Resurrection Sunday 2011 - Mary Magdalene
Vern Peterman · Apr 24, 2011
Holidays
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492623317930

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning, and a blessed Resurrection Sunday to you. Before we proceed into the passage that Wayne read a sample of for us here, I just want to let you know that the engagement took place of Hassan and Juliet. They were officially engaged last Saturday, April 14th. Hassan traded the cows and three cows and four goats. Three cows, four goats, and some, I forget how many chickens.

So they are officially engaged. And they will be married here. It should be April 16th, I believe. Okay. Now, if you look closely, you can see that yes, Hassan is very happy and excited about this. And so yes, indeed they are. And by the way, Juliet is not trying to cut her head off with a knife. That's just kind of a perspective thing. She really is happy about this. So, just so you know.

The other thing that we want to bring to your attention, just a ministry opportunity, if the Lord should lead you to be grace-motivated, once a month on a Sunday afternoon, we in the past have had an afternoon service over there. Here we are here at Holly Hills. just right around the corner practically, just off of Iliff. I think Doug is located now right nearby. So, at any rate, if you are grace motivated to step into that ministry, please see me and we'll discuss it further.

Alright, now into our passage here. Mary Magdalene, someone very interesting. These are the verses. You have them listed here. They're also on the first slide in your handout on the first page. What's an interesting pattern is except for the Luke 8-2, that one verse, all the other verses that mention her have to do with her witness of Christ's death, she was there at the cross, or even witnessing the burial and seeing exactly where Christ was laid. or seeing the empty tomb or talking to Christ as Wayne read for us there. That's most of what scripture says about her. Very interesting that the Lord would have her as a witness.

So what else do we know about Mary Magdalene? Is Mary her first name and Magdalene her last name? No. Mary was called Magdalene because she was from the town of Magdala, which is on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. Matter of fact, it is the town on the westernmost part of the Sea of Galilee. And here's a perspective of the Sea of Galilee from space that Mary never got to see, so we get to see it. And so here's Magdala right there. It's from the Hebrew Migdal, which means tower. So named after that tower, frequently the towers were put up for agricultural purposes. And so that's where the name comes from. It's not her last name.

Here is a view from the hill looking down into the area where Mary was from. This is the site of the ancient city of Magdala. Here is a view of the excavation of a structure that was there probably at the very time that she lived there and even a close-up of one of the things that was found in the excavation built around the time that she was there. So what else do we know about this Mary Magdalene?

Well, Mark 16.9 and Luke 8.2 both say that Christ had cast out seven demons from her. and apparently fairly early in his ministry. And I can't personally say that I've had demons cast out of me, but you can imagine her being continuously grateful that the Lord had delivered from this kind of internal prison of these demons, calling the shots in her life and controlling her and causing her to do things that she did not want. and being freed from them was something that she quite apparently never forgot. She was, in fact, one of several who continued to support Christ and the disciples financially. We don't know quite what her financial source was, but scripture makes this clear in Luke 8. Now about this name Mary, it's real interesting.

What I have pictures of here are these are the bone boxes that during New Testament times were used to store the bones of people that had died. And on the side of those boxes it was typical to etch in the name of the person who was buried in that box.

And so this is a picture from a place on the Mount of Olives. Among the Jews, it was very popular to want to be buried at the Mount of Olives. Why? Because when the Messiah came and his feet would touch the Mount of Olives, that is when and where the bodies would be resurrected. So that was the tradition.

Now, as they examine these boxes, here is one, very interestingly, was found approximately 20 years ago, and this is rather ornately carved compared to most of them. And this one, interestingly enough, has the name Caiaphas etched on it. And from every evidence that we have, it appears to be the Caiaphas that interrogated Jesus on the night before he was crucified.

Well, as they've examined these various boxes and kind of taken an inventory of what names are scratched on them, it turns out that in the area around Jerusalem, one in every five women was named Mary. So if you call out, Mary, you're going to have a whole bunch of people coming, right? So that's one of the reasons you'll find why so many women are named Mary in the four Gospels, and why there was always some other identifier used as you see them. And of course, in the case of Mary, it was Mary Magdalene. Another frequent identifier was Mary the mother of, such as Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary the mother of James, etc. It was always something else because there were so many Marys. And so she was Mary Magdalene.

And we'll occasionally call her Mary, just so you understand as we go through this. Centuries after New Testament times, and this is not something you have a slide on, but something I thought I'd point out. In the centuries that followed the New Testament, a number of unfounded myths developed about Mary Magdalene. You may have heard of some of them.

One late myth said that she had been a prostitute. There's actually no evidence for that at all. Another said that she was eternally virgin, and we have no idea if that's true or not either. Now quite contrary to that, another myth said that she was Jesus' wife. And they had one or even more children, depending on the various myths, and at least one of these children ended up in southern France. And their lineage lives on even today, people claiming to be descended from Christ. Oh boy. The Da Vinci Code carries on some of this theme if you've read the book or seen the movie and pure nonsense. Nonetheless, some people consider it entertaining. All right.

We're going to go, however, with the Gospel of John. I'm going to lead it off with this quote from Mark 16, 9, which says this. Now, after he had risen early on the first day of the week, he first appeared to Mary Magdalene from whom he had cast out seven demons. Isn't it interesting If you were the Lord and you were going to plan out, who would I have Christ, when he is risen from the dead, who would I have him show up in front of first?

I mean, wouldn't you want to pick maybe a nice gathering of very well-respected and well-regarded people? And certainly in a very male-oriented culture, by the way, women were not allowed to testify in court. in this culture, their testimony was considered unreliable. The Lord apparently didn't care about that. Right? So what did the Lord do? The Lord says, of all the people who have been with Christ, I'm going to pick Mary Magdalene. The one from whom he'd cast out seven demons.

That's the one that I want to witness. the Lord Jesus, the risen Christ first. She's mentioned by name in all four Gospels as we've seen listed there. We'll go with the Gospel of John this morning and there's a reason for that and that is this is the gospel that records her conversation with Christ when she first talks to him not recognizing that he is risen and then talks to him in in wonderment Yes, it is in fact Him. Anyway, we'll see how this works out here.

Mary, in fact, had seen Christ crucified. This is a picture painted a century or so ago from Christ looking down from the cross. And Mary would have been included among the women there. The accounts from the Gospels make it very clear that she was there. This would represent more of Mary's view. Christ there crucified between two criminals. Matthew, Mark, and John all say by name that Mary Magdalene was there that day when Christ was crucified and he died.

And Dr. Luke refers to the woman who had accompanied him as being present. So presumably that includes Mary Magdalene. Mary and the other woman with her seemed to show more boldness in fact than the apostles or disciples as they were called at this point in time themselves. Most of them scattered, most of them fearful, watching at best from a little bit of a distance, not wanting to get too close. Mary Magdalene was persistent in tracking, very interestingly, in tracking where Jesus was from the very day of his crucifixion. She was there the day he was crucified, and she was up close and saw.

She was there when he was buried, and she tracked where he was all the time. And we'll see she continues to do so. Mary, along with the other women, were there with her, went to the place of Christ's death, to the place of his burial, watching him all the way. Where is he? Observing specifically where he was entombed. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had taken the initiative to see that Christ was buried, but Mary Magdalene, along with a few other of the ladies, watched carefully as he went from the cross and was prepared for burial and placed in the tomb.

And she noted particularly, where was that? She, along with the other ladies. They wanted to continue to show Christ's honor, even to his body. We're going to see soon why this detail is important, both because several of these women noted the location, and also because all these women would come to the tomb later on. So they wouldn't just say, that's where it is, and then walk away and never see it again. Instead, they would come, having noted carefully, they would come to the tomb to show honors to the Lord, even as they believed Him to be dead.

Mary Magdalene came with the other women, and as a matter of fact, as we look at the various accounts, several different women came and not necessarily all exactly at the same time. Having seen exactly where it was located, comparing all the accounts, Mary was one of at least five women who came to the tomb early that, as we would call it, Sunday morning. Because John's account focuses mostly on Mary Magdalene from this point, the details of the account focus on her rather than the other women. John's particularly concerned to communicate what happened to Mary Magdalene.

What was said to her? What did she think? What did she discover? And so we'll see what she discovers here. John 20 1 and 2 begins like this now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and Saw the stone already taken away from the tomb so she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved this is John's favorite way of referring to himself and Said to them they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him What is Mary thinking? Is she thinking that Christ is resurrected?

No. Not so much. The Jews were accustomed to call each day of the week by its number in sequence. So the first day of the week. Even the day Sabbath means seventh. So they're still counting by the numbers. Our own names for the days of the week were all developed from pagan deities. Sorry. It's one of the reasons I like to call this Resurrection Sunday, at least to get the emphasis where it ought to be. We would call this first day of the week, the day on which Christ was raised from the dead, Sunday.

But Mary Magdalene just thought it was the first day of the week and they had taken the body. To her it was a point of great distress. They've taken the body! She doesn't at all realize, it's not even entered her mind that He's risen. So then, what happens? Mary runs, not because she is excited that the Lord has risen, but she runs because she's in a panic. Where's the body?

Mary discovered that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, and she ran to tell Peter and John, who referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved, oh, about four or five times. He also calls himself the other disciple. Mary tells Peter and John that they have taken away the Lord's body.

She doesn't know where they put it. That's what she's distressed about. She runs because she's excited, not because she thinks the Lord has risen, but she runs because she's desperate. Where did they put the body? I want to continue to show him honor. But where is it? If I don't know where it is, I can't do that. It's clear she doesn't believe that he was raised. It had not even entered her mind.

John 23 through 5 reads like this. So Peter and the other disciple went forth and they were going to the tomb. Now let me ask you this. When they're going to the tomb, what are they thinking? Are they thinking he's raised? Not yet. But here's how it turns out. The two are running together, and the other disciple, that's John, remember he calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved, and the other disciple, the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter, he must have been a little younger, right? Comes from eating all that fish, it slows you down I guess. Okay.

And he came to the tomb first, and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. So here's John, he runs, gets there first, and stops. and looks in there's the linen wrappings lying there hmm alright then so here's Peter and John they decide to go check out with Mary Mary Magdalene has just said to them the body's gone that's all they're really checking out at this point in time they don't understand Mary doesn't understand John doesn't understand Peter doesn't understand Peter and John both run to the tomb where Jesus had been laid a couple of days before. As they get to the tomb, John arrives first, stops at the open tomb, looks in to see that things are just as Mary had reported. Yep, body's gone.

Now, now Simon Peter, oh Simon Peter. Verses 6 and 7 read like this, And so Simon Peter also came following him, and entered the tomb. And he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the facecloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So here's Peter, right?

He runs in, I say, angels fear to tread. He runs in where nobody should tread, right? Peter just runs in. He's always the one to, you know, pull out the sword and chop off ears and the one to say things. He runs in, right past John, just right into the tomb. So, Peter, ever the one to enter boldly, to forge ahead, to speak up and act, runs right inside the open tomb. Looks in and wants to examine it personally, up close, even if he's a little slower than John at running, right?

As he does, he sees that the grave wrappings are lying there empty, the head wrappings lying separately. So here's the wrappings of the body, separately, the head wrappings, but both are empty. No body in it. I guess Mary Magdalene's right. Jesus' body was nowhere in there. Look around, I'm sure they did. Not to be found.

The tomb contained only the wrappings which had the remnants of the myrrh and aloes. The scripture elsewhere tells us there's about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes on this wrapping. So these wrappings were actually heavy and still fairly fresh with the myrrh and aloes. Verses 8 through 10 have it this way. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. Ah, what did he believe? What did he believe? Did he believe that Christ was risen?

Not yet. Let's take a look further here. For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. Now isn't that a strange response? Hey man, they took the body! This Jesus, we've been following him for three years! Let's go home. See you later. That's rather strange, but anyway, let's talk about that.

So, Peter had entered and seen what's described. John comes in and observes the same things Peter had just seen. John sees these things and believes. What does he believe? He does not believe that Christ is risen. What does he believe? He believes Mary's story so far. Mary's story so far that they've taken the body. Yep, it's not there. About a hundred pounds plus of wrappings and all sorts of things, but Jesus isn't there. He's not in any of it. They believed, but they didn't understand. They had not seen the Lord. They would later, but at this point they had not seen the Lord.

John 20, 11-13 reads like this, But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping. And so as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb. Have you ever had that kind of an experience where, you know, You're crying and you can't quite see very clearly." And so she was thinking, well, I'll look through these tear-filled eyes and see if there's anything.

Maybe the Lord's in there and I just missed it. She saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. I don't get the impression from the passage that she understood right then that these were angels. And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. I have another question here. I'm full of questions. I have another question here.

Why was the stone rolled away from the tomb? Was it so Jesus could get out? The stone did not have to be rolled away from the tomb for Jesus to get out. After all, Jesus walked into a room with closed doors not long after this. He didn't need to have the stone rolled away in order that Jesus get out. But the stone did need to be rolled away so that they could realize he was not in the tomb.

But they still have some things to realize. Now Mary, now John, and now Peter have seen that He is not there. They still, none of them, understand that He's risen. And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord. I don't know who they is. I'm not sure she does either. And I do not know where they have laid Him. I've got to know where the body is.

It's all about the body. I know he's dead, but I've got to show honor to this body, because this was the Lord that cast the demons out of me. If it weren't for Him, I would still be in this prison of demons, a prison within. I've got to honor the body of this one who'd cast the demons out of me. That's what she was driven by.

As far as Mary was concerned, her motivation for running to tell Peter and John was not because she believed Christ was resurrected, but because they had taken his body. I can't honor my Lord if I can't find the body. It doesn't appear that Peter and John had spoken to Mary Magdalene after they had seen the empty tomb and the empty grave clothes. They just kind of said, yep, Mary's right, let's go home. That was it. Mary wept as she mourned her Lord's missing body. Oh, how will I show him honor? Unless I know where the body is.

So as Mary looked in, she saw these two, it says angels, I don't get the impression she realized that these were angels. It appears from it in her response that she thought these were men. They asked, why are you weeping? The text says that the angels sat where the body had been lying before, one at each end. It doesn't appear that Mary waited to hear a response from the angels before the risen Lord Jesus Christ had asked her the very same question the two angels had asked her. Woman, why are you weeping?

Right? It goes like this in John 20, 14, and 15. Then she said, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. What's interesting as we read the various accounts, it seemed fairly frequent that as people saw Jesus, even those who had known him, that he was not recognized as who he was, at least right away.

So Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Now notice there is a different question. The woman, why are you weeping, is exactly the same question as the angels asked. He didn't ask, whose body are you seeking? Whom are you seeking?

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. Don't worry, I'll take care of it. If you just take him out of the way for a little bit, I'll deal with it. Just please tell me where the body is.

She asked the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Didn't wait to hear a response from the angels before the risen Lord Jesus Christ had asked her the very same question the two angels had asked. Jesus asked, you know, why? Whom? As Christ spoke and Mary assumed, Him to be the gardener, she turned in response to his questions.

Asked, where did you lay the body? I just need to know where. Don't worry, I'll take care of it. I just need to know where. Even though Christ, the risen Lord Jesus Christ, was right there in front of her, she did not recognize Him because He looked apparently so different? Or was it just because she didn't believe that it could possibly be Him alive? It wasn't in her realm of thinking.

Ah. Here's the sentence that breaks it. Verse 16. Jesus says to her one word, Mary. She turned to him and said in Hebrew, Rabboni. That means teacher. Very interesting. That moment of realization. Just one word each way. But what a moment of realization for her.

Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, there she's supposed to go again, right? I ascend to my Father and to your Father and my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he said these things to her. Here we have this one word exchange. Mary! Rabboni!

Jesus' questions to Mary Magdalene weren't because he didn't know the answer. He didn't say, who are you seeking? Why are you weeping? He knew. But he wanted her to begin to understand, especially with the additional question, whom are you seeking? He didn't say what body are you looking for? He asked about what person you're looking for. It was to help her discover and her learn.

Notice as we read through that, Christ had a curious way of speaking of God the Father. to my God and your God, right? My Father and your Father. It's because each of them have a different relationship with the Father. That's why Jesus would speak in the way that he did.

When Jesus said, My Father, it was the Father with whom he had in eternity past fellowshiped with. and had a love relationship with for all eternity past. It was the Father who had promised to raise him up. It was the Father that he had known for all those countless eons before. It was the Father with whom he would share an eternity future. Mary certainly would have a relationship as would the others. But his relationship with the Father is different. So my God and your God and my Father and yours.

Now, why should Mary not cling to him? I'm glad you asked that question. Why did Jesus say that Mary should not cling to him? That's a rather curious thing. Especially rather immediately. Why would he do that? Is it because he didn't want her to be clingy? We'll go a different direction than that.

Christ knew that he had a new kind of body and he also was going to have a different kind of fellowship with her. You see, all the time that they had before was time walking together. Imagine Mary spending time with Christ, the one who had cast out these seven demons from her. All the time that she would be able to spend with him would be times walking right alongside him.

Now there was going to be a new kind of fellowship. Now there was going to be a new kind of relationship with him. And it wasn't going to be one in a body like it had been. He would soon go to the Father. And that would mean a different kind of relationship. Don't cling to me because our relationship is now going to change. Oh, it'll be good. In many ways it'll be even better. But it's going to be different. So don't try to hold on to the body, this isn't the same body I had before.

She did not know that he must ascend to heaven so that she could be seated with Him. You see, we get identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating. But we don't get identified with Christ because we hang on to His ankles and go with Him. Right? That's not the way it works. She couldn't gain that advantage of being seated with Him in the heavenlies because she wouldn't let go of His ankles. Okay?

All these things are things that the disciples would, in fact, learn in the decades ahead. It would be about three decades before the Apostle Paul would write. You've been seated with him in the heavenlies. It would be about three decades before he would say that you have ascended with him. When he ascended, you were there. That much time would pass. These were things that they would learn.

Right now, she is the only person on the planet at this moment that even knows that he has risen. The only one. And she's just barely learning the significance of it. You see, though she didn't know it, She was to be identified with Christ as he was crucified. She had seen him, but she didn't know that she was there. She had seen where he was buried, but she didn't know yet that she was there in the tomb with him. She didn't know that when he was raised, she was raised with him.

And what Christ was talking about was, what's next? He would ascend to the Father, and she would be with Him in that. And He would be seated in the heavenlies, and she would be with Him in that. So she had to learn, no, I can't cling to this body, that won't give me the closeness that I need. Because there's a closeness that clinging to a body can't bring about.

You see, we too, if you're a believer, we too have been crucified with Christ. We too, even though Mary was the one that saw the body buried, we too were buried with Him. We too were raised with Him. We too ascended with Him. We too are seated with Him.

So guess what? Jesus sends Mary back to the disciples again. You know, when you first went to them, you told them that the body's gone, and you don't know where it is, and you're really distressed because you have no idea where the body is. I'm sending you back. They may not have believed you the first time, hardly at all. Now I'm going to send you back, and you're going to tell them something they're not going to believe either. He's risen! Here is Mary. I mean, would you pick her? Does she have the right background? She's a woman, after all, in a culture that doesn't believe women. Would you have chosen her?

God did. To be the first one to say, I have seen the Lord. I've seen the Lord. Wow. What a selection. She would say, I've seen him, I've spoken to him, he said my name. I saw his body and I tried to cling to it and he said, nope, not right now. It would be decades before they understood the full meaning of what Christ's resurrection would mean for all of them. And as we've been talking about in the elective that meets right before, we are in fact as believers learning to catch up with what's already happened. We're learning to catch up with what's already happened.

And that's what's happening to Mary. That's what's happening to the disciples. Christ was resurrected. Mary was the first one to know. So have you made that incomparable discovery? Christ said to Mary, Mary spoke to her by name. She recognized who he was.

Have you? Have you recognized who he is? Have you made the discovery? of fellowship with the risen Savior, the one who died for your sins and was buried and rose again. And if you believe that, then you are identified with Him in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. Have you made that discovery?

I hope you have. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this amazing passage, and Lord, you chose someone, oh, but she had a past, she had a history, a past beyond checkered, and yet you chose her to be the first one to witness the resurrected Christ. You chose her to be the first one to realize that He is risen and to proclaim it to others. What an amazing thing you did. And Lord, what an amazing thing you've done for us and in our lives. And we thank you for that. We pray for each one here for the recognition, for the discovery, much like Mary did that day. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.