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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > Rejoice, for Christ has risen! | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) All songs are from the CanRC/FRCA Book of Praise Hymn 44 Psalm 119:39 (after the law of God) Hymn 37 Hymn 34 Psalm 81:1-3 Scripture readings: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; Mark 2:18-22 Text: John 20:11-18 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
Have you ever had an inappropriate reaction? You know, maybe you’re at a funeral and things are supposed to be solemn and serious. But suddenly you remember something outrageously funny about the person who died and you can just barely contain yourself – or maybe you don’t. It’s a funeral. You’re supposed to be serious. But there you are having this awkward and inappropriate reaction.
Our passage for this morning features an inappropriate reaction, but it’s the flip side of the example I just gave. Rather than being solemn and serious, something has happened which should bring great joy. But instead, we see someone weeping.
What we read from Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” Appropriate times for everything. Christ’s resurrection gives us a time to laugh and dance, a time to rejoice. Indeed, loved ones, Rejoice, for Christ has risen! That’s the theme of the sermon and we’ll consider:
- Why Mary wept
- Why we should rejoice
On that Easter Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene was the first to arrive at the tomb where Jesus’ body had been placed on the Friday before. She saw the stone rolled away from the entrance and ran to tell Peter and John. The two of them ran back to the tomb and saw for themselves that the body of Jesus was no longer there. Then they went back to their homes.
At some point Mary arrived back to the tomb. Now you have to picture what this tomb looks like. It’s a room carved into the side of a hill. Inside the tomb there would have been at least one bench where the body would have been laid. There would have been a huge disk-shaped rock that would have rolled into place as a door. Mary had already noticed that the stone door was rolled to the open position.
Now she stands outside the tomb and she’s weeping. She’s not shedding a quiet tear or two. No, she’s overcome with emotion and sobbing. These are not tears of joy, but of intense grief.
At a certain moment, as she was sobbing, she decided to look inside the tomb. Perhaps it was to check whether the body of Jesus really was gone. It was. But in the place where Jesus’ body had been resting, there were two angels, clothed in white. They were sitting on the bench in the tomb, one where Christ’s head would have been, and one at the feet.
Let’s pause here for a moment and consider these angels. Angels are creatures, spiritual beings. They were created by God to be his servants and ours. Angels are normally invisible, though they can sometimes reveal themselves. Even though we can’t see them, angels are always around us, joyfully and willingly doing God’s work. And at special times in the history of salvation, angels appear. Just in the New Testament, think of how an angel appeared to Mary to announce that she would give birth to the Saviour. Or think of how a few months later the angels announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. Angels are God’s messengers to announce wonderful things to God’s people. They announce that God has done something awesome. And to underline that, these angels are clothed in white. In the Bible, white symbolizes purity, but also joy and victory. In Revelation 7, the great multitude from every nation standing before the Lamb, they’re clothed in white robes and singing praises to God. So the picture here inside the tomb with these angels is one of joy and revelation. Glad tidings are about to be announced.
And yet here’s Mary Magdalene and she’s crying her eyes out. This doesn’t make any sense. The angels ask her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” The term “Woman” here isn’t meant as disrespectful. Think of it as the equivalent of “Ma’am.” “Why are you weeping Ma’am?” The question isn’t asked because the angels are confused. The angels know why she’s weeping, but they also know Mary doesn’t know she shouldn’t be weeping. The question is asked to get her to stop and think. It’s for her sake that they ask.
She answers, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” There are two things to note here. First and foremost, she assumes Jesus is still dead. She doesn’t think about the times he promised he would rise from the dead, even that he would rise from the dead on the third day. Second, she thinks someone has taken away his body, even though she doesn’t specify who “they” are. If Jesus’ body isn’t there, that means someone must have taken it away. In her mind at that moment, that can be the only explanation. The notion that he might be alive isn’t even considered. She has a sort of tunnel vision. But it’s about to be cured.
She turned around. Perhaps she saw his shadow falling on the tomb. And as she turned around she saw Jesus there, but didn’t recognize him. Probably because she didn’t expect to see him there. Jesus asked her the same question the angels asked, “Why are you weeping?” And he asked it for the same reason. Jesus knows why she’s weeping. But he also knows Mary needs to open her eyes to see that there’s no reason to weep. In fact, quite the opposite. He also asks, “Whom are you seeking?” Notice, it’s not “what,” but “whom.” With this subtle way of putting it, Christ is nudging her towards the truth. She shouldn’t be seeking a dead body, but the living Lord.
But having heard the question twice, it still doesn’t register. She thinks Jesus is the gardener, the person who would have taken care of the landscaping around the tomb. In her reply, she opens the door to another possibility. Maybe the gardener took him away. Why would he do that? There doesn’t seem to be a good reason why a gardener would do that, but it still seems more likely to her than that Jesus is alive in front of her. She says that if that’s what happened, she’ll make arrangements to have his body taken away.
Mary Magdalene was no stranger to Jesus. We learn two important things about Mary from Luke 8. One is that besides the twelve who went with him everywhere, there were also several female disciples, including Mary Magdalene. As Jesus went about “proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God,” Mary was there the whole time. She heard everything, including the times Jesus announced how he would be crucified and rise from the dead on the third day. The other important thing we learn from Luke 8 is how she had personally experienced Christ’s power. Before meeting Jesus, she’d been demon-possessed. In fact, she had been the home of seven demons. Christ delivered her from that demonic possession, he cast out the seven demons from her. So she experienced for herself that Jesus is powerful. But is he so powerful that he can overcome death and the grave? Apparently she hasn’t yet believed that.
And because she still doesn’t believe, she weeps. Her tears are caused by unbelief. If she’d remembered how she heard Jesus preach about his resurrection, she would have been rejoicing at that moment. If she’d recalled his great power in her life, this would already have been the best day ever. But her unbelief gives her sorrow.
That’s what unbelief does. When we don’t believe the gospel and everything it promises, we’re left with grief. Imagine if we didn’t believe in Christ’s resurrection. Now you’ve just lost a loved one who was a Christian. You’d grieve at any rate, but because you don’t believe in Christ’s resurrection, you have no hope that he has the final say over death. You have no hope that he has victory over death. You would grieve as someone with no hope. Hopeless tears are the most bitter. Or imagine if we didn’t believe in God’s power and providence. Things go pear-shaped in our lives. You could get a lot of comfort from believing in God’s providence, from believing that everything is managed by a good, wise, and loving God. Perhaps you could even learn to rejoice, like the Apostle Paul did in a letter he wrote from prison to the Philippians. But because of unbelief, you’re just left with resentful grief at the universe and how it’s so unfair. Or at best you’re just left with sad resignation at the way things are. Loved ones, when we don’t believe the gospel and everything it promises, we’re left with grief in this world that only anticipates the grief experienced by unbelievers in the next. So let’s ask for the help of the Holy Spirit that we may always believe what God’s Word promises us in the good news of Jesus Christ. Through that faith, we will find joy.
We’re now at verse 16 in our passage and here we see the birth of joy for Mary. And it comes with one word from Jesus, her name spoken in his familiar way, “Mary.” It was a name given to him by the Father in eternity. In his grace, the Father had chosen Mary to be one of his elect. In his love and care for her salvation, the Father gave her to the Son. The Son lovingly bore her name on his heart as he suffered and died on the cross. He paid for all her sins, including her unbelief. Now he stands before her and says the name for which he had done so much: “Mary.”
That does it for her. That’s what the Holy Spirit uses to open her eyes. She turns to him and says in her native language of Aramaic, “Rabboni.” It means “my teacher,” and it’s an expression of great respect. She then grabs hold of Jesus and won’t let go. It’s a picture of exuberant joy. With one word from Jesus, she’s gone from the depths of sorrow to the heights of happiness. She now sees and believes that he is truly alive, risen from the dead.
As we come to verse 17, if you read the commentaries, they’ll tell you that this is one of the most difficult verses in the New Testament. There are a few questions. Why does Jesus tell Mary not to cling to him? Why does he give his ascension as the reason? It’s not immediately obvious and commentators have come up with different explanations. We won’t go through them all. I’ll just give you what I think is the best explanation.
Remember that Mary is clinging to Jesus. She’s holding on to him for dear life, afraid that she might never see him again. Christ needs to remind her that she cannot hold on to him forever. He is soon going to ascend into heaven for her benefit and for the benefit of all believers. That’s going to be the high point of all his work. Everything is leading up to that. And so she can’t hold on to him and keep on holding on. She has to let go and let him do what he needs to do. She has to let go and she has to get busy with what she has to do.
What she has to do is take her joy at the resurrection and spread it. Christ commands her to not keep her joy to herself, but to go to the other disciples and tell them. Specifically, he commands her to tell them that he is about to ascend into heaven. As I mentioned, that will be the crowning achievement of the redemption he’s accomplished. He will go to the Father who sent him, to his God. But also to the Father of his disciples, to their God. The way he puts this is interesting. It draws attention to the fact that because of what Christ has done, the disciples of Christ can be sure they have a Father and God in heaven. It’s the same Father and God of Christ. But at the same time, it also draws attention to a distinction. There’s a distinction between Christ as the natural Son of God and disciples as adopted sons of God. He relates to God as the natural Son, we relate to him as adopted children. We’re not naturally part of God’s family, but because of what Christ has done, we’re included through adoption.
With those words ringing in her ears, Mary did what she was told. She went and found the disciples and joyfully told them how she’d seen the risen Lord. And she faithfully told them what Christ had said about his ascension as well.
That would have given the disciples back then great reason for rejoicing. It continues to give Christian disciples today great reason for rejoicing. I want to briefly consider three reasons why the appropriate reaction to the resurrection is joy. But before we do that, what is joy? In the Bible, joy can manifest itself in a happy demeanour, a smile on your face. Joy can express itself with laughter and dancing, as we saw in Ecclesiastes 3. But Christian joy runs deeper than that. It includes more. Joy is also that sense of satisfaction at what God has done. Joy is what you feel in your heart when you know you’re a child of God and nothing can take that away. Joy is that profound awareness of how you’re deeply loved unconditionally. Christian joy can be there even when our circumstances really stink, humanly speaking. Think of all the martyrs who have been killed for their faith. When they died, they died with the kind of joy we’re talking about.
Take the author of our Belgic Confession. Guido de Bres was martyred, hung for being a Reformed minister. Shortly before he died, he wrote a letter to his mother. He told her that his heart leapt for joy. He wrote, “I myself am joyful and I pray that you will join with me, knowing that all will be for my great good and salvation. I submit myself to what it pleases him to do to me, knowing that he will not do anything that is not just and fair. He is my God and Father, having only good will toward me and the power to deliver me, if he finds it good to do so.” He wrote that on May 19, 1567 and then on May 31 he went to the gallows. He knew joy even in the face of death. Christian joy has that power.
So with that understanding of joy, the resurrection is first reason for joy because it represents Christ’s victory over sin and death. There’s death in the world because of sin. We die because sin came into the world. Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and then death came. But Christ has vanquished sin, and death couldn’t hold him down. His victory over sin and death is ours. We can be confident that sin has no claim on us. We can be confident that even though we die in this age, our death is an entrance into eternal life. We rejoice because Christ’s resurrection gives us hope.
Second, the resurrection is reason for joy because it announces that God has accepted the sacrifice Christ made for our justification. Romans 4:25 says that Christ was raised for our justification. Jesus was raised so God could declare us to be right with him – that’s what justification is. Part of the basis of our righteousness is Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to pay for our sins. God raised Jesus from the dead to announce that the payment was fully made. We owe God nothing but our thanks. We rejoice because Christ’s resurrection announces that God has accepted the payment Christ made for our justification.
Finally, the resurrection is reason for joy because the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is at work in us to raise us up to a new life too. If we’re Christians, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. He raised Christ from the dead. The Holy Spirit is at work in us too to bring about change. He changes us from the inside out. The Spirit makes us alive with Christ, so more and more we begin to look like him. We rejoice because Christ’s resurrection announces that God isn’t going to leave us the way we are. He will continue to transform us for our good and his glory.
Our passage teaches us that this joy we’ve been given isn’t supposed to be kept to ourselves. This is a joy which is meant to be passed on to others. Resurrection joy is supposed to be shared joy. Like Mary Magdalene went and told the others, we’re meant to go and tell whoever we can too that Jesus is risen. We don’t serve a dead Lord, but a living one. He has risen from the dead and it’s his resurrection that gives us so much joy. Let’s pray for the help of the Holy Spirit to be able to share that with whoever we can.
Joy is the right response to the resurrection. We read earlier from Mark 2. Christ spoke there too about what’s appropriate for certain times in salvation history. He spoke of a time when fasting would be appropriate. Fasting is associated with sorrow. He said that when he would be gone, that would be the time for fasting, for sorrow. Jesus was referring to his death and the time following. But when we have Christ with us, that’s the time for joy, the time for feasting. Yes, Christ ascended into heaven and he’s no longer physically present on this earth. But as our Catechism helpfully reminds us, he is never absent from us in his divinity, majesty, grace, and Spirit. Christ is always near. So even now, after the ascension, what’s appropriate is rejoicing, rejoicing in the Lord always. So let’s do that, praising God today and every day, praising him for the fact that our Lord lives. AMEN.
PRAYER
Our heavenly Father,
We rejoice at the good news of Christ’s resurrection. Even though it happened some 2000 years ago, it still continues to give us so much joy. We’re grateful for the empty tomb and what it means. Thank you that we can rejoice knowing Christ’s victory over sin and death. We worship you for raising Christ for our justification. We praise your name because of the way in which you continue to raise us up to new life through the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead. Please continue to fill all our hearts with this resurrection joy each day. We pray for the help of your Spirit too to share this joy with others. Please open doors for us to speak about the hope we have. Please give us courage to speak the right words when you give us those open doors. We pray that through our witness, more and more people will come to know the joy we have in our risen Lord Jesus.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Dr. Wes Bredenhof, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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