Recognizing The Resurrection

By Zach Chronley

John 20:11-18-

“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 where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).”

Recognizing the Resurrection 

Mary knew Jesus. How long had she spent listening to his teachings? But here he is, right in front of her, and she somehow misses it. Maybe it was still dark; perhaps her eyes were blurred from her tears; maybe Jesus looked differently after his resurrection? But no matter the reason, the resurrected Jesus stood in front of her, and she missed it. And are we not the same? How often do we fail to see Jesus at work in front of us because he is not where we expect him to be?

Mary was looking for a corpse and instead found someone alive and vibrant. Jesus stood before her. Until we know what something is, we rarely can see it. More often than we realize, we fail to recognize what is in front of us if we lack understanding. A young man who has never seen parental love looks at doting parents with suspicion. An older man cannot accept a stranger's kindness because he has only known people to be nice to him for his money.

Jesus told his followers that he would suffer, die, and rise again over and over. But that did not follow their understanding of what the messiah was. They thought that their King Jesus would overthrow the Romans and establish a new kingdom. In fact, Jesus did do all those things; it just looked different from their expectations, so they failed to see it. How do we keep ourselves from missing what God is doing?

Expecting the Unexpected

The resurrected life looks different than what many expect. No matter how long we follow Jesus, we all really struggle to keep this idea in our heads. Many assume that a follower of Jesus might look like a more successful version than before. You might believe that a regenerated follower of Jesus would suddenly have all the answers. When we pick up our crosses and follow Jesus, we need to expect to die to ourselves.

Mary had thought Jesus was in the tomb, but today we have the opposite problem. We believe Jesus is only in promotions, raises, and other seemingly random blessings but do not recognize Jesus’ presence in being laid off, being forced to relocate, or other hardships. The angel that appeared before Mary and the other women asked the question, “Why do you seek the living among the dead (Luke 24:5)?” The question begs us to consider even now if we, too, are looking for life where there is only death. 

We don’t think we’re looking among the dead. We clean it up and call it other things. We call it “success” or finding ourselves. It’s the satisfaction of a life well-lived. Or maybe it’s better relationships or a better job. We call it making a difference, helping the world, or our ministry. Maybe it’s bringing about social justice or making America great again. Regardless of what the thing itself is, even if it is good, anything other than ultimate surrender to the Father's will becomes death to us. We look for life, but if we do not find Jesus, we find only death. Jesus alone is the way, the truth, and the life.

Dying To Ourselves

How does one live in the power of Christ’s resurrection? By first dying to ourselves. Jesus was not shy about the importance of dying to ourselves even before he himself died. He said in Mark 8:35, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.” Jesus also said in John 12:42, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Until we die to ourselves, we will fail to live and recognize the resurrection work being done all around us. We need to go to God with a contrite heart and admit that we cannot live as we know we should. We pray and ask for mercy and for God to fill us with his Spirit to value others more highly than ourselves. Only then will all the things in the world that we once found death in can find new life in Christ Jesus. They can be resurrected.

We choose to put our hopes in eternal things or dying things. Jesus told us in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Anything we put our hope in this world becomes a tomb where our hopes die. Even their vision of a victorious king meant to overthrow the oppressive Romans died on the cross with Jesus for the first disciples.

Easter Sunday represents the largest upset, reversal, and come-back of all time. No matter what you’re going through. If you find yourself struggling with the question, “how can anything good come from this?” Remember that Easter proceeds at this moment. God already took the worst thing that could ever happen in human history and made it good. If you find yourself on the way to a tomb this morning, maybe Jesus might surprise you by not being where you expect him. Do not miss the resurrection standing right in front of you today. Do not miss Jesus.

Join us tomorrow when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus at 4 PM at Northeast Baptist Church, 2930 MacArthur View, San Antonio, TX 78217