What does the resurrection of the Lord matter to man? What
does it matter to a woman named Mary Magdalene? We’re not told much about her
except she is a Jewess and demon-possessed for a while and healed later by the
Lord (Luke 8:2). She was born and raised in a Jewish family and probably as
others raise kids she would have been taught all the traditions and teachings in
most Jewish families possibly do. But she was possessed by the demons and
everything turned out to be difficult and abnormal because the demons were
harassing and haunting her, making her uneasy and unhappy. We don’t know how
long and much she had been suffering. The doctors and medications didn’t help
at all. Virtually nothing was working out for her. But one day the Healer came and
healed her. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah of God who has come
down from heaven to the earth to liberate humanity from the imprisonment of evil
forces and authorities. Everything in Christ Jesus becomes normal and she dedicates
to the messianic ministry of Christ. Out of gratitude and thankfulness, she
poured out the expensive perfume on the head and feet of the Lord and washed them
with her hair. People at the scene reproved her, accusing that she had wasted
so much money instead of helping the poor. But Jesus defended her and made her
act of worship as his own burial preparation and the memorable thing wherever
the gospel is preached. However, the Good Lord was arrested and died on the
cross and much worse like a criminal. She is crushed and in a great loss and
sorrow. Nothing could console or comfort her heart and mind. She is completely
lost. What can possibly comfort her? The Risen Lord is one and only help and
comfort. That is what exactly happened to her. Most unexpectedly, Jesus risen
from the dead meets her as the first mankind who sees the Risen Lord face to
face. In obedience with great joy and comfort, she tells her story to the
disciples, saying “I have seen the Lord!”
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still
dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed
from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple,
the one Jesus loved, and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and
we don’t know where they have put him!’ So Peter and the other disciple started
for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and
reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying
there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went
straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the
cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in
its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached
the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not
understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the
disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb
crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in
white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the
foot. They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ ‘They have taken my Lord
away,’ she said, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ At this, she
turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was
Jesus. He asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away,
tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means ‘Teacher’).
Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your
Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the
news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’ And she told them that he had said these things
to her.” (John 20:1-18)
First, it is on the first day of the week. It is the
resurrection morning of the Lord Jesus Christ. Since the resurrection morning, we
start a new week on Sunday as the first day of the week. It means that we
refresh anew in Christ on the first day of the week with the power of the
resurrection of the Lord. Stresses and pressures in our lives are heavy and weighty
that we don’t have what it takes except the resurrection power. That’s why we
start the first day of the week with the Lord’s power and continue to live
throughout the week. We bump and fail at times miserably and deeply depressed
and powerless, wondering what is going on and what is really gone wrong. Daily
life pressure is enormous and massive that we wonder how to handle our lives.
Deep and groaning cries burst out from the very inner corner, our heart. In
fact, we cannot handle our lives on our own. We’re totally inadequate to cope
with the daily overload and burden of lives. That’s why God sent his Son to be crucified
and buried, and on the third day raised from the dead. It is the mystery of
Christ that we also died and were buried with Christ and rose again with him
(Galatians 2:20). Now, we have even been seated with him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). With our flesh and blood, we never be adequate
and suitable to handle our lives. Only with the divine power of God, we shall
be in Christ. Therefore, we start a new week with the power of resurrection
through faith in Christ.
Second, what Mary is encountered is the most extraordinary
and unexpected thing to her and all mankind. The stone (really heavy and
guarded by the Roman soldiers) which had covered the tomb is rolled away. Women
who come to the tomb run and inform the disciples that what they have seen of
the stone rolled away. Peter and John run to the tomb and enter inside and
believe that it is empty. Yet they don’t believe that Jesus is risen from the
dead. Still they cannot relate to the Scripture though they see the empty tomb.
The empty tomb gives nothing but sorrow upon sorrow to Mary
because now she even cannot get hold of the body of Christ. (The women on the
resurrection morning were heading to the tomb to put spies on the body of
Christ.) She believes that someone must have taken the Lord away from the tomb.
She herself enters into the tomb and meets two angels who are sitting one on
the head and other on the foot side. Out of dismay and shock, she tells the
angels that someone has taken away the Lord. Obviously, she is completely lost.
She realizes the fact that she is not even allowed to do something she wanted
to do so desperately as the least and last thing she could do for the Lord. It is
ironic that the empty tomb is supposed to give her hope and joy because it
means that the Lord is risen from the dead just as he told his disciples many
times while he was alive, but she is overwhelmed with more sorrow and distress.
The resurrection of the dead is hard and difficult for man
to believe. Is it not? It is an unfathomable territory for man, because to our
eyes death swallows up everything. It is true though. However, beyond death
there is resurrection. No death, no resurrection. It is the way to the Father. Jesus
said, “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be
handed over to be crucified.” (Matthew 26:2) Prophet Isaiah said as well, “He
was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with
pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held
him in low esteem.” (Isaiah 53:3) Jesus had no sin and so no punishment was
necessary for him. Yet the Son of God was condemned and crucified when the
Father made him sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Death is pain and suffering beyond
our comprehension. Nevertheless, it is the way to enter into the different
dimension of life, eternal one. That’s what has exactly happened to every
Christian when they believe in Christ. Apostle Paul summarizes with this
remarkable phrase in the Epistle to the Galatians.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Here is another reference for the rebirth in Christ in the
Epistle to the Romans.
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him
through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we
have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united
with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:3-5)
Third, it is a new way of life in Christ Jesus. We may be
able to survive in this earth with our old way, but never to fulfill it. The
old way eventually leads to death and judgment and condemnation (Hebrews 9:27).
We must get away from our old life and enter into the new life in Christ. Mary met
the Risen Lord face to face and says to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” We
are not told what had happened to her afterwards. We believe that she would
have remained in the ministry of the disciples faithfully just like she did while
the Lord was in the ministry on the earth. But as usual, she has to face the
ordinary routines in her lives like cooking, washing dishes, laundry, grocery
shopping, going to worship and prayers, and more. It is obvious that not everyday
is dramatic and breathtaking like seeing the Risen Lord. It may be humdrum and routine
as time goes by. Politics and worship are as usual. What about disease,
sickness, tiredness, accidents, aging, and relationship issues? Most of all, she
shall eventually face death as all does.
It is very similar experience for all believers in Christ. Rebirth
experience it is. What an exciting and sensational moment! Forgiveness, guilt
wiped out, the ecstasy of being untied with God and Christ the Lord. It is the
most dramatic and impressive moment of conversion in Christ. We experience so
much power inwardly that we are flying like eagle in the sky and swimming like big
fish in the sea. For a while, nothing bothers, nothing hinders to live a clean and
pure life in Christ. All is sorted out. The power of born again in Christ is protecting
and strengthening the inner being, our spirit that is revived and united with
God. But soon or later we experience failures and mistakes which we never could
repeat again in the Lord. We do. The temptations and passions are too big to
handle. I am sure that Mary was in our position as well.
What shall we do when we fail and make mistakes? There are
two steps involved to overcome the burden and weight of our lives. Apostle Paul
teaches these two steps in the Epistle to the Ephesians. The first is to put off
our old self and the second, to put on the new self.
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to
put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be
made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to
be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)
Without doing the first step, jumping into the second never
works. The first step is to let down the untruth. When we fail, we are haunted and
bombarded by the crafty and cunning devil, the father of lie and the murderer. Satan
is ruthlessly rebellious and cruel in planting the lies when we fail like we
are no longer loved and cared by God any longer. It is not true. God is forever
loving and kind and faithful in keeping his promises. So, we bluntly face the
fact that we admit the mistakes and failures we made and we will in the future.
Furthermore, we accept the fact there is no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus because the blood of the Son cleanses and washes away all our sins
(Romans 8:1-2). The first is like denouncing and denying all the lies and
untruths, being pumped and peddled in our hearts by the devil, not by God. God
never condemns his beloved children whom he has purchased through the Son’s
blood.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
The second step is to put on the new self in Christ. We have
been made new by the power of God. That is what we are and who we are in Christ.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has
gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) The Spirit whom God sent to every
believer will assure us that we are still loved and cared as God’s dear
children. That’s the truth for the Spirit of truth tells. Going through the first
step is like being crucified with Christ. Being renewed and revived in Christ can
be done by the power of the resurrection. It is the second step. No death, no
resurrection. We must die first in order to live eternal life, the resurrection
life. That’s we do now and forevermore. That’s what Mary did.
April 28, 2019
© 2015-2019 David Lee
Ministries – All Rights Reserved.
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