The Sadness and Joy of Resurrection Sunday

sam han

Sermon • Submitted 24 days ago • Presented 24 days ago

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(John 20:1-18; Matthew 28:8; Mark 16:3; Luke 24:10-12)

1. INTRODUCTION

a. Resurrection Sunday is one of two great days in the Year. We know the first great day is Christmas because it is the celebration of Jesus’s birth and today being Resurrection Sunday, where we celebrate His resurrection.

2. BODY

a. The Sadness and Joy of Resurrection Sunday (John 20:1-18; Matthew 28:8; Mark 16:3; Luke 24:10-12)

i. John starts by stating the first day of the week. John describes it even further by stating that it was while it was still dark. All the Gospels agree that this happened on the first day of the week. Matthew and Mark make it clear by stating, “Now after the Sabbath.”

ii. It might be confusing for some readers because people think that the Sabbath is Sunday, but actually, the Sabbath is always Saturday. This is why 7th day Adventists also worship on Saturday.

iii. Although Saturday is considered the Sabbath, the reason Christians go to church on Sunday is because of what happens on Sunday. In all the Gospels, it says that after the Sabbath was over, early in the morning on the first day of the week, we learn what happened.

iv. John writes that Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone was already taken away from the tomb. Interestingly enough, that Mary Magdalene is the only one who went to the tomb here in John 20:1 while the other 3 Gospels write that both Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb.

v. So there seems to be a problem, but the hint comes in verse 2. Mary Magdalene sees that the stone was already taken away from the tomb, but in verse 2, it says that she ran to Simon Peter and the disciples and told them that they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and the hint comes where Mary says, “we”. If she was truly alone, it should have said “I” do not know, but rather, it says “we” which goes to show that there was somebody else with her.

vi. When we read the other Gospels, we learn that is “the other Mary.” Who is the other Mary? If we follow what Matthew writes in 27:56, we see that it is Mary, the mother of James and Joseph. Some say that this Mary was the mother of Jesus but it doesn’t make sense if it were that Mary because of the context from Matthew 27:56. All the books of the Bible mention Mary, the mother of James and Joseph in Matthew 27:56 sometimes as the wife of Clopas (John 19:25) or in Mark 15:40 as Mary the mother of James and Joses and Salome. But it should be noted that John 19:25 gives us a hint that most likely, there were more than just Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James. Most likely all four women were there, because all four were there for His crucifixion and followed Joseph of Arimathea to bury the body. This is why it would make sense that they would go early in the morning together.

vii. So we see Mary and the other Mary go to the tomb to see the stone rolled away and so they run back to tell Peter and John. We know from John 21:24 that the disciple that Jesus loved is the disciple who wrote this book. This helps us to know that John is the one who ran with Peter. This is where a lot of people have a problem with the Gospels understanding of the resurrection. It would make most sense that Mary Magdalene, upon seeing the rock moved, ran and went looking for Peter and John.

viii. We now shift to Mark 16:3 where they were walking towards the tomb and they were asking each other, who’s going to move that stone for us so we can enter? That’s when they looked up and saw the stone was moved. This is where John 28:2 happens and Mary Magdalene runs to look for Peter and John.

ix. Meanwhile, Mark 16:5 happens while Mary is looking for John that the other Mary’s go into the tomb and see the angel and hear that Jesus is gone. The angel then tells them to look for Peter and they ran out and it says that they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. So we see these women run back to tell the disciples.

x. But as they are running towards to tell the disciples, the story shifts to John 20:3. Mary Magdalene found Peter and John and the other disciples and tells them about how the stone had been moved.

xi. Luke 24:10 confirms that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary’s came telling them but nobody believed. While she was trying to convince the disciples to go, it seems the other Mary’s came to the same place to where Mary Magdalene had found the disciples and was telling them about the stone and now, the other Mary’s were telling them that they saw an Angel just as Mary Magdalene had saw in Matthew 28:2 where a severe earthquake happened and she saw an angel sitting on top of the stone.

xii. What we see from here is the joy of the women who had seen the savior. Matthew 28:8 tells us that these women left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy. They had learned about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That He was no longer dead, but now, He was alive. These women carried this message quickly to tell the disciples.

xiii. This is where Luke 24:10-12 seems to have happened and now the narrative goes to explain from John 20:3-4. Like Luke 24:12, Peter runs toward the tomb and John 20:3 tells us that Peter goes with John. We see that John was a faster runner than Peter and arrived at the tomb first.

xiv. Verse 5, John looks in the tomb but does not go in. But as John looks in, he sees the linen wrappings lying there.

xv. Verse 6, so Peter arrives now and enters the tomb and sees the linen wrappings, and in verse 7, the story tells us that he saw all the linen wrappings but no body of Jesus. All the wrappings that they had covered Jesus’s body were all there, but the body was missing.

xvi. Verse 8, finally John has enough courage to enter into the tomb and as soon as John enters, it says that he saw and believed. What is it that John believed? Verse 9 tells us that even until this point, the disciples did not know what Jesus meant by His resurrection. The fact that it says here that they did not understand the Scripture, most likely means the Old Testament but also, everything that Jesus had taught them. All this time, Jesus had taught them and displayed miracles to them, but they still did not understand what Jesus had meant. They didn’t know that He meant He would raise physically, that He must rise again from the dead. But finally, John understood what Jesus said by the fact that He would be handed over to evil men and they would murder Him and that He would rise again. John finally saw with his own eyes what Jesus had meant and now he finally believed.

xvii. After they saw this, the disciples leave and the narrative continues. This is why in verse 11, it says that Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping and looked into the tomb. This picture of Mary weeping shows us what she understood of Resurrection Sunday. It is how some of us feel about Resurrection Sunday. It is no different than any other day.

xviii. But in verse 11, as she looked inside, she saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’s body had been lying. What’s strange here is the disciples didn’t tell Mary Magdalene about the resurrection. They just left her and kept that to themselves. This is why Mary was weeping. Going back to verse 2, in her mind, she had thought some graverobbers had come and stole the body of Christ.

xix. This is why Mary was weeping here in verse 11. Then in verse 12, it tells us that two angels were sitting there and ask her, “Why are you weeping?” Why are you crying as if you lost Jesus? She responds, because they have taken away my Lord and I don’t know where they have laid Him. The reason Mary was weeping was because she didn’t know where Jesus was.

xx. This is the same idea in Luke 15 about the lost sheep, and the lost coin. You see, this idea of being lost is because we value something, when we lose it, we are sad because we don’t know where it is. But this is not the only way we feel loss.

xxi. Then another miracle happens. Verse 14, as soon as she says this, Jesus appears and in verse 15, Jesus asks her again why are you weeping? Verse 16, Jesus calls her and finally, Mary understands that it is Jesus.

xxii. Verse 18 then tells us that she went back and tells the disciples that she had met Jesus and they listened to her. Why? Because they had believed and understood that He was raised from the dead.

xxiii. But the take away is this. It’s found in John 20:10. This is the most terrifying verse in this whole section.

xxiv. I was humbled by the next verse, because in verse 10, it tells us that they went away again to their own homes. The sad reality of the disciples attitude was that, even after miracles, the disciples would forget.

xxv. Let’s turn to Mark 6:33. This is the scene where Jesus feeds the five thousand but here, in 6:34, we see the heart of God. We see the heart of my savior. Here it says that Jesus went ashore and saw the large crowd and felt compassion. We need to understand this. Jesus was moved by them. It says that He had compassion, remember Pastor Cho explained this? That Jesus’s bowels were moved, it’s like when we watch something sad or something really sweet, our emotions are moved? I remember watching Shion speaking Japanese to her mother and reading her that letter. It’s like that when everyone was weeping and crying. It’s because we felt that love, how she felt for her mother. We felt that compassion Shion had for her mother. In the same way, Jesus had compassion for these people. He was moved. Why? Because they were like sheep without a shepherd. They were lost without Him. They were dead without Him. So what does He do? He preps His disciples to prepare the food so that they could feed the people.

xxvi. What is amazing about this story is that, He blesses the food, and breaks the food and is able to divide the five loaves of bread, which really means five slices of pita bread. He takes that bread, and two small fish, the fish you get when you eat at BCD tofu. Jesus looks toward Heaven, blesses the food, meaning He prays for it and divides the fish and bread until they were all satisfied.

xxvii. We think that’s amazing? Verse 43 tells us that they picked up twelve baskets worth of broken pieces. Why is it twelve baskets? Because there were 12 disciples. Jesus provided for them so that each of them can take a basket with them. For what?

xxviii. Verse 45, they go over and went over towards Bethsaida. Jesus sends His disciples away and He goes to pray. While Jesus is praying, the boat is stuck in a storm. Verse 48, He sees them straining at the oars because the wind was against them. This is one of those storms where no matter how hard you try; you can’t paddle out of it. I am reminded of the perfect storm. The winds and the waves were so strong that they could not get through the storm.

xxix. But during this storm, we see that it tells us that Jesus intended to pass them. Jesus was going to go ahead of them. This means, Jesus was going to move past them and meet them at the other side. Why is this important? Because we just Jesus feed five thousand people and they saw this miracle Jesus had performed. Amazingly, He left them twelve baskets again to remind them, if you are in trouble, look to me. And yet, during this storm, instead of looking to Jesus, they are struggling trying harder to get out of this storm. This is why Jesus intended to move past them.

xxx. The disciples had forgotten who Jesus was. They had witnessed His miracles and yet, because of the troubles of life, they forgot to look to Him. And even though He intended to pass them, when Jesus saw they were terrified, and cried out because they thought they saw a ghost, Jesus comes to them and the storm stops. It says that they were utterly astonished because their heart was hardened.

xxxi. They had seen and heard of Jesus’s resurrection and still walked away to the point that, Jesus visits them and at that point, in John 21, they had gone back to fishing. You would have thought the Gospel of John would end at John 20:31, Jesus visited them and they all believed. But the reality is, what John 20:10 tells us is true. They saw, they heard and went away.

xxxii. We read this passage here in John 20:10 and we think how could these disciples just walk away back to their homes? Because of the very same reason we walk away out of here on Resurrection Sunday and some of us won’t remember what Jesus did for me and we will walk away back to the worries of our own life and forgot everything. We will taste the wonder of resurrection Sunday and tomorrow, we will have some type of struggle or sorrow or pain, and instead of looking to Jesus, we will wallow in our own pain and go back to our lives.

xxxiii. But the beautiful truth of the Gospel is found in John 21. Jesus comes back to the disciples even after they all returned back to their own jobs and He reveals Himself to them again three times. It is like the feeding of the Five Thousand. Jesus always comes back to His people. That is what we celebrate for Resurrection Sunday. It is to celebrate that Christ is always with us. Look to Jesus.