Mary’s first encounter with Jesus is a beautiful picture of the restored relationship we have with God when we put our hope in the resurrected Christ.

How could she have the honor to be the first to see the Lord? A woman like her. She was a Jewish woman from means, but not of stature. From a prosperous and quite religious fishing town of Magdala. You would have thought that she would be regarded highly among her people, but the demonic presence in her life made her an outsider, tormented, unclean, separated from the community. That was until the day that another Galilean came to town to preach at the synagogue. He was from a town of no reputation, Nazareth. But his reputation was growing. She had heard of the man who traveled village to village, casting out demons, healing the sick, restoring people to wholeness. He was coming to Magdala. But would he do this for her? A woman? She had heard this rabbi welcomed women to be his disciples, but a tormented woman, by demons, like her? She had also heard that he would sit with sinners and eat with tax collectors. He’d been known to touch a dead body and bring people back from the grave. He didn’t seem to avoid uncleanness like the other rabbis. Maybe he would be willing to give a moment of his time to come near a tormented woman like her. And sure enough, he came to town, and he was willing. He cast seven demons out of her body. He restored her, released her, gave her back her life. And she learned his name, Jesus, Yeshua, God saves. She followed him using her means to support his ministry alongside a group of other women who became her new friends.

They learned from Jesus about God’s compassion for broken sinners. They listened to him declare the sins of those who trusted in him were forgiven. But how can any person do that? Not even the most respected teachers and religious leaders would dare do what only God can do. Was this Jesus something more than a great teacher? He had authority to cast out demons. He could heal with his touch. Can he really forgive sins? Doesn’t sin require a sacrifice like the law says? If he really did have the authority to forgive her sins, where was the sacrificial lamb? They were heading to Jerusalem for the Passover. And there were whispers among the disciples that something bad was waiting for them there. She thought he might be the Christ, but the rumor was that Jesus expected to be killed in Jerusalem. Jesus said, lifted up. Did he mean the cross? She was scared, but it didn’t matter. She was going to go with Jesus wherever he went. She and her friends had found new life and hope and peace in Jesus. They were with him no matter what. The week started off well. People were cheering Jesus when they entered the city. Hosanna! God saves! She and her friends were filled with joy. But by Thursday, things had changed. Jesus was arrested. Everyone scattered. Peter couldn’t be found. And to her horror, she watched from a distance as the crowds turned against her Lord.

She watched as they humiliated him, beat him, marched him to the cross. She watched the nails driven through the hand that had healed her. And from a distance that no one would mistake her for a disciple to her shame, she watched her Lord and friend die. Carefully, she observed where they took his body. She was going to make sure that she knew where they buried him. She was powerless to stop the Romans and the religious elite from taking his life but she would do everything that she could do to honor him in death. She made note of the location of the tomb in the garden where Jesus was buried. She saw the stone rolled against the grave. She couldn’t honor him on Saturday because of the Sabbath, as a faithful woman who observes the Lord’s commandments. But first thing, first thing Sunday morning, that was her time. She and her friends gathered spices to preserve the body, and they set out for the tomb. And she knew it was dangerous. She knew the Jews weren’t just trying to stop Jesus. They were trying to stop anybody from following Jesus. But Jesus, he’s worth the risk. He had given her everything. How could she not do this one final thing for him? No, no. The only thing that could stop them was the stone. They discussed it with each other on the way. Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? To her amazement and fear, Mary and her friends arrived and the stone was already rolled away. Leaving her friends behind, Mary quickly went to Peter and John. They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they’ve laid him! Peter and John ran for the tomb, Mary close behind them. The men went inside and they found burial clothes folded neatly. If they took the body, why wouldn’t they take the clothes? Mary stood outside the tomb. She watched Peter walk away, astonished, not sure what to make of it all. But in John, she saw something different. He seemed to know something. They left, but she just couldn’t. She just couldn’t leave. All she wanted to do was honor Jesus one last time. But somebody took the body and robbed her of that comfort. So she stood there, weeping. Maybe Peter and John had missed something. Maybe she should look inside. Was she seeing this right? Two angels in white sat where Jesus was laid. Woman, why are you weeping? Still overcome with the thought that someone had moved Jesus body she tells him they have taken away my Lord, I don’t know where they’ve laid him! He’s not in the tomb. So she turns to leave and encounters another man, probably the gardener, he repeats the same question. Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking? Why do they keep asking these questions? Obviously, she’s upset because of the grave robbers who stole the body.

But this guy knows that she’s looking for someone. He must be the one who moved the body. Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. And that’s when she heard it. The word that cut through all of her confusion and eased all of her heartache. Mary. Everything inside of her changed. The last time she saw this face it was covered in blood. And now here was her Lord, standing in the garden, restored to life. Raboni, teacher. Everything inside her wanted to grab hold of him and never let him go but Jesus needed her now. He had a job for her as the very first witness of the resurrected Christ. Don’t cling to me. The mission isn’t over. Go tell them that I am ascending to be with our Father, God. What an honor to carry the message of Jesus word. She rushed into the huddle of confused disciples and declared, I have seen the Lord!

Well, Calvary, this is something, huh? This is pretty different. This is a very special celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ here at John Marshall High School. Welcome to that. And a special welcome to those of you who are guests with us this morning. Hopefully, you did not go to our regular building first. I’m just waiting for those stories to start rolling in. Hopefully you didn’t go. If you did, I’m real sorry about that. But you made it here, so that’s great. This is something. You all sound great, by the way. Did you notice that? This is awesome to be able to hear these voices. What a joy to be able to lift our voices together as one church. I did some research this week to pinpoint exactly when it was the last time that the entirety of Calvary was able to worship together in one service on a Sunday morning. And the answer is 1990. 1990 was the last time all of Calvary on a Sunday morning was able to worship together under normal circumstances. That is 36 years ago. Now, for some of you who have been around for a little bit, you don’t feel like it was that long ago. So let me put that into perspective. I was 12. H.W. was the president. Germany was still two countries. Al Gore had just invented the internet. Okay? That’s how long ago that was. Let’s see, one for the kids, okay. There was no Barney. Okay. Turtles were dressing as ninjas. It was a better time. A better time. 36 years is a long time. What a privilege it is to gather as one church to praise and worship the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ together. We’re here because we are like the Apostle John in our passage, we see the historical evidence of the empty grave. And we believe.

We believe Jesus is the God who went to the cross on our behalf to pay the price of our sins. We believe that his physical body died and was buried. And we believe that he raised physically from the dead, that the stone was rolled away, that he walked out of the tomb. We believe the eyewitness testimony of those who were there, those whose lives were transformed by seeing, touching and hearing the resurrected Christ. And these include the 11 remaining disciples. It includes 500 other witnesses, who spent 40 days with Jesus. But I want to concentrate this morning on just one of those witnesses, Mary Magdalene. The very first person to encounter Jesus in his resurrected body. Mary’s first encounter with Jesus is a beautiful picture of the restored relationship that we have with God when we put our hope in the resurrected Christ. So, here’s what we’re going to do this morning. I have four things that I want to share with you. The first is just a brief note about Mary being the first witness. And then I want to share three ways our lives are changed by the resurrected Christ. Now I’m going to use this phrase, resurrected Christ. And you might be thinking to yourself, well how is that different from Jesus? No, it’s not. Same guy. Okay. Same guy. Mostly when we talk about Jesus ministry, we’re either looking at his ministry before his death or we’re looking at the cross itself.

As a point of emphasis this morning, I want us to consider how a resurrected Christ impacts and transforms our relationship with God. And we’re going to see that in the three things that Jesus says to Mary in the garden outside the tomb. But before we do that, let me first point out something that’s pretty remarkable about the fact that Mary was there at all. Now, I know that many of you that are here this morning are skeptical about the resurrection. Perhaps attending a service like this really isn’t your thing. You’re just here because that’s what your family does on Easter. And I’ll tell you, I’m glad you’re here. You’re not glad you’re here, but I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. And some of you are okay with talking about Jesus but when we get to the miracles, you’re more apt to think of them as embellishments or even lies or legend. Please understand, the early church that birthed the worldwide church planting movement did so because they fully believed that Jesus rose from the grave. They fully believed the testimony of their peers who said we were with the resurrected Christ. So let me challenge you. If you’re in that camp this morning, let me challenge you with something. You might think someone would make up a story like this, but I can assure you no Jewish person in the first century would make up a story like this and expect it to be believed.

See, in the first century, a woman’s testimony was not admissible in a court under Jewish law. I’m not condoning that. I mean, we’ve come a long way, right? But understand, in their culture, you could have ten women witness a crime and the judge would still say, okay, yeah, but was there a man there that saw it? Okay. Remember, first-century Jewish society, not Kyle Bushre. Okay, so hold the emails. That was what was happening then. So, if you’re going to write an account validating the resurrection of a dead man, which is exactly how the early church understood the gospels, you’re not going to make the woman the first witness. You’re not going to do that. Unless, of course, that’s what happened. Unless that’s what happened. This story would have been dismissed immediately by that culture, except for the fact that this is what happened. I could spend all morning talking about the reasons we can have full confidence in the historicity of the Gospels, but I want to turn our attention to three ways that our faith in Christ transforms our lives. And the first is that the resurrected Christ eases our sorrows. They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? And she said to them, they have taken away the Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Why are you weeping? Sounds like an odd question to ask someone who just watched your friend die the day before, and who is now standing at his grave, where it’s clear to her that someone has stolen the body, doesn’t it? Doesn’t that seem like an occasion to weep? Most of us would be weeping over far less trauma than what Mary has gone through in the last 24 hours. But here, the angels are asking why Mary is weeping. And then she turns and Jesus is standing there, and you’d think that he’d be a little bit more understanding but he asks the same question. Woman, why are you weeping? You know, if I spoke to you at a funeral of your loved one and I came up to you and I asked you this question, you would say, what is wrong with this guy? Get this guy out of here. Why is he asking these questions? And yet everyone around Mary in that moment seems to be under the impression that it’s her tears that are inappropriate and that there’s something wrong with how she’s acting. What has she missed? Well, obviously we can’t be too hard on her this morning. What she has missed is the same thing that everyone who walked with Jesus missed all along the way. Jesus mentioned is his future death and resurrection at various points throughout his ministry, but no one ever really understood what he meant.

It wasn’t going to be until the disciples encountered the resurrected Christ, that they would connect the dots with Jesus and what he said before. And that’s why Jesus asks this follow up question, who are you looking for? It’s a rhetorical question, because Jesus knows full well that Mary is looking for his dead body, and she won’t find it because she doesn’t yet understand. She hasn’t fully grasped the incredible truth. The truth that makes all the difference for you and for me this morning, too. Death doesn’t win. Death doesn’t win. Mary, who are you looking for? You’re looking for a dead teacher when you should be looking for a resurrected savior because death doesn’t win. When I think of all the turmoil and the pain and the sorrow that comes standard with just living in this world. One of the most compelling aspects of the gospel is that it answers the question, is death the end? Is it just struggle, pain, wars, relational battles, disappointment, depression, and then death at the end? Is there a point to life? Is the goal of life just to carve out some little fleeting happiness while I try to convince myself that things matter and await the inevitable end that is death? You say, Kyle, it’s getting a little dark for Easter, don’t you think? But it is dark. The world is dark, isn’t it? Every sentence of recorded human history has only shown us that it is dark and destructive when humanity is in charge.

When you set the good news of Jesus Christ against that dark background, the contrast is striking. The resurrected Christ is proof that while sin drags us to death, Jesus Christ has overcome death. If you trust in Jesus, death doesn’t win. If you trust in Jesus, death doesn’t win. When you confess your sins and you turn from them and you trust that Jesus paid your death and he died on the cross for your sins, you can have every confidence that eternal life with the resurrected Christ is what awaits you. Death doesn’t win. And when you have hope in the resurrected Christ, it eases the sorrows of this broken world because you know they’re temporary. You know that’s not the end. In fact, it’s more than that. You start to realize that these sorrows are building a longing inside of you to be with Christ for eternity. And even more than that, it’ll make you into a person who will bring this hope to others because now you want to ease the sorrows of others. Can you imagine if we lived in a world where everybody was trying to ease the sorrows of the people around them? That’s the Kingdom of God. And I’m going to talk more about easing sorrows here in just a minute.

Here’s something else we learn from this moment with Mary at the tomb. We learn that the resurrected Christ calls us by name. Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. Now, it may not seem like a big deal that Jesus would call Mary by her name, or that by saying her name, Mary would suddenly realize that this was Jesus and not the gardener. After all, they had been friends for years now. Mary followed Jesus all over Israel as he preached the good news. She had a great relationship with him. He had cast seven demons out of her, and he taught her about the kingdom of God. But here’s the thing that all happened prior to his death. Mary and the disciples had a personal relationship with the man Jesus. Okay? But here he is now, the resurrected Christ. Here he is on the other side of death, about to ascend to his former glory, to sit at the right hand of God the Father as God the Son. And this Jesus, the resurrected Christ, the word that became flesh, the Word of God who was with God and who was God, as we are told at the beginning of John’s gospel, he calls Mary by name. You know what that means? You know what that means, church? It means the creator God of the universe relates to us personally. He’s not an aloof, transcendent, unconcerned God. The relationship with Mary didn’t end when Jesus was revealed to be both God and man. The creator God designed us to have a personal relationship with him.

Do you know what deism is? You ever heard of deism? Deism is the belief that God created the world but has really not been involved with it ever since. We’re just sort of fending for ourselves in a world that a God somewhere created. We can trace this idea all the way back to ancient Greece. But it really became popular in the 1600s thanks to some philosophers in England. Sorry, Jamie and James, to you guys. You Keep doing this to us. These deists said that the only thing we can know about God is what we find in the natural world. So, no books, no revelation. God hasn’t spoken. However, they also said that God ought to be worshiped and that our morality matters to him, and that God gives out rewards and punishments now and in eternity based on our behavior. How they got all that from looking at plants and animals is beyond our scope this morning. But you don’t need a history lesson. So why do I bring it up? Well, 20 years ago, sociologist Christian Smith conducted a study of 3,000 teenagers to determine what they believed about God. And he concluded that this generation of young people, who would be in their 30’s today, believed in what he called moralistic therapeutic deism, MTD, moralistic therapeutic deism. They believed in a God who created the world but really wasn’t involved in it, except for when we need something from him. And then he gets involved.

He wants us to be good. He wants us to be moral in how we treat other people. He’s there if we need him, so he’s therapeutic. But for all the other times, he can be safely ignored because he doesn’t really care who we are or what we do. He leaves us to strive for our own happiness, waiting in the wings just in case things don’t work out according to our plans. That’s MTD. That’s what people believed in, he found. And let me tell you, as a pastor, I have encountered a lot of people who believe God is exactly like this. Disconnected, uninterested, unconcerned, just a sort of ethereal power somewhere out there. And for most of these folks, they’re fine when the sun is shining on their lives and they’re working through things and things are going well, they’re just fine and things are going their way, and they don’t think about it too much, but it all falls apart when people around them don’t agree with their version of morality. And when their version of therapy isn’t working for them. It doesn’t bring the relief they want. And so you have a lot of people trying to feel their way through this life on their own terms, expecting God to show up when he’s summoned like a butler. And they’re very disappointed when he doesn’t. And the incredible irony is that they get mad at a God that didn’t exist in the first place.

The truth is, we can’t know what God is like unless he reveals himself. Don’t you hate it? Don’t you hate it when someone who doesn’t really know you assumes things about you, and are wrong without listening to you and getting to know you. They just assume things that are obviously wrong about you. They clearly don’t know who you are. Don’t you get upset when people do that? Why would we think that that’s okay with God if it’s not okay with us? We don’t get to guess at what God is like and assume his character. And the great reality of the risen Christ is that we don’t have to. God has revealed himself in history. He has made himself known to us, and what he shows us is remarkable. The resurrected Christ offers an invitation to come and be in a first name relationship with the God who made you and loves you. That’s what we have in Jesus. You are not a cosmic accident. You are not just a highly developed animal. You are stamped with the image of your creator. You are highly valuable in his sight. He knows you. And if you put your trust in Jesus, you will know him too.

Well, there’s one more way that our lives are transformed when we see it. And we see it in the thing that Jesus says to Mary. The last thing that he says. And that’s that the resurrected Christ has a job for us. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for 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. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. Mary isn’t just the first to see and speak to Jesus. She is the first of what will become a very long line of people who will tell other people that Jesus is alive. And this line stretches for 2000 years, all the way up to John Marshall High School this morning. We are doing the same thing. Jesus victory over death breaks the stranglehold of sin on the human heart. It reunites us into a relationship with God. That’s why Jesus says that he’s going to ascend to be with my Father and your Father, my God and your God. Now, don’t be thrown by the fact that Jesus refers to His God. He often refers to God the Father simply as God. And that’s what he’s doing here. His point is that when you trust in Jesus, you join God’s family. In that sense, Jesus is playing the role of big brother here in this passage. As the apostle Paul later explains in his letter to the Ephesians, through faith in Christ, we are adopted into the family of God to live with him for eternity.

The death and resurrection of Jesus was our adoption paperwork. He closed the deal by removing our sin, making us righteous, which legally bonds us to God’s family. At the very beginning of this book, chapter one verse 12, John writes, to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. You see, it’s an adoption. We’re brought into his family. And now Jesus says to Mary, go! Go! Go, tell my brothers! Go tell them, church. This message has to be shared. Receiving this means sharing this. You don’t get to have Jesus without giving him away. Jesus rose in history. The gospel is the good news of salvation for eternity through a reconciled relationship with God. How could we not share that? How could we not share that? And one last time, let me speak to those of you who are skeptical. Especially if you’re coming from a place where you’re skeptical of the church. Okay? Maybe not of Jesus, but you’re skeptical of the church. Maybe you’ve seen some things done by Christians that seem out of line with what Jesus said. Things like loving your enemies, caring for the poor and marginalized, loving your neighbor as yourself. You’re looking at the sins of the people in the church and you’re saying, well, if Jesus is like that, then I don’t want Jesus. Or at least I don’t want the church. And while there are many things that I could say to you this morning, I’ll just say this.

I agree with you that there is still a lot of residual sin among people in the church. See, when you look at people in the church, you’re looking at incomplete, unfinished, fallen people who are growing in Christ but are not there yet. That’s who you’re looking at. Becoming like Jesus, it’s a long process. It’s a lot of hard work. You have never met a fully formed Christian. You’ve never met one. And that’s because the process continues all the way up to the moment that we enter into eternity with Christ. The resurrected Christ shows us what we will be someday. And this is why we preach not the gospel of human goodness, not the gospel of personal achievement, but the gospel of the gracious forgiveness of Jesus Christ. We have salvation that we don’t deserve. We have salvation that we could never earn. It comes to us only by God’s mercy and in fits and starts, slowly but surely, it makes us more loving, more gracious, more forgiving. It wipes away our sorrows so that we become people who want to wipe away the sorrows of others. It gives us hope and it causes us to take this hope to others. I want to invite our worship team to come onto the stage and lead us for the rest of our service. As we close our time in the Bible this morning, church, in this very unique celebration of the resurrected Christ here at John Marshall High School, I want to ask you the same question.

I want to ask you the same question that Jesus had for Mary. Whom are you seeking? Whom are you seeking? A dead teacher can’t save you. A dead teacher can’t save you. A human solution can never give you true hope, but the resurrected Christ will. Do you know him? Do you know him? Do you hear his voice calling your name? Let’s pray. Lord God, on this Easter Sunday morning, the morning we focus most carefully on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we proclaim the glory of the resurrected Christ. We thank you, Lord, that you came out of the grave, that you overcame death on our behalf, that we would be able to overcome. Lord, our sins weighed us down. It separated us from you, and you have bought us at the price of Jesus Christ on the cross. You have bought us into your family. You have made the relationship whole again. We could not do that. You have done it for us. You have succeeded. You are victorious over the grave. And Lord, we look forward to the day in eternity when we are with you forever. But in the meantime, Lord, send us out. Send us out like Mary, Father to go and to proclaim that we have seen the Lord, and that you can see him too. Thank you, Father, for all that you have accomplished in your Son and by your Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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