I Have Seen the Lord! Have You?

Lesson #328

We need to finish up John 20:17: “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.’”” Jesus gave Mary the instruction to tell the disciples, now referred to as his brothers, where he was going.

At the darkest time in the life of Jesus, he calls out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). This was the only time Jesus did not refer to God as his Father, but now on the other side of the resurrection, Jesus again refers to God as his Father, but he doesn’t say our Father and our God because he needs to distinguish what God is to him and to us. The Father is his God only in the connection of Jesus with us and our God only in out connection with him. The Father and the Son are one in essence, but Jesus steps in between us and God in his relationship with us.

In obedience, “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her” (John 20:18 ESV). I am sure Mary would like to have stayed there and have conversation with Jesus (I know I would have), but with a willing and excited heart, she needed to share the good news. When we come to know Jesus for who he is, do we get excited like Mary and want to go and tell others or is Jesus just another friend to us?

Mary goes, knowing that Jesus has risen from the dead, not because the angels said so, but because she actually had conversation with him. She has firsthand experience and a firm belief that has given her confidence, assurance, pleasure and great joy. Mary was deeply emotionally connected to Jesus and stayed with him through the crucifixion and for her faithfulness, she was rewarded by being the first to see him alive and gets the opportunity to report to the disciples that what Jesus said about rising from the dead is true and they are considered as brothers of Jesus.

Mary is filled with excitement, but what about the disciples? “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” (John 20:19 ESV). This event occurred on the same day that Mary met Jesus alive at the tomb (John 20:1). The resurrection of Jesus from the dead establishes Sunday, the day following the Sabbath, as the most important day of the week and thus the first day of the week from that point on. This is seen in Acts 20:7 (NLT): “On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight.” Sunday is the day we are to come together for worship, in celebration of our Lord’s resurrection and to learn from the word.

John seems to make it clear that the doors were closed and also locked to prevent entry of others. Because of what the Jews did to Jesus, they probably feared that they may be next on their list. Jesus comes and appears in the room with them. If Moses and Elijah were able to appear on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus, Peter, James and John, and if Philip, after baptizing the eunuch, was carried away by the Spirit, then why would anyone question how Jesus got into the room with the disciples hiding behind locked doors. I can imagine when Jesus appeared and said, “Peace be with you.” the disciples were probably speechless not knowing what to say.

Prayer

Father, we found Mary at the empty tomb, wanting to honor Jesus with a proper burial, but the disciples were hiding behind locked doors in fear for their lives. What a contrast in faithfulness between the two. Mary was out having conversation with angels and with Jesus and the disciples were living in fear because of their relationship with Jesus. How true that is today. Some are willing to give their lives to remain faithful to Jesus and others sit behind closed doors in soft chairs, afraid to share the message Mary was told to share with the disciples. Father, have mercy on us! 

From Grief to Ecstatic Joy

Lesson #320

At the end of the previous lesson, we left Mary facing Jesus through eyes blurred with tears of grief, not realizing yet that it was Jesus. Then “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.”” (John 20:15 ESV). In John 2:4, Jesus referred to his mother as “woman” and here he is referring to Mary as “woman”. As we said earlier, this was not out of disrespect, but was like us saying “madam”. Woman was used then as madam is used by us today to address or refer to a woman in a polite or respectful way.

Notice that Jesus asks Mary the same question the angels asked, but added “Whom are you seeking?” Not only was Mary weeping over the death of Jesus, but she was concern that someone took the body from the tomb and is not properly caring for it. Mary assumed the person she was talking to was the gardener and for some reason he took the body and put it someplace else and she wanted to know where so she and close by friends could take it and prepare it for a proper burial.

At this point “Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).” (John 20:16 ESV).  Jesus breaks through to her by speaking her name in a way she was very familiar with and she explodes with expression and responds with “teacher!” What a change of emotion; from grief, born out of the death of Jesus and his missing body to ecstatic joy of him standing before her in a body full of life. This will surely cause her some deep reflection as to how this happened and some great conversation starters with others.

“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.’”” (John 20:17 ESV). This is another one of those difficult verses and is open to discussion as to why Jesus asked Mary to not cling to him when later Jesus will tell Thomas to touch him so as to believe that it was him. Maybe it was because Jesus wanted her to go quickly to the disciples “and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

It is significant that Mary was instructed to go to his brothers, the disciples, because just a short while ago Peter denied him after boasting that he never would, even in the face of death, and all had fled during the crucifixion. Jesus now refers to them for the first time, not as his disciples, but as his brothers, as fellow heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17) and now qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints in light (Colossians 1:12).

We still need to comment on the phrase “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” We will start the next lesson with those comments.

Prayer

Father, in this lesson we witnessed Mary coming from a position of no hope to that of ecstatic joy when she sees Jesus alive. For her it was a life changing experience, just as it is when anyone comes to salvation out of a desperate situation. Her love has deepened as living hope floods her soul, just as happens to so many coming to salvation in Jesus Christ from another religion. Father, I pray for a growing number to find salvation in Jesus, who are currently without hope, enslaved in the bondage of religion. Thank you for salvation, so rich and free to us as a gift, but which cost you the sacrifice of your only Son.

Mary Is Overcome with Grief

Lesson #326

We ended the previous lesson with the disciples going back to their homes, “But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb” (John 20:11 ESV). Mary apparently followed Peter and John back to the tomb, but when they left and went back to their homes, Mary stayed at the tomb and wept, but why? According to Matthew, Mary and two other women saw an angle remove the stone and said that Jesus had risen. John reports Mary saying that someone had taken the body from the tomb. Remember, neither Matthew or John were eye witnesses and what they are reporting is second hand information. So, what really happened at the tomb?

“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 where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet” (John 20:12 ESV). It appears that Matthew reported the appearance of the angles too early. Mary was at the tomb twice and if both had reported Mary seeing the angles on the second visit then the reports would have been less confusing. We will go with the version John gives and place the visit with the angels at the second visit to the tomb.

As she wept, Mary stooped to look into the tomb for the second time, but is met with a surprise; she sees two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain. “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.”” (John 20:13 ESV). John didn’t record the angels telling Mary that Jesus had risen as Matthew did. He covers this in a different way in the next verse.

Before looking at that verse, consider the two angels and where they were sitting. Jesus died in payment for our salvation so that God could have mercy on us and extend grace to us. In Exodus 25 the mercy seat is mentioned in relation to two angels: “And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends” (Exodus 25:18 – 19 ESV). I find it interesting that John reports two angels sitting at the two ends of where Jesus lay, like the two cherubim of gold at the ends of the mercy seat.

Back to Mary: “Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus” (John 20:14 ESV). John didn’t tell us that the angels told the women that Jesus had risen. Instead, he presents Jesus alive to talk to Mary, but she was so absorbed in grief that she didn’t realize at first that it was Jesus, because she probably had no expectation of seeing him there. As of yet, she probably had no concept of what the resurrection was like and so was unprepared to recognize the person standing there as Jesus.

Prayer

Father, we have come to a special place in our study of John where a great mystery is about to be understood. Up to this point no one has yet understood the meaning of rising from the dead. When Mary turns, absorbed in grief with eyes blurred by tears, she sees a man standing near her, but does not realize it is Jesus. Father, in the next lesson is the excitement of her realizing that she is talking with Jesus and he is alive. 

Jesus Is Alive!

Lesson #325

We ended the last lesson with a report from Mary that Jesus had been taken from the tomb. “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” (John 20:3 - 4 ESV). Upon hearing the report from Mary, Peter and John decided to go to the tomb to see for themselves. They were in a hurry to get there and so they ran. It is interesting that John reveals that he is like us in saying that he outran Peter.

They arrived at the tomb to check things out, “And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in” (John 20:5 ESV). Since we know that John got there first, we know that it was he who looked in. John may have gotten there first because some think he was younger than Peter. Was it possible that Peter held back a little because of apprehension over the possibility of meeting Jesus there, remembering that he had denied him earlier.

John stopped at the entrance and looked in, but “Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself” (John 20:6 – 7 ESV). Visualize what Peter saw and what it means. The linen cloths that Jesus was wrapped in for burial were lying there where Jesus was laid. This would strongly suggest that Jesus rose through the linen cloths just as he will later appear in a room with the disciples behind closed doors. Indeed, Jesus did rise from the dead as told by the angel in Matthew 28:6.

“Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8 ESV). John then follows Peter into the tomb and he saw the evidence before him and he believed what Jesus said about rising from the dead and also believed what the woman reported. Up to this point the disciples did not understand what Jesus meant about rising from the dead: “for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (John 20:9 ESV). Things that were written in the Old Testament and things that Jesus said simply did not have meaning to them, but now John is beginning to understand.

Having heard the report of the women and seeing, for themselves, the empty tomb, “. . . the disciples went back to their homes” (John 20:10 ESV). It is uncertain what is meant by “their homes” here so we will not speculate along with others.

Prayer

Father, the struggle the disciples are going through in trying to understand, to believe what Jesus has been saying about rising from the dead is not unlike the struggle many go through in accepting salvation in Jesus Christ. The marvelous thing is that Jesus did die on the cross for our sin and he did rise to obtain victory over death and insured our salvation; a salvation that is a free gift to us, but a gift that required the sacrifice of the true Lamb of God. Father, thank you. 

Jesus Is Gone

Lesson #324

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, along with Mary the mother of James, and Salome, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. “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.”” (John 20:2 ESV). In the previous lesson we made reference to Matthew 28:1 – 6 to learn that an angel came and rolled back the stone, sat on it and told the women that Jesus was not there, but had risen. They were instructed to look inside and see that he was gone. In Luke 24:3 – 4 they went inside and did not find the body. They found this perplexing and then two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. Luke continues: “And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, . . .” (Luke 24:5 – 8 ESV).

John leaves much detail out and simply states that Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter and John and explained to them that “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” When you compare the witness of Mark, given above, with what John says, you have an example of how two witnesses seem to remember things differently after the passing of several years. However, we must remember that neither Peter or John were at the tomb and what they are writing is from what they heard from Mary and probably the other two women who were there. Each shares what they remember and stress what they feel is important in the story they are telling.

John indicates that Mary told only Peter and John, but Matthew states that she told the disciples. It appears that since only Peter and John went to the tomb to check on what Mary was saying, that may have been be why he only mentions the two being told. The rest of the disciples either did not care or didn’t believe and were willing to, maybe, sleep a little longer and wait for a report from Peter and John. Another interesting point is about who is meant by “they” in reference to removing Jesus from the tomb. Was Mary referring the two men in dazzling apparel or maybe someone else?

This lesson is a bit short, but this is a good break point because the next several verses are about Peter and John going to the tomb to investigate the claims of Mary.

Prayer

Father, the fact that Jesus is not in the tomb is a big problem for many because it validates the claim Jesus made about rising from the dead. If Jesus actually died on the cross and then rose from the dead, then his claim that he is the only way to obtain eternal life is also validated. Father, I believe another validation of this is the fact that the Bible has been translated into more than 2000 languages, that it can be studied for a lifetime and still not be completely understood and that there has been since the time of Jesus, persecution against those who claim to be his followers. Without the death and resurrection of Jesus there is no hope beyond the grave. Father, thank you that we have a living hope today.

The Tomb was Open

Lesson #323

With this lesson we begin chapter 20 of the Gospel of John. We ended chapter 19 with Jesus being placed in a tomb, but there is hope because of an event that took place at the tomb. Let us find out what that event was. “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” (John 20:1 ESV). The first day of the week is what we call Sunday; Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, which means we can’t count Sunday as a day that Jesus was in the tomb. Tradition has been established that Jesus died Friday afternoon. If that is true then Friday and Saturday are the only two days that Jesus was in the tomb, but Jesus himself said that he would be buried for three days. That means he would have died on Thursday, because he had risen before daylight on Sunday.

John speaks of only Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb, but Mark gives more details: “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him” (Mark 16:1 ESV). These three woman brought spices with the intension of embalming Jesus again and in a more complete manner than Joseph and Nicodemus had done because of their shortness of time. But when they arrive at the tomb they found that someone had apparently rolled the stone back. It is important that we stop here and consider what took place.

According to Matthew 27:62 – 66, The chief priests and Pharisees requested that the tomb be sealed and a guard posted to ensure that no one would come and remove the body, claiming that he had risen. Pilate granted permission, so they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. It would have taken several men with tools to break the seal and roll the stone away from the entrance. To do that at night with a guard standing watch would have been impossible.

Matthew continues by saying: “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men” (Matthew 28:1 – 4 ESV). That is how the tomb was opened.

Matthew continues by saying: “But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay” (Matthew 28:5 – 6 ESV). This explains how Jesus left the tomb.

 In the next lesson we will learn what the women did.

Prayer

Father, I think I have said enough about the possibility of the crucifixion of Jesus being on Thursday instead of Friday as tradition holds. Like the Pharisees, who held to tradition and rejected truth from Jesus, we at times are enslaved to our tradition and are not willing to look into it further. I don’t think it is really important on what day Jesus died, but it is absolutely important that he rose from the dead and on that the Scriptures are very clear. Father, thank you that the women experienced the tomb being opened by an angel, and the angel declaring that Jesus had risen. 

Laid to Rest for a Time

Lesson #322

Our previous lesson ended with the assurance, by John, of the death of Jesus. “After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body” (John 19:38 ESV). After it was determined that Jesus was dead, Arimathea who was a wealthy member of the Jewish ruling council, came to Pilate and asked permission to take away the body of Jesus. Permission was granted “And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away” (Matthew 27:59 – 60 NLT). This fulfills the prophecy found at Isaiah 53:9 (ESV): “He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.”

Joseph takes the body and now “Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight” (John 19:39 ESV). We met Nicodemus in Lesson #33 when he came to speak privately with Jesus and during the conversation Jesus told him he had to be born again, causing confusion for Nicodemus. Now Nicodemus comes to Jesus again, this time to show his respect, bringing with him that which is necessary for embalming. Seventy-five pounds is a rather large quantity for embalming just one person, but it is believed that large quantities were used for important people.

It appears that they met at the cross because “. . . they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews” (John 19:40 ESV). They covered the body with the mixture of myrrh and aloes and as they did they wrapped his body with a clean linen cloth. Joseph and Nicodemus were good friends of Jesus and if there was life left in him they would have detected it during this process. Even if there was life, it would have been impossible for that life to have continued for the time Jesus laid in the tomb wrapped the way he was.

“Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid” (John 19:41 ESV). It is interesting to note that the fall of Adam occurred in a garden and Jesus, the second Adam, was laid to rest in a tomb in a garden. The wage of sin is death and that was committed in a garden by Adam and Jesus who paid that wage on the cross was brought to a garden and placed in a tomb.

Joseph and Nicodemus were running out of time, “So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there” (John 19:41 ESV). They probably intended to place Jesus into a more magnificent tomb, but because of time constraints and since Joseph had a tomb there they chose to use it.

Because of space constraints, we will end our lesson here and begin our next lesson at the beginning of chapter 20.

Prayer

Father, so many people of the world simply see Jesus as a historical person of influence like many other historical people. They fail to see him as the perfect sacrifice that was offered for their sin and refuse to believe that he rose from the dead to provide eternal life for those who embrace him in belief. Father, if the story ended here with Jesus in the tomb, then there is no hope and we all remain under the wrath of a holy God, but it doesn’t! Father, thank you for the resurrection, which we will study about in our next lesson.