Ben Cline
Yeah, that's so good. And we, you know, come to the book of John and it's the last of the four in our canon of scripture as far as the order that they're placed in our Bibles. You know, the gospels are there. And we wanna read through each of those accounts, you know, pick up the things that are unique about each of those accounts and see how all of those things fit together. And when you're looking at the book of John, it's so interesting because this is John's record from his perspective of, you know, all these events that took place. And as you're reading through, it seems to be a story that is a lot about Mary Magdalene's experience. And I just thought that that was so interesting. There's some things that are unique in this record. You know, Mary Magdalene goes early in the morning, at the beginning of the day to the tomb. And in the other accounts, you see that there's other women who went there with her while, you know, this is her account. She goes there, she sees that the stone has already been rolled away, and she leaves. She goes and she finds the other disciples that were living nearby. The ones who had actually stuck around, that would be Peter and John. And she tells them the stone has rolled away. And the report that she gives to them is, you know, it would've been startling news to see that the stone had been rolled away. And her fear was that somebody had taken Jesus' body. And that's what she went back and reported to Peter and John. And so you can understand, you know, as they were racing toward the tomb, you can understand the urgency behind that, right? And you can understand why they wanted to get there as quickly as they possibly could. And so she went back with them and, you know, after they went and they both eventually ended up looking inside of the tomb and seeing the linen wrappings that were sitting where Jesus used to be, where his body used to be. She stayed there and she was weeping outside of the tomb. And she ended up looking into the tomb and saw the two angels there. They asked her a question actually that would get, you know, asked of her again in just a minute, uh, but by a different person. They asked her, "why are you here? Who are you looking for?" And she explains to them again, the same thing that she reported to Peter and John. That she was afraid that somebody had come and taken her Lord. She was chosen. Mary Magdalene was chosen, to be, well I guess, I don't know if she's the only one, but she's one of the few who got to see Jesus that early. You know, Jesus came, she turns around, and Jesus came and met her at the tomb. And, you know, he was talking to her as well, and she didn't even recognize him at first. And I just love what Jesus did there, because he knows what's going on in this woman's heart. He knows how distraught she is. And he knows the concerns that she has about Jesus' body. And so he's telling her all of these things and having this discussion with her. And then he says her name, he says, "Mary," and then suddenly she recognizes him and calls him "Rabbi," which is His teacher. And she just thought that he was a gardener, at first, who was tending to the, you know, I guess you could call it landscaping or whatever, around the tombs. But you know, he was standing there in front of her. And, you know, there's just this very uniqu record in John about all these things that Mary Magdalene experienced. And I love what Jesus does here, because he doesn't just let her stay in that state. He doesn't just let her, you know, stand idle. He gives her this first command that she's hearing from him, and that is, "go and tell the others." And I think that that's an important lesson for all of us, that we need to go, we need to take this message out into the world, that Jesus is risen. And that's why I look so forward to Easter each and every year, is to be able to do that.
Gary Schick
Good stuff! And this really concludes this series for us. So as we kind of draw it together, it's probably good to just step back for a second and just realize the four gospels are kind of like the four ends of the compass. You know, they are looking at the life of Jesus from four different perspectives. But that said, the first three that we've looked at, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are what are called the Synoptics. And they basically kind of use the same framework, and just kind of branch out in different directions. We believe Mark is telling us the eyewitness account as Peter remembers it. And there's so much in Mark that just, is very eyewitness. Even though Mark himself probably wasn't the guy who was standing there talking about; for example, the feeding of the 5,000. They sat down on the green grass or, uh, talking about how Jesus felt on certain occasions, just very up close in that way. But just quick snapshots. Peter, just even in this account of running through the tomb, you just know he's an abrupt guy who charges in. And so that's how he would've told the stories. Matthew as a former tax collector and one who's really got a heart for the Jewish community, just very meticulously lays out how Jesus fulfills, fulfills, fulfills. And Luke, who is not an eyewitness at all, he was actually the one Gentile to come back and to research everything and say, "and you know what? These things I've researched so that you may know." And he's talked so much about Jesus, especially as he relates to, they all do, but in a special way, Luke kind of zeroes in on the downtrodden and the way that Jesus lifts people up. But what is so magnificent about John, is he just starts from a different place. In fact, in John 20, he says, "Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples not written it in this book." And John made no attempt to follow the outline previously prepared. He made it his goal to really tell some things that hadn't been told. And where Mark is kind of like, an old fashioned photo album, does anybody remember those? I think today we call it Facebook, where you just see individual snapshots. Luke and John could be, and actually Luke has been by the Jesus film made into a full-length movie. I think actually, at this point, all the gospels maybe have, but John has been described to me as a beautiful, like a Rembrandt painting. Just up close, the detail is just, it's like the, the paint is still wet, and you have these up close moments. And so, where John is telling us the same resurrection account as the others have told, as has been pointed out, he really brings us close. Rather than talking about the women, he talks about one woman at the tomb. Rather than focusing very much on Jesus' appearance to the disciples, he tells the story of one disciple; Thomas. And then, rather than zeroing in on kind of the whole group of them as they go up on the mountains to receive the great commission, he zeroes in on that one restoration and commissioning of Peter. So, you know, all of it's true accounts, all of it happened. But John tells the story in a way, as you pointed out, as you guys both pointed out, that focuses on individual experiences of that. And his purpose, as we see in John 20 is, "but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that by believing, you may have life in His name." And I think, one of the powerful things about John is, is it tells these individual stories and the book is full of them. You know, there's Nicodemus, there's the woman caught in adultery, there's the man born blind. Really, it tells us extensively their stories, even the coming of the first disciples as they kind of went and found Jesus. "Well, where are you staying?" "Well come and see." You know, these up close personal accounts. But John is ultimately inviting us to have our own personal encounter with Jesus. And friends, I know I speak for the brothers in Christ with me today. That is what we are longing for, for you. You know, Easter's a great time. It's hopefully, we're about to see the full flowering of spring; looks like some warmth in the week ahead here. So that's a beautiful time of year. There's a lot to celebrate in terms of the story of Easter. Whether we're talking about the passion of the Christ, what he endured as he died for our sins, the songs of Resurrection Morning, "Christ The Lord Has Risen Today. The fellowship time, the Breakfast at church, the time around the table at home. But ultimately friends, it's gotta be more than celebrations and chocolate rabbits and great movies. It's got to be your personal encounter with the risen Christ. And once you've experienced that, it just changes it forever. It's not just a day in the calendar, it's not just some time off of work. It's not just some special celebration and some good music or some whatever. It becomes a time of personal worship. Whether that starts for you at sunrise, or a little bit later in the day. Where does your personal encounter with Jesus come? And I just wish that for you today, good Friday, as we think about what he endured on the cross for us.
