Weekly Sermon

"The Seven First Words of the Risen Lord" : April 20, 2003

The Reverend Anne Benefield

John 20:1-29

Easter Resurrection Service

Prayer: Almighty and Eternal God, let us shake with joy in the Easter news that our Savior has been risen and has new words to speak to us - words that will transform us in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

We often, and appropriately, study Christ's last seven words from the Cross. We call them the "Last Seven Words of Christ," but they are really phrases and sentences. From the cross, Jesus said,

1. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". (John 19:17)

2. "This day you will be with me in paradise". (Luke 23:43)

3. "Woman, behold thy son; … behold thy mother". (Luke 23:34)

4. "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me"? (Mark 15:34)

5. "I thirst"! (John 19:28)

6. "It is finished". (John 19:30)

7. "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit". (Luke 23:46)

Those words help us to understand the purpose of the cross and the character of Christ, but they are painful words to remember.

How wonderful it is to turn from the words of the Cross to the first seven words of the Risen Savior! The seven words of the Cross give a message from God to all the world. The first seven things that the Risen Christ said gave a message from God to the church, to God's people, to us.

In John Masefield's drama The Trial of Jesus, there is a striking passage in which the Roman centurion in command of the soldiers of the cross comes back to Pilate to hand in his report of the day's work. After the report is given, Pilate's wife beckons to the centurion and begs him to tell how the prisoner died. When the story has been told, she suddenly asks, "Do you think He is dead?" "No, lady," answers the centurion, "I don't." "Then where is He?" to which the Roman replies, "Let loose in the world, lady, where…no one can stop His truth." Our Lord is let loose in the world, where no one can stop Him.

Let us hear the story anew. Let us both rejoice and learn from it. Let us listen for Jesus' first words to us, his people, as told in the Gospel according to John, chapter 20, beginning with verse 1. (The words of the scripture will be written in bold italics for clarity.)

Early on the first day of the week [Prior to resurrection, the Sabbath was celebrated on the seventh day of the week, but now we celebrate the Sabbath on the first day. We begin the week worshiping God], while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb [Mary confronts the darkness.] and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. [She does not return home; she does not give up looking for Jesus' body.] As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. [The angels are sitting just as the cherubim sat at the head and the foot of the Ark of the Covenant.]

They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." [Notice that Mary says "I" because she is by herself.] 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? Whom are you looking for?"

(#1) It's interesting that the first words spoken by Christ after the resurrection are to a woman in a garden. Surely, there is some symbolism here. It was in the first garden with the snake asking the questions that sin was let loose in God's good creation. Now sin has been overcome and death has lost its sting because Christ is loose in the world and nothing can stop His truth. Mary is weeping. "Why are you weeping?" asked the Risen Savior. He does not take away the tears but he is the answer to her tears. Remember Psalm 30:5, "Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning." And one day, as Revelations 21:4 tells us, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

Jesus tries to lead Mary to understanding what has happened when he asks her, "Whom are you looking for?" as opposed to "What are you looking for?" He knows she is looking for a person, not a corpse. Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Mary doesn't recognize him. Maybe it was the tears; maybe it was the early hour, maybe it was the clothes; or maybe it was because she wasn't looking for him. She didn't expect to see him, and so she didn't see him.Jesus said to her, "Mary!"

(#2) And she recognized him. Jesus calls her by name. He calls us all by name. Have you ever noticed that when we baptize a child, we don't use the surname? There is no need. God doesn't need a surname to recognize his beloved child. God knows us all by our first name. Mary recognizes Jesus' voice.

Remember how when Jesus described himself using the illustration of the good shepherd, he said, "…the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice" (John 10:3b-4). Mary knew her savior's voice. 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.'"

(#3) Jesus gave her the message of the resurrection. It is a message for us to tell to the world: the message that we have been reconciled to God through the cross, the message that we have hope beyond the grave, the message that nothing can stop God's gracious love for us! Christ is let loose in the world and nothing can stop his truth. How wonderful that Jesus chose Mary to be the first to share the Gospel. She wasn't very important earlier in the accounts of Jesus' life - just a fallen woman from whom Jesus removed seven evil spirits.

As a woman, her testimony would have been unacceptable in a court of law, but she was a human parable, showing the surprising grace of God. She demonstrated Jesus' words that the one who is forgiven much, loves much in return. Mary had a message for the disciples; then they had a message for the world. We have a message. Are we going to tell it, deliver it not only in words, but in transformed lives?

The greatest proof of the resurrection is the changed lives of the disciples. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her. When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."

(#4) The doors where locked to keep the world out; the disciples are in full retreat, but Jesus opens the doors with the words, "Peace be with you." What beautiful, healing words. The text says the doors where locked to keep out the Jews, but I think they were locked just as much for fear of Christ. Gathered in this room were his disciples and each of them had deserted him. They had fled; they had denied him; they had betrayed him, but his first words to them were not accusations, not criticisms, not rebukes. He enters and speaks reconciling words to them. He has forgiven them. Sin takes away peace. Troubled hearts, troubled consciences, troubled souls all are the result of sin. Only in Christ can we find peace. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. [He proves it is he who suffered and died on the cross. He has accepted full humanity including death, but mere men do not rise from the dead.] Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

(#5) Jesus joins their commissioning with the commissioning he received from God. This passage is often called the "Charter of the Church." The church must be the mouth to speak for Jesus, the feet to run his errands, and the hands to do his work. When John describes how Jesus breathes on the followers, he uses the same word for "breathe" that was used when God breathed life into Adam and life into the dry bones Ezekiel saw. As Christ calls the disciples to service he gives them the power they need to fulfill the call, the Holy Spirit. There is a job to be done for the Lord. That is the reason he has left us here instead of taking us home to heaven immediately after conversion. To do this job, he gives us the power of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit isn't given to individuals; it is given to the group of believers gathered in the upper room. They are given the Spirit so they will be equipped to share forgiveness. Forgiveness is the unique and profound tenet of the Christian faith. The disciples were in hiding but when Jesus comes they are strengthened and set free. But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."

(#6) Jesus is kind and gracious to the slow to believe, the sincere doubter. To the sincere doubter, the Lord says, "Do not doubt, but believe." Thomas met the Risen Lord and we can meet him, too. We can meet him by faith, by prayer, by God's Word, by confession of sin, by service. Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Thomas is the first to address Jesus as "My God!" Perhaps he was the first to truly understand who Jesus was. Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

(#7) Faith now rests on the apostolic testimony - our testimony. He is speaking to us today. Believe! Amen. .