Jesus is dead.
The Romans nailed him to a cross, and he died.
I want you to imagine it, to put yourselves in the position of his followers. You followed this man. You believed in him. He called you, he healed you, he loved you, and now he is dead.
Someone read Matthew 27:57-61.
57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
Jesus is dead and the Sabbath is coming. There is no much time left before the sun goes down. No work can be done after the sun goes down, meaning that if they don’t finish transporting or preparing the body, they just have to…leave it. Leave the body of Jesus wherever it is, in whatever state it is.
Leave the body of the man they called Lord.
They won’t let it happen though. Joseph of Arimathea had recently purchased a tomb for himself, intending it to be the place where he will be buried one day. But he goes to Pilate and asks for Jesus’s body and gives the tomb to Jesus, his Lord.
There isn’t time to prepare the body, to put the ointments and oils on him. There isn’t even time to clean the blood from him, so Joseph wraps the body in a linen cloth and lays the bloody and broken body of Jesus in the tomb. Then they roll a stone in front of the tomb, sealing it. Mary Magdalene and another Mary are there, watching. It’s probably not the mother of Jesus, since she was usually referred to as thus, so it’s probably Mary, the mother of James and John, who was also a follower of Jesus.
Jesus is dead, and there are only three left to bury him: Joseph of Aramathea, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and John.
Where is Peter? Where is James? Where is Andrew? Where are the twelve? Hiding. Too afraid to take care of the body of their Lord.
Crowds of people followed Jesus. They mobbed him and crowded him from every corner. They wanted to touch him, they wanted to hear him, they wanted to be near him. He fed thousands of people. He healed so many.
But none of them are there at the end. There are only three people to bury Jesus.
Someone read Matthew 27:62-66.
62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” 66 So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.
The next day the chief priests and the Pharisees go to Pilate. They remind him how Jesus said he would rise again. They’re afraid his disciples will steal the body, and then parade the empty tomb in front of everyone and say Jesus was risen, even though he wasn’t. Pilate gives them permission to put a guard in front of the tomb.
Jesus is dead, but the chief priests are still afraid of his legacy, afraid of his followers. What will they do now that Jesus is dead? They are afraid that his followers will still rise up, still try to make his prophies true. They don’t know that at this very minute Jesus’s male disciples are hiding and terrified of them. The disciples can’t even think about creating a conspiracy or continuing Jesus’s legacy. They’re too scared to even take care of his body.
Someone read Mark 16:1-4.
16 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.
While the male disciples hide, the female disciples of Jesus do what women have done for time immemorial: they do the work that needs to be done.
Jesus is their Lord. They gave up everything to follow him. Following around a man, being his disciple, was not a proper place for a woman, especially a single one like Mary Magdalene. But they did it anyway, because of who he was. Because they believed in him. They still believe in him. And they cannot leave his body unprepared.
They had to stop for the Sabbath, but now the Sabbath is over, so they return to the tomb with the oils, ointments and spices necessary to prepare the body for burial.
The only flaw in their plan is they don’t know how they will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb, it is so large, and they feel so small.
But Jesus is dead. This is the very last act of service, of dedication, of love, they can ever do for him. And they won’t let a stone get in their way. They will find a way.
Except they get to the tomb, and the stone has already been rolled away.
Someone read Mark 16:5-8.
5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
The enter the tomb and they see a man in a white robe—not Jesus. They are alarmed to see him. Surely they are wondering who he is, why is he here. Did he steal Jesus’s body? They don’t know. They don’t know anything about him.
They came to prepare the body of Jesus and Jesus is gone.
The young man tells them to not be afraid. He tells them Jesus has been raised. He then asks them to go tell Peter and the disciples.
But the women are scared and uncertain.
Someone read John 20:2-10.
2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.
Jesus is dead and someone has stolen his body. Mary Magdalene runs to Peter and John to tell them. Peter and John don’t believe her and want to see for themselves so they run to the tomb. John gets their first, he looks into the tomb but he’s too uncertain to go in. Peter comes up behind him—and brash and bold Peter—races straight into the tomb.
They see the linens, nicely folded up as if Jesus just took them off and laid them there. It doesn’t makes sense, they don’t understand what they’re seeing. None of them do.
Jesus is dead. Where has he gone? Why is his body missing?
Someone read John 20:11-13.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
Peter and John went home, but Mary Magdalene is still there. She can’t just go home, Jesus’s body is missing! Someone has taken it, and she doesn’t know where it is. She just wanted to do this one last thing for Jesus, she just wanted to help put him appropriately to rest, and his body is gone.
Jesus was the one who healed her, who gave her a new chance at life, who gave her a purpose and belonging. Jesus was her entire life. She believed he was her Lord and Savior, that he was going to bring the kingdom of heaven, and now he is dead.
Jesus is dead and his body is gone. There is nowhere worthwhile for Mary to go. Jesus is gone, and so she cries.
She looks back into the tomb and there are two angels there. They ask her why she is crying. She doesn’t recognize them as angels, not through her tears, and she tells them that someone has stolen Jesus’s body and she doesn’t know where it is now.
Someone read John 20:14-18.
14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Mary turns around and she sees a man standing there, but through her tears she does not recognize him. The man asks her why she is crying and who is she looking for.
Mary suspects him some sort of gardener and thinks he may have seen what happened to Jesus’s body—that’s all she can think about, Jesus. Where is Jesus? What have they done with him? So she asks, “Did you move him? Please, tell me where you put him, so I can take care of him.”
Jesus just looks at her and says, “Mary.”
One word, a name, Mary.
I once watched a video on the news, of a study that people were doing of fire alarms. Apparently, there have been issues with fire alarms going off in the middle of the night and children not hearing them. Despite the blaring annoying noise of the fire alarm, kids slept so well they would just sleep through the alarm.
In the study they tried a different approach. Instead of a loud blaring alarm, they recorded the voice of the parents saying the child’s name. “Susan. Susan. Get up. Susan.” The alarm was just the parents repeating their name over and over again, with the occasional phrase “Get up.”
The children could sleep through a loud blaring alarm, but once it was their parents’ voice, they could not sleep through it. Children are turned to their parents’ voices, and they hear them.
Mary is like the child in this scenario. She is deep in her feelings, as we say, at this point. Jesus, her lord and Savior is dead. Now his body is missing. She doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t know where to go. She just sits and cries, so hard that she doesn’t recognize Jesus when he’s looking at her.
But she hears him say her name, and it wakes her up.
It’s Jesus.
Jesus stops her before she can grab him—because I’m sure Mary’s first instinct was to throw herself at him and hug him, to make sure he’s real, that she’s not hallucinating. But he doesn’t want her to grab ahold of him—because he has not yet ascended. But Jesus is alive, he is present, he is real.
And Mary Magdalene is the first one Jesus shows himself to.
In the history of the church, there has been a lot of putting women down, of putting them in their quote “proper place,” a place lesser than men. But Jesus never held women at a place less than men. Out of all of his disciples, the very first one Jesus appears to, is a woman. Mary Magdalene.
He tells her to go tell the others, to spread the word among his disciples, that he is alive.
And in this moment, Mary Magdalene becomes the first real Christian in a modern sense. The first one to know and believe that Jesus is resurrected. And she has no doubts, no hesitation. He said her name, and shew knew it was him. So she runs to tell the others.
Mary is the first person on the entire planet to spread the Gospel, the good news, that Jesus is alive, that Jesus is resurrected, that Jesus is back. “I have seen the Lord!”
She had thought Jesus was dead, but he’s alive!
Jesus is alive!
This isn’t the end of Jesus’s story. This isn’t the end of hope. This is only the beginning. Because Jesus is alive.