The Risen Lord (John 20:11-18)

We're actually going to be in John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

So you can turn there in your Bibles.

It's also in your handout as well.

We're going to be studying verses 11 through 18 this morning.

You know, at Abide on Sunday mornings, we just happened to be going through the book of John, and we go through it verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and we landed on the empty tomb last week.

So we just taught on that last week, which we probably could have finagled the calendar and made it line up to, you know, to land this Sunday.

But as I was looking at the text, I thought it would be a neat thing to look at Jesus' first interaction after his resurrection.

Still taking place right outside of this empty tomb.

You know, the Gospel of Mark confirms that he appears to Mary.

Jesus appears to Mary.

And that was the first appearance that he had to anyone.

Which is fascinating.

You know, he could have made his first appearance to Pilate.

Surprise, you know.

It could have been the chief priests.

It could have been Peter and John.

They were just at the tomb before this interaction that Jesus has with Mary.

But he chooses Mary.

Mary was not one of the 12 disciples that we see in Scripture, but Mary was one of Jesus' disciples.

You know, he had a lot more than the 12 that were kind of in his inner circle, so to speak.

And the word disciple simply means a follower of Jesus.

And it's a follower of Jesus with the intention of becoming more like him.

And this was Mary.

And Jesus was her teacher, her rabbi, as we're going to see here just in a little bit.

But we're also going to see that he was much more than just a teacher to her.

And for a little background of what leads up to this interaction, just to kind of catch us up a little bit, Jesus has been in the tomb since Friday afternoon.

Mary and these women are coming to properly care for Jesus' body on Sunday morning because evidently the men didn't do such a great job of preparing Jesus' body for burial.

So they waited all of Saturday because they couldn't do this type of thing on the Sabbath.

And before it's even light, we see them coming to the tomb.

They find that the stone is rolled away, and they assume that the body of Jesus has been stolen.

Mary runs back to Peter and John, tells them what they've seen.

Peter and John come running to the tomb, and after some careful examination on their part, they realize that Jesus' body has not been stolen, but it has actually been resurrected.

And they don't know why, they still don't know the importance of why this is all taking place, but they come to that realization.

But Mary has not come to that conclusion for herself yet.

She still thinks Jesus' body has been stolen.

And so she stays back here at the tomb, and that's right where we pick up here this morning.

So we're gonna uh read John chapter 20, starting in verse 11.

John 20 · chapter mention

It says, But Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb.

She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus' body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.

They said to her, Woman, why are you crying?

Because they've taken away my Lord, she told them, and I don't know where they've put him.

Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus.

Woman, Jesus said to her, Why are you crying?

Who is it that you're seeking?

Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him, and I will take him away.

Jesus said to her, Mary, turning around, she said in Aramaic, Raboni, which means teacher.

Don't cling to me, Jesus told her, since I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God.

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord.

And she told them what he had said to her.

You know, there's two things that I hope that we see in this passage and that we walk away considering here today.

One, that Jesus knew Mary's name.

And Mary knew Jesus' voice.

And then what I want us to consider, the second thing, is that Jesus knows your name.

But the question is, do you know his voice?

And do you know his voice like Mary knows his voice?

So let's start here by looking at verse 11.

It says, But Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb.

All Mary knew at this point is that Jesus' body was missing, right?

And she's distraught.

This word crying here means that she's weeping.

The King James actually says she's bewailing to kind of give you an idea.

It's not just tears rolling down her face.

She's wailing.

Let's think about who Jesus is to Mary.

Why is she in this state?

This is a woman that was possessed, scripture tells us, by seven evil spirits.

And then Jesus cast them out of her.

Jesus saved her from a life in which she no longer had control.

And I don't say that metaphorically.

She was literally possessed by evil.

It had taken over her life.

And he cleansed her whole body from the evil that was literally living inside of her.

And as we see here, and as we saw last week, she loved her Lord.

You know, we see the deepest love, I think, through this story of Mary.

She was well acquainted with darkness and sin.

And she firsthand experienced Jesus save her from that.

So I have to wonder on Mary's part here, if Mary's outside of this tomb, wondering what her fate is going to be, with Jesus now being gone.

In her mind, he is dead and his body's been stolen.

What is her fate going to be?

I wonder if she's thinking, you know, with him gone, are those evil spirits gonna come back?

Am I gonna slip into my old lifestyle?

Will I once again lose control of my life?

She is sitting here outside of this tomb, probably thinking that everything she knows is gone.

That her master, her lord is now dead and now missing.

So here she is, she's weeping, she's bewailing outside of this tomb, and something happens.

Something makes her stoop to look in through the doorway of this tomb.

You know, maybe she hears a noise, maybe there's a beam of light coming from the angels that are inside, who knows?

But something makes her want to stoop and to look in once again.

So she does.

Look at verse 12 with me.

She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus' body had been lying.

One at the head and the other at the feet.

They said to her, Woman, why are you crying?

Now, we should talk about this now.

Woman is not a derogatory word that they're using here.

This is actually a word of respect that we see if we look at the original Greek.

It's like saying miss or ma'am, or if you want to get real fancy, a madame, you know, or something like that.

We see it twice in our passage this morning.

So just know it's not derogatory in any way.

It's not like our English word in the way that it's being used right here.

So Mary responds to the angels.

Look at the second half of verse 13.

It says, Because they've taken away my Lord, she told them, and I don't know where they've put him.

This word right here, my Lord, it means he to whom a person or thing belongs.

Mary is saying, they have taken away the person to whom I belong.

Now I think this just shows us the relationship that Mary had with Jesus.

And it had not changed since Jesus' death.

We can see in the way that she's acting and the way she's responding here.

But her answer here, I think, is so telling.

Now look at verse 14.

Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there.

But she did not know it was Jesus.

You know, she may be seeing a silhouette of Jesus as she turns around, turning from a dark tomb, you know, into the sunlight.

We know that she's been crying, so maybe there's some tears, some blurry vision.

But it seems that Jesus' resurrected body from the other parts of Scripture that we can gather from, it was different than his earthly body.

But at the same time it was recognizable.

You know, we see that his identity somehow was veiled to the guys on the road to Emmaus, the story that comes after this.

At least at first it was veiled to them, and then they realized it was him.

We know that he maintained the scars from the crucifixion after his resurrection.

So he's recognizable yet somehow still not completely recognizable.

There's something different about his resurrected body.

So I picture Mary, you know, she's facing this tomb.

She hears something from behind her, you know, who maybe, you know, it might be a noise.

Maybe the angels are in the tomb, you know, answering her question, like, look behind you, you know, he's right there.

But she turns and she has no idea that it's Jesus behind her.

So Jesus speaks.

Look at verse 15.

Woman, you know, again, this is a term of endearment.

He says, Woman.

Jesus said to her, Why are you crying?

Who is it that you're seeking?

So this is obviously a rhetorical question.

Jesus knows everything.

He knows exactly what's going on here.

And this is just me, so take this with a grain of salt.

But I imagine a grin on Jesus' face at this point as he asks this question of Mary.

You know, here is this faithful disciple in Mary that loves him so much, but she thinks he's dead, thinks his body has been stolen, and she's so distraught, just wanting to know where her Lord is.

And Jesus comes up from behind and says, Why are you crying?

Who is it that you're seeking?

You know, have you ever seen those videos online where somebody's in the military has been deployed for a long time and then comes home and they surprise maybe their child or their spouse or their special someone?

You guys seen those videos before?

And that person, you know, that's being surprised is not expecting in the slightest to see their deployed special someone.

No idea that they're even home, and they're about to be surprised, you know, and then somebody hits record, and then we get all those videos online of that.

Is it only the one being surprised in those videos that's excited?

That maybe has butterflies before the surprise.

You know, that ends up smiling and clinging to the other and maybe weeping with them.

There is so much excitement and anticipation of that meeting in those videos, isn't there?

I say that because I don't want us to sterilize this on Jesus' end in our mind.

Like Jesus' cross armed.

You're like, woman, what's the matter with you?

You know, why are you so emotional right now?

That is not it at all.

I think Jesus is doing this and waiting with eager anticipation of Mary recognizing that her Lord is resurrected from the dead.

You know, I want to make sure that we also notice how Jesus responds to her.

How he responds to his confused and distraught disciples.

Not just this week, but we're going to see it again next week.

He responds to next week by saying, Peace be with you.

You know, Jesus meets their sorrow and their confusion, all of his disciples, by patiently revealing himself to them.

Just like we see here with Mary.

And I love that Jesus chooses his first interaction to be with this broken-hearted woman with a very checkered past, and his first words after his resurrection are, Woman, why are you crying?

Let's look at Mary's response here.

Second half of verse 15.

It says, Supposing he was the gardener, you know, who else could it be?

You know, she replied, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him, and I will take him away.

You know, I just imagine her telling this story later on over and over and over.

You know what I mean?

But apparently, you know, she turns back around.

She wasn't facing him, and I still picture Jesus smiling at this point, and finally we get to verse 16.

It says, Jesus said to her, Mary.

He just simply says her name.

And it says, turning around, she said to him in Aramaic, Raboni, which means teacher.

And this is really where I want to sit for a little bit this morning and talk about this.

All Jesus has to say is her name.

Mary.

And all Mary needed to hear was Jesus say her name.

And then there was immediate recognition on her part.

You know, there's a section here in the Gospel of John.

I mentioned we're, you know, we've been going through this.

We went through this a while ago, but it's in chapter 10, verses 14 and 15, where Jesus uses the metaphor of him being the good shepherd.

And he says that his followers are his sheep.

He says, I am the good shepherd, I know my own, and my own know me.

Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, I laid down my life for the sheep.

And as Jesus was explaining this to his disciples, he tells them that the good shepherd calls his sheep by name.

And that the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Jesus knows Mary's name.

She hears his voice, say her name, and that's what caused the immediate recognition on her part.

Turning around, it says, she said in Aramaic, Raboni.

You know, this I think is such an amazing picture of the good shepherd and his sheep.

The love that is shown in this verse that Jesus has for Mary and Mary has for Jesus, I think is just absolutely incredible.

You know, some people have tried to distort this and try to imply because of this relationship that there's some type of romantic love.

No, absolutely not.

That is not what's going on here.

This is the love that the good shepherd has for his sheep and that he desires from his sheep as well.

He desires for us to intimately know his voice.

And Mary knows his voice because she has been with him so much.

That is how we get to know the voice of the shepherd.

It's by spending time and then being able to recognize that voice for ourselves.

So she recognizes his voice and simply says, Raboni.

You know, this word, it's like rabbi, you've probably heard about that, or heard that word before, but it's more intense than rabbi.

And yes, it means teacher, like rabbi does, but it also means master, chief, and lord.

It's like she's saying to him, Master Rabbi or Lord Rabbi tomb.

It's a more intense form of that word.

And this word, it's only used in one other place in the entirety of the New Testament, and that's Mark 10, 51.

That's where we see the story, if you remember, of blind Bartimaeus.

He's crying out for Jesus.

Jesus asks him, What do you want me to do for you?

And Bartimaeus replies, Rabboni, I want to see.

And Jesus gives him his sight right then and there.

Here Mary says, Raboni, because she now sees for the first time clearly that her Lord is the risen Savior.

And just like those deployment videos that we're talking about, where the surprisee, I don't know if that's a word or not, sees the surpriser for the first time.

Look at verse 17.

Jesus says, Don't cling to me, Jesus told her.

You know, I don't think we should read this, you know, like Mary grabbed onto him and he's immediately like, but don't touch me, Mary.

I don't think that's what we're looking at at all.

You know, I would imagine he probably says to her after a bit, you know, after they've had that moment together and given her a chance to process that, that Jesus probably even chuckled, you know, kind of like, you know, Mary, don't cling to me.

I have other things to do before I ascend to the Father.

Don't worry.

You know, you're gonna be able to see me again before that happens.

And I think it kind of makes sense that Mary is clinging so long that Jesus actually has to tell her this.

She lost him once.

At least she thought she did.

She didn't want to lose him again.

So she just clings to him and she's not letting go.

So Jesus actually has to speak up and say something.

Now look at the rest of verse 17.

It says, Don't cling to me, Jesus told her, since I have not yet ascended to the Father.

Jesus still has a lot of people to see.

He has things to explain to these uh confused disciples that he has.

He still needs to restore Peter.

And I wonder how long, you know, Mary would have clung if Jesus didn't say anything.

I kind of imagine he'd be like, Mary, it's Tuesday.

And um, I can tell you're getting dehydrated, you know, but who knows?

But Jesus continues.

Look at the second half of verse 17.

Now he gives her some instruction.

He says, but go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God.

So Jesus gives her some direction on what to do next.

You know, another reason that she couldn't sit there and continue to cling to him all that time.

He has something for her to do as well now.

He's telling her to go to his disciples, you know, to the twelve that was now eleven, and tell them the good news of everything that she had just witnessed.

And I don't want us to pass over the fact here that Jesus calls his disciples brothers.

Not biologically, of course, but he considers them his brothers.

He's called them friends previously.

We saw that a couple weeks ago.

But the term brothers, it goes deeper.

And Mary knows exactly who he's talking about, doesn't she?

Hebrews 2.11 tells us, for the one who sanctifies, that's Jesus, and those who are sanctified, that's his disciples, all have one Father.

That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

Because of Jesus' work on the cross, because of all that he did for us and that work on the cross, we can now be adopted into the family of God.

And Jesus can call his followers brothers and sisters because of that adoption into the family of God.

You know, I think there's a good reason that Jesus didn't call his disciples brothers before his work on the cross.

You know, it was his work, I think, that allows this language now.

Look at verse 18 with me.

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord.

And she told them what he had to say to her.

I have seen the Lord.

You know, if you were with us last week, you saw that there's a bunch of different Greek words for the word see, or in the past tense, the word saw.

The word Mary uses here is to see with the eyes, but it goes much deeper.

It's to see with the mind, to perceive, and to become acquainted with by experience.

This is not her saying, I saw some guy in the garden and it kind of looked like Jesus.

You guys should come check it out.

She's saying, I saw, I perceived, and I experienced my risen Lord.

This is part of her testimony.

You know, I have seen him, I have experienced him.

He called me by name, I recognized his.

Voice.

I clung to him.

You know, have you ever known a Christian that just will not stop talking about Jesus?

And maybe you thought, man, this person is really annoying.

This is why.

Once you've known the forgiveness, like Mary's known the forgiveness, the cleansing of every wrong thing that you've done in the past, just like Mary has experienced.

When you've experienced the love of Jesus like Mary has experienced, you will never be the same again.

And you begin to hate the idea that there are people in this world that are not experiencing the love of Jesus for themselves.

You know, it's like your eyes have been opened to this whole new world, and you want everybody to experience what you've experienced.

We see that with Mary, but that should be all of Jesus' disciples.

Not just back then, not just in the Bible, but today as well, his followers.

And really, this is why we're here this morning.

Jesus provided a way not only for Mary to experience his love, but anybody that wants it for themselves to experience his love.

For us that are already following Jesus and in that relationship, this is why we're here this morning.

This is why we're here every Sunday morning.

Well, not here, but at the other facility.

That's why we meet as a church on Sunday mornings.

Celebrating all that he has done and that he has defeated sin, death, and the grave.

And as a result, that we get to spend eternity in that relationship with him.

All of eternity in heaven with him.

And if you're not following Jesus and just happened to drop by this morning, maybe somebody asked you here today, we're here because we want to share that love with you.

Because it's the greatest thing that we have ever experienced.

And Jesus gave all of his followers the command that he just gave to Mary to go and tell the world that we have seen, that we know, that we experience the love of Jesus.

He's told us to go out and to make disciples of all nations, to help them become followers of Jesus as well.

Because he's alive.

He's not dead.

The tomb is empty, and because of that, we want you to experience the greatest thing that we have ever experienced.

This whole day, Easter, Resurrection Sunday, is celebrated because Jesus died the death that we deserve for our sin on the cross to pay the debt that we could not pay, that we have accrued because of our sin.

And his resurrection, what we're celebrating here this morning, symbolized by the empty tomb, is like the receipt of payment that says paid in full.

Proof that he paid our debt so that we can spend eternity in paradise with him.

John 3 16, a very familiar verse, says, For God loved the world in this way.

So that everyone, everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

All we need to do is believe.

And believing in our heart that God raised him from the dead, just like Mary did.

And Scripture says we will not perish, but we will inherit eternal life.

So I really want to challenge you today.

If you have not placed your faith in Christ, believed in Jesus as Lord, believed that God raised him from the grave, he's calling you.

He knows your name.

Now he wants you to know his voice.

Know his voice in your own life.

So I want to leave you with this verse from 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 and 4.

1 Peter 1:3

It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope.

He's living into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

He's inviting you by name into this loving relationship that guarantees an inheritance of perfection in paradise for all eternity with him.

And you can simply respond to him today by saying, I believe.

And if you do, please come up afterwards, let us know.

Let somebody know that you came with.

Anybody you've seen up here, we would love to chat with you, give you a Bible if you don't have one, and just give you some words of encouragement of next steps for you.

But will you please join me in prayer?

Lord, we are here to celebrate.

We have so much to celebrate.

Starting with your love and that you loved us so much that you sent your one and only Son to die a brutal death on the cross, to die the death that we deserve.

To do it in our place, to make that payment of a debt that we accrued and could never pay.

And we are so grateful.

We are so thankful for all that you have done.

Lord, we thank you for this beautiful day that we get to gather together and celebrate this as your body, Lord, as the church.

And to do it outside like this in such a public place and to enjoy you, to enjoy each other.

Lord, I may pray that this celebration would continue on with great rejoicing on our part because what you've done is the greatest thing that we have ever experienced.

And Lord, I pray that we would be faithful and letting the world know how great and wonderful and awesome you are for your sacrifice, for your death, Lord, for your resurrection that we're celebrating here this morning.

We love you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.