He Has Risen: “Easter Signs” – John 20

Our society is filled with signs. Some of them direct us to new businesses. Some of them tell us about houses for rent or sale. Some of them direct the traffic. The average American sees more than a thousand signs every single day. We seem to need an excessive amount of direction! This Resurrection Sunday we need to look at a few signs to remind us of the whole story we are commemorating! I have chosen some road signs that will help us walk through the story of the very first Easter.

Let’s begin where the first Easter Sunday morning began. It all began in darkness, with the sun just beginning to peak through at the horizon. It began with hopelessness and death.

Dead End: In the flesh, we face death as an ultimate separation (20:1a)

John 20:1 “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb…”

John simply says Mary Magdalene came, but each Gospel writer picks up the story with a few details that paint the full picture.

Matthew tells us that it was just after dawn, and she was not walking alone. Two women named Mary were walking to the grave to see what they could do about finishing the work on the broken body of Jesus.

Matthew 28:1 “Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.

Mark’s identifies the second Mary as “the mother of James”. His account adds that yet a third woman had joined the group – Salome, the mother of some of the disciples, and well known to the team. He not only offers a full list of the participants, he also supplies the props for us for the play – the women were carrying spices they had purchased and were coming to finish handling the body of Jesus. He makes note that it was very early, so perhaps they journeyed just after first light allowed. Mark even zooms in close to tell us what they were discussing as they walked:

Mark 16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”

This sign is the beginning of our story: Darkness was receding slowly – a few women arose in darkness, and quietly got themselves ready to go out, so as to not awaken everyone in the house. They gathered together the spices and ointments and met up, assembling one by one, to walk to the tomb outside the city walls. The streets were quiet, and the shops were not yet open.  Their hearts were broken to the point where the conversation was only about the next responsibility. You can feel their numbness. It is the pain of separation. It is the disappointment and sadness and emptiness of loss.

In our natural state, death separates us from our loved ones. We come to the grave with only painful loss and despair. It is all that one who does not know God can do. At death, God’s presence can seem far away -  and we can feel abandoned to figure out life on our own. That garden – like the most manicured cemetery – held no beauty in their eyes. Breakfast had no taste. Death seemed like an END… a DEAD END.

Don’t quit… there is much more to this story! There are other signs to observe and heed…

Narrow Road: The first to break open the separation wall was God Himself (20:1b).

Go back to John’s account and look at the second half of verse one: John 2:1b …”while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.

John pushed the story hard to summarize and get quickly to his point – that Jesus must be believed to have life. He could hardly contain himself on the details, as he pressed the event for its meaning. He didn’t dwell in the sadness of the event – but something is LOST if we skip too quickly.

Watch the women as they walked down into the rut caused by the deep quarrying cut by Hezekiah’s men 700 years earlier. The three women descended below the angle of the breaking sun. It was a shadowy and dark place, with the sun just coming into the scene above. Their despair about moving the stone was replaced by confusion over the open tomb. The insurmountable wall between the Dead One and the living had been breached. They had no idea how profoundly!

Matthew offered a deeper historical texture when he included how God acted to move the stone:

Matthew 28:2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. 3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

Matthew introduced in his account not only the women who arrived at the tomb, but also the men who fled the tomb and were now missing. Powerful men trembled when God broke in. Soldiers are trained to respond instinctively to attack, but this was beyond any human experience. This was God descending. When God enters the scene, there is no response but awe. The angel descended the men fell and shook and then fled, leaving nothing but the open tomb and soldiers absent without leave.

The story of Easter is not about how men in their efforts pried open a breach and finally reached God. It is a story about how God powerfully shook the earth and pushed aside a blocking stone. He broke the power of death, long ago imposed in a garden not so different than this one, and He did so by pushing aside the weight of separation between the Dead One and the living – bringing victory over death. With the stone gone, the rolling stone exposes a narrow door, but the breach made all the difference in the world.

In the newest edition of TIME magazine printed for Easter Week 2011, the writing features a cover story on the controversy over a popular young preacher and his new book that argues for a universalism – the teaching that even people that don’t accept the message of Jesus’ death can eventually be offered eternal life. Most interestingly, the essay is written by Jon Meacham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former editor of Newsweek. Meacham, who studied theology as an undergraduate, analyzed the new book by the young Pastor as follows:

“The standard Christian view of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is summed up in the Gospel of John, which promises “eternal life” to “whosoever believeth in Him.” Traditionally, the key is the acknowledgment that Jesus is the Son of God, who, in the words of the ancient creed, “for us and for our salvation came down from heaven … and was made man.” In the Evangelical ethos, one either accepts this and goes to heaven or refuses and goes to hell.” I found it interesting that this may mark the first time any major media outlet has underlined the substantial theological issues at stake. Meacham understood what the universalist proposal in popular preaching amounts to — “changing the common understanding of salvation so much that Christianity becomes more of an ethical habit of mind than a faith based on divine revelation.” (heavily adapted from Crosswalk.com’s article).

Do you see it. Christianity is either an ethical system based on men in good behavior, or it is belief in the radical claim that God broke into human history and moved a stone, and showed us the door.

The point is this: Biblical Christianity holds that our relationship with Christ cannot simply be boiled down to a “be nice” Mr. Roger’s neighborhood ethical system – or it loses all of its Divine power. It betrays the actual story. God broke in to man’s world. God moved a stone. God tore down the wall between man and eternity and shattered the power and mystery of death. God did it all in a dramatic and bold statement from the spiritual world. The narrow passage of the Christian faith is that one must accept that God did these things, or remain in the darkness outside the tomb – offering other explanations for the stone’s displacement and the body’s removal.

Keep watching, there is yet a third sign to tell the story in the Gospel account…

Detour: The Lord out of the tomb changed everything (20:2).

John 20:2 “So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

John seems anxious to bring the disciples into the story. He leaves out what happened to the women between the discovery of the empty tomb and the sharing of that news in the room with the hiding disciples. He offers the truncated story that showed how the disciples first encountered the empty tomb, but didn’t understand its meaning:

John 20:3 “So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. 4 The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; 5 and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. 6 And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. 9 For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 10 So the disciples went away again to their own homes.”

Did you notice the words “They believed”. They believed the body was MOVED, not that Jesus was risen. They could believe that their Master could call forth Lazarus. They believe that He could do miracles. Yet, with Him dead, who called Him out of the grave? No, it didn’t make sense.

What a disappointment! God broke through into the world and crushed the iron cage of death – but many of those closest to Jesus didn’t recognize the freedom bell had rung! Look at the end of the account here in verse 10. They went BACK HOME. They continued as they were. They left in confusion and fear and doubt and emptiness. All the pain of Friday seemed to rush back into their hearts.

The other Gospels open the fuller picture of how the message was spread. The unexpected detour was forcing people to move, and it was affecting each person – one by one – just as the message of the Risen Christ still does. It was not a story of mass belief, or mass hysteria. It was a story of individuals being confronted with the obstructing road cones and signs of detour – and each making their own turn.

The women arrived at the tomb with one set of problems – how to finish preparing the body of Jesus, and left with another – what happened to His body? The plan they had for the day was obliterated by God’s invasion into the scene. What’s more, the plan for their lives was altered by the events of that morning. Thousands upon thousands have been changed by that morning. Anyone who has truly met the Risen Jesus can appreciate the detour He causes when we meet Him. We think we know what our lives will be about – but we really have no idea. The change Jesus causes is profound! A real and dynamic intimate relationship with Him will change our clothing, our habits, our diet, our entertainment, our sense of humor, our hungers and our delights.

Mark explained that the women couldn’t help but go into the tomb when they saw it standing open and unguarded. After all, they arose early to finish what they started before the Sabbath interrupted them. They didn’t find a dead body – they found a living spokesman,

Mark 16: 5 Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. 7 “But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.’”

Matthew reminds us that the women ran back with the beginnings of a new walk with God.

Matthew 28:8 And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.

They were both confused and excited – there was both FEAR and JOY! The same messengers that came to tell the shepherds at the beginning of the Gospel accounts that a promised child was born, were now opening the eyes of the women to another promise – that Jesus’ death was not the END, but the BEGINNING. They heard God’s Word, but they weren’t sure where it would take them – we never are. The exciting thing about DETOURS is they give us a new way to make the trip. The troubling part is that they take us into UNKNOWN territory.

A fourth sign helps us see the story more clearly…Go back to John 20 and pick up the account in 20:11…

U-Turn: A Whole New Direction (John 20:11-17)

John 20:11 But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” 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.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

Mark tells the story of the other women that apparently returned to the Disciples before Mary Magdalene. Mark recalls:

Mark 16:8 They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

The women encountered ANGELIC MESSENGERS in the tomb, but Mary Magdalene encountered the Savior. Her heart was open, and she saw Jesus and accepted the message that He was alive. More than that, she opened her heart to believe that all that He had said was really true.

Jesus already shared with His followers that His punishment was coming:

• John 3:14 “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.  16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

• John 11: 25 Jesus said …”I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,  26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?“

• John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Mary Magdalene, a woman saved from a life of demonic terror, changed direction. She wasn’t going to be a casual friend of Jesus. She was now surrendering to the commitment of a follower. Nothing in her life would ever be the same. Her direction changed. Her choices changed. Her desires were surrendered to Him. She had life, because she chose to follow Jesus.

Our story is not yet complete. There is another sign we need to mention…

Uneven Pavement: Not Everyone Shared the Same Belief (John 20:18)

John makes it clear that because Mary Magdalene encountered Jesus and surrendered her life to Him, she could not remain silent:

John 20:18 “Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.”

At the same time, Mark and Luke add a note of caution we need to remember. Just because Mary Magdalene’s commitment was life changing, did not mean that she could count on even others who knew the teachings of Jesus to TRULY SURRENDER to Jesus as their LORD and MASTER.

Mark 16:9 [Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.

Luke 24: 10 “Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. 11 But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.”

Like all of us, it isn’t enough to know ABOUT Jesus. They needed to encounter Jesus in a personal way! John helps us see it clearly:

John 20:19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

Life without Jesus is a DEAD END. The way to God is a NARROW ROAD set up by God Himself. A real face to face encounter with Jesus will force a DETOUR in our life. If we choose to follow Him, we will make a U-TURN and go in a direction that is no longer selfish. Though our life will dramatically change, we will walk through life on UNEVEN PAVEMENT with those who do not believe. They must make that choice on their own.