Belief changes Lives (mainly ours)

Preached 21 April 2019

1. Preparation – Quote

There’s a quote I saw recently that said something like “There is plenty of evidence for the resurrection, the reason there is so much debate is because it is unusual, and if you believe it you have to change the way you live”. It’s not the exact text, because I didn’t make a note of it, but it’s close enough for our purposes this morning. As we go through the story I will be looking at some of the evidence and dealing with some of the objections that you find addressed in books like “Who moved the Stone?, by Frank Morrison”.

2. Unusual

Unusual is a bit of an understatement! Nowhere else in modern religion do we find claims of a resurrection. Mohammed is buried in Medina, where he died. Buddha died in old age. His body was cremated and the remains, such as his right tooth became relics.

Unusual, then, really doesn’t cut it – this event is unique in human history.

3. John’s Account

So, lets follow John’s account of that first morning of the new era. Its Sunday morning, the Sabbath having ended at sundown the previous evening, the sun is not even up but Mary Magdalene is. She, along with some others that are not mentioned in John’s account, are on their way to the tomb to complete the preparation of Jesus’s body for final burial.

4. Heavy Stone

The three women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, according to Mark would have had a real struggle to move the stone, so that they could start work on the body. But they find the tomb already open, the stone has been moved.

5. Roman’s have the body

Jesus’s crucifixion had been anything but straight forward – most crucifixions do not involve high priests and interviews with Roman governors, so her suspicions were raised that the authorities had for some unknown reason removed the body. Now, not only were the women unable to complete their sacred duty, but they were frightened that the authorities may be after them too.

6. Mary tells Peter and John

Mary Magdalene runs to where the disciples are staying to tell Peter and John, the leaders of the twelve (now eleven). Their reaction (v3,4) shows that they too are concerned – they run to the tomb.

7. Disciples stole the body

One of the classics objections to the resurrection is that the disciples stole the body. Normally this is refuted by reference to guards at the tomb in Matthew, and the resultant bribery by the authorities to keep them quite, but here too, we see that the disciples reaction show quite clearly their serious concern that Jesus’s body is missing. If you already know where the body is, you don’t need to jump up and run to the tomb.

8. John doesn’t go in

John, it seems is younger and fitter than Peter and gets to the tomb first. He stops outside and looks in. He sees the grave cloths, and perhaps assumes that Jesus’s body is really there after all – remember they are all in a state of panic by now so may not be making the best decisions. He stays where he is at the entrance, out of respect, or possibly out of fear of becoming unclean.

9. Peter Puzzled

Peter, always the impulsive one, catches up, and passes John, and goes straight in. What he sees puzzles him. The tomb is tidy, the linen and grave cloth are not just scattered, or left in a heap. No grave robber, whether working for the Jewish authorities or not, would unwrap a body and leave the wrappings in a tidy pile. Either taking them with the body, of just discarding them in a heap would make sense. The scene must have frozen Peter to the spot.

10. John believes

With nothing apparently happening inside the tomb, John finally goes in – probably to see what on earth Peter is doing. Then it says at the end of verse 8 “He saw and believed”. But, what did John believe? Because verse 9 says “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”

11. What John believes

Are we to think that he believed now that the body was gone, or that he had a real light bulb moment and a lot of what Jesus had been teaching finally made sense of the scene in front of him?

Here are a few verses that show what John might finally have understood in those few moments after he entered the empty tomb:

12. John 2:19-22

Jesus answered the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

13. John 11:25

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;

14. John 16:22

So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

15. Verse 9

What John and Peter didn’t understand then was that their own scriptures – our Old Testament – also predicts Jesus's death and resurrection.

16. Legal basis for accepting the resurrection

The writer of John’s gospel (John, much later on), has established the legal basis for the truth of the resurrection, or at least the lack of a body, by providing the two male witnesses required – Pete and John.

17. Focus on Mary

The story now moves on to focus on Mary Magdalene. Peter and John have left the tomb to return to their homes and no doubt to inform the other nine what they have seen, and the conclusions that they have come to.

Mary has returned to the tomb, she is still grieving. Crying in verse 11 can equally easily be translated wailing, which is a common expression of grief.

18. Wrong Tomb

At this point it is worth refuting another objection to the resurrection – that the women went to the wrong tomb. We have now seen three women and two men get to the tomb, and one woman return to it. Even though it is a loaned tomb, it is clear that they all know where it is and how to get to and from it.

19. Mary at the tomb

Mary looks in the tomb and sees two white angels, they ask her “Why are you crying?” She has not had a conversation with Peter or John, so is still looking for Jesus’s body. “They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him.”

20. The gardener

She turns around and sees someone standing there. She doesn’t recognise Him, but the writer gives away the surprise and tells us in advance that it is Jesus. “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” She thinks he’s the gardener – a reasonable assumption, so she asks the same question. “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Quite how she would achieve ‘getting’ him, I’m not sure. I can’t imagine she could lift a dead body single handed. Most likely she hasn’t thought it through, she just wants to find the body and her frustration, and now probably anger at its disappearance is not helping her to think.

21. What’s in a name?

Then she hears her name. And that on its own would be enough to get through to her. There’s something very special going on inside our brains when we hear our name. I was waiting in the doctors the other day, various people were called, I didn’t understand a single name that was called until it was mine. My name I heard perfectly clearly. It goes even deeper than that though. If someone close to you calls your name you will probably not only focus instantly on the person, but also know the mood they’re in, all from just the single word. And I’m not talking about the difference between ‘Pete’ and ‘PETER’.

So when Jesus says ‘Mary’, her mood changes and she reacts instantly. She turns and shouts “Teacher!” which was presumably the way she normally addressed Him. By now she is probably worshipping at his feet.

22. Do not hold on to me

Jesus’s response “Do not hold on to me” does not necessarily mean don’t touch me. He could simply be telling her that He’s not going to vanish in front of her eyes if she lets go, like some sort of ghost. It is clear from the last part, though, that He is going away at some point -”I am returning to my father and your father, to my God and your God”. Jesus is now expressing the difference in His relationship with His father and our relationship with our father. This has changed for all of us with the resurrection.

23. “I have seen the Lord”

She returns and tells the disciples “I have seen the Lord”. I would love to have been a fly on the wall at that announcement. With all that has been going on, would they believer her? How far had Peter and John’s belief developed at that point?

24. Only one sighting

That’s where we leave the story, but one sighting of Jesus is not enough, and later that day Jesus would appear to all the disciples together. Real belief in the resurrection was spreading and would go on spreading.

There are 12 incidents in the new testament where sightings are recorded, sometimes to individuals, sometimes to groups, and Paul records an incident where 500 people saw Jesus at one time.

25. Belief

The church was established and grew because people believed that the resurrection happened. If we believe that the resurrection happened, it implies that the rest of Jesus teaching is also true, and this is what the early believers found. Many changed the way they lived their lives as a result. That was a witness to many more, and so on down the ages. Many believed so completely that they became martyrs rather than deny what they knew to be the truth, because they knew they were safe in God’s hands. That was and is a much more powerful witness to the truth of the resurrection than anything else.

You and I are just a single link in a very long chain. The direction of my life was changed when I finally accepted the truth of the resurrection, I joined a church, I read the Bible, I decided that Jesus’s words were to be followed and started to try to follow them – it’s not easy. For the first time I understood that I had sinned, before I believed I could rarely bring any to mind, after there was a LONG list. Before, I was terminally shy, now I stand here and try to pass on the little I have learnt. Some of it has been hard going, some of it has been joyful. Today, it is my privilege to tell you all a little about my understanding of what Easter means, and to pass on a little of how that has affected me.

How has it affected you?

Are you ready to stand with the martyrs, if it comes to that?

Is your life a powerful witness to the power of the resurrection?

Happy Easter!

References

https://www.sermonsuite.com/emphasis-preaching-journal/sermon-illustrations-easter-day-2019
https://www.crosswalk.com/church/pastors-or-leadership/eighteen-easter-sermons-11570920.html
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/peter-lynas-todays-secularism-leaves-no-space-for-billy-vunipola-or-ashers-38023235.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testimony_in_Jewish_law
https://www.quora.com/What-happened-to-the-prophet-Mohammads-body
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080718101142AAgh1ya&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMhlBwYyTLbr9fM4YdQCYTr7M3wTB9STBwnWc8KLh0pGhYek-Z10o7jEOlRrAOxtNSOX7k0jginUyDMwsAqerIDsjKfOOwhCWgsucoCHkTzOx4HlJFTx9O_nHIgGnOr7TAgpNssqHTUdjwc2FLgMtngHo8MsKeel4S_STzDKSb0N
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha#Mahaparinirvana_(Death)
https://bibleview.org/en/Bible/Easter/500People/