John: The Empty Tomb
Ministry Associate Calvin Chu preaches from John 20 about the disciples and Mary discovering the empty tomb after the resurrection. Discussion points: The disciples and Mary would have believed that their last moments with Jesus were truly the end of their time with him, Jesus’s followers were focused on what they thought would happen instead of what God could do, Jesus’s command to Mary shows that after his resurrection his followers were adopted into the family of God.
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Scripture reader: [John 20:1-18] Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together.
But the other disciple Outran Peter and reached the tomb first and stooping to look in, he saw the, he saw the linen clothes lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen clothes lying there in the face cloth which had been on Jesus's head, not lying with the linen clothes, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed, for as yet, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. And as she wept, she stooped, she stooped to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her woman, why are you weeping? She said to them they have taken away my Lord. And I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her woman, why are you weeping? 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. Jesus said to her Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabbani which means teacher. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples. I've seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: Morning everybody. I don't know about you guys. If this happens to you, you'll be like sitting there or sit maybe, like, waiting in line for something and all of a sudden, like, you get hit with this like intrusive memory. I don't know if you ever have this. Like sometimes there's this spontaneous mummer just pops into your head and just like, basically for no reason. And I'm sure someone here has like a, a degree that's far more relevant than the collection of the, my, my couple of degrees. But my like explain it like I'm five sort of explanation of this is that it seems like there's a lot of reasons that this happens, like for instance, like different stimuli like a sight or a sound or a smell can like trigger like a memory for us.
But the, the intrusive memories that I like or I dislike the most are the ones where I'm reminded of situations that like, I can't change. or take back, some of them are like awkward and kind of cringey. Like the time I pulled over to where all the cool kids in high school were hanging out and I pulled up in my Toyota Corolla DX station wagon, blasting Abba dancing queen and I hopped out and I just decided to dance. And I thought it was so funny and oh young Calvin, if you could just see how unfunny that was, and that lives in my mind so many years later and in prepping it, that is the memory that popped back into my head. So now that will be there for at least another decade. Just reminding myself of that is, is just who I am and who I was.
But some of these intrusive memories are not kind of awkward. They're actually kind of painful. They replay these situations where we maybe said something wrong or we didn't say something when we should have or in these memos remind us, Times when we were like incredibly disappointed, we had had all these hopes of these things that were going to happen, change that was going to come and it didn't. And, and you know, they can be reminded of, of the times that people around us, our community, our loved ones, even ourselves or we, we feel disappointed by our actions and theirs. And these memories represent these things that kind of linger. They are the things that we wish we could have a do over the ones where we wish we could kind of snap our finger and change reality.
And for those of us who follow Christ, it, a lot of times these memories, these regrets, these failures, they can really test us, they can really rock our faith and, and really cause us to doubt. Sometimes we think, oh, if God were, if you were real, then surely this would not be happening. And this feeling of wanting to kind of move past our history and wanting it to be different.
That's at the forefront of our passage this morning. How basically the question that I I want us to think about is how do we navigate these missed opportunities, these painful losses in light of the work of, of Jesus? And, and what does the empty tomb have to do with any of these things?
Right. That's what we're looking at. We read the passage in, in John chapter 20. and, and last week, we saw the crucifixion and basically, we looked at how Jesus was sentenced to death. And the passage that follow that is, you know, Jesus was crucified, he died, he was treated with burial spices and was bound in cloths and then was buried. And we picked up today with Mary Magdalene and Peter and John.
And each of them come to this moment in the, the, the, the count of, of the life of Jesus and the disciples. They all come with history. They all come with a deep sense of regret or longing or hopelessness. And so, maybe you're sitting here today or maybe you're watching this online another point in the future and you are coming with these things, this history, this pain, this regret. And, and so, II I Lord willing, as we study this passage, I do think God will open our eyes to help us see that the empty tomb has a lot to do with these missed opportunities, these mistakes, these failures that we have.
And so let's pray to God for guidance this morning as we look at this passage a little bit more in depth. Let's pray, Father God. surely people watching this or listening to this in, in, in the seats right now. We have this, we have these feelings, we have these regrets. We are reminded of our fails, we're reminding of the failures of the people around us. And God, we have these painful memories that, that define us, who we are. It feels like and, and God, we just pray for clarity. We pray that you would remove the distractions in our heart and in our minds, we, we pray for protection from affliction that would distract us in this moment so that we can hear from you. God, I pray that you help me get out of the way. We pray that the Holy Spirit would come and give us clarity as we study your word this morning praying expectantly because we know that you are a God that does such things. And so lord, we pray that we, you would give us the ears to hear and the hearts to receive your word this morning. And we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.
And so like a like a you know, I don't know if you guys watch streaming services and like what's really cool. So I'm old enough to remember when streaming first started happening and you had to like sit and watch the opening credits of every single show that you were watching, every single season or every single episode you'd have. But there was like a new innovation that came, like, you could skip the recap and I like skipping the recap personally. This is totally aside, I like skipping the recap because when you watch the recap, it tells you what's gonna happen in the sh like the plot of that episode. You know what I mean? So you gotta thank you. We got a passionate recap skipper in the back. You wanna skip it because then you wanna, you wanna see the the plot as it is. But this for this, this morning, we can't skip the recap because I think it actually really helps us the background of Mary, John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. And Peter, the, the, the background for them. The recap is actually really helpful to see what they're bringing. What's the baggage that they're bringing to this situation here?
And so start with Mary. there's really not a ton that's like confirmed about her. We knew know that she was afflicted with seven evil spirits that Jesus had cast out. and then from that point, she became a very devout follower of Jesus. And the only thing that for sure that we know about her is that she was present at jesus' crucifixion. So she was at the foot of the cross seeing Jesus in his last moments, seeing him suffer and die. OK?
So that's Mary and then there's the disciple whom Jesus loved, which is widely understand stood to be John. it was the right of this gospel account. And for context, if you, if you remember as we've been looking at John, all the other disciples, they scattered because Jesus was caught, right? Jesus was captured, he was arrested and basically anyone that was associated with Jesus was now under threat. And so everyone else has scattered except for John because John was pretty young. Some commentators kind of find him at the age of maybe not even 20 yet, like he hadn't had his full beard. And so they they they saw him almost like a younger, you know, person, not very much a threat. So that's why he probably felt free.
So he was also actually present at Jesus' crucifixion and death. But John was also one of jesus' closest in, in his sort of in his inner circle as far as the disciples were concerned. So he had like the inside track, he knew Jesus really, really well and he spent probably the most time with Jesus with, you know, a couple of the of the disciples, one of them being Peter, which we're gonna talk about in a second. But before Jesus dies in his last moments, he tells John to take care of his mother. Jesus says take care of my mother. It says and so basically, in that last moment or one of the last moments, he gives his command to John to be like a son to Jesus' mother.
And last, I said I was talking about Peter here. And so for Peter who was not there, he's definitely one of the ones that scattered because if you remember Peter, the last time he saw Jesus, he was denying him three times, right? So he went from saying that I will never betray you Jesus to denying him three times where all the gospel accounts say that he left weeping bitterly like he realized that he had, he was not who he thought he was and that he had betrayed Jesus thrice. And so that's the background.
We have to remember that for all of them, Jesus was their leader. Jesus was the Messiah, the anointed one. He was the, the miracle worker and he and so the the the most recent memories that they have, each three of them have of Jesus for all intents and purposes in the moment that they're recalling them. That's the last moment that they have Peter seeing Jesus and as he betrays him three times, that's the last thing on his mind. And for, for John seeing Jesus and saying, take care of my mother, be a son to her is the last thing on his mind. And for Mary, the last thing is seeing the man who changed her life forever removing the the afflictions from her so that she could live free. Seeing this powerful leader, this Messiah in her mind dying e embarrassing and cruel death. That's the last thing that they think that that's the image that I will have in my mind forever of the one I thought who was my leader, my Messiah.
So we see this in verses one and two because all of a sudden, Mary rushes to report that Jesus' body is gone. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it's still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran away, she ran and went with Simon, went to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. I can imagine what Peter's thinking. He's probably so heartbroken that he betrayed Jesus. He did the opposite of what he said he was going to do and that he think he would never be able to ask for forgiveness. He would never be able to explain himself. He'd never be able to go to Jesus like, oh, well, the this and that regret was probably living with him.
But then an empty tomb. Ok. Well, maybe something's happening here. Maybe there was a mix up, maybe something happened. And so he runs and you have to understand in the Asian areas and culture men after a certain age did not run anywhere. They walked a lot, you know, there was no Uber, there were no taxis, no driving, they they walked a lot but they did not run anywhere. So the fact that they're running is actually something significant.
Same thing with John who also ends up running for him again. He's the only apostle to have seen Jesus his last moments. And so seeing his leader bloodied and beaten and crucified, he must have thought that's it. There's no coming back after this and he he just assumes that Jesus thinking the same thing because why would a person who's gonna come back later say, hey, look, here's my mom who our society is not going to take care of these widows. Please take care of her that you don't say that unless you think that's the end. So John's thinking this is the end. So he probably felt hopeless after seeing the traumatic image of his leader who he thought was the messiahs bloodied and beaten and dead.
And yet again, an empty tomb, maybe something is happening. So he runs off right as we see this in verses 3 to 7. So Peter went out to with the other disciple and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together but the other disciple Outran Peter and reached the tomb first and the and stooping to look and he saw the linen cloth lying there and he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloth lying there and the face cloth which had been on Jesus head not lying with the linen cloth was folded up in a place by itself.
Just as a quick aside, a lot of commentaries like have to comment on like why did John talk about like beating Peter to the tomb? Like I just think that's really funny because like if if you're giving this account, you're just like, well, Calvin went to the store at the same time as Joe and Calvin got there first and Calvin is also better looking like like that would just be like this weird like this weird thing to say. so so some people have kind of guessed that, oh maybe there's like a competition but generally speaking, most people understand that wasn't a competition. It was simply just reporting all the details.
And so if anything, it actually shows that John had this huge hesitancy, he went there first and for all intents and purposes, he could have looked and he could have done the research, but you can see the trauma because he remembers the image of his leader, his his supposed Messiah bloodied and beaten and dead. He sees that image and he's like, I don't know if I wanna go back in because if, what if Mary is wrong, what if he's actually in there and he's still dead and I have to re traumatize myself. So he gets there first but he stops. He looks a little bit ok. There's some class here.
That is weird because the grave robbers were a thing at the time. So it's not out of the question that someone may have like robbed the grave but not to go into the whole like apologetics of why that'd be really hard with a giant stone blocking this tomb with guards being put there. But it's like, ok, that's weird. Like the linen cloth would actually be very valuable. If I were a grave robber linen would be a very precious material. Actually, that would be the thing that they would take. So why would they leave that? Right.
And so he, he gets there, he stops, he doesn't go then in comes old, good old Peter. He's like trenching in, he comes in, move by the way, John and he just runs straight and he's I I got here, I can see, I see what's happening here and he goes and he goes in and sees and so they both see there that the these cloths are there and that Jesus is not there. And so I just wonder, I just think that they all must have wondered like what went wrong, like what happened here and you know, seeing their they all saw Jesus and his power was undeniable. Yet there was this death on a cross. And then now there is this empty tomb.
And so other accounts sort of say that Peter walks away, sort of thinking like he was wondering what was happening. So he didn't fully understand yet. But in the passage here with John and actually says in verse eight, is that then the other disciple who reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed, and I think that what this is saying is that when he saw the clause there, he began to put the things together that like what they expected to happen wasn't actually what was going to happen. That Jesus, as we know, as we studied the New Testament, we know that Jesus doesn't operate how we think he's going to operate. He operates, how he's going to operate, not what we think.
And so I think that in the moment that lead up, led up to this, they probably thought salvation is not coming. He's dead, the leader's gone. There's gonna be no, no great revolution, no great resolution, no great restoration, but he's dead. Just they're just the dead leader who they thought was the one and he wasn't. I think, I think the thing is they focused on their will, not God's, they focused on what they thought would happen, not what God was actually going to do and honestly, you can see this with Peter. I'll actually read the, the, the quotes here. Mark 14:29. Peter said to him even though they all fall away, talking with the other disciples, I will not. So Jesus tells them, hey, look, you're all gonna fall away, you're all gonna run. You're all gonna scatter Peter saying I will not. He's focused on what he imagines the result will be. He focus on what he thinks will happen.
And then Luke 22 to 33 said Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Again, Peter's thinking, no, not your will, but my will not your image of what's gonna happen, who you actually know Jesus. But my image of what will happen, Peter is not taking his cues from Jesus. He's filling in with what he thinks will happen. It makes sense that he has his confidence like he's literally for the past three years. See Jesus doing incredible things like things that like truly miraculous. Of course, he's thinking yes, like I'm not going to lose. This is, this is a guaranteed home run. Look, look at, look at Jesus, of course, I'm going to win. So for Peter, Jesus is just a means to his own end. Jesus is just the, the the the middle point to getting Peter to where he wants to go.
And actually you can actually see this with Mary too in the sense of how Jesus questions her when he, he shows up after, right? We see this in John 2011, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. And as she wept, she stood to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain one at the head and one of the feet. And they said to a woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they have taken away my Lord. And I do not know what they have laid him. Having said that she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to her woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking supposing him to be the gardener? She said to him, sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her Mary and she turned and said to him in Aramaic Rabbi.
And I, I think Jesus is gently questioning here, Mary saying, why are you weeping? Like why are you sad? Like I told you this would happen? And whom are you seeking? Like what type of leader? What type of Savior? What type of Messiah were you looking for? This is this was always what my plan was going to be. This was always going to be my will. What Savior were you looking for? I don't think he's coming down on her. I think he's gently questioning and encourage you can see that she, he's trying to encourage her because when he, she, he says Mary, she, it snaps it, it clicks into place. She goes. Oh, it's you. Ok. I see now.
And so, before we continue on to see kind of what happens next, I, I think it's really helpful for us to think what does it have to do with us? Right? What does it have to those of us, especially for those of us who follow Jesus? I think very often we expect that I pray a prayer. I, I, you know, raised my hand, I didn't alter call. I, I have, I, I hang across in my home somewhere. I've got a cross around my neck. I follow Jesus and we expect that well, I follow Jesus. Therefore, life will be easy because Jesus is powerful. Jesus is good. Jesus is omni all the omni and, and, and so then therefore, like we must be able to go through life with great ease. They will never face any.
And I, there are, there are people out there, there are ministries out there that push this idea. You follow Jesus, you have great enough faith, you will be rich, you will be powerful, you will have no troubles. And if you do, it's because you don't have enough faith. And I, I would challenge if, if you're in thinking about that, then look at this passage like so much of what jesus' followers go through is actually challenge and difficulty. It's not easy. But that doesn't say that God is not powerful, that Jesus is not good. It just following Jesus does not mean that life will be easy despite all the songs that we sing, despite how good He is, despite how powerful He is the, the goodness of God, how in His power have nothing to do with the amount of ease or comfort that we have in our lives.
Like Mary Peter and John and the rest of the disciples, we're gonna face hardships, we will make mistakes, we will disappoint and we will be disappointed following Jesus does not change that reality. So then I ask you my friends, when these things happen, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? I'm not saying that we can't be sad or scared or have any of these, you know, negative emotions. Clearly, everyone in this passage today was these things and Jesus does not rebuke them. That's not rebuke here, Jesus is encouraging them like us to remember that there was an empty grave, to take your grief, your pain, your regrets, your hurt. And remember that there is an empty grave, an empty grave, which means that something extraordinary has taken place not only to Jesus, but to the whole world. The way God is the way, the way that we perceive God the way that the disciples are an empty grave shows that everything has changed, that something has altered decisively that something has been achieved. Jesus says, see the empty grave and seek me.
I think most of, you know, that I have two kids. but something that I don't think my kids fully grasp is that there was a time in my life before them, before kids. because I've, you know, I've been around their whole life so that they just assumed that, you know, this is, this is just how I've always been. and I remember the last day of my pre kid life, it was July, it was July 4th, break. And, my wife and I, we had went to Texas, Austin specifically because we wanted to get a little vacation before the kids come and trying to like enjoy life. And so we just thought, hey, we'll go to Austin. it's a pretty cool place. We know we have a friend there that said that they could house us, which was really, really generous.
And we went and, I just remember being like, wow, this is like Texas is very different. I don't know if anyone here is from Texas. The Texas is very, I'm from Massachusetts. So Massachusetts to Texas feel very different. But, one thing that I, I went, I went to a place called Franklin barbecue. I don't know if you've been before and, and so if you've been, it's, it's kind of like, well known for its brisket. And, like kind of people were just like, oh, you're in Austin, Austin, you gotta go to Franklin, you gotta go to Franklin. That's really, really good. It's like you should bring a seat, you should bring a lawn chair because you have to wait a little bit. And that is true. We did wait a little bit because basically it's so, I don't know if it is now. It's like post code. I think you can like order online but like whatever. I'm not mad that I had to wait the whole time.
But basically you have to wait in line for this entire time so that you can get this this brisket and the bar. There's a lot of things at a barbecue, but everyone says the brisket is really good. I had never really had like Southern style Texas barbecue brisket. I've had like other types of brisket. But not this type and when I ate it, I was like, wow, this is, this is really, really good. This was worth the wait. So this is the, the whole illustration is not about thinking about brisket. So you'll, you'll bear with me. II, I remember going back home and just being like obsessed with brisket and just being like, wow, like, what did he do? Like how did he do it?
And so I went and I like, did all the research and I studied of like, how do you make this happen? And then, like, can I achieve this here? That's really became my focus. I started going youtube started teaching myself and, oh, bless you too. Because there is a local PBS station down in Texas that interviewed, Aaron Franklin who was the owner of the restaurant not sponsored at all. But, he went and he actually walked everyone through the process of how do you, how does he make the brisket? And I go, ok, great. I can do it except that I didn't have all the tools I didn't have like the giant smoker and I have all these things, but in my small little world I can do this.
And so I became obsessed. I went and I did it. I, got the supplies. I gave my shot and it was pretty good for a New England with a New Englander who has no previous experience. I know some of you maybe from the south. You're like, yeah. Ok. yeah, a Yankee like good. Yeah, I'm sure it was really good. But for me, I was satisfied with it. And, I remember, the day after my wife, she's like, oh, I don't feel so great. It was like, maybe it was like indigestion or something. I was like, ok, well, we we went along our day long story short, we were, she was going into labor, flash forward like a few many hours later and boom, it's kid time like we had a baby.
And basically from that day forth, like my life has been completely changed. And so even when I have the rare moments of like being by myself and like driving in my car, I will look back into my back seat and there will be a kid seat. And this is, it's not just like the little bu bucket seats, which is what they had when they were little. Then there was like the front facing car seat and then it was the booster seat with the high back. And then now my eldest is on his the last booster the just the bottom. And so one day that will be gone and that will be exciting and that would be good. But then I have, you know, his little brother who is also still in a car seat.
What I remember bringing this up other than talking about brisket and car seats. When I look in the back seat of my car, I see a constant reminder that in on that day, on the that that July 4th break weekend, my life was forever changed that car seat, whether there's a kid in it or whether it's empty shows me, it points to me that everything is different now. And so there are moments in our lives that we are never the same again and they all can measure up. We could all have our things. But what I want us to know for this, my friends, the ultimate moment of your life being different is the moment that you understand that there was an empty grave, that there was a savior who lived a perfect life, died, the death of a criminal. And he was raised again three days later. And as he departed that tomb, nothing would be ever the same again.
The empty grave tells us that something extraordinary has happened. And you, my friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are or if you're not a follower of Christ, you can be a part of that, that empty grave can have that same effect on you. And then kind of going back to Jesus and Mary here. It's really interesting because Jesus is sort of signaling that this is different now and, but he says something that's really, really interesting. And actually all the commentators I looked at basically agree that this is a kind of a weird thing to say if you think of the, the context which he says this, Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples. I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
The phrase essentially means like, don't cling to me as if I were to like, disappear permanently. Like if I, I'm gonna go away, like, and you'll never be able to like, you know, experience, you know, my presence again. Basically, it's like, don't, don't cling on to this like private dream come true. Like, because I'm imagining that Mary was praying and hoping like God, like would, would something happen, would something change this grief that I have? Would you take it away from me? And then all of a sudden when he says, Mary, the prayer becomes true, she says, wow, teacher. It's you. My prayers have been answered. And basically, he, she wanted to keep Jesus there with her and like her, only because she's been going through this pain and this sorrow and she's like, please just completely turn to joy. Can we go back to how things were, could I sit under your teaching? Can we go around taking care of the needs of our community? Can, can you, can we learn again? Can we perform miracles? Can I see that? Can we go back?
And Jesus is saying, don't cling to that, don't cling to me because I have not, my work is not done yet. Something fundamentally has changed. And now what, what we used to do was great, but now things have changed and now things, different things need to happen. Jesus knew that everything had changed and he tells her not to hold on to him because his mission was not complete. There was a greater purpose at play.
Basically, Jesus knows that this answered prayer is answered prayer for her and she, she wants to focus on that. But Jesus is saying it's not about your will. I know you want me to just hang out here, we can play, you know, cards or, or whatever. But it's like, no, I got other things I need to do but you get to experience this. But I have a, I have, I, I don't want you to, to stay there. And so for us and it's really easy to get focused on our situation and our perspective, wanting the relief that we want, wanting the God. Would you please do this in my life? God please do this and we do the good Christian thing. We pray for these things.
And sometimes I feel like the hardest thing is when God answers our prayers, the way that we want them because it becomes about us and how God, how God is good to us and how our desire is God's desire. But our relief and comfort are not the end of the story. For God. God's main focus is not to answer our prayers as if he's some magic genie. He's got things he wants to accomplish. And so yes, he will answer our prayers and he will answer them in the way that we ask for sometimes specifically. But he doesn't always do that. What he wants is his will not our will.
Something that bothers me still to this day. A few years ago, a former student of mine calls me out of the blue. He tells me he's in California and he got stopped by TSA, because they found a controlled substance on him. And he admitted to me that he had partaken in some, on his trip. But he says, he reassured me. He says, no, look, honestly, it's my buddy. He left, he borrowed my shorts and he left it in like that's the whole sort of thing.
And, I said, OK, like, but basically he says, they won't like, release me. Like I can't come back home. unless like, I have an advocate that someone who can vouch for me and say, like, listen, this guy is a good guy. Like he, he is on the level he cares about his community. Like he, he basically needs someone to come and advocate for him. So he calls me, I was like, you know, his, his his youth pastor. So I guess it's, it's, it's better to ask the youth pastor than like the, the, the congregational pastor, I guess is that was too, too close. And so I tell him, ok, like, if you, if you want, if you do this and that's, that's fine.
Like I'm, I'm, I'm willing to do this but like I, this is not like a get out of jail free card. Like I, I if you are, if you're saying that you're this type of person, like I want to make sure that we actually build this together that, that you are gonna say that you tell me that you're gonna live, that you live this life. And let's actually make sure that you live this life. Let's actually make sure that you are what you say you are. And he's like, oh yeah, yeah, I'm definitely, I'm definitely going to, he's like, you know, I, I'll come find after school breaks, you know, I'll come find you, I'll come find you on spring break, Christmas break, summer break.
And as you can imagine, to my dismay, he never reached out to me again and I should have been smart. I should have set some more boundaries in there and should have been, you know, like couched a little bit more and, and built in some more safeguards to make sure that, you know, we actually got to build that life that he was saying he was going to. But, but he didn't and I, I didn't and, and honestly, that's something that I regret. So it's something I wish I had done better at.
And so I feel like that's how we can treat God sometimes. I think sometimes when we're like so desperate when we, we were like at wits end or, or at the end of our rope, we go, God, would you please do that thing? Would you please change my situation? Would you please make sense of my history? Make sense of my past. Would you redeem that? And we, we, we pray with great fervency in the middle of our need and then he gives it to us. Here we go. Hey God, good job, man. See you later. I'll see you at Christmas. I'll see you at Easter.
And I think that that's not what God wants. God doesn't want us to cling to just the good times, cling to just what we want. In this case, Mary was clinging to what she wanted, which was the past experience with Jesus and Jesus. Don't cling to that. And I think for us, God is telling, don't cling to the thing that is your will, what you want over my will because I have things that I want to do. And I'm not saying that Mary is doing something bad. I think her actions are far more innocent than many of ours and definitely many of mine. But even still I that Jesus' focus is on His will, not ours.
And I think this is a good way to think about the motivation of our prayers. And do we get what we want and forget about Him or do we get what we want? And have this heart of gratitude and a willingness to do what he calls us to next as a sign of appreciation, as a sign of seeing that he is good. He is powerful, which is what I think actually what Jesus brings out in the last part of our text here.
So because Jesus calls Mary to do something and I think if you kind of read it quickly, it can, it can kind of feel like one thing. But I think as we look a little closer, I there's a little bit more here. So let me read it. It is the last couple of firsts, 17 and 18, Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for, I have not yet ascended to the Father but go to my brothers and say to them, I'm ascending to my Father and your Father. Go to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples. I've seen the Lord and that he said these things to her, I think very quickly we read it and we go, you've had good things happen to you. You should evangelize, you should share the gospel. You should go tell your coworkers call, tell your neighbors, tell your classmates, tell your family, go say how good God is. And that, that's, I mean that you can't go wrong with that. That's kind of like one of those classic sort of like, yeah, that's the right answer. Sort of applications.
But actually, I think Jesus is doing something a little bit deeper here. If you look, he goes to great lengths to explain that again, the the fact that everything is now different. So this is the first time in all of the, the the gospel of John where he uses the phrase my brothers, he says, go to my brothers, which is talking about the disciples because obviously Mary understands that she goes to the disciples and announces.
So he says, go to my brothers, go to those who are now a part of my family who are part of my lineage, go to them. And what does he tell them to tell her to tell them? I am not yet attending to my father and your father and my God and your God. Why does Jesus go to this? He could just said to the father to God. He could have just said those things. But why does he focused on that phrasing? Because what happens because of the empty tomb is that all those who follow Jesus are now part of the family are now co heirs with Christ, as said in other parts of the scriptures, we are now adopted, sons and daughters, sharing that sonship with Christ.
And so I really love that this is what we have here because I think it's so easy to cling to our old ways, to our history, to our mistakes, to the ways we've been hurt to the ways that we've hurt other people. It's really easy to, to cling to those things. But God wants us to know that we are no longer defined by those things. Our history does not define us. Our mistakes do not define us the way that our loved ones, our community have wronged us or failed us. They do not define us. What defines us is that we are one with Christ, that we are part of his family, that we are his brothers, his sisters because of the empty tomb.
I love the illustration. And it's in other parts of scripture, but I love the, the illustration of adoption like Romans 8 talks about adoption being coheirs of Christ. I really love that because like an orphan can't do anything to change their status. Like a child who has either been abandoned or has lost both of their parents. There's nothing that they can do to change their identity as an orphan. It is literally out of their hands. They can grow out of it. I guess they can reach 18 and they can become an adult and they don't necessarily, but that doesn't necessarily change the fact of that reality. It is requires someone outside of them that comes in and says, I see you as my child, I adopt you into my family. I am changing your identity as an orphan and I'm now making you a son or a daughter.
I love that image because it shows us how truly powerless we are. If we are just clinging to our past, we're clinging to our mistakes. We're clinging to our disappointments, then we just live in that identity. We live in that reality. And only when we see that there was an empty tomb and this is that now we are co heirs. We are brothers and sisters with Christ. Does our identity change that we've been adopted by the father? We have a new identity as children of God and we have the assurance of a place in the father's house. This is what Jesus is declaring to us because we've been adopted coheirs of Christ. Our past is our past, but it's not as significant as our present and definitely not as significant as our future. Our shared sonship is what defines us now, not our past, not our mistakes, not how other people see us to my friends.
Are we living the past over and over and over again, hoping that we can change it? Are we praying that God change our past? Ignoring that He has actually changed our future, which is far more significant. Are we still asking God to change our reality when that's exactly what he did with an empty tomb? An empty tomb that says that there is no need for a do over because Jesus said it is done an empty tomb. That means our past no longer holds us an empty tomb. That means that we can move beyond our past towards our beautiful future as a part of God's family with all the joy and restoration that comes with my friends. I hope you see that your identity is now in Christ, not in your past, not in your mistakes, not in the mistakes of others.
So on the night that Jesus was betrayed, we're gonna prepare for communion. He took the bread and he broke it said, this is my body broken for you. And then after supper, he took the cup said, this is my blood shed for you. And every time you take of the cup, the take of the bread, take of the cup do this in remembrance of me. So every single week we take part of the communion meal. So I'm gonna pray for us and pray for communion. As we prepare to take the elements, let's pray.
Father God. I thank you that you have indeed changed our identity, changed who we are through the empty tomb, through the work of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection. We just pray that you help us catch up, catch up the sea. That that's exactly what you did when you rose Christ from the dead, that we are no longer who we were. We, we are who he has made us to be, which is one with him, co heirs with him. And so Lord, as we prepare to take communion and sing the last couple of worship songs. I pray that your spirit would move in us, to prepare us to really take this to heart with all the troubles that we have waiting for us at home or at work. God, I pray that you would help us to know that we are defined not by those things but by your love. We pray all this in Jesus' name, Amen.