Take That!

John 20:1-18

March 31, 2024 (Easter) • Mount Pleasant UMC

It’s dark. And it’s quiet. The sun has not yet risen, and everyone is still waking up after the Sabbath rest. It’s Sunday morning in a world where darkness meant you stayed put until light came. It wasn’t always safe to travel in the dark. And yet, there in the garden are three women who are moving about with determination and dedication. Their friend, Jesus, had been executed just days ago and hurriedly buried in a borrowed tomb by their friends Joseph and Nicodemus. Mary Magdalene had been one of those who had stayed until the end, until the moment when the huge rolling stone was locked into place and all hope was gone. Jesus was dead. He was gone. And everything he had taught and said and lived out seemed to be gone, too. There was only one thing left to do, really: finish the burial. Because sundown had been approaching and the Sabbath was beginning, his burial had been quick and incomplete. These women, then, come to the tomb with the spices and oils they need to give Jesus a proper burial (cf. Luke 24:1). I say this every Easter, but I want you to hear me clearly: they are coming to the tomb to anoint a corpse. Despite the fact that Jesus had promised several times that he was going to rise again, no one expected a resurrection. These women do not come to the tomb to see if he is raised; they come to take care of the body of their dead friend (Card, John: The Gospel of Wisdom. pg. 204). Then men don’t even bother to get out of bed.

Yes, it is true that some of the Jews in the first century believed in a resurrection. But the resurrection they believed in was something that would happen at the end of time, something God would do for all his people. This was a brutal time, and there were lots of Jewish revolutionaries and leaders who were killed by Rome in similarly brutal fashion, some of them even crucified like Jesus, but no one claimed they had been raised from the dead. No one expected that, at least not right now. Some people would say that these folks would be raised from the dead one day, but not now. No one expected one person to be raised from the dead in the middle of history. These women aren’t looking for resurrection. They only know one thing: Jesus has been crucified and no one comes back from that (cf. Wright, Simply Good News, pgs. 48-49).

I can imagine that the darkness probably kept them quiet as they moved through the shadows toward the garden. I wonder, too, if they were remembering that horrific scene on the top of Skull Hill, just days before, where they watched Jesus’ life literally drain from his body. I should probably point out at this point that not only are the women the first ones up on Sunday morning, they were also the last ones to leave the cross on Friday afternoon. Of the men disciples, only John stayed near his rabbi. The rest disappeared. And so the women would have had the most visceral and painful memories from the time around the cross. They would have heard the people who were making fun of Jesus (cf. Luke 23:35-37). They would have seen the sign Pilate put over his head, mockingly declaring him to be “king of the Jews” (cf. John 19:17-22). But they also would have been witnesses to the tenderness that happened there, when Jesus entrusted the care of his mother to John (cf. John 19:25-27), and when Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate to allow him to give Jesus’ body a proper burial (cf. John 19:38). It hasn’t been that long ago, so I would guess they can still hear the sound of the large rolling stone falling into the groove that locked it in place. No wonder they ask the question: “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16:3).

When they arrive at the tomb, they find out that they’ve actually got a different set of problems than they thought they would have. The stone is gone; that problem is solved. But now there’s a bigger question: the tomb is empty, so where’s his body? Mary runs back and wakes up two of the men disciples, Peter and John, and says, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” (20:2). Now, she doesn’t know who “they” are; she just knows that someone has been messing with Jesus’ tomb. As if the indignity of the beatings and the trial and the crucifixion wasn’t enough, now someone has to disturb his grave. Again, let’s notice that her first thought is not, “He must be risen from the dead.” No, her first thought, as it would be for anyone in those days, is, “Someone has robbed the grave.”

Grave robbery wasn’t uncommon; in fact it was so common that one of the first century emperors made “disturbing a grave” a capital offense (cf. Whitacre, John [IVPNTC], pg. 472). Thieves would break in and look for valuables, and since some regarded Jesus as a royal figure of sorts, naturally someone might think he had valuable items buried with him (cf. Wright 50). Never mind the fact that the soldiers had gambled for the only possessions he had, his clothing (cf. John 19:23-24). Thieves wouldn’t necessarily know that. They would only know this is a fresh tomb, ripe for the picking. That’s what Mary assumes when she sees that the stone has been rolled away. Thieves broke in and, not finding any valuable items, they took the body instead. And heaven knows what they are doing with Jesus’ body! She doesn't think, “Oh, of course he’s been raised!” No, she thinks, “He’s been stolen and we don’t know where they have taken him.”

In the next few verses of John’s account, then, there’s a lot of movement. Peter and John run back to the garden, now suddenly awake and interested. I always love the detail John includes, that he outran Peter to the tomb. He’s writing when he’s an old man and Peter is long gone, but he still thinks it’s important to make sure everyone knows that detail. Don’t listen to anyone else, I outran Peter. Everyone knows I was younger and faster than he was. In fact, he tells us this twice (20:4, 8), just in case we might miss it. But he is fair in telling us that Peter actually was the first one who went in the tomb. John then follows him, and John “believes” (20:8). We’re not told what he believes, just that he believes. Peter and John see the cloths Jesus had been wrapped in laying there, like a body has evaporated out of them (cf. Card 205). They see the piece that was wrapped around Jesus’ head, laying off by itself, folded up. It doesn’t look like a grave robbery. Why would thieves take the time to arrange the wrappings in this way? John believes something has happened, but he doesn’t know quite what yet. With no answers forthcoming, they go back to where they were staying.

In the meantime, Mary has returned to the garden, where this time she encounters two angels who are sitting in the tomb. So Peter and John were just there in the tomb; they didn’t see any angels. Did the angels just arrive? Were they out on a coffee break? Or is it possible that Mary is more open, more spiritually sensitive than the men were, that’s she’s more able to see the angels than Peter and John? Maybe that’s also why she is the first to see Jesus in his resurrected body. Except she doesn’t recognize him and thinks he’s the gardener, or someone who has moved Jesus’ body. It isn’t until he calls her name, probably in a way he has so many times before, that she realizes who it is she is looking at. And suddenly, it all makes sense. Suddenly, all the times he promised to rise again come flooding into her mind. Suddenly, she is weeping not out of sadness but for joy. “I have seen the Lord!” she tells the disciples (20:18).

And there were other appearances, but again, such appearances were not unknown in the ancient world. There are stories, even modern stories of people seeing their loved ones shortly after death, claiming to have seen a ghost or apparition. We even have a story from earlier in Jesus’ ministry where he walks on the water out to the disciples’ boat in the midst of a storm, and the disciples do not first say, “Well, of course Jesus is walking on the water.” No, they cry out in fear, “It’s a ghost!” (Matthew 14:26). Later on, in the book of Acts, Peter is in prison but is helped to escape by an angel. So he goes to the house where he knows they are praying for his release, and when the servant girl announces that Peter is at the door, they say, “It must be his angel” (Acts 12:15). In other words, he must have been killed after all and this is a ghostly visitation. So Jesus’ appearances could have been written off like that, because no one expected a resurrection. Have I mentioned that? Non-Jewish writers of the time say resurrection is impossible. But when you take these two things together—the body is missing and Jesus is appearing in a new body—the only thing the early church could conclude is that what Jesus had said was true (cf. Wright 50-51). He had, in fact, been raised from the dead as he had promised. And if Jesus had been raised from the dead, then everything had changed. The world was now different.

All throughout this season of Lent, we have been considering several “words to the cross,” several ways people respond to what happened on Calvary. People all around that horrible event respond in different ways and some of those responses we still hear today. Jesus wasn’t who he said he was. Jesus deserved death. Jesus was just a criminal who deserved to be thrown into a pauper’s grave. And on and on people go. And if the story had stopped at the cross, I can guarantee you we wouldn’t still be gathering two thousand years later to remember this traveling teacher. He might have given some good advice, maybe shared some pearls of wisdom about how to live, but if his life stopped at the cross, he was nothing more than just another religious teacher. If the verdict of the ancient courts were right, if the cross was all there is, then we would be wasting our time here. In fact, as one of the early Christian writers, Paul, said if it all ended at the cross, “your faith is futile” (1 Corinthians 15:17) and we might as well go home right now and eat chocolate bunnies. Paul goes on: “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

But when you combine the evidence of an empty tomb and many bodily appearances of Jesus, you come to a different conclusion. Maybe those first followers were, in fact, right. Jesus was raised from the dead, in the middle of history, with a new body that had new properties, that was the same and yet different. Easter is critical because without the resurrection, there is no good news and I have nothing to proclaim to you. But, as Paul wrote, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Here’s how preeminent New Testament scholar N. T. Wright puts it: “The resurrection is the sign that the verdict of the courts has been reversed. The Jewish court tried Jesus for blasphemy and found him guilty; the resurrection declared that he really was God’s son. Pilate’s court tried him for being a would-be rebel leader, and though Pilate didn’t really find Jesus guilty, he handed him over on that charge. The resurrection declared that Jesus was not the ordinary sort of political king, a rebel leader, that some had supposed. He was the leader of a far larger, more radical revolution than anyone had ever supposed. He was inaugurating a whole new world, a new creation, a new way of being human. He was forging a way into a new cosmos, a new era, a form of existence hinted at all along but never before unveiled. Here it is, he was saying. This is the new creation you’ve been waiting for. It is open for business. Come and join in” (Wright 100-101).

Without the resurrection, the cross would be incomplete. Without the resurrection, there would be no Christian faith. Jesus most likely would have been forgotten, first of all by the disciples who had followed him so closely. As I said, they might have extracted a few pieces of good advice to live by, but without Jesus rising from the dead, there would have been no reason to continue his ministry. And it gets even better because Jesus’ resurrection, Paul promises, is the promise of our own. This is not something God did just for Jesus as his son and then he withholds it from everyone else. No, Jesus’ resurrection is the promise of our own (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:23). For those who trust in him, resurrection is our destiny. And we’re not talking about the common idea of floating on a cloud and strumming a harp. No, we’re talking about being given a resurrected body, a new body that is continuous with this one and yet different, made to live forever. Which is good; I need a new one because this one’s wearing out. Jesus’ resurrection was not a miracle to prove Jesus was divine. Jesus’ resurrection is the promise of our own. It’s a preview of coming attractions.

Now, there’s another question I have this morning: have you ever wondered what Jesus did in between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning? I mean, his body was in the tomb, so was he just taking a nap? What was he up to? If you remember, on Friday Jesus told the rebel on the cross next to him that he would join Jesus in paradise—and when did he say that would happen? “Today” (cf. Luke 23:43). Today, I assume, meant “Friday.” That same day. So there was somewhere for a repentant rebel to go that very day, an experience we typically call “life after death.” He would be with Jesus in some fashion, but whatever that looked like (Friday to Sunday), it wasn’t resurrection. However, when Jesus walked out of the tomb on Sunday morning, something new happened. As I said, one man, raised from the dead in the middle of history was not what anyone expected. And because of that, an entirely new way of living began. N. T. Wright calls it “life after life after death,” a new bodily life in the presence of God forever. Jesus’ resurrection promises that one day we will live in “God’s space,” the place where God dwells with his people (cf. Revelation 21:3), a new heaven and new earth, all together (cf. Revelation 21:10). It will still have that “new heaven and earth” smell. Jesus’ resurrection isn’t just about going to heaven when you die; it’s about a whole new quality and way of life that begins now and goes on forever. It’s what Paul describes this way: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—the things God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). And all of that is possible, all of that is true because Jesus was raised from the dead. His resurrection created new possibilities we could only dream of before. This, then, is the good news: Jesus fulfilled all the ancient hopes, more completely than anyone could have imagined, and the same thing that happened to him is possible as well for all of us who put our hope and trust in him (cf. Wright 55).

When the cross spoke condemnation and violence into the world, the resurrection responded with hope and love. When the cross tried to keep Jesus quiet, the resurrection responded with joyful song. When the world did its worst to Jesus and told him, “Take that!” God responded by raising Jesus from the dead and then said, “Take that!” To a world of death and dying, to a world of pain and darkness, the light of the resurrection breaks through bringing healing and says, “Take that!” After all, that’s what John was saying at the very beginning of his Gospel, in a passage we always read on Christmas Eve: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed! And that’s why, in the end, John hears a voice from the throne saying, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4). Take that, death! Take that, mourning! Take that, crying! Take that, pain! Take that, old order of things! In the light of the resurrection, you cannot survive, you will not survive. God has turned things upside down and the world will never be the same again. That’s why, as I remind you every Easter and a whole lot of Sundays in between, the resurrection always means that the worst thing is never the last thing.

Several years ago, I took another pastor friend of mine to the Holy Land and, as we always do, we visited in Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was one of those days where there were a lot of people in the church, and when we got to the monument that marks where the tomb once was, there was a long line. I’ve waited in that long line before, and while it is meaningful to go inside the monument, I didn’t want to stand in line this particular year. So I wondered around to see things I hadn’t noticed before, and I ran into Pastor Ken. I knew he hadn’t been to Jerusalem before, and probably wouldn’t be back again, so I asked him if he was going to go inside the tomb. And Ken smiled and said, “No, I’m good. I don’t really want to wait in a long line to see a place where he is not.” I couldn’t argue with that! Friends, he is not there, he is risen, and the world is forever changed. And that, my friends, is the good news. Let’s pray.