Why Are You Weeping?

It’s really great when you have songs that are so old that when you bring them back they’re new. That’s good.

Okay, as always, so humbled and grateful to be back with you guys to share from God’s Word. This actually wasn’t supposed to be my week in this series. Is this? Okay, but schedules changed and things got shuffled around, so here I am.

The way that these like group taught series are set up is that the portions are split up and assigned to different days, and then people sign up for the portion. And I have a pretty lax schedule for the most part, and so I never choose first. I always wait until everyone else goes. And then when there were like two of them left, I asked Noel, I was like, which one do you think I should do? And he said, I feel like you want to do this one, which wasn’t the case. I didn’t really have a preference, but I waited until the next day, and then the other one was taken, so this is the one I have.

And for sure it feels super weird to have to like close off the series normally like Justin does it, or Pastor Sunil does it, and that feels right. So closing off a series, even though I know that this is not like a consecutive portion of scripture that we’ve gone through, it feels like there’s a lot of pressure, but that’s just in my head.

But the one question we’re looking at today is from John 20, Why Are You Weeping? So let’s read. 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 removed from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they have put him. So Peter and the other disciple were going to the tomb. Is that right? I copied and pasted this. That’s wrong. Okay. I’m sure it’s supposed to say Peter and the other disciple left. Oh that is right. My goodness. Okay. And they were going to the tomb. Jesus. Okay. Have mercy. Okay.

So the next chunk of verses is actually not my assigned portion, but we’re gonna read through them anyway. Verse 4. The two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter, and came to the tomb first. And he stooped to look in, and saw the linen wrappings lying there, however he did not go in. So Simon Peter also came following him, and he entered the tomb, and he looked at the linen wrappings lying there. And the face cloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but folded up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb also entered, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

Now picking back up with my assigned verses. Verse 11. But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping. So as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting. One at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 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 put him.

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and yet she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Thinking that he was the gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabbani, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Stop clinging 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, and my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, I thank you, O God, for this time that you have given us, O Lord, to be able to gather and to be able to spend ten encounters, just looking into all of the different times, in conversations with people, where you asked us questions, O Lord, and you caused us to look inside and caused us to sort out what it is you were trying to say. We thank you, O God, that you are patient with us as we learn more about you, as we seek to know you more. We thank you, O God, that you are gentle and so tenderly drawing us to the answers that we find only in you, O Lord. We pray that you would prepare our hearts as we hear from your word. Abba Father, I pray, O Lord, that not a single word comes out of my mouth that is against your will, that is against your word, and if it does, we pray that no one would remember it anymore. We pray, O Lord, that you would speak to us, Spirit of God. We surrender ourselves, our minds, our attention, our focus to you now, in your name I pray.

Okay, so like I did in Colossians, I’m gonna go chunk by chunk and I’ll stop when I have like something to say about it. So you’re gonna hear me read this entire portion. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early. You don’t have to go through those, that’s okay, thanks though. 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 and 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 and they were going to the tomb.

The last few weeks, again this was not the, this was not the prepared order that Pastor Sunil said when he put all of these questions in order, but the last few weeks we have been talking about situations where Jesus has been dealing with women. A few weeks ago when Justin spoke, he, we see Jesus was asking Martha if she believed that he was a resurrection in the life right now and not at some future day. This is interesting because at this time obviously women were part of the people of God, but when it came to worship there was a separate court for them. It was on the side and it was to the front and it was not anywhere close to the main gate and so Jesus having this much concern and being grieved over Martha’s struggle in her faith is so significant because, yes, like I said, it’s not that women were not part of the the the nation of Israel, the people of God, but it’s this attention that Jesus pays that is so special.

The week after we heard Sam speak about the portion where Jesus heals the hemorrhaging woman and she was healed not just physically and spiritually, but Jesus’ choice to speak with her right there in front of all of those people restored her socially as well.

And today we talk about Jesus’ resurrection. Though there is some variance on who exactly was at the tomb, what all four Gospels are super clear is that women were the ones who were there that early morning. In a time when, as we know, a woman’s testimony held no weight in a court of law, the fact that the Holy Spirit makes this very, very clear is so impactful. One of the reasons amongst many that Christianity spread like it did was because Jesus gave honor, dignity, and value to half of the world’s population where it wasn’t there before.

But what is the source of Mary’s singular devotion to Jesus, her specifically? Satan had held her in bondage. Luke 8 tells us that she had seven demons inside of her, seven being the number of completion. So that should tell you just how wholly consumed she was. And Jesus had set her free. If we’re talking about The Chosen, the first episode of season 1 actually has this story and gives you some context on that. And we keep talking about The Chosen. We’re not saying you got to watch it. It’s not like Sparknotes, right? Yeah, it’s Sparknotes, man. But it is a very good visual tool and it’s a very well done show.

But Jesus had set Mary free from a life of torment, isolation, unconsciously done sin, self-harm, and many other things that we probably can’t even imagine. So when she came to know her Savior, she served out of whatever means were available to her. She served with her time, she served the disciples even, and she served with her money and whatever else that she had available. Psalm 107:2, it starts off saying, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. And then it has a list of all of the reasons that we should be giving thanks to God. And if you asked Mary, she could probably check off every single one on that list. But so could we, right? When you stop to think of all that He has done in your life, how could you not love Him?

Mary sets such a good and convicting example of love and devotion for us. I think Angeo asked this in his week, are we loving God just as we ought to, as much as we should be? It’s impossible to do by ourselves, but that is something that should be on our mind. We know that Mary was one of the last people at the cross, and now she’s the first one at the tomb. The plan was for her and the other women to come to the tomb to complete the task of preparing the body of Jesus for his burial. Mary went ahead of the other women and got to the grave first. She came even before the sun rose, right? In the first verse it says, while it was still dark. She wanted to be ready the literal second that Sabbath was over, right? You can’t work on Sabbath? Fine, okay. As soon as Sabbath is gone, or is finished for this week, I’m out, right?

She gets to the tomb, and then she sees that the stone has been removed, and her first thought is that someone has stolen the body of Jesus. So she runs to tell the disciples.

So we pick up at verse 4. This is where Peter and John go to the tomb. I don’t really have much to say about this, but there is one thing that I would like to point out in regards to the rest of the passage. In verses 6 and 8, we see that Peter and John both look. But crucially, in verse 8, John believes. Right? Peter looked inside. Fair enough. But John looked inside, and he believed. So keep that in mind.

Another thing that I think is so funny, and I don’t, sorry, I don’t know if it was necessary for John to have written this, but when he was like, uh, I definitely ran faster than him. What was the reason? Like, just to point out that Peter’s old. Make him feel bad that he was slow.

Okay. Verse 11. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting there, 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?

Okay, this is the last silly comment I have to say, I promise. But you know that, like, African movie, or I think it’s Nigerian, where one clip of it kind of made the rounds on social media, where, where there’s a couple that gets out of the car, and the woman, like, starts to try to get away, and the husband looks at her and goes, Why are you, why are you running? Do you know what I’m talking about? Yeah, that’s, that is the only way I have heard this question in my head for weeks. I want you to know that. Why are you weeping? Right?

It’s start, that’s the last unnecessary thing I’ll say. But pay attention to the posture. What are the angels doing in this tomb? Just, I just read it. Say it. What? Sitting. Yeah, you got it. They’re sitting. Every other time we see angels in God’s Word, they are on a mission. They have an assigned task, and they are put to work, right? Whether that is delivering news, or whether that is protecting people, or saving people from harm, or whatever it is. They are, they are working, right? Or whether it is worshiping in the throne room of heaven. But sitting, this is a posture of absolute peace. If the body of Jesus had been missing, and if there had been trouble at the tomb, without a doubt, these two would have been all over it. But they’re sitting. They’re chilled out. There is, there is no work. It’s right, it’s like they’re telling us the work is done, we can all rest.

The question for this week is asked by the angels, as well as by Jesus. But the tone that the angels evoke, at least the way that I see it, is this like, should you be weeping? Doesn’t this tomb call for rejoicing? But we do this all the time, because we, by default, live by sight rather than by faith. We misunderstand, and, and just like plain miss, the things that are actually meant to be blessings for us. Things God is desperate for us to see. All because we are caught up with the surface-level presentation of it all. We’ll look at a problem, and we’ll say, man, this looks bad. Right? We speculate about the outcome, completely excluding the possibility of divine intervention and miraculous resurrection.

Listen, it wouldn’t be a message for me if there was no reference to C.S. Lewis whatsoever. So here we go. In the second to the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia, in the silver chair, the kids are given a mission. They are given four signs. Aslan tells them, before they actually land in Narnia, he’s like, listen, I’m gonna tell you these things. Gotta remember them. You gotta keep telling them over and over and over. The air is so clear right now, but the air down there is thick. It’s gonna get foggy. Right? But remember these signs that I tell you. And without a shadow of a doubt, as soon as they land in Narnia, they fumble. Right? The first two signs, they completely miss. The third one, they happen upon by accident. They only really understand the fourth one. But step three, they’re meant to find these words that are written in stone. And they get to the place where Aslan had told them they would find these words written in stone. And they get so, but like, they’re running around looking for it and they’re completely missing it. They get so off track that a whole day is gone. They gotta lie down. They gotta go to bed. And it is only when Aslan tells Jill, the girl, in a dream, hey, this is what you’re actually meant to be looking for, that they wake up and they realize that they’ve been in that place the entire time.

She said to them, Mary said to the angels, 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 it was Jesus.

Mary’s commitment to the immediate circumstance is honestly kind of impressive. At first, it just kept her from understanding what the empty tomb meant when the angels were sitting there and asking her, why are you weeping? But now, she’s not even seeing Jesus. Unlike John, who saw the empty tomb and believed, Mary’s looking at the man. She is looking at the risen God-man of Jesus Christ, and she still isn’t processing. Because maybe her eyes are blurred from all the crying. Maybe the sun isn’t fully out yet. It’s still early. But she, and she can’t see his face clearly. But all she does keep doing is crying.

And by the way, this isn’t me telling you that you need to stop crying. I cry all the time. By all means, cry out to God. Don’t be afraid to seek him honestly with all of your ugliness and, and like the mess of it all. Like, do it. A few Sundays ago, when we had such a powerful time of it, I was on the floor over here just crying for the entire time because I had nothing else to do. Not, not like there was nothing else to do, like I was looking for something to do. But that was all that I was led to do. I was, I, and I sat there the whole time. And when I got back up into my seat, Jacob wanted to dab me up. And I was like, there’s snot in my hand. And he went, I don’t care. It’s like, aw, how sweet.

But yeah, be honest before the Lord. If you have to cry, do it. Because the really beautiful part of all of that is that in those moments when you come to God with all of your brokenness, he is so excited and eager to meet with you too.

Verse 15, Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Didn’t know this, but I got a two-for-one special with the questions this week. There’s two. Because Jesus is not only asking about Mary’s sorrow, but he also wants to know what she’s looking for. He very tenderly asks her this second question, who is it that you are seeking?

But let’s do one at a time. The point of this repeated question, like we’ve said so many times before in this series, was not to answer the question because Jesus didn’t understand. It was to get Mary to process her sorrow in light of the fact that Jesus was now risen. Yes, watching the crucifixion was probably traumatic and horrific for her. There were a lot of emotions that she needed to sort through. But Mary was now weeping from sorrow because the tomb was empty, which is a fact that should have made her cry happy tears, joyful tears, thankful tears. But Mary is grieving, and she is disappointed, not just in the greater scheme of things, but again, in the immediate. Like I said, she is committed to the right now. She came to do the task of embalming Jesus’ body, and she can’t even do that for her Savior. And so she feels empty, and she feels hopeless.

We also get so easily disappointed because God isn’t working the way that we think he’s supposed to. But from God’s perspective, we’re asking the wrong questions and trying to accomplish the wrong things. We have to take time to process the things that are hard and painful, but always with the lens of a risen Christ. So knowing that, tell me, why are you still weeping?

Next, he doesn’t ask her what she is looking for, but who? Until we find Jesus, we’re all looking for something, right? Whether that is a vice or a pleasure, we are just looking for anything. There is a song that I feel like played on KLT when we were growing up, but it was, there’s a God-shaped, God-shaped hole in all of us, and the rest is still, it was on the radio, sorry, I just thought about it right now. It’s a God, there’s a God-shaped hole in all of us, and the rest is still something else. But it’s true. There is a void in our lives that only God can fill. That is intentional, by the way, right? But we are looking for things when we should be looking for someone. We are constantly thinking of things when God wants us to keep our thoughts on him.

What verse is this? Verse 15. Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, now this is Mary talking to Jesus, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.

Jesus had just asked this woman two questions, so lovingly, so gently, and it seems that she has listened to him but she hasn’t actually heard what he said, or what he asked rather, because she immediately goes back to the empty tomb. Jesus is right here, talking to her, but still she returns to the emptiness of her circumstances. I identify very heavily with this. My entire job at work is problem-solving issues in the operations of our practices, and so I understand Mary’s statements here, right? They are very goal-oriented, even if the goal is not the right one. She says, just tell me where you took him. Just tell me. I won’t be mad, right? Just tell me where you took him. I’ll take him off your hands, no problem. I’ll carry him out of here.

Do we see Mary’s problem? She has misjudged the entire situation, and to compound her errors, she approaches the situation as if it’s something that she could fix. Forget the fact that this woman is so determined that she’s convinced you would be able to lug a dead body all the way home on her own. Again, how often are we like Mary? We ignorantly speculate not only about what the situation is, but also about how we’re going to change it.

Verse 16, Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned. Mary is too much in her head one last time. She is committed to the immediate. So when Mary doesn’t respond to Jesus’s questions, he simply calls her by name and tenderly says, Mary. This isn’t the voice of the creator calling the creature. This isn’t the voice of the master calling the servant. This is the voice of the shepherd calling out to struggling sheep. This call is for the one whose redemption is sealed. Remember, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Isaiah 43:1 says, But now that says the Lord, he who created you, O God, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.

This call is also for the sheep who knows her shepherd’s voice. John 10:2-5 says, But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

Mary heard her name said by her Redeemer, by her Savior, and she turned. There is something called Testimonium Spiritus Sancti Internam. We learned a little bit of Latin last Sunday, decided I’d throw some more in. But it is the unimpugnable validity and authority of God’s Word that when spoken or heard causes distinctive and forceful testimony that comes from the Holy Spirit that reminds us that we are marked out as his own and that he is ours. Got it? Yeah. Nice.

More simply, this is the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit that says that the Word of God is the Word of God, and how the saints respond to it. This is speaking to what happens within us, those of us who are saved, when we hear God’s Word. And the primary way that we hear God’s Word is through Scripture. Those that are not saved don’t get this. 1st Corinthians 2:14 speaks on this when it says the natural person does not accept that things are the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to discern understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

His sheep, Jesus’ flock, they hear his voice. Those who are not of his flock, they do not, or they do not recognize it. They instead find when Jesus calls their name, they find that voice confusing and troubling, agitating, and it usually stirs up in them the desire to rebel. But Mary hears him, and she says to him in Hebrew, Rabbani, which means teacher.

Mary hears Jesus call for her, and she immediately recognizes that this is her teacher and her master. It is so deeply personal for her. Her devotion, like I said at the beginning, is unparalleled. This is not a new reminder, but you and I can’t just love God because he loves his children, or the global church, or this church, or even your family. It has to be a personal love. Proverbs 8:17, I love them that love me, and those who seek me early shall find me. In Proverbs, this is, of course, wisdom speaking, right? Wisdom loves those who seek her. But we know that Jesus is the personification and embodiment of this proverbial wisdom. He loves Mary for this unhindered love of hers.

However, verse 17, Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Mary loved. Mary was devoted. Mary waited, but Mary didn’t see, and Mary didn’t understand. He called her by name, but she was still keeping him so small. Upon recognizing that this was her teacher, she probably flung her arms around his feet, because she had lost him once already. You know what I mean? She was going to make sure that she did not lose him again.

Merrill Tenney said, Jesus was not refusing to be touched, but was making clear that she did not need to detain him. There was no need for her to hold on to him, because he was now alive forever. But it is important to note that Mary’s clinging to Jesus is still important, because it shows us that Jesus did, in fact, resurrect physically, bodily. In the next couple of portions, Jesus says something very different to Thomas, doesn’t he, right? What does he say to Thomas? He says, touch me. He beckons him to touch him. Why? Unlike Mary, Thomas needed to believe that Jesus did actually rise again bodily. But Mary differs from Thomas in this way, that the second Thomas touched him, he understood the gravity, because Thomas responds with, my Lord, my God.

This is what Mary still hadn’t grasped. Jesus did not leave the grave to stay on earth, but he left so that he could ascend to the Father, where he would intercede for us, and ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit. Mary wanted to keep Jesus with her, but didn’t understand that his ascension meant that he would be with her forever, closer than she ever thought possible to begin with.

So what was Jesus going to do when he ascended to the Father anyway? He had died. He then preached victory over the Old Testament saints, and he rose again. And he is about to stand before the Father, and offer his blood upon the mercy seat as the perfect and final atonement for the sins of mankind. When we did the Let’s Feast series, we did the Feast of the First Fruit, and we looked at Leviticus chapter 23. Excuse me. And what happened at the Feast of the First Fruit is, on the first day of the week, immediately following the Passover, which as you recall just happened a couple days ago, the priest would take some of the wheat that was growing in the field, and he would wave this before the Lord, and it symbolized that this was the first fruits, and that there would be more to follow. When Jesus appeared in heaven before the Father as our great high priest, he presented himself as our wave offering. He stood there as the first fruits from the dead, declaring that there would be more to follow, like we read today in our portion from 1st Corinthians.

But Mary was not picking all of this up, and to be fair, this is a lot. This is complicated stuff. I don’t, I’m not surprised that she didn’t understand.

Continuing on, verse 17. Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, to the Father, but go to my brothers. Pause. What does he call that? Brothers. Psalm 22:22. Everyone knows that this is a messianic psalm, right, which means it is a prophetical psalm about Jesus, and verse 22 of Psalm 22 reads, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation, I will, and I will praise you. So Jesus fulfills this psalm by referring to the disciples as his brothers.

This is the closeness that Jesus was trying to get Mary to understand. This is the nearness that she is so desperate to hold on to that she doesn’t realize that something infinitely more precious has been given to her, the opportunity and the privilege of being a co-heir with Christ himself.

But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Jesus really doubles down on this, huh? My father and your father, my God and your God, just in case there was any confusion. But like I said, Mary probably still isn’t recovered at this point. I imagine there’s still lots of thoughts going on in her head and some lingering, like, hyperventilating going on, right, like the little, like when a kid is coming down from a tantrum. That thing? I’m assuming that’s what’s happening.

But Jesus doesn’t give Mary the chance to stay in that place of sorrow or even to return to that place of, like, sorrow and emptiness. He has work for her to do. And this, this is the job that was, she was actually purposed to do that morning. I’m sorry. This is what she was actually called to do. Despite what she thought she was going to do for the day, it was not her job to embalm a dead body, not to cry over a missing one, and certainly not to hunt it down and carry it across Jerusalem. Her job was to go and tell. And she does.

Verse 18, Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he has said these things to her.

You might be going through it right now. I might not know what that is. I don’t need to. And you should take the time to process the things that are going on in your life. But you should never do this in isolation of this reality that the tomb is empty. Grieve if you need to. Weep if you feel like it. But always, always, always keeping this in mind that my Jesus rose from the grave and he is alive. This is, this is where we find our hope. This is the stuff that turns our morning into dancing. This is the stuff that makes you get up, even if you aren’t fully comprehending everything, it’s the stuff that makes you get up and go and tell somebody.

You may struggle to see what is right in front of you, but don’t let it be because you are fixating on what is empty. God’s not going to have flashing neon signs to let you know what he’s doing. It absolutely requires moment-by-moment faith to walk with him. But there is a difference. Walking by faith and not by sight means you are blind to every detail of God’s perfect will. You are not blind because you are walking forward and your head is turned back to look at what’s behind you. Does that make sense? I don’t know if that made sense to me. Let me try that again. God is not going to tell you every little detail about how this life is gonna go. You’re not gonna know all of that and you shouldn’t. But don’t walk blindly because you’re like, oh but what about, but what about that thing and not seeing the step that is right in front of you. Does that make sense? Was that clear? Okay.

And that I think is probably the biggest lesson that I have learned from studying this portion amongst other things.

I’m gonna end off reading Philippians 3:7-11. But whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death. That by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Ten questions that Jesus asked. If I could sum up this series it would be this. Do you know him? Do you know him as the one who holds the wind and the seas together and all of creation together and even the very breath that you breathe together by the word of his mouth? Do you know him as the one who is able to heal and deliver you? The one to whom all gratitude and all praise is due and he actually is worthy of that? Do you know him as the Son of God who left the glories of heaven and took on that which he did not know just so that we might be called to righteousness? When he said why have you forsaken me? He was separated from the Father because of our sin. Do you know this Savior? Do you know this Jesus? Because he wants you to know him. He’s asking you to know him. Not just in these stories in the Gospels, not just one day when he comes in glory. He wants you to know the reality of him. The totality of who he is today.

Let’s all rise for worship. Give me eyes to see more of who you are. May what I behold still my anxious heart. Take what I have known and break it all apart for you my God are greater still. No sky contains and no doubt restrains all that you are the greatness of our God. I spend my life to know and I am far from close to all you are the greatness of our God. Let’s worship.