Comfort from the Risen Jesus

All right, well, welcome back. And before we Before we read the passage here, we'll begin in verse 11. Today we'll be looking at chapter 20, verse 11 through 18. I want to begin by giving you a little bit of a contextual review, so to speak, of where we were yesterday in the ordering of things.

Last time we looked at the reality of the empty tomb, and early Sunday morning a group of women that got up to take spices and ointments to Jesus' body to anoint Him again, perhaps to finish the job that was started the previous Friday. And this group of women, they get to the tomb and they see that the stone is taken away from the front of Christ's grave, and immediately they think something has happened to Christ's body.

Maybe some robbers have come and plundered the tomb, took away Jesus' body, and so Mary Magdalene, she runs back to find Peter and John, and the rest of the women, they actually go on to get to the tomb, and there they meet angels who say, he is risen, go and tell Peter and the rest of the disciples that he is going before you to meet you in Jerusalem. And that is happening while Mary is off telling Peter and John that they've taken away the Lord's body, and we do not know where they have laid him. And while she does this, the rest of the women, they leave the tomb to go find the other disciples, and while they're going to find the other disciples, Peter and John then begin to run to the tomb to find out what happened, and they see that Jesus is not there.

And Mary, perhaps forlorn, is walking slowly behind them, following but not with them. They get to the tomb first. She's overwhelmed with grief and moving rather slowly with grief over this whole situation. Peter and John, they look inside, they see the situation, they assess it clearly, and they believe something miraculous has occurred. And they go home to their individual houses to tell their family, to tell Mary, the mother of Jesus.

And then that's when Mary arrives on the scene, completely unaware of everything that has just gone on before her. She shows up and there's no one there. She comes and is seated at the tomb, weeping and full of grief, left there all alone. Not even Peter or John are there to comfort her." And so that's where we find ourselves coming here, beginning in verse 11. So let me read this passage for you, and we'll see what we can glean from this scripture. Here now the reading of God's holy and inspired Word. And Mary stood outside by the tomb, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

Then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? And she said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. Now when she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you seeking? She, supposing him to be the gardener, 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, And she turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say teacher. And Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I'm ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God. And Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he spoke these things to her.

Our Lord in heaven, help us to see Jesus today. Lord, give us your spirit's grace to listen to the reading and preaching of your word that our hearts would be knit intimately to the heart of your son. That we would know him as he is, our risen Jesus, but we would also see the tender heart of our shepherd for us and that we would draw comfort from his love. Use this jar of clay for your glory's sake. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Well, as we look at this account from the risen Lord, I want to make five observations of this text this morning. Five truths that we can glean from this portion of scripture that might comfort us by who Jesus is, risen from the dead.

First Point

And so first we'll consider the depth of a downcast soul, the tender heart of the risen Jesus, the presence of the risen Jesus, the relationship we have because of the risen Jesus, and the sure witness to the risen Jesus. Well, the first one, the reality of the depths of a downcast soul. So Mary, we have here in verse 11, utterly weeping before the tomb. And this isn't just a little bit of crying, but this is a constant outpouring of her soul at this empty tomb, thinking that everything that she has hoped for was dashed to pieces.

And even worse, Jesus' body has been taken away. You need to remember that Mary is one who loved Jesus very, very much. She was one out of whom Jesus had cast seven demons. Jesus changed her life. In fact, Jesus was her entire life. She had embraced Him as Savior and Lord. He made everything new for her. And now He's dead. And quite literally gone.

She can't even be comforted by the presence of his dead body, and so she's there weeping bitterly. And what's ironic about this whole situation, this whole circumstance, and what I think we need to see here is that she's completely forlorn and bereft of all comfort amidst all of these evidences to the contrary of the stone cast away. of the empty tomb, of the linen cloths that are lying there. All of these things declaring the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. All of these things declaring that a great work of God is happening in her midst. But she completely misses it. And she misses it because she's so overwhelmed with grief and despair.

So much so that angelic messengers can't even break through. that despondency that she's experiencing. I don't know whether she heard a noise inside of the tomb or perhaps a still in disbelief that Jesus was gone, just looked in one more time to make sure that he wasn't still in there. Whatever the case may be, she looks in and she sees two angelic messengers in human form there to speak with her.

It shouldn't surprise us that there were angels here at this event, one of the greatest events in human history. There were angels at the birth of Jesus Christ, and there are angels here at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And they're seated at the head and the foot of where Christ's body had been laid. And this reminds me of how the cherubim were placed over the Ark of the Covenant, at either end, both sides of it. The Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle and in the temple, that place where atonement for sins was made, was the place where forgiveness and mercy were found for God's people. And now there are these two angelic messengers reminding us of the mercy and grace and forgiveness of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

But she looks inside, she sees them sitting there, and they ask her, Woman, why are you weeping? And this is a question that I don't really think they're looking for an answer for. It's more of a rhetorical question. It's almost a question of gentle correction and redirection. They're thinking, woman, why are you weeping?

Your Lord has risen from the dead. They've seen all things clearly. They know that Christ the Lord has been risen this day. And so they're saying, is there any reason to be weeping? Look around you. Look at the empty tomb. Look at the linen cloth still lying there. Is there any reason to be weeping? But because she's still so far down in the darkness of her own soul, she doesn't even hear what they're saying. She can't even respond to them. She still thinks that someone has taken away her Lord.

And it's not until Jesus comes, as her heart turned from despair back into hope. Now we don't know what caused Mary to turn around. Perhaps those angels who were standing there dressed and appearing as men, their eyes flitted up all of a sudden and began gazing behind her and that caused her to turn around to see what they were looking at. Or maybe as she's talking to these angels, the angels all of a sudden looked up and immediately went down on their knees before their God and their sovereign and that caused Mary to turn around to see what was behind her. Or maybe she just heard someone walking. in the grass behind her, we don't know. But Mary turns around and she sees somebody standing there and she assumes it's the gardener. Still so upset, she assumes it's the gardener, maybe not even meeting the man's eyes, not expecting it to be Jesus. She assumes it's the gardener and says, where have you taken my Lord? Have you taken Him away? Have you laid Him somewhere else? I'll take Him from you.

We see in this instance that Jesus doesn't appear in glory. He appears like a regular man, nothing to cue her off that this is some great majestic Lord, some glorious King, but still a humble man coming to meet this woman. And he begins to speak to her and asking her the same kinds of questions that the angels do. Woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you seeking? Now notice he says, whom are you seeking? He doesn't say, what are you seeking? But he says, whom are you seeking? You see, Mary went there looking for the body of Jesus. The body is an it. But Jesus is trying to slowly turn her mind back to him. Whom are you seeking? But she still doesn't get it. She still doesn't see. She's still seeing with eyes of sight.

But Jesus opens her heart to see with eyes of faith. And He says to her in the tender way He has said so many times in the past. He calls her name. He says, Mary. And it's at that moment that her eyes and heart are opened up to realize that her Lord is standing right before her. But before this, she couldn't see any of it. It was all just a devastating reality to her, but now there's Jesus standing in front of her, coming to meet her in her deepest, darkest moments. But it took Jesus to bring her around.

And I think we need to see that. We need to see how we can come to such depths of darkness in our own soul, that at some point it can only be Jesus who brings us out. We need to learn from Mary here and from our own situations and circumstances of grief and turmoil.

That when we're going through difficulties and trials, we might not see the work of God all around us, like Mary amidst this empty tomb and the grave cloths. We don't truly see the things that God is working in His providence, the way He's providing for us, the glorious work that He's doing in our midst. and all of the evil things that occur around us, we don't see how God could be using them for good. And so we fall short of any comfort that we might have or any hope that we could receive from them. And sometimes, even when friends and counselors come to us and try to bring us back some hope, try to remind us of the hope and promises of the resurrection of Jesus, like these angels who came to talk with Mary, we're still so forlorn and despondent that we can't fully see the truth.

It takes Jesus to open our hearts. It takes Jesus to help us see with eyes of faith. So let's be patient with ourselves and patient with one another as we go through hard times, knowing that sometimes things can be so difficult that it's hard to see the reality all around us that God is doing a great work. And let us be a people of prayer. That we would go to God in these dark moments, pleading and seeking Jesus, and that we would pray for one another, that they would see Jesus, that He would work and open our hearts, that we would see Jesus in all of this.

That we would hear His voice speaking to us. That we would go to the Word, and we would read it, not read it just as the words of some other book, like Mary heard the words of the angels, of just the words of some other men. that the risen Christ would speak to us tenderly as He spoke to Mary. That we would hear His voice and He would reorient us toward hope. And while we do need to be aware of the depths of a downcast soul and how it can blind us to the work of God all around us, we need to remember where to go to have Christ speak to us.

Because this is what our risen Savior does. He speaks tenderly to us in His Word to bring comfort for the downcast. And the risen Jesus speaks tenderly to us because the risen Jesus has a tender heart for His people. And that's what I want to show to you next. Secondly, I want to show you the tender heart of the risen Jesus.

As we look at this passage, we really just need to step back and be amazed that this whole encounter is actually happening. Because just stop and think for a moment, what you have here. Have you ever stopped to think that Jesus took the time to come and meet with Mary at this moment? Jesus didn't have to do this, did he? Especially when you see what he says in verse 17, where Jesus says, I have not yet ascended to my Father. And so think about what's happening here.

Jesus takes the time to meet with Mary, this broken, weeping woman. This Jesus risen from the dead. The first one in history to experience the new glorified body with all of its miraculous possibilities. To be the first one to enter into the promise of full and everlasting life.

Instead of ascending up to heaven where the ancient gates would have opened up and choirs of angels would have begun to sing, Who is this King of Glory who enters in? Instead of walking before the throne of His Father to receive the eternal inheritance and hearing choirs of angels singing His praises. Instead of receiving the throne of the Kingdom that would last forever and ever and those angels singing His triumph over the victory, over the grave, and over death.

Jesus puts all of that praise, honor, glory, and majesty on hold. Just so He could stop and meet with this broken sheep. Just so He could stop and meet with this wounded woman that loved Him so much. Gerhardus Voss commenting on this, he says, among all the voices that hailed his triumph, no voice appealed to Jesus like the voice of this weeping woman in the garden. The first appearance of the risen Lord was given to Mary for no other reason than that she needed him first and she needed him most. What more appropriate beginning could have been set for His ministry of glory than this very act?

Nothing can better convince us that in His exalted state, He still retains for us the same tender sympathy and the same individual affection as He showed during the days of His flesh, as He showed here with Mary. We need to remember this. We need to remember this when we're broken. We need to remember this in our times of trials and in our times of suffering, that yes, Jesus is ascended and risen and seated on high as King, but He is not so far removed from us that He does not care about our suffering, that He does not care about our brokenness. We see here the tender heart of a Savior who was willing to put off glory to heal the broken heart of one of His people. And I don't know where you are in your life right now or what you're going through or what you may go through at some point in the future.

But what I do know is that if you placed your trust in Jesus Christ, then this is your Jesus. This is your shepherd. This is your risen Savior who cares for you and loves you in the very same way. This is the Jesus I want you to see whenever you bow your head in prayer. This is the Jesus I want you to see whenever your heart is breaking. A Jesus who has a tender heart for you. I want you to see the tender heart of your risen Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, let's consider the presence of the resurrected Christ. Look at verse 17. And Jesus says to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father. Now upon realizing this is Jesus, you can imagine Mary running up to him and just throwing her arms around him and squeezing him more tightly than she's squeezed anyone else in her entire life, right? She's so excited to see Christ.

Imagine the overflow of emotions that she must be experiencing in this moment. Now, I can't say that I've ever had the experience of being reunited with a friend or a loved one who, for all intents and purposes, was gone from my life and then was returned to me. But I think we can get a taste of what's going on here whenever we think about those videos that we might see of military members coming back from deployment to surprise family members. Have you ever seen those videos before where maybe it's a child in school and they're at some sort of assembly and their mother or their father walks into the gymnasium and she turns around and sees her daddy and she just runs up and throws her arms around him or it's a spouse seeing her husband or wife coming home and at a birthday party and just the tears just flow and I lose it. I just start crying immediately when I see videos like that because it's so sweet. It's so precious to see the love of that reunion and the arms just wrap around and tears flow. Maybe something a little closer to home that you know. Most of you, I suspect by this point, have experienced the loss of a loved one in your lives.

That's a reality that we all face in this fallen world and how we would long to see them again and how we can't wait for that resurrection day to be able to see them again. But oh, how we wish we could see them now. How we wish we could talk to them now. or spend time with them now, or hold their hand again now, or hug them again, or just hold them in your arms. How good it would be to hold them again, even now.

This is something of what Mary is experiencing. She gets to be with her Jesus again, so overwhelmed with joy and elation that this is Jesus. He's come back to me. Like Jesus, my Lord, my Savior, He's here. And you can imagine her never ever wanting to let Him go again. Just squeezing and holding and hugging Him so tightly, not wanting to lose Him even for a second again. But Jesus knows that there's something so much greater than His physical presence.

And so He says to her, Mary, don't cling to Me. Now, He's not rebuking her. He's not saying, woman, don't touch me. I don't want any of this. He's not saying, I'm too pure and holy. You're too unclean. You can't come near me at this point. No, that's not what He's saying at all. But He's saying, Mary, you can't hold on to Me like this forever, Mary, because I have something so much greater in store for you.

I haven't yet ascended to My Father where I will go. from where I will send my Spirit to dwell in you. He's saying, you won't just have me here for a moment in your presence for a little bit, and then I'll walk off somewhere, but I'll send my Spirit to dwell in you, and not just in you, but in all who believe in me.

I will be with you in a much greater and closer way than you can ever imagine, Mary. I must ascend to my Father. Jesus had told His disciples in John 14 that, I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper to be with you forever. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. And then in John 16, Jesus says, I tell you the truth. It's to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

You see, Jesus promises the blessed presence of the Holy Spirit, and in so doing, He promises, I will come to you. And Jesus can say this because of that inseparable bond between Him and the Spirit. To receive the Spirit is to receive Christ. Sinclair Ferguson puts it this way, he says, from womb to tomb to throne, the Spirit was the constant companion of the Son. And as a result, when He comes to Christians to indwell them, He comes as the Spirit of Christ in such a way that to possess Him is to possess Christ Himself.

Just as to lack Him is to lack Christ Himself. You see, Jesus says to Mary, do not cling to Me so that He can go on to say, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." When Jesus left this world, God's people did not lose Him.

But we gained Him in a far more precious and intimate way, in a much fuller and better way than if He were standing here upon the earth. And this is because we have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. So through His presence by the Spirit we have this undergirding peace that surpasses the understanding of this world. Through His presence by the Spirit we have the promise of spiritual understanding of the things of God because He will lead us into the truth. Through His presence by the Spirit we have the guidance of the Lord who will lead us in paths of righteousness and who will lovingly convict us whenever we walk astray. Through His presence by the Spirit, we have instant and immediate access to the Lord in prayer. And through His presence by the Spirit, we have a continual and abiding testimony that we are the children of God.

These are just a small number of ways in which the presence of the risen Jesus is with us, is with you right now. We may think we'd want Jesus to be with us physically on the earth now, but we need to think about and pray honestly about that we would know and sense the true blessing of Jesus' presence with us and in us by His Holy Spirit. The presence of Jesus. So far we've considered the depths of a downcast soul, the tender heart of the risen Jesus, and the reality of His presence with us. Now fourthly I want you to notice the greater relationship we have because of the risen Jesus. The greater relationship we have because of the risen Jesus.

Look at what Jesus goes on to tell Mary after telling her not to cling to Him in verse 17. He says, Now do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father and my God and your God." He says, go to my brethren. Go to my brethren. He's not called his people this before. In the Gospel of John, we hear him call them servants. And then he says, I no longer call you servants, but I call you what? Friends. But what's closer than a friend? A brother? A sister? A sibling? Go tell my brethren. Go to my brethren.

You see, what Jesus has accomplished by His resurrection and redemption of us is the glorious truth of our adoption into the family of God. So that which Jesus assures us of by His spiritual presence, that we are children of God, He guaranteed for us by His resurrection from the dead.

Paul says in Romans 1, verse 4, that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead. So Jesus was declared to be the Son of God because of His resurrection from the dead by the Spirit. Then Paul tells us in Romans 8 that if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. And all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

And so just as Jesus was resurrected, we will be resurrected. And just as Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection through the Spirit, we too are declared children of God because we have that same resurrecting Spirit dwelling in us. And so Paul continues in verse 15, you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. And so because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we're no longer strangers to God. We're no longer strangers to God's family, but we've been adopted into the family of God.

We've been made sons and daughters of the Most High. And we enjoy all the rights and privileges of the sons of God. To quote the Confession of Faith, we have been made partakers of the grace of adoption. by which we're taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God. We have his name put upon us. We receive the spirit of adoption. We have access to the throne of grace with boldness. We are enabled to cry, Abba, Father. We are pitied. We are protected. We are provided for. We are chastened by him as by a father, yet never cast off. but sealed to the day of redemption and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting life.

All of this is captured in the words, go to my brethren. Go to my brethren and tell them that I ascend to my father and your father, my God and your God. Because of what I have done, you have this new relationship with me, a new relationship with my Heavenly Father who has become your Heavenly Father.

Jesus can say this because He knows that the resurrecting spirit of adoption will be sent to dwell in the disciples and to dwell in you and me. What an incredible reality Jesus has accomplished for us. The adoption as God's children. This is what the Risen Jesus assures us of by His Holy Spirit. The greater relationship we have because of the Risen Jesus. Fifthly, and finally, let's look at the sure witness to the Risen Jesus. The sure witness to the Risen Jesus. After this encounter, Jesus commissions Mary, as it were, and says, go and tell my brethren, tell the disciples that I will be ascending to my Father.

Now something we need to understand about this particular portion here is that He's not talking about His ascension later on. after he commissions the apostles. But right here, what actually happens is that Jesus ascends up right here to meet with his father in heaven. He ascends up to receive his kingdom from the father. And that's something that you can read about in Daniel chapter seven, the son of man coming to the ancient of days and receiving the kingdom that was promised to him because of the work that he has accomplished. But then from there, after receiving that kingdom, he comes down and he meets with the disciples and makes his other resurrection appearances. This is why and how Jesus can tell the disciples when he says to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. It's something that has already been given to him by the Father because he has ascended to the Father already and has come back now to meet with them.

And so Jesus tells Mary, go tell my brothers that I'm going to ascend to the Father. I'm going to receive my kingdom and then I will be with them. The angels have already told the women that Jesus was risen from the dead and he would go before them and meet them in Jerusalem. And now Mary is going to show up and say, I saw the Lord. And the disciples are gonna say, well, where is he? Well, he's ascended up to heaven. But Mary saw and met Jesus, and the reason he wasn't with her is because he's in heaven meeting with his father. But what we need to see here is that God uses women first to communicate his resurrection even to the disciples, even to the very apostles themselves.

And maybe this isn't something that strikes us as completely strange today, but should really surprise us if we consider the context of this culture in which this was written. In this time and in this place, women were not highly esteemed in the eyes of all.

Their testimony was not something that was generally reliable or upheld in court. They were not considered reliable witnesses to bring true and verifiable evidence against someone else. They were not esteemed. They were not believed. And as a matter of fact, when the women come and they tell the disciples that we saw angels and Jesus was risen and he's going to meet them in Jerusalem, and when Mary shows up to say, I saw the risen Lord, guess what Luke tells us? They didn't believe any of them. They didn't believe their word.

But it's amazing that God uses women first then. And this is significant, firstly, because God is always using the humble and exalting them. This is what God is all about. He's always exalting the humble. He's always using the lowly things in the eyes of the world to shame the exalted things in this world.

And we need to see that here. But secondly, we also need to see that John doesn't change the details of the narrative to make it more appealing, does he? What would have been more appealing in that culture? If John were to write down a story of what happened and he wanted people to believe it, would he say that women saw Jesus rise from the dead first? Probably not. He probably would have changed the story.

But he's not trying to twist his words or twist the truth here. He's not trying to make his story more believable by making it more palatable. But he tells the truth as it is. And that in and of itself is a verifying proof of the truthfulness of it. John uses something that would almost work against him to support the truth, the truthfulness and reality of it.

John faithfully records what happened, who Jesus is, what he accomplished, so we could read and see and believe in the risen Savior and have our hope confirmed. We can read and believe that it's through the risen Savior that we have hope whenever we face the grave.

Because of Jesus, we don't look at the grave as something that will destroy us. But we look at the grave more like how a farmer looks at the field. He looks at the furrows in the ground where that seed is to be planted and from which God will draw up a crop of fruit for Himself. Just like He drew up the first fruit, Jesus Christ, the first fruit of all of those who have fallen asleep. Jesus Christ has risen from the grave, and He is one who gives comfort to those in despair.

He is one who tenderly ministers to those who are weak and broken and fallen. He is one who has, yes, ascended to heaven, but sends His Spirit to be with us. He is one who has brought us into His family, and He is one who communicates His truth to us plainly and clearly.

Closing Prayer

So let us be thankful and give praise to our Father for what our risen Jesus has done for us, and find comfort in our risen Savior. Let's pray. Our Lord in heaven, we thank you so much for our risen Jesus Christ and we pray that you would apply these truths to our heart by your Holy Spirit. Meet us where we are by your precious presence and give us such a sense of that presence that we would be brought up from any despair we may be in. You would grant us stability and comfort and that we would throw the arms of our souls around you and embrace you and hold you tightly. as tightly as You hold us. Thank You for Your grace. Be with us the rest of this day. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.