Plot Twist
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Now very early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been moved away from the entrance.So she went running to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” Then Peter and the other disciple set out to go to the tomb.The two were running together, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and reached the tomb first.He bent down and saw the strips of linen cloth lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who had been following him, arrived and went right into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen cloth lying there, and the face cloth, which had been around Jesus’ head, not lying with the strips of linen cloth but rolled up in a place by itself.Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, came in, and he saw and believed.(For they did not yet understand the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead.)
So the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she bent down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’ body had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Mary replied, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!” 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? Who are you looking for?” Because she thought he was the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni” (which means Teacher).Jesus replied, “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene came and informed the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what Jesus had said to her.
“I Have Seen the Lord!”
“I Have Seen the Lord!”
Shortest sermon on record, and also the most powerful. With these five words, Mary takes her place as the first Apostle of God. Not Peter, the rock on whom the church is built. Not James the first disciple called. Not John, the “Disciple whom Jesus loved.” But Mary. A woman. A woman who the Gospel of Luke tells us was first introduced to Jesus when he healed her of some unexplained illness people thought was caused by demons. Seven demons, to be precise. She’s a formerly disturbed person, and a woman. Not at all reliable.
Mary is not the person you’d expect Jesus to choose.
Mary is not the person you’d expect Jesus to choose.
How often this is the case. The Samaritan woman who he met at the well was not the ideal emissary. Neither were the men he chose to be his closest companions. But these people, imperfect as they were, spoke with boldness about the Jesus they knew, while the supposedly respectable people wouldn’t even admit in public that they knew Jesus.
Jesus does not look the way Mary imagines.
Jesus does not look the way Mary imagines.
We don’t know what he looked like before his death, or after his resurrection. Maybe he didn’t look different at all. Maybe Mary’s belief that he is dead is disguise enough. Or maybe her eyes are so blurred from weeping that she can’t see him clearly. Whatever the case, when she meets Jesus - the very one she’s come to mourn - she does not see him for who he is. How many times have we encountered Jesus and not known, because we did not expect to see Christ among us?
An Unexpected Jesus sends an Unexpected Messenger to let the world know they’ll find him in Unexpected Places
An Unexpected Jesus sends an Unexpected Messenger to let the world know they’ll find him in Unexpected Places
[Find 2 people @ each church to share how they encountered God in an unexpected way.]