessed by seven demons before Jesus drove them out; imagine that! And she was a part of a group of women who supported Jesus in His ministry. And when her brother Lazarus died, Jesus had raised him from the dead. Jesus had touched her on a very personal level; when her brother died, she thought she would have to enter a new season of life without him. But Jesus had raised her brother Lazarus from the dead, and she had washed Jesus’ feet as an expression of gratitude. She poured that pure nard on his head and feet. And that nard was very likely the expensive perfume Jewish girls saved for their wedding night. But she chose to give Him that gift. Why? Because Jesus had freed her from the demonic. And on top of that, He gave her dead brother back to her alive. And so I believe this gift she had given Jesus comes into play in our passage today.

A Roller Coaster-- Now the day she came to the tomb was Sunday and the past two weeks or more had been an unbelievable roller coaster of emotions as her brother Lazarus became sick. And she, along with Martha, took on the burden of caring for him, waiting for Jesus, until Lazarus finally died. And they mourned for him; they buried him. But then Jesus calls Lazarus out of the grave, giving him new life. Mary’s grief was turned to joy once again, as Jesus had given her brother back to her.

Her Heart is Broken— But then her Lord; her Messiah; goes to Jerusalem, is betrayed, and handed over to be beaten, flogged, and crucified. And she had watched Him carry the cross up to Golgotha. She had watched as they nailed Him to the beams, lifted Him up, and jarred Him into place. She watched Him die and then (after death) be ruthlessly stabbed with a spear. I cannot imagine the sickening grief and horror of watching our Lord; her Lord; die on the cross like that. And then she begins to go through the same process she had gone through before with her brother of perfuming the body; embalming it; and preparing it for burial. And Jesus was placed in the tomb.

And now this-- And now this incident has happened. And she, those who were with her, and the disciples don’t know what to make of it. To their knowledge, Jesus’ body may have been stolen. And so the disciples run to the tomb. John stops at the entrance and Peter runs right in. And Jesus’ body had been laid on a bench opposite the entrance. And Peter, after stooping down and entering the tomb, sees the bench on which Jesus’ body had lain and finds nothing but grave clothes. And this is incredibly strange. And Peter comes out and he and John both, bewildered, leave perplexed. But Mary stays. Verse 11 and following says…

John 20:11-13 (NIV)— Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.13 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.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are 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.”

The Ultimate Gardener-- Now considering how much Jesus had talked to them about bearing fruit; about His being the vine and them being the branches; about seeds (through death) being allowed to take root and grow to create abundant life; I find it so appropriate that she thought He was the gardener. He was the ultimate Gardener. But He is also the Good Shepherd. And what does the Good Shepherd do? As John 10 tells us, He calls His sheep by name and His sheep know His voice.

John 20:16-18 (NIV)— 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

First To Her-- Now I find it interesting that Jesus doesn’t appear to John first (the one Jesus loved); He doesn’t appear to Peter first (who was the leading disciple). Jesus chooses who He appears to first. He appears to her first; to her; the one who had anointed His head and feet, which He told her was for the day of His burial. She had given Jesus the best thing she had; that perfume she had been saving. And Jesus in the same way reserves this place of honor; being the first to see Him alive; He reserves that for her. Another reason I think she could not leave the tomb was because Jesus had made her life new; and now that it was new, she didn’t want to enter any season of life without Jesus. And Jesus appears to her first and I wonder if He isn’t in essence saying to her, “I don’t want you to enter any season of life without me either.” I will never leave you nor forsake you. During any season of life, the thing you can count on (the only thing you can count on) is that I will be with you; encouraging you, comforting you, strengthening you. It doesn’t matter what’s in your past. I will be there for you. Jesus wants to be with us in every season of life. He doesn’t change like shifting shadows and wants to be that anchoring point for us amidst a sea of change.

Morrison’s Hell Elevator-- Dennis Kinlaw wrote how he […once heard a sermon by Henry Clay Morrison in which he took his audience on an elevator ride down to hell and then up to heaven. {He says} When we reached heaven, we saw a creature more beautiful than anything we had ever seen. Because of its grandeur, we assumed it was the archangel Michael or one of the great saints such as Moses or Paul. When we asked, the creature laughed almost gleefully and said, “No, I am Mary Magdalene. I am the woman of sin made clean by the blood of the Cross.”] Then Kinlaw said [The most beautiful people in heaven may be the ones in whom the Holy Spirit has wrought the greatest transformation.]

Malachi 4:2 (ESV)— 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.

​Praise be to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that each and every one of us has found healing in the wings of our risen Lord. Today, as you reflect back on that blessed day when Christ first called you by name; on that day when you first found healing in the shadow of His wings, give thanks to Him. And if you have never received Christ, all you have to do is confess your need of Him and invite Him in. And He will do a work every bit as remarkable as the one He did for Mary. He will completely change your life and will lift you from darkness into His light. If you want that today, all you have to do is ask Him. And Easter will no longer be only about what happened in a grave over two thousand years ago, but will be about the day that Jesus was raised in you. Place your faith in Him. Today. Amen.