Introduction

“If you’re able, please stand.” Reading John 20:1–10. “….Thanks be to God.”

“Whom are you seeking?” (John 20:15). That’s the question Jesus asks of Mary Magdalene in our text. “Whom are you seeking?” We’ll get to her response in just a minute.

That question is fitting for each of us gathered here, though: “Whom are YOU seeking?”

What Jesus did you come here to find?

• “A Little-Help Jesus”? You’re not interested in adjusting your whole life to Jesus, but you could use a little help with some things. Kind of like looking at your Horoscope to get some guidance. You’d like a Jesus about that size. These are still posted daily in The Washington Post and dozens of other otherwise-respectable news outlets. I read mine for today at the Washington Post, and apparently “bright lights” and “loud music” are “counterproductive today”—so, guys, if you could turn the volume and lights down, please. It’s “counterproductive” for me.
• “Problem-Solver Jesus”? You’re willing to give Jesus some of your time and money, but what you’re really after is someone to solve your problems. Maybe financial. Or relational. Or with your job. You’re not interested in a King to bow down to and worship. But you’d love a way to solve some major problem in your life.
• “Goldilocks Jesus”? You know it’s not right to want a Jesus that’s too small. But you also don’t want a Jesus that’s too big. You want one that’s “neither too small” nor “too big” but “just right.”

Well, that’s the thing with Jesus. He’s never what people expect. His followers in the Bible were constantly surprised by the things he said and did. And that didn’t change after the crucifixion. Everything that happened on Easter morning was a surprise to his followers.

But this is just a picture of Christ himself. He’s not what we expect. He’s bigger and more important and more glorious than anything we can imagine.

He IS a Problem-Solver, and he does bring us Help in time of need. But again, not in the way we expect—or want—sometimes.

This morning we’ll consider the resurrection recorded by the apostle John. It’s the fourth Gospel: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John. If you’ve never read the Bible or didn’t bring one, go to your phone’s browser and type John 20 ESV. You’ll be able to follow along with our passage.

On Friday night we read portions of John 18 and John 19 that describe the arrest and trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Those took place throughout a Friday in April in Jerusalem. A lot of it took place before sunrise. But when the sun rose, Jesus was sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate.

Then he was placed on a Roman cross to bear the sins of the world. Around 3pm he would give up his life and die. He was buried in a tomb close to Jerusalem.

And then we get to our passage. It describes what happens on that Sunday in April, just about 2,000 years ago.

May you encounter the true Jesus this morning.

Our sermon: (1) The First Day; (2) The First Encounter; (3) The First Missionary.

Prayer

I. The First Day (20:1–10)

Read John 20:1–2.

All four Gospels tell us specifically that Jesus rose on “the first day of the week” – not the third day after his crucifixion. But on “the first day of the week.” In John it’s especially interesting because in verse 19 he’ll say that Jesus appeared “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week.” It was emphatic, “that day, the first day of the week.”

The resurrection was a new beginning. The “first day” of a new era of history.

Just like when the first Passover occurred in Egypt. God had said,

“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.” (Exod 12:2)

Something new was happening there in Egypt, and now something is happening here on this “FIRST DAY.”

All four Gospels also tell us that “Mary Magdalene” was there at the tomb of Jesus and a first eyewitness to the risen Christ himself. Others were there, too. But all four mention Jesus. And John chooses to focus just on Mary Magdalene.

• Mary’s story is a significant one.
• She first enters the orbit of Jesus in Luke 8, with Jesus in Galilee preaching and ministering.

Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, ² and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, ³ and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means. (Luke 8:1–3)

• She continued to follow Jesus for years.
• She’s identified as “Mary, called Magdalene,” meaning she was from Magdala, a small town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee—not far from Capernaum, where Jesus lived during his ministry.
• We know nothing of her past, except that “seven demons had gone out” of her.
• The Gospels paint a bleak picture when someone is possessed by a demon.
  • It can mean physical anguish—the woman hunched over for decades, Luke 13:15–16.
  • Mental anguish—the Gerasene demoniac acting as a crazy man and lashing out at everyone who tried to get close, Mark 5:1–9.
  • Isolation from friends and family, opposition to all that is good and holy.
• So, for Mary to be possessed by 7 demons means she was living a tortured and self-destructive life. She was a prisoner in her own soul, in her own body.
• But then, Jesus rescued her. She was delivered. Freed. Healed.
• For Mary Magdalene, that moment of rescue was her turning point.
• After this, Jesus was her “Lord.”
• She is listed as among the group that “provided for them [Jesus and the Twelve] out of their means.”

Then we meet Mary Magdalene again at the crucifixion of Jesus. John tells us:

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. (John 19:25)

And then Mary is there at the burial of Jesus. When he is placed in the tomb we read in Matthew’s Gospel:

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. (Matt 27:61)

To this point Mary Magdalene has seen firsthand the entire redemptive journey of Christ. Now she is an eyewitness to the resurrection.

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On this Sunday morning, she gets to “the tomb” while it was “still early”—“dark” before sunrise.

• Her first shock is that the stone had been “taken away” (v. 1).
• But then she sees the body of Jesus isn’t there—she assumes his body was taken (v. 2).
• Tells “Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved” (v. 2)—John’s way of referring to himself (19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20).
• Peter and John immediately “run” to the tomb.

Then we get that great detail by John that he outran Peter to the tomb. He didn’t actually go into the tomb, but he outran Peter to the tomb (20:4). John is saying, “Yeah, Peter might be historically more important than me in the church—but I’m faster!”

When they arrive the eyewitness details come into focus:

• “The linen cloths lying there” (v. 6)
• “The face cloth” separated from the other “linen cloths” and “folded up” (v. 7).
• These are the kinds of details that remind us we’re reading history, not fiction. No fictional hero story but historical narrative.

These details tell us some things:

• The body wasn’t stolen. It wouldn’t make any sense to unwrap the body and leave the cloths. They were valuable (Carson, PNTC, 637).
• This was a different resurrection than with Lazarus. Remember in John 11 when Lazarus was raised. He came out of the tomb in his graveclothes.

These piled graveclothes also remind us that Jesus was raised bodily.

• He was not raised in some spiritual way—i.e., in the hearts and minds of those who loved him.
• Resurrection is not a state of being, a feeling of being renewed.
• Resurrection is being dead and then being raised to new life!

John had some sense of what he was seeing, not perfect but some sense.

• “He saw and believed” (John 20:8).
• But…verse 9, “as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”

It’s possible John means the entire Old Testament here (Ridderbos), but it’s also possible that some specific Old Testament prophecy is meant (Carson). One like these:

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. (Ps 16:10)

After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. (Hos 6:2)

Because of these passages “he MUST rise from the dead” (John 20:9).

That little word “must” is the Greek dei, and it captures what some have called, “The Divine Necessity.” The fact something MUST occur because God has decreed it to be so.

Christ MUST rise from the dead, because God had foretold us that it would happen. There was no possibility of Christ NOT rising from the dead.

But then is the anticlimactic ending to this scene—“the disciples went back to their homes” (John 19:10).

• The disciples were like us. We don’t see everything all at once.
• So…they went home. Soon they would go out into the world making disciples of all nations. But at this point…they went home.

APPLICATION: TAKE AWAYS?

First, FAITH GROWS STEP-BY-STEP. We don’t get it all at once. Saving faith that justifies might happen in a moment, but faith to know and follow and understand the Lord Jesus Christ in all situations grows gradually.

Second, THESE EYEWITNESSES WERE HUMAN. We’re getting authentic testimony here, nothing delusional. Mary was convinced the body was stolen. Peter and John knew something important had happened, but couldn’t put it all together.

This FIRST DAY that would change human history forever has a very humble beginning.

II. The First Encounter (20:11–16)

Read John 20:11–16.

By this point Mary has returned to the tomb after telling the disciples what she saw. Just as Peter and John are in their own world, returning home to consider what they’d seen, so Mary is in her own head. John tells us, “Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.” It makes perfect sense that the three of them wouldn’t have any kind of conversation here. There was too much to consider.

But for Mary, her assumption is still that someone stole the body of Jesus. She hasn’t thought through how unlikely that is. How unreasonable it is with the graveclothes still there.

She looks in the tomb again, and this time when she looks in the grave, it’s not empty. “Two angels in white” are there (John 20:12).

Notice the eyewitness detail, though: “one at the head and one at the feet” of where Jesus had been” (John 20:12).

Angels can take on different appearances. At times they appear and grown men collapse in fear. But now, they appear to Mary and merely ask her a question.

Interestingly, John records only their question to Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping?” (John 20:13).

She responds with the same perspective she had before—surely, people have taken the body of Jesus, and she doesn’t know where he is. The fact a resurrection has taken place still hasn’t entered her mind.

Verse 15—Then Jesus comes up behind her. And he asks her the same question, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”

That’s a good question, isn’t it? “Whom are you seeking?”

• What kind of person are you seeking for exactly? Someone who’s dead.
• What kind of “Lord” or “Messiah” are you seeking? One that would stay dead.

Her continued assumption that the dead body of Jesus is somewhere nearby shows she’s not looking for the right Jesus, just the one she imagines him to be.

She thinks Jesus is the gardener and so must know where the body of Jesus is. She said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away…” (John 20:15).

Then is the great reveal. Jesus waits till that little conversation happens and then the big reveal. All he says is, “Mary” (John 20:16). Instantly she knew the voice.

With one word, Jesus cuts through all the grieving, all the confusion.

It’s a vivid fulfillment of what Jesus had taught earlier in John 10:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)

APPLICATION: TAKE AWAYS?

FIRST, see the patient and personal love of God.

Jesus had “the world” in view:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

But with the world in view in his saving work, he stops for this extended moment with Mary Magdalene. He doesn’t rush it.

He could have let her see him with a crowd sometime later. He could have argued, “I’m a little busy here!”

But he slows down and walks her through each step of revelation. The fact he reveals himself first to a woman is also no small thing. The requirement of “two or three witnesses” who needed to be male would be fulfilled. But Jesus still paused to reveal himself to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.

SECOND, it’s good to remember these first-century followers of Christ were no more gullible or ignorant than we are. They didn’t expect Jesus to be raised from the dead any more than 21^st century men and women. They knew that people aren’t raised from the dead three days after they die.

What changed their mind on this fact of human nature that everyone in all of human history knows? Jesus was raised from the dead!!

III. The First Missionary (20:17–18)

Read John 20:17–18.

With these final words of Jesus, Mary is commissioned as the first missionary. It seems that somehow Mary reached out to Jesus, so shocked and glad to see him alive and standing right before her.

But it’s not the time for that kind of sweet reunion. That day is coming! But it’s not this day. So, “Do not cling to me!” (John 20:17).

Instead, he gives her a charge, a task, a commission.

Jesus’s words reveal a lot. Twice he mentions “ascending to the Father” (John 20:17). He says, “I have not yet ascended to the Father,” and then Mary is to tell the disciples, “I am ascending to my Father.”

That present tense is interesting: “I am ascending.” Not, “I will ascend.” It’s a reminder that his “ascending to the Father” includes his actual ascension 40 days from now (Acts 1:3)—but also his resurrection. It’s all connected in the glorification of the Son of God (Ridderbos, The Gospel of John, 638).

Jesus’s ascension is no small thing. It isn’t just another sign or miracle. It’s part of his work of redemption. His work as the Mediator.

Peter explains the ascension in his Pentecost sermon:

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. ³³ Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. ³⁴ For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, ³⁵ until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ ³⁶ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:32–36)

Christ was “raised up” and then “exalted at the right hand of God.” Not just through the clouds like some Artemis II rocket—but to “the right hand of God.” The highest seat of power and glory and authority other than God the Father himself.

The ascension proclaims to all the world that he is indeed “both Lord and Christ,” unique in all the world God’s Messiah and the one and only Mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5). He is God, the Messiah, and the one Mediator.

His ascension was where Christ received even a greater glory than with his resurrection. The ascension was not just Jesus going to a new place, but it was the Christ entering into a new glory.[1]

At God’s right hand he continues his ministry as Prophet, Priest, and King.

• As Prophet, he works through his Spirit to proclaim and reveal his truth.
• As Priest, he intercedes before the Father on our behalf—a ministry where he continually points to his finished work for our sins and even prays for us.
• As King, he rules over all things.

Herman Bavinck:

Undoubtedly implied in Christ’s seat at God’s right hand, however, is that he has been exalted to the highest power, dignity, and honor conceivable and possible under that of God himself.
Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics[2]

Louis Berkhof speaks of Christ as King at God’s right hand:

Since the Bible most frequently connects the session with the kingly rule of Christ, it is natural to think first of all of His work as King. He rules and protects His Church by His Spirit, and also governs it through His appointed officers. He has all the forces of heaven under His command: the angels are His messengers, always ready to convey His blessings to the saints, and to guard them against surrounding dangers. He exercises authority over the forces of nature, and over all the power that are hostile to the Kingdom of God; and will so continue to reign until He has subjected the last enemy.
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology[3]

This greater glory is why he’ll return in greater glory. Mark 13:

And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. (Mark 13:26)

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With this greater glory we might think Jesus is going further away from us. But his words to Mary reminds us the ascension is also Christ getting closer to us.

“My brothers” (v. 17).

Just as he will say, “My Father and your Father,” so here he refers to the disciples as “my brothers.” Being a Christian is being brought into the family of God with God as your Father and Christ as your brother.

Paul uses similar language, saying we are “members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19).

And then the great phrase, “My Father and Your Father” (John 20:17).

Ramsey Michaels (NICNT) says, “This is a milestone in the Gospel, for it is the first and only instance (out of 120 in all!) in which God is explicitly identified as ‘Father’ of anyone except Jesus himself” (1002).

It’s a sign that the prayer of Jesus is being answered:

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20–21)

**********

And then The First Missionary is commissioned. Jesus had told her, “Go…and say!” (John 20:17).

She then testifies: “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18).

The same testimony will reverberate from the 10 disciples gathered “on the evening of that day, the first day of the week” (John 20:19–23). After they encounter the resurrected Christ, they will tell Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!” (John 20:25).

Conclusion

Once again, “WHOM are YOU seeking?”

Don’t seek the Jesus Christ of Mormonism—created at some point in the past but not the Eternal God who made all things.

Don’t seek the Jesus of unbelieving Jews—A blasphemer who deserved to die and who stayed dead.

Don’t seek the Jesus of Islam—An important prophet who did various miracles, but who definitely isn’t God.

Don’t seek the Jesus of Materialist Atheists—A good example with some exceptionally wise teachings, but no more.

Seek the true and living Christ—who is right now ruling and reigning from the right hand of God the Father!

If you’re a Christian, he says to you, “I have ascended to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

But if you’re not a Christian, the offer of salvation in the name of Jesus is extended to you right now.

Jesus says to you, just as he said to his hearers in John 5:

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)

His resurrection becomes your resurrection. His ascension in some ways becomes your ascension. His Father becomes your Father, his God becomes your God—John 5:24.

Prayer and final song (“Is He Worthy?”).

[1] On this see Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 352.

[2] Bavinck, RD, 3:446.

[3] Berkhof, ST, 352–353.