Can't Find Jesus? - John 20:1-18 - Easter (10 am Worship)
You can’t imagine how
tempted I have been to buy a Tile. No,
not tile, a Tile. Tile are used to tag
things that you might lose so that you can use your smartphone to locate the
lost item. The trouble with the Tile is
that they cost $70 for a set of four. If
I was to try and tag everything that I typically misplace with a Tile, I would
almost need to purchase their warehouse.
I would need to tag my key ring, my wallet, my phone, my glasses, all
the remotes in the house, my coffee thermos, the water glass I use here during
worship, my car in the parking lot at the mall, the Kindle (that has been
missing since before Christmas), my wife in any store where we decide to split
up to “save time” tackling the shopping list, and most days I would have to
find a way to Tile my mind.
If there is anyone worse
than me, it is probably our kids they are constantly losing things, and when
the item isn't where they think it should be, they automatically think someone
has taken it (even when there has been no one else in the house but us). That’s when we have to go find whatever it
is, usually in the most obvious of places.
So I guess I would need to Tile every toy and stuffed animals in our
house as well.
Most of us have things we
lose or misplace and if the Tile was less expensive, we might all have things
we usually lose tagged to be able to find easier. However, not many of us have
the problem losing what Mary Magdalene thought she had lost, what she knew
someone had stolen.
Mary Magdalene and the
other women had watched exactly where Joseph and Nicodemus had put the
body. Tears may have filled their eyes
as they watched the man they loved so much, who had loved them so much, be
placed in this nearby garden tomb. They
watched the two men seal the tomb with the huge stone. They could not come back the next day for it
had been the Sabbath, so here she was, prepared to say her final goodbyes and
anoint his body with perfume one last time.
Something was wrong. The
stone was moved. The tomb was no longer
sealed. Slowly she peered into the
darkness. It was just as she feared. She
couldn’t find Jesus. He wasn’t
there. She turned and ran as fast as she
could. Somebody had taken Him. She didn’t know what to do, but she knew who
would—they might even know where His body was—maybe one of them had moved the
body for some reason. Mary’s legs
couldn’t carry her fast enough, and she found them…they were gathered in the
room that they had secluded themselves to after they finally had the courage to
come out of hiding. They may have even
spent the Sabbath hiding away in that room.
She found the eleven of them and told them that she couldn’t find Jesus,
someone had taken His body.
Peter and one of the
others, most figure it was John, took off running. She had to be wrong. They knew that they would get to the tomb and
find Jesus’ body. Mary just hadn’t
looked very well. Maybe the shadows had
fooled her. Maybe she had looked in the
wrong part of the tomb. Maybe she had
just seen the stone moved and let it spook her and she never looked in. They knew they would find Jesus—his cold body
in that cold tomb.
They arrived. At least Mary was right about the stone. It was moved over. Once they found Jesus’ body inside, they
would have to check with Joseph and Nicodemus and see if one of them had come
back out for some reason, and just not been able to get the stone back in
place. The two of them slide into the
darkness to confirm that Jesus was still there.
What they found was that Mary had not lost her mind or her skills of
observation. She was telling the
truth. Jesus was gone. Someone had stolen his body, and left the
burial clothes behind. The two men
looked at one another, exchanged a sorrowful hug, then slowly walked to their
homes, sorrowful that the grave of their friend had been so terrible desecrated. Again they decided they would definitely have
to check with Joseph and Nicodemus…just maybe they just had to do something
differently and they would know. All
they knew is that they couldn’t find Jesus.
How many of us have had
times in our lives where we looked, but felt like we couldn’t find Jesus?
Maybe we have been like
Mary in a season of mourning. A loved
one has died. Maybe we knew it was
coming—maybe we had watched them suffer and struggle, for weeks, for months,
maybe for years, and then they weren’t with us anymore. Maybe that sudden absence came quickly,
either from a sudden illness or a tragic accident. In the midst of that pain and loss, we try
and search for Jesus and through our tears, we can’t find Jesus. It seems as if we are alone and abandoned.
Maybe the absence seemed
to occur on a larger scale. It has been
almost fourteen years, but I still remember the response of so many following 9/11. It was there after Katrina. It happens with almost every disaster. So many folks out there questioning their
faith, questioning our faith. They say,
“We don’t see your Jesus. He’s not
here. He’s still in a cold tomb
somewhere.” Maybe even the shock of a
sudden tragedy leaves us searching for Jesus and not able to find Him at first.
Maybe we find ourselves
in the middle of a place we should never have gone. We found ourselves surrounded by the sin we
have chosen for ourselves. The bills are
piled high and the collection calls keep coming in. We anxiously await the test results after
years of promiscuity. Every joint from
our hips to our knees to our ankles ache from carrying the weight of yet
another round four trips through the buffet line. We find our reputation taking hit after hit
as our name travels through the same gossip lines that we have so often used
talk about others. We find ourselves
standing before the judge as our temper has led us beyond words to actions of
violence we never thought ourselves capable.
We struggle to catch our breath and focus our minds as years of taking
abusive substances into our bodies.
Jesus is no where to be found in the midst of all of this.
That is when we need to
know the rest of Mary’s story. The
disciples had left. Mary was alone. That is she was alone until she sensed the
presence of another, and thinking him the gardener that was there to make sure
all things were in order, that maybe he had moved the body, she pleads with him
to reveal the location of her teacher, her friend, her savior. That’s when she hears it, “Mary.”
She hears her name…she
knows the voice. It is Him. She had looked for Him in the tomb, and He
wasn’t there…He wasn’t there because He was alive and in the world, walking with
her. She couldn’t find Jesus, but Jesus
found her.
That’s the story of
Easter. We constantly look for life in
the places of death—not realizing that Life has already found us.
We might look for Jesus
and not be able to find Him in the face of illness and accidents thinking Jesus
is only to be found in the cure and miss seeing that He is there carrying our
loved one and walking with us through the valley of the shadow of death…that we
may never experience the true touch of death and its finality, the darkness of
nothingness.
We might only look for
Jesus in the prevention of disasters and attacks thinking that if Jesus were to
be found, the tragedies would never have happened without realizing that the
reason that we can’t find Jesus is because He is not to be found in the
prevention but in the providence—in the strength and resource that God gives us
to survive the tragic events of a fallen world.
We might have trouble
finding Jesus in the midst of our sin…because we are in the midst of our sin, because
with sin comes death…when we hear the voice of Jesus calling our name to turn
from the paths and places of death and turn toward Him and find not death, but
the opportunity of a forgiven, new, and resurrected life with Him.
My brothers and sisters,
we may find ourselves having trouble finding Jesus…our lives may feel
overwhelmed with the darkness of an empty tomb…but let us remember that the
empty tomb is not there because we’ve lost Jesus, we simply need to become
still and listen…listen for Him to speak our name—for when we can’t find Jesus,
He will find us, and as He wipes away our tears, we will realize that He has
never gone anywhere, that He is with us, and that He will never abandon or
desert us—and our darkness can turn to dawn as we announce to the world, “My
Savior has found me, and I have seen the Lord.”
In the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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