Mary Sees Jesus
Easter | Selected Texts | Pastor Duane Smets
This year’s Easter sermon follows the life and experience of Mary Magdalene who was present in Jesus’ traveling ministry, present at his cross, present at his burial and encountered the risen Jesus at the empty tomb. This sermon focuses on her exclamation, “I have seen the Lord!” This sermon was originally preached April 4th, 2010 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
April 4th, 2010
“Mary Sees Jesus” | Easter 2010 | Selected Texts
Introduction
Good morning. Happy Easter. He is risen.
Today is a special day for Christians and for Jesus’ church for Easter is the heart and center of our faith and the sole reason for our existence and our gathering. It’s the main thing which separates Christianity from any other religion or spiritual practice, that Jesus rose from the dead.
In 1 Corinthians 15:14 in the Bible declares, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the sole meaning and reason for Easter.
Sadly, it seems it is and has been becoming increasingly about something else for many. A flurry of articles sprung up yesterday in various newspapers across the nation noting the fading significance and meaning of Easter as it has turned more and more into a holiday meant for fun and entertainment rather than worship.
One paper quoted a man poorly presenting himself as a pastor who said Easter is simply about “the feeling of renewal and hope.”
The National Retail Foundation for the US estimates that this year, even in our hard times economy, that $13 billion dollars will be spent on food, clothes, candy and cards in celebration of “Easter.”
That’s astonishing. This morning, I want to honor the Lord Jesus and preach the story of him crucified and risen from the dead and the true meaning and signficance of that for us.
The Evidence of Eyewitnesses
For the past couple of years here at The Resolved Church on Easter we have been looking at the accounts of specific individuals who encountered Jesus after he rose from the dead. After Jesus rose he appeared and spent time with various individuals and groups for a period of 40 days. Some of his encounters were more lengthy than others. Some were with large groups, like over 500 people at one time, others were personal one on one exchanges.
In the first century, an eyewitness was the strongest evidence a lawyer could bring forth in court. It is still strong today, not as strong as videotape. But they didn’t have iphones and video camera back then. I can imagine everyone in the first century. They see Jesus and immediately whip out their iphone. “Hold on Jesus, I got get this and put it up on YouTube.” They didn’t have iPhones, but they had their word and a person’s word was a big deal.
An eyewitness testimony was the strongest evidence around, pretty much the equivalent of a video, especially if you had independant and mulitiple accounts. In the Bible there are 15 specific names of people who are recorded as having seeing the risen Jesus. There are 19 independent personal accounts or stories of what happened. And there are several occassions where Jesus appeared to huge crowds of people. One specific time is famous where there were 500 people all in one place who all saw and heard Jesus. Can you imagine 500 witnesses testifying in a court today?
The Bible records these people’s names and was written when they were still alive to in effect say, “if you don’t believe us, go ask them, they’ll tell you the same thing.” So with these eyewitness accounts, we’re not talking conspiracy theory, this is widespread confirmation. This is not a few individuals hallucinating because they loved and longed to see their dear friend who had just died, this is tons of people seeing the exact same thing.
Even then, these eyewitness accounts are just one piece of evidence among many that for nearly two-thousand years has caused the resurrection of Jesus from the dead to hold water as being a real and true event that actually happened. When we look at everything involved in the resurrection it’s astounding.
There’s not only the biblical evidences themselves of Jesus’ prediction, death, empty tomb, and the eyewitness accounts. But there’s also the circumstantial evidences of the transformation of the disciples, the day and object of worship changed, and the practices, preaching, and rapid growth of the early church which can only be explained if Jesus did rise. Despite those things, and the other several historical documents besides the Bible which corroborate the resurrection there has still been objections. But none have ever had even the slightest amount of plausibility or explanatory power. They all fall flat.
If you’d like to look into those things more, I’d encourage you to go online and read a little piece we put together available on our website titled, “Did Jesus Rise From The Dead.” But for today, we’re just going to mainly stick with the Bible and one eyewitness account in particular.
Sometimes it seems what we need isn’t to hear all the arguments and evidences laid out for us and then weigh them in the scales of our mind and make a decision…sometimes it seems we just need to hear the story. Sometimes it seems that what we need most is to step into another person’s shoes for a little while and experience the whole thing from their perspective. And then the power and the persuasiveness of the message comes shining through.
So this year, I want us to take a look at the life and account of a woman named Mary Magdalene.
The Story of Mary Magdalene
Now there’s been a lot of whack stuff that’s been said and speculated about Mary Magdalene and we’ll talk about some of that but what I mainly want to do is just give you her story straight from the Bible as it is.
When you look at her life as a whole and everything that’s said about her and the places she shows up, it’s quite amazing. She’s a really important and special figure.
She’s in all four of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. She’s the only person mentioned not only in Jesus’ traveling ministry but also at his crucifixion, at his burial, and at his resurrection, all three of those key events. And on top of it all, Mary Magdelene, as we’ll see today, ends up being the very first person to announce the good news of the gospel that Jesus had risen from the dead. So in a way she’s the very first missionary. In part, it’s probably because of these special honors that some have speculated crazy stuff about her.
Mary in Luke 8:1-3
We first meet Mary Magdalene farily early on in Jesus’ ministry. It’s in Luke 8:1-3 and it’s pretty short and sweet, you can turn there and check it out with me if you like. Luke 8:1-3, ” Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.”
So a couple of things here. First, we’re told Mary and a couple of her girlfriends have become Jesus’ disciples and are traveling around with him and the 12 main disciples going from city to city and village to village. That’s the first thing.
As we’ve been learning in our regular study on Sunday mornings, right now going through the book of Matthew, we’ve been learning that to be a “disciple” was serious thing involving a major committment to a teacher master, to learn from him and to imitate his lifestyle. So Mary has become a disciple of Jesus, her and a few of her friends. One of whom, Joanna, also shows up at Jesus’ resurrection.
The second thing we learn about Mary here is how she became a disciple. Evidently, verse 2 here implies that as a result of Jesus’ ministry she was delivered of seven demons. What’s that mean? I don’t know.
To be honest with you I’m not really sure. I’ve never really encountered a demon, that I know of. I have experienced and seen some things I think are demonic. But nothing like where someone gets a demon cast out of them, and not just one but seven.
Here’s what I do know. I do believe that we live in a world where there is more to it than just what we can see, touch, taste, hear and smell. I do believe there are evil spiritual powers and forces at work. What were Mary’s demons? What exactly happened? I have no idea.
Here is what we do know. As a result of coming into contact with Jesus Mary’s life was radically changed and whatever these demons or spiritual forces that were at work in her life were, they were taken away by Jesus. And it had such an effect on her that she devoted the rest of her life to following Jesus as her Lord and savior.
And that is a story that I do know. It’s one many of us know because we have experienced it and are living it. Many of us have made a mess of our lives. Many of us have given ourselves over to evil things that have caused destruction and harm to our spirits and even our bodies. And many of us have been introduced to Jesus and he has healed us and restored us and made us new once again. Many of us have experienced the life changing power of Jesus in our lives. I’m one of them.
Know today, if that’s you and you’re in that place now…know Jesus can change your life.
Well there’s one other detail here about Mary that’s interesting. I don’t know if it’s signficant but it’s interesting and it helps us know Mary a little better. It’s in the last part of verse 3 here in Luke 8 where it says that she and her girlfriends “provided” for Jesus and the 12 “our of their means.”
Evidently, Mary had money. In Mark 16:1 when we read of Mary going to Jesus’ tomb when she encounters the risen Jesus, Mark tells us that she was bringing spices. Spices were expensive. Only people with money could afford to buy them and would do so usually only for their family members in order to cover the stench of their corpse. So Mary had money. She supported Jesus’ ministry financially, not only in the beginning, but also at the end.
Now here is where some of the speculation begins. There’s no biblical evidence or even extra biblical evidence for that matter, I read ‘em all this week. So what we’re talking here is pure speculation. But popluarized by movies like “The Da’Vinci Code” and the older “Last Temptation of Christ”, some have speculated that there must be some other reason Mary was so devoted to Jesus and mentioned at such key moments of his life, so they have suggested that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a sexual relationship and maybe even had children together.
Here’s the problem with that. There’s not a shred or even potential glimpse of such a thing anywhere in the biblical accounts nor does any such idea appear until this last century. It’s not even thought of or speculated about even in the writing from people of the first century that hated Jesus and the church and wanted to destroy it. They should have thought of it. It’s a good idea and they probably would have accused Jesus of a sex scandal if they thought anyone would buy it. But no one would. People knew too much of Jesus’ life and character.
Okay, so that’s one speculation. Here the other. The Bible can be confusing about names. People didn’t have last names in the ancient world like we do. So you were either known as being the son or daughter of your father’s name or if you’re a woman, your husbands name, or if neither of those, where you were from. So when it comes to the name Mary, we’ve got 7 different Marys mentioned in the Bible. There Mary Jesus’ mom, Mary Magdalene, Mary James and Joseph’s Mom, Mary Clopas’ wife, Mary John Mark’s mom, Mary of Rome and Mary of Bethany.
Here’s the thing. This is probably a little nerdy and technical, but I’m trying to do Mary Magdelene some justice here since people been hat’n on her a bit lately.
So here’s the thing. In the Gospel of John, there’s a Mary in Bethany which was very close to Magdala, just called Mary, who was a likely a prostitute (especially if she’s the same woman of Luke 7:36-50), who anoints Jesus’ feet with oil and he forgives her of her sins and teaches the Pharisees a lesson. In that scene Jesus mentions the day of his burial in reference to having perfume for his body. The next time we hear a Mary mentioned, it’s at Jesus death and at the resurrection she has burial perfume.
So, some have wondered whether Mary Magdalene was the prostitute whom Jesus forgave and that the demons he delivered her of were things which came in conjunction with her prostitution. Now, this isn’t likely because of a lot of technical reasons I won’t go into, but it’s plausible. And to tell you the truth, I kinda of like the theory maybe just because if it’s true it tells us more details and what a great thing Jesus saved Mary from and how her life was changed by the power of the gospel.
But we don’t know so let’s move on. I want us to spend the rest of our time this morning in the encounter between Jesus and Mary at his tomb. So if you have a Bible turn to John 20 and let’s read verses 1-18 together.
Mary in John 20:1-18
So Mary goes to the tomb, Mark tells us in his gospel that she was bringing spices for his body. She sees that Jesus body isn’t in the tomb, so she runs off to go tell Peter and John. So her, Peter and John run back to the tomb. Peter and John see the empty tomb and the linens left there which were on Jesus’ body and verse 8-9 say they believe and begin to remember and understand Jesus’ promise that he would rise from the dead. I suppose not knowing what else to do, they go home.
Not Mary. Mary doesn’t go home and to tell you the truth, the way the text tells the story, it seems pretty clear that unlike Peter and John, she doesn’t believe. Luke even tells us that she thought of Jesus predictions as “an idle tale (Lk 24:11).” She stays at the tomb and she’s weeping. She looks inside the tomb and she sees two angels who question her about her disbelief, they ask her why she is weeping.
Her response? She admits she doesn’t think Jesus has risen like he said he would, instead she thinks they have taken his body somewhere. Then she turns around to walk away from the tomb and she sees another man, who is Jesus. But she doesn’t recognize him. Either because she’s got tears in her eyes, is disillusioned and distraught, isn’t expecting to see him, is looking down…whatever.
Jesus, like the angels challenges her disbelief and asks her why she is weeping and who she is looking for? Jesus is funny here. Really. “Isn’t it me you want to see?”
But Mary doesn’t even really hear him. And John tells us that she thought he was the gardener and accuses him of being the one took the body somewhere. She’s just not getting it.
So Jesus calls out her name, “Mary!” And she turns, looks up and imagine with a gasp says, “Rabboni.” And Matthew says that it’s at that point that she falls down on her knees and clasps his feet and begins to worship him (Mt 28:9). That’s the word he uses, “worship.” In Greek it’s “proskuneo” and literally means to fall down on one’s knees and honor to deity.
You get all these cool little details from each of the gospels that when you put them all together just paints the scene for you. Back to John, verse 17. Jesus then says, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers” and he gives her a message for them.
Verse 18. Mary Magdalene goes out and finds the disciples and tells them these marvelous words, “I have seen the Lord.” “I have seen the Lord.” “I have seen the Lord.”
Have You Seen The Lord?
I want to pull things together this morning by asking you, “Have you seen the Lord?” Now I know Mary Magdalene saw the risen Jesus with her eyes and that’s mainly what’s being said there. But I think there is something more to it as well.
Both the angels and Jesus put such a heavy weight on Mary’s disbelief, thinking that Jesus would not really rise that I can’t help but think her words “I have seen the Lord” meant more than just “I saw him” but “I have seen him now truly.” Now I get it. Now I see. I have seen Jesus and he is the Lord! He is the one. He is the messiah. He is the one. I get it now, he was crucified for our sin and now he is risen so that we might have life and hope forevermore! Oh I see!
I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Mary. But I know what it’s been like for me. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is 1 Peter 1:8-9 which says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
I have never seen any spiritual thing physically with my eyes. I have never had any crazy supernatural experience. But I’ll tell you what, I have seen the Lord. I know Jesus. When that day comes when I finally do see him with my physical eyes it will not be the meeting between two strangers. I know my Jesus. I believe in him and he fills me with inexpressible joy and he saves my soul.
Seeing and knowing Jesus risen from the dead changes everything…Jesus resurrection turns back the tide of sin, death, and destruction and breathes life into everything. Jesus breathes life into our hearts. Jesus breathes the promise of eternal life. Jesus heals and restores and redeems and makes all things new.
Have you seen the Lord? Do you know him as Lord? Jesus’ resurrection declares him Lord. In Jesus rising from the dead he demonstrated that he dealt with sin and that is nothing can hold him or contain him, not even death. There is no challenge, no problem, no issue in you that is too big for Jesus to deal with. There is not an area he can’t work in and can’t change you and give you hope and peace. Jesus is alive and ever lives to minister to us.
Have you seen the Lord? Mary did and it changed her radically. We don’t hear of Mary in the Bible again after her words, “I have seen the Lord.” Tradition says she continued to spread that message the rest of her life.
One story says that she actually ended having a chance to appear before the Emporer, Tiberius Ceasar to share her encounter like we’ve heard today. The story says she told him what happened and that she attempted to share the gospel with him, of what it all meant and that she tried to do it using an egg as an illustration.
Apparently she explained that because of Jesus’ resurrection, we are able to be born again and start all over with new ever lasting life just like a baby chick is born and all is new. In reply, Tiberius is said to have told her that Jesus rising from the dead was as unlikely as the egg in her hand instantly turning red in a moment. And to everyone’s surprise after he said that the egg in Mary’s hand turned red.
So if you see old medieval paintings of Mary Magdalene, you’ll often see her holding a red egg. Now that probably didn’t happen, maybe. Cool story.
Here’s what we do know happened… Mary saw the Lord. It would have been foolish for any one of the biblical writers to give her such a prominent place in the whole episode if they were making it up or trying to convince people of something that didn’t happen. I mean, women were not even allowed to give a testimony or eyewitness account in court because their testimony was considered unreliable.
Thus, one way we know Mary’s story is true and that the gospels themselves are reliable documents for history is that her story is included because putting her story in there doesn’t help your cause if you’re trying to tell people Jesus rose when he really didn’t. That’s one way.
The other way we know is that we know. We know. We as humans know it. I believe it’s built within the fiber of who we are. It’s why we hate death. It’s why we love the underdog. It’s why we love heros in movies. We’re built for this story. We long for and know we need one to defeat death and evil for us once and for all. We know it’s true deep in our souls.
We know we need a risen one and Jesus is that man. Jesus lives! He’s not just an idea or a philosophy. He’s not just a religious figure or a wise teacher. Jesus lives! Even if you’re skeptical I know there’s a part of you that longs for it to be true.
Jesus lives.
Conclusion
This morning we’re going to conclude by taking communion. In 1 Corinthians 11:26 when the apostle Paul is explaining communion he says something very interesting right after he explains about the bread being Jesus’ body and the wine being Jesus’ blood, he says to partake of it because whenever we do we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”.
That phrase “until he comes” has Jesus return in mind. In the account we read of Mary and Jesus, Jesus told her that he was ascending to his Father. When Jesus met up with the other disciples he told them the same thing and also that he would return and that until he does we are to spread the gospel and depend on him. So that phrase “until he comes” has us proclaiming the gospel of Jesus death and resurrection in mind.
We proclaim that Jesus lived the life we have failed at and offered up his life, his body to the cross and that he spilled his blood as a punishment for our sins on himself instead of us. We proclaim that he did not stay dead but that he rose again, appeared to many and ascended to the father where he is now and is awaiting the full number of people he has planned to hear the gospel and respond and then he will return, he will come.
The gospel says I am a sinner. Jesus was not. Jesus died in my place for sin. And Jesus rose again. The good news of the gospel is that if I believe in it, Jesus promises to change our hearts and lives just like he did Mary’s and that on top of it all we get eternal life with him.
Let’s pray.
