April 12, 2020 Sermon - Who Are You Looking For?

WHO ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? JOHN 20:11-18 THE NEXT WORDS OF JESUS, PART 1 APRIL 12, 2020 EASTER / RESURRECTION SUNDAY, YEAR A CROSSROADS / PERRYVILLE UNITED METHODIST CHURCHES, MO FACEBOOK LIVE SERVICE # 4

INTRO. A three-year-old girl “was as anxious for Easter to come as she had been for Christmas to come... (A third child was soon to be born into the family of this pastor, and “many persons were giving (the family) baby gifts since this was (their) first child in this (particular) church... (The three-year-old girl,) Nicole had picked out a new dress and (her mother) had given her a new white bonnet... (The family) stopped at a store to buy her a new pair of shoes to go with her outfit, she once again said, ‘I can’t wait for Easter, Daddy!’ (Dad) asked her, ‘Do you know what Easter means honey?’ She replied, ‘Yes.’ ‘Well, what does Easter mean?’ In her own sweet three-year-old way, with arms raised, a smile on her face, and at the top of her voice she cried, ‘Surprise!” What better word could sum up the meaning of Easter! Surprise, death! Surprise,... (defeated) disciples! Surprise, (people today)! He’s alive!” (Hewett, 162). And what a surprise we see here in this Resurrection Day, fresh out of the tomb encounter. Easter, and the appearance of Jesus, is such a great surprise to Mary because it is nothing like what she expected. She was coming to check on a dead body, lying in the grave. She instead came face to face with her risen Lord, alive and well! She had been there for everything: the miracles, the confrontations, the exhilaration. She had watched as they led him back and forth from the priests to Herod to Pilate. A horrified Mary Magdalene saw the disdain with which they treated him, and I am sure she cringed with every blow of the soldiers’ whips. She made the trek to Calvary, heard Jesus’ last words, watched him die, and helped lay him in the tomb. Her arrival on Sunday morning was not simply to tend to the Messiah; it was to care for the body of a friend. And then she came to this conversation with Jesus. How did the conversation go?

I. JESUS QUESTIONED HER (15). She had already been asked this morning, “Why are you crying?” In verse 13, the angels inside the tomb asked her the same question. Mary told them she was looking for Jesus. When Jesus asked her the question, she thought it was the gardener. The third man asked, “Who are you looking for?” Politely, humbly, she stepped forward. “Sir,” she said, “if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” He looked her in the eyes and replied, “Mary.” She wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. But as the echo of her name faded, she gazed at him and found the one for whom she was looking. Mary’s encounter with Jesus resonates with all of us. At some time or other we have all watched helplessly as our lives spin out of control, as the meaning slowly seeps away, leaving us with no direction or destination. We go through the motions, taking care of obligations, but gone are the passion and the purpose behind it all. Of all the post-Resurrection encounters, Mary’s is the most personal. It speaks not to our theological understandings, our evangelical responsibilities, or even our deepest faith. This encounter speaks to our hearts. Mary may very well have been the person closest to Jesus. Her faith did not waiver; she remained through thick and thin; but even Mary, on this day, stood before the risen Savior and mistook him for the gardener. For many of us, mistaking Jesus for the gardener is the least of our problems. The pace of our hectic lives not only leaves us unable to see the work of God around us, but keeps us from realizing our need for God in the first place. Stumbling through Christ’s presence at the tomb means little to those of us who never made the journey at all. And so Jesus comes and questions us. He asks us what we are looking for, the direction we are heading, why we have chosen this way or another. Jesus is kind enough and good enough and loving enough to ask us those hard questions and not accept the easy answers because he rose again to lift us above the pain and agony that has found its way into our lives, the issues, the losses, yes the separation and the struggles of the Coronavirus, because he is Lord of all and over all and in all, to the glory of God the Father, AMEN! 1. Jesus questioned her

II. JESUS CALLED HER BY NAME. Have you ever wondered why Jesus felt the need to repeat this question? Undoubtedly, he had been standing behind Mary long enough to hear her explanation to the angels. She had repeated to them the same plea she gave to Peter and John, “They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him” (John 20:13). But no one seemed to care. Mary’s grief was evident. When she turned to hear the third man repeat the question, her frustration with the situation grew. Why did Jesus ask again? He was known for his compassion and patience, but Jesus could also probe deep into a person’s soul when wanting to make a point. Jesus’ followers had seen him do this before, watching patiently for the right opportunity to ask a question or make a statement that would cut to the very depths of a person’s soul and begin, even without the person realizing it at first, the process of real healing. One time in the Gospels, two sisters argued over what one considered the other’s lack of attention to her tasks. Jesus had come to the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary to enjoy the company of his followers. At some point, Martha accused her sister Mary of neglecting the guests. Mary had been sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his message instead of helping Martha in the kitchen. Martha pleaded with Jesus to scold Mary or, at the very least, tell her to help. Jesus responded not by addressing Mary, but by speaking to Martha. He told Martha that Mary had chosen “the better part.” It was a direct way of showing Martha that her attention to the details of the day, although important, was not the primary need for Mary. Mary didn’t need to attend to any detail but that of her own soul (Luke 10:38-42). It was the same way as Mary Magdalene stood at the tomb. She focused on the details but she missed the blessing. And so, to shake her from the burden of her tasks, Jesus asked the question again, and called her by name. Do you hear Jesus calling your name? His voice is loud and getting louder. It is getting more and more forceful. Overriding my broken past, my stressful today, my uncertain future, he calls my name and your name and pleads with us to follow his path to the Cross, to live his resurrected life, to love and serve him now and forever. Can you hear his voice? Are you listening? 1. Jesus questioned her - 2. Jesus called her by name

III. JESUS REASSURED HER. With love and assurance, Jesus gave these instructions to Mary: “Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Jesus’ intentions in these remarks rest not in the detail, but in the implications: “Go, Mary,” Jesus asks her. “Tell them that you have seen me, but also tell them that we are family.” For a bunch of weak, argumentative men who had left him at the Cross, these are cherished words. But they are also words that Mary needed to hear. Someone does care, someone does listen, and that someone is no less than God. There is a story from the life of Martin Luther where “the devil approached (him) one day and tried to use the fact that every person... (makes mistakes. The devil gave Luther) a long list of sins of which he was guilty. When he had finished reading (the list), Luther said to Satan, ‘Think a little harder, you must have forgotten some.’... (So the devil) added other sins to the list... (When he was done,) Martin Luther simply said, ‘That’s fine. Now write across that list in red ink, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.’ There was nothing the devil could say to that” (Green, 311). And that is reassurance we can all receive from the Christ who rose from the grave and lives today! 1. Jesus questioned her - 2. Jesus called her by name - 3. Jesus reassured her

CON. Folks, this story belongs to us. Each of us, in one way or another, can identify with John, Peter, or Mary. Some are John, running ahead to the tomb, excited by the possibilities but anxious about entering. Others are Peter, hanging back, wondering what will be worse, finding him dead or alive. If he is dead, then our hopes are shattered; if he is alive, then we are forced to confront our shame. In either case, we need to know. But many are Mary, finding life has not turned out as expected, for whom the weight of the world has become overwhelming. But, no matter with whom we identify, what we find at the tomb is the same - hope and a risen Christ. Two thousand years have passed, but the questions have not changed: Why are you crying? Who are you looking for? Jesus remains at the tombs of our lives, in the dark corners of our past, begging us to look inside and see the power of a new beginning. My prayer for each of us is that we will not allow the weight of our uncertainties to keep us from seeing the risen Jesus.