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John 20:1-18
He Is Risen! – He Is Risen Indeed! I am certain that the Saturday – Sabbath and that Sunday morning were tough times on the Disciples all of them. If the Roman government and the Jewish religious leaders could kill the Messiah, what could they do His Disciples? But we come to the exciting part of the Good News or Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the one thing that separates Christianity from all other religions. Our God not only died for us, but He also rose victorious over Death, Hell, and the Grave – He lives. No other religion in this world has a resurrected Savior – Let’s look.
John 20:1-18 (NIV) Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
This is a compelling account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With some notable thoughts here.
First is that to John seeing is believing. These two things are linked together for him. And what John sees and notes is as important as the empty grave. The graveclothes are there not torn off as grave robbers would have done, they are orderly – the head cloth as if it were in the exact place it should be if Jesus were still wrapped inside.
There’s also a correlation being drawn here between the graveclothes of Jesus and those of Lazarus. He needed help getting out of the graveclothes – Jesus didn’t. Which signifies a huge difference in that Jesus was no longer subject to death like Lazarus. Remember Lazarus was resurrected by Jesus, but it’s not the same as beating Death, Hell, and the Grave. Jesus had risen no longer a prisoner of Death, Hell, and the Grave – no longer subject to them.
And that brings me to another point. When Mary encounters Jesus she mistakes Him for the gardener and some translations record Jesus as saying not to touch Him simply because He had not yet returned to the Father. I believe this is poor interpretation, and some of the problem you might find in translations that try to translate word for word only, rather than combining that with thought for thought interpretations. And here’s my argument for this not being very accurate.
When Jesus reveals Himself to the others there’s one Disciple missing – Thomas. And what is it that Jesus does…? He invites Thomas to touch Him, not just touch me and see that I’m real, but stick your hand in my wound in my side. So none of the accounts of the Gospels record Jesus ascending and then descending between those times. I don’t believe that Jesus hadn’t been to the Father between His resurrection and seeing the Disciples. Here in this instance either – it just doesn’t line up with the word for word translations that claim Jesus didn’t want Mary to even touch Him.
Have you ever been hugged so hard and long that you mention to the person you can’t breathe or you need to be let go – um that let me go part is a much better translation for this instance. Mary is not letting go of Jesus – He’s alive! I believe I’m going to do the same thing when I get to heaven.
And I want to leave you with this. Jesus’ tomb is in a garden. Now gardens are where life begins – read Genesis chapter one. Gardens are where fruit is produced, growth happens, things are green and beautiful.
Now I know that on the cross Jesus says it is finished and then willingly gives up His life. But Jesus’ work was hardly finished, it had only begun because out of this place of death He brought life. And that is what Jesus does – He creates life out of death.
And that brings me to what I want you to remember from today’s devotion. No matter how dead you are inside or out, finding Jesus will bring you back to life today right now. I don’t care how deadly your past was, I don’t care your failures or disappointments, or the circumstances around you, that all changes here in this garden. Because out of death Jesus brings life. And not just any life but vibrant, abundant new life – unlike anything we could ever ask for or imagine.