04-04-21 Grace-Tucson Easter Sunday Sermon

Pastor Tim Patoka

1st Sunday of Easter

April 4, 2021

Living Hands John 20:1-18 1) Believe the Impossible Truth of Jesus’ Resurrection 2) Rejoice in the Wonderful Truth of Your Living Savior As someone who was born and raised in the church, I’ve celebrated Easter many times in my life. And one of the things I’ve noticed is that, depending on the church you’re at, there can be a decent amount of variety. Variety that I’m guessing you’ve experienced as well. There’s Easter in a church packed like an overbooked flight except everyone is happy to see so many of their church family’s brothers and sisters. There’s Easter in a much smaller setting where you can hear each person’s individual voice singing and speaking because there are so few. There’s the Easter when it snowed during the service and no one was listening to pastor for at least a few minutes. There’s Easters like last year which was pretty much all online. And then there’s Easter like today which, while closer to normal, still have a number of modifications because of the current circumstances.

But no matter how often or however we celebrate Easter, or how seldom we’ve celebrated before this year, every Easter celebration has 1 thing in common – the joyous message of Jesus’ resurrection from the grave. Behind all the things we enjoy about Easter – the specifics of worship, the time with friends and family, or even the hunting and eating of candyfilled baskets – Easter is first and foremost about the empty tomb and what it means for Christians today. As we look at our verses this morning from the Gospel of John chapter 20, we’ll pay close attention to the very miracle of Easter itself where we see Jesus’ living hands.

Not only will these living hands encourage us to believe the impossible truth of Jesus’ resurrection, but also to continue rejoicing in the wonderful truth of our living Savior.

1) Believe the Impossible Truth of Jesus’ Resurrection Our verses begin with a woman by the name of Mary Magdalene. Besides hailing from the small Galilean fishing town of Magdala, Mary had gotten to know Jesus after he drove 7 demons out of her. Mary was also one of the people besides the disciples who followed Jesus around, including when his body was taken off Good Friday’s cross and laid in Joseph of Arimathea’s newly cut tomb before the Sabbath began at sundown. Because she and the other women weren’t able to finish Jesus’ burial preparations, she left at Sunday’s first light to finish the somber job. But, as John’s verses tell us, she saw something most peculiar that morning – the stone that covered the tomb’s entrance was rolled away! More than that, Jesus’ body was gone! Without wasting any time, she ran back to tell the disciples what she saw.

It’s then that Peter and John (the other disciple) enter the scene, run to the tomb, and check it out themselves. Listen to what they find, “[They] saw the linen cloths lying there. 7The 1

Pastor Tim Patoka

1st Sunday of Easter

April 4, 2021

cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was not lying with the linen cloths, but was folded up in a separate place by itself.” (John 20:6b-7 EHV) While the tomb didn’t have Jesus’ body, it did have the clothes that he was buried in – the linen strips of cloth that were wrapped around his body where simply lying there. The separate cloth that covered his face was folded up neat, tidy, and off to the side by itself.

While we can only guess what Peter and John initially thought when they first saw this empty tomb, it certainly raised some questions. What could have done this and left this evidence behind? Maybe it was a grave robber! But that wouldn’t explain why the grave cloths were left behind. After all, who breaks into a tomb, strips the body, and neatly folds up the face cloth before making off? If you’re going to rob a grave, you’re not going to waste any time or do anything unnecessary. If it was a cover up to look like a resurrection, who would have done it if it wasn’t the disciples or other followers of Jesus? No one else had motive! If it was one of Jesus’ followers, why would they later devote their entire life to spreading the news of the risen Lord and face a martyr’s death if they knew it was all a lie? Again, it doesn’t make sense. The only plausible explanation to explain what Mary, Peter, and John saw in that empty tomb was the impossible truth – the literal resurrection of Jesus from the dead, his hands going from lifeless to living once again.

However, plausible does not automatically result in belief. When we are presented with the impossible, our natural reaction is to deny it. We do this often enough with things that we know are impossible. See a magic act and you’ll deny it because of sleight of hand or deceptive camera takes. Visit an attraction like Ripley’s and you’ll deny it on illusion or something else.

We also deny things that we haven’t yet realized are true. Watch a child move up in grade school, and you’ll see how initial denial later becomes correct answers on a science, history, or math test. Perhaps you remember how immature you once denied things you now understand from experience or observation.

But when it comes to the impossible truth of Jesus’ resurrection, our instinct to deny hits a whole new level. Not only because it is scientifically impossible for lifeless hands to become living again, but also because our sinful nature will cling to anything except the actual truth of how the tomb got empty. Grave robberies? Cover ups? Conspiracy theories that cast doubt on the very words from John’s Gospel we’re looking at this morning? Despite their inconsistencies and logical fallacies, they continue to abound today as they did in the days of the early Christian church. Our sinful nature even gets creative when it explains away the literal truth of Jesus’ resurrection by spiritualizing it so that the word “resurrection” is redefined to be something entirely different.

While the truth of lifeless hands becoming living again is indeed impossible, it is the actual truth of what happened on Easter Sunday. As our verses tell us, the disciple John right then and there believed in the resurrection even though he and Peter did not yet understand what 2

Pastor Tim Patoka

1st Sunday of Easter

April 4, 2021

Scripture had all prophesied about this impossible truth. As they would later learn, the Old Testament had spoken about this very moment in places like Psalm 16’s “Holy One never seeing decay” (Psalm 16:10) or Isaiah’s 53’s Suffering Servant “seeing the light of life” (Isaiah 53:11) after pouring out his life like a guilt offering. This impossible truth of resurrection from the dead also falls right in line with what Jesus had said multiple times to his disciples beforehand about his suffering, death, and resurrection.

However, let’s get one thing straight. The only way we can believe this impossible and only plausible truth is through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith. But for we who do have this gift, we too gain in understanding. Not just in the Scripture passages that looked forward to Easer’s resurrection, but also in why Jesus allowed himself to be hurt and maligned by so many others’ hands throughout his entire Passion. It teaches us that Easter is primarily about this impossible truth – Jesus’ lifeless hands becoming living again because of his resurrection from the dead.

2) Rejoice in the Wonderful Truth of Your Living Savior While John may have been quick to believe the impossible truth of Jesus’ resurrection, Mary Magdalene wasn’t quite there yet. After Peter and John returned to their homes, Mary remained at the empty tomb, weeping and overcome with emotion. We can’t necessarily blame her for that either. I’m guessing you can think of a time when your emotional state prevented you from processing events or seeing things in a quick and logical way like others could.

And Mary was devastated by Jesus’ missing body. We see that with her continued weeping which could have easily been like the loud wailing that typically accompanied 1st century Israelite funerals. Without batting an eye at the two angels who suddenly appeared in the empty tomb, she answers their question about why she’s weeping by saying, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him.” (John 20:13b EHV) When she sees a man that she supposes is the gardener, she likewise requests, “Sir, if you carried him off, tell me where you laid him, and I will get him.” (John 20:15b EHV) Her mind is preoccupied with one thing and one thing only – where did Jesus go?

It’s possibly because of that preoccupation that she mistook the risen Jesus as the gardener. She certainly had blurred vision from so much weeping. It’s also possible she didn’t recognize Jesus because he looked so different than the last time she saw him – bloodied from the cross, pierced in the hands and feet, speared in the side, wrapped in strips of linen cloth, body limp and lifeless.

That would all change though in a single moment. Listen to what happened right after Mary requested the supposed gardener where Jesus’ body was. “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and replied in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means, “Teacher”).” (John 20:16 EHV) It’s highly unlikely the actual gardener knew Mary by name. But Jesus did. And when he called out 3

Pastor Tim Patoka

1st Sunday of Easter

April 4, 2021

to Mary, her sorrow immediately changed to complete joy. She called Jesus by the title she knew him best by – Rabboni, the Aramaic word for teacher – a term full of respect, love, and honor. Based on Jesus’ next words where he tells her to stop clinging to him, it’s safe to say that Mary ran up to Jesus and gave him a big ol’ bear hug. Mary had joy in her heart because of the wonderful truth of her living Savior.

It’s not just Mary’s joy though. It’s also our joy today because we have the same wonderful truth of our living Savior. While we didn’t know Jesus before he died on the cross like Mary, we sure are happy that he’s alive now! We don’t believe in someone who offers us a pipe dream but fails to deliver or engages in bait-and-switch tactics that leave us hanging. Jesus is the real deal in every way.

We also have Mary’s same joy for reasons she may not have been thinking right away.

Jesus’ living hands assure us that our sins have been paid for in full. You know how it is when you get a receipt or email confirming a purchase you’ve made? Without devaluing Jesus’ resurrection, that’s what the empty tomb does for us. It confirms that the price Jesus paid on Good Friday with his very own life was accepted in full, and there’s nothing left to be done. As such, our forgiveness is certain, our sins are washed away, our guilt is wiped clean. We will not suffer for the wrongs we’ve done as we surely deserve. Jesus did instead. And for that, we can rejoice all the more in the wonderful truth of our living Savior.

Conclusion No matter how often or however we’ve celebrated Easter in the past, it’s chiefly about one thing – Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. And as his living hands show us, it is this impossible truth we are to believe because it alone explains what actually happened in that empty tomb in accordance with Scripture and Jesus’ own words. While it took some of the disciples and Mary Magdalene some time to believe it, they eventually rejoiced in the wonderful truth of their living Savior. We too share in their same joy for Jesus is our living Savior as well. Not only is he the real deal, his living hands confirm that the price for our sins has been paid in full and forgiveness is a certain blessing for us. As such, may we follow Mary’s example by quickly and gladly telling others that Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed!

Alleluia! Amen.

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