John 20:1-18 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Easter Sunrise Sunday, April 17, 2022 “Understanding Easter”
What happens when you don’t understand Easter? That seems like a pretty strange question to be asking right now, doesn’t it? After all, you got up early this morning to make it to church for this service. You have already sung praises, joined in prayers, and heard quite a bit about Easter. And it seems likely that you have done all of that because you understand Easter. But we’ve also come and gathered today to understand Easter better, haven’t we? We are here to be renewed and to be strengthened in the joy that Easter brings. And Easter does that best when we understand it best. So we are going to take these few minutes this morning to continue to consider the events of the first Easter Sunday morning. As has already been noted, we will do so based on the way that God led John to record those events in his Gospel. And that account includes a phrase that I find quite curious. That phrase is: “They still did not yet understand.” That’s what is said of the disciples right in the middle of the action on that Sunday morning. We’re going to walk with them for a little while. We’re going to consider three steps suggested by our lesson. These three steps will certainly move us toward a better understanding of Easter. Step one is: see the empty tomb. Mary did that first. She is the one our verses focus on first. Mary Magdalene was headed to the tomb where Jesus had been laid the prior Friday afternoon. The men who had buried Jesus then were in a hurry. Everyone rested on the Sabbath day. On Sunday, Mary and other women were planning to pay their respects and to honor Jesus by bringing more spices and perfumes. But she noticed that the heavy stone that had been rolled in front of the opening to the tomb had been removed. I don’t know if she was able to see into the tomb at that point or not. She may have made an assumption based on the stone. In any case, she went and told two disciples about it. They were Peter and John. John doesn’t call himself by name in his Gospel, but he’s the one who outsprints Peter to get to the tomb. When John arrives, he looks inside but remains out. He’s trying to take it in. He’s trying to figure things out. Then Peter arrives and rushes past. He’s in the tomb. John follows him in. They see the same thing. Jesus had been there before. He had indeed been dead and buried. They knew that. And they knew now that the tomb was empty except for the linen cloths that were lying there. In other words, they saw a tomb that was empty of the thing that tombs were meant for. But what they saw was not the crime scene of a grave robbery. The cloths were left behind. They were laid neatly aside. And when Peter and John had seen the empty tomb…they went back home. Doesn’t that seem anticlimactic? There is no mention of talking to Mary to compare notes about what they saw at the tomb. There’s no mention of doing something else important or sharing news with anyone. They just went back home. It gives the sense that this was perhaps an unfinished Easter. John writes about himself that he believed, but it doesn’t seem as though either Peter or John is fully aware of what that empty tomb means. Do we sometimes have Easters like that? We come to church. And maybe we’re a little more like John and like to sit in the back or find a quiet corner, more comfortable just holding back a little bit. Or maybe we’re more like Peter and we want to rush into the conversation and the activity. Sure, we might not be the first, but once we’re there, we’re engaged. Or maybe we’re even more like Mary and we want to get other people involved, see what they suggest. And whatever our approach, what do we notice? Is that breakfast I’m smelling? I love these hymns! Isn’t the music great? Yes, there’s a trumpet playing again! And there’s still an Easter Concert and a Festival service to come! And then? We go home. And if that’s how our Easter goes, we have missed something, haven’t we? Mary didn’t go home. She’s going to show us the next step in understanding Easter. At that point, she understood it even less than John, perhaps less than Peter, too. She sat outside the tomb weeping. She was feeling the pain and the loss all over again. She saw that the tomb was empty. She wept about that. And then she looked again, and this time the tomb wasn’t empty. Jesus wasn’t there, but two men were—right where he had been. Apparently they seemed nice and friendly to her—or perhaps she was just ready to look anywhere for comfort. She answered their question to her: “Why are you weeping?” She explained right where her mind was at in all of this. She had seen the empty tomb and didn’t know where Jesus was.
But Jesus knew where Mary was. And Jesus knew that where Mary was at that moment was right where he needed to be. He asked a leading question, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” And Mary, incredibly, thought, “Finally! This must be the gardener. Here’s someone who will know the answer to my question. Here’s someone who will solve my problem!” And Mary had no idea how right she was until Jesus said her name. And Mary knew that she had taken step two: she saw her living Lord. He had been dead. He had given up his spirit on the cross. The soldiers were sure of it. His followers were sure of it. Those who had buried him in the tomb that was still right there—they knew it, too. But now he was alive. He was clearly alive. He was speaking her name. He was telling her about his return to his rightful place at the Father’s side. This is what Easter is all about. We know pain and loss. We know suffering and sorrow. We may even know tears. And if we are truly honest with ourselves, we know that we are the reason for our pain. I am the reason that Jesus had to die. And I am the reason that I will have to die. But Easter announces that Jesus is alive! We don’t come to be half-convinced by peering into the empty tomb. We come to see our risen Savior. Yes, I understand that our context is a bit different. We don’t actually get to see the angels or to hear Jesus himself call out our names, but we have convincing proofs. We have eyewitness accounts. The tomb is empty, and it is not empty because someone took him away but because he rose from the dead! No tomb can confine him. No bit of his work for us has been left undone. No sin of ours is left unforgiven. We have a living Savior and a living Lord! But there is still one step left for understanding Easter. This one is more implied by our verses than acted out there, but it is an utterly important step. It is a crucial step. The verse we quoted earlier says, “They still did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.” If step one is to see the empty tomb and step two is to see our living Lord, step three is to see what Scripture says. We have already relied on God’s Word to show us the empty tomb. We are already relying on God’s Word to show us our living Lord. This step tells us that we also need to listen to all that this means and all that this implies for our lives and for our eternity. This step is one of the reasons that I do strongly encourage you to stay here for the whole morning. The songs in our concert and the entirety of our Festival Service will continue to direct our attention to God’s Word. Plus the breakfast is pretty tasty, too. And God’s Word says this, as we heard in our second reading today (Colossians 3:1-4): you have been raised with Christ. His resurrection is your resurrection. He died so that your sins would die with him, and he rose so that you could be alive as a new person right now. You are a person whom death cannot keep down. Your tomb will be empty not because someone else moves you but because your living Lord will make you alive. That same reading adds, “You also will appear with him in glory.” That is Jesus’ promise, one that is implicit in his words to Mary on that first Easter morning, implicit in the instructions for her to tell the disciples. He was ascending to the Father—his Father and your Father. He was going to be with God—his God from his position as a man and your God. And the implication is this: he is going to take you there, too, someday. You cannot cling now. You cannot come now. For now, Jesus tells us to listen to his Word. Be comforted; be strengthened. Tell others; serve others. Dear friends, do not let Easter be the one time you come to church. Celebrate Easter every week—that’s what we do when we worship every Sunday. And you don’t have to limit your celebration to once a week, either. You can celebrate Easter every day. What happens when we don’t understand Easter? We don’t have Easter joy. Instead, we have tears and we have fears and we have uncertainty. So let us commit ourselves to following the disciples and Mary. Let’s see the empty tomb. Let’s see our living Lord. And let’s see what his Scripture says to us so we may truly understand Easter.
The Text: John 20:1–18 (EHV) 20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2So she left and ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,” she told them, “and we don’t know where they put him!” 3So
Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. 5Bending over, he saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in. 6Then
Simon Peter, who was following him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there. 7The cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was not lying with the linen cloths, but was folded up in a separate place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who arrived at the tomb first, also entered. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.) 10Then
the disciples went back to their homes.
11But
Mary stood outside facing the tomb, weeping. As she wept, she bent over, looking into the tomb. saw two angels in white clothes sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. 13They asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” 12She
She told them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him.” 14After
she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was
15Jesus
said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”
Jesus.
Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you carried him off, tell me where you laid him, and I will get him.” 16Jesus
said to her, “Mary.”
She turned and replied in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means, “Teacher”). 17Jesus
told her, “Do not continue to cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father—to my God and your God.’ ” 18Mary
Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” She also told them the things he said to her.