Who are you looking for?
Welcome to OnMission.
Today we are meditating on a controversial, yet factual event — the physical, biological bodily resurrection of Jesus. Like so much else today, doubts and questions have produced theories disguised as explanations that in fact muddy the waters, obscuring the Truth of the Gospel: Jesus Christ is risen - He is risen indeed!
Today we contemplate the question Jesus asks: “Why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”
But first, as we turn to God’s Word, let’s begin in prayer:
Holy God, have mercy on us according to Your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy open our eyes to the Truth.
On this day when we are amazed — the One we saw murdered and undoubtedly dead stands alive before us.
Give us eyes that see… help us understand the amazing Truth and the implications of this fact that He is risen.
May only Your Truth be spoken and heard.
In the mighty Name of Jesus, we pray. Amen
Our Bible readings today are found in the Gospels inspired in John, chapter 20:1-15
Now very early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been moved away from the entrance. So she went running to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesustrips of linen cloth but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, came in, and he saw and believed. (For they did not yet understand the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead.)
So the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she bent down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where Jesusʼ body had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Mary replied, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”
Now here's today's reflection entitled, “Why are you weeping. Who are you looking for?”
Again today, Jerusalem is unsettled.
Stand with me here on the walls of the city.
From here you can see the place; those post-holes in the rock, alongside piles of garbage, mark the place where Jesus was killed.
Just beyond that, where distressed temple guards are scrambling all around, is the tomb where Jesus was buried.
The huge stone that had closed the grave is clearly rolled away — the seals the Temple had set to ensure that no one tampered with the grave are clearly broken. The guards set to make sure that Jesus stayed in His grave where He belonged had clearly failed — the body of Jesus is gone.
Again this morning, the whole earth quaked.
The guards report that the last thing they remember is a vision of angels. When they regained their senses, the tomb was opened, it was empty and Jesus is not there.
The news is spreading — this Jesus, King of the Jews, the man they had murdered without cause, is now said to be alive.
Some of the women had come to the grave early this morning to properly prepare Jesus’ body according to our customs.
As they approached the tomb, the ground shook beneath them. The tomb was opened and empty, and an angel sat on the stone that sealed the grave, as if audaciously saying — look, come and see for yourself.
With the grave wide open this fact is clear - His body is not here - Jesus is gone.
The Temple is shaken.
The Holy place is open and empty for all[1] to see.
Some are already claiming that the old ways have passed — there is a new Way. They remember this Jesus said that none are reconciled to God but through Him.[2]
The scribes called it blasphemy then, but what can they say now that the tomb is as empty as the temple?
A woman said she had spoken to Jesus.
She was mourning His death and weeping over His desecrated grave … and suddenly He stood there before her in the morning light.
Jesus spoke her name and asked her, “Why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?”
…
Why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?
The Gospels tell us that Mary Magdalene and the other women came to the grave as soon as possible. According to Law and their traditions they must wait until the Sabbath had ended.
They had come to anoint a dead man in his grave.
And now even with the tomb wide open and empty; clear evidence that what Jesus had told them would happen had in fact happened, still, they do not believe.
Some ran in fear and vowed to tell no one.
Now Jesus’ question “Why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?”, confronts Mary’s unbelief.
Have you forgotten all I said would happen?
Have you forgotten those demons cast from you?
Have you forgotten I said that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected and killed?
Have you forgotten I said after three days I would rise again?[3]
Have you forgotten who I AM?
Mary, have you been with me so long, yet you do not know me?
Peter and John would run to the tomb when Mary told them what she had seen. They would enter the tomb and leave puzzled.
Unlike Mary and the disciples, the temple who despised Jesus remembered all too well what He had said — they had not forgotten, and they had taken His claim of resurrection quite seriously.
They wanted to make sure there was no doubt - Jesus was dead and He remains dead. They sealed the tomb and set a guard.
But despite their efforts, the body is gone - He is not here.
In an attempt to cover up the truth, to create doubt and to save face, the temple started the rumour that the body was stolen by Jesus’ zealous followers.
They would explain it all away. Everyone knows that the dead stay dead — it made the most sense.
Had Jesus not said, “they do not listen to Moses and the prophets and so neither would a man returned from the dead convince them?”[4]
Had this same people not conspired to kill Lazarus?
“Why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” Do you not remember?
Though rising from the dead was NOT normal, Jesus’ followers must remember seeing it happen.
The widow's son,[5]Jairus' daughter and Lazarus[6] were all dead yet now lived.
“Why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?”
Mary had seen the risen Jesus in the garden. She would tell the remaining disciples, yet they, those who bore witness to all He had said and done, would doubt her.
Confronted with this we might judge them, but are we any better today?
In the Church I went to as a boy, each Easter Sunday morning we would greet each other with the acclamation that, “Christ is risen!” The expected response was “He is risen indeed. Hallelujah”
My older brother Dan, was born with a learning disability (or at least that’s what people said). One Easter in the mid 1970s, as we walked into the Church Rev. Wigby greeted Dan, “Christ is risen!” And Dan immediately responded with the 70’s pop-culture saying, “Man, ya better believe it!”
And though embarrassed at the time, you have to admit he was right — we’d better believe it!
Sometimes I am convinced Dan sees things more clearly than most of us.
How many pulpits this very day will teach the resurrection as myth?
“Why do you look for the living among the dead”[7] — there are only dead among the dead.
In my lifetime I have sat in pews in stunned silence as the resurrection is denied or explained away with intellectual flair and academic rigour.
“Unless I see the wounds from the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe it!”[8]
Dear God in this moment - I confess my silence — forgive my unbelief — embolden me and all Christ followers to go boldly, preach Your Word, Your Gospel in all the world. Amen
I have read the sermons of North American and English Bishops denying the historic fact that ’He is not here” and the biblical truth “He is risen” — one calls it a conjuring trick with bones! Another, the resurrection myth.
How many today will teach the resurrection as mere allegory instead of proclaiming the Truth as it is clearly stated in Scripture - He is not here, He is risen.
How many will seek to placate the people, compromising the Gospel Truth by subverting it to their human reason and so confusing us with their scientific diversions, philosophical distractions, and academic nonsense?
How many clergy will openly hold the Gospel Truth, “He is not here, He is risen” in contempt? Catering instead to the personal ideas and ideologies of friends, followers and financial partners.
How many preachers will put on wolves clothing today and question the very nature of Scripture as God’s breathed Word?
How is it that we question God’s unquestionable Truth?
Today how many will deliver a “what’s in it for me” Easter sermon? Jesus is risen and so now He can give me my hearts desire! - He is who He says He is, and so He is perfectly able and perfectly capable of giving me everything I want.
How many will sentimentalize the Truth, experiencialize the Way of Christ and domesticate God in a vain promise of our best life now?
How many today will miss the point by speaking and hearing only about the perks of knowing Jesus? Rather than the Truth revealed in the resurrection that Jesus is God? He is risen.
Now ask, how many Christ followers will stand in their homes, their workplaces, their congregations, their communities, among their family, friends and colleagues and proclaim that Jesus is God the Son. He has come - He has died - He has risen and He will come again. Jesus lives.
How many will proclaim the fact that God is Love and He Loves you.
Yet that is precisely the message Jesus sends His followers out into the world to tell all the world.
The Gospel is NOT about what Jesus can do for us. It’s about what He has done. Jesus is not some commodity purchased that promises us health and wealth. Jesus is not an investment acquired promising treasures and pleasures. He is not a life insurance policy or fire insurance policy promising immunity from death and hell fire.
Jesus is a person who lives. He is God and He Loves us — each one of us.
He did what He did as recorded in the Gospels so we could know Him - so we could know God’s Love - and so we could accept and Love Him.
Can you imagine it?
In His lifetime among us there were attempts to murder Him, to manipulate Him for political power, to coerce Him for financial gain, to follow and friend Him for gains in social status.
He, the living Word of God was accused of blasphemy.
He was doubted, misrepresented, used, abused, abandoned, betrayed, denied, ridiculed, slapped, punched, scourged, mocked, tried, condemned, crucified and murdered.
He could easily have wiped us all out … yet He endured it all, He endured our sin.
He rose from that grave our sin put Him in, with the scars of the cross imprinted upon His body and He offers us His Love.
This is Jesus - God the Son - God who is Love.
On this day of resurrection remember that. Remember His Love.
His Love is freely given and His Love can only be freely responded to and received.
Let the question for today that challenges you to the depths of your soul be, “Do you Love Him?”
The question today is not do you want the benefits plan, or desire the Christian perks associated with following Jesus.
The question is not do you want eternal life in heaven or hell.
The question is not do you want an eternal return on your mortal investment.
The question for us today, confronted by the fact that Jesus died and is now alive — staring into that empty grave — in the face of the risen Jesus - is do you Love Him?
I pray Jesus will rise in you and be forever present and alive in your heart, revealing Himself in you as you live in Him.
He is risen - He is risen indeed. Hallelujah!
Amen.
Will you pray with me:
Holy God, Create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us.
Cast us not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from us.
Restore to us the joy of Your salvation, and uphold us with a willing free spirit.
Today on this day when we remember the resurrection of Jesus, the empty tomb, the fact the He indeed has risen, let that knowledge shape our response to You our Holy God.
Help us know Your Love and respond to You in Love.
We pray in the mighty Name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
[1] Hebrews 10:19-21
[3] The 1st prediction Matthew 16:21–23, Mark 8:31–32, and Luke 9:21–22, the 2nd
Matthew 17:22–23, Mark 9:30–32, and Luke 9:43–45, the 3rd Matthew 20:17–19, Mark 10:32–34, and Luke 18:31–34
[4] Luke 16:31
[5] Luke 7:11-17
[6] John 11:1-44
[8] John 20:25