I. Introduction
A. Matthew 28:1–6 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. 2 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. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.”
II. Explanation
A. This morning’s title and focus: Matthew 28:6 “He is not here.”
B. "The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation... Every other miracle prepares the way for this, or results from this." - Miracles by C.S. Lewis
C. The greatest thing about Jesus is that He came. He was here. He appeared. He showed up. He manifested Himself. He made Himself known. As John puts it in his first epistle, “We have heard (Him), we have seen (Him) with our eyes, we looked upon (Him) and touched (Him) with our hands,” – 1John 1:1-4
D. But the times when He was not there were an important part of His story as well.
1. And it’s not just on the first Easter morning at the tomb when Jesus was not there.
2. He was not there all through the OT as God’s people waited for the promised messiah.
3. Remember when Herod’s henchmen arrived in Bethlehem to slay all the little boys under two in the aftermath of the three wise men (Luke 2)? When they arrived, Jesus was not there.
4. He was not there when He was 12 years old, on the journey home after the Passover when his parents Joseph and Mary departed from Jerusalem to return to Nazareth (Luke 2).
5. And when His friend Lazarus was sick, in spite of the fact that his sisters Mary and Martha sent an emergency message to Jesus so He would rush to heal him, Jesus was not there, and Lazarus died (John 11).
6. Numerous times He was not there with His disciples when He went off to be alone with God.
7. He was not there on the boat with His disciples when the powerful wind came in Mark 6:45-52.
8. He ACTED like He was not there when the Syro-Phoenician woman asked Him to help her demon-possessed daughter (Matt.15:21-28).
9. He was not there
10. And then when the nine disciples tried and tried but were unable to cast the demon out of the boy at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt.17), Jesus was not there.
11. And after feeding the 5000 one day, He was not there the next day when the crowd came back looking for more (John 6:24).
12. He wasn’t there with the disciples after His arrest, when they were afraid & didn’t know what to do.
13. He was suddenly not there on the afternoon of His resurrection, after walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, and, after He broke the bread, He vanished.
14. He was not there 40 days later after He ascended to heaven.
15. And, in one sense, that continues today. Jesus is absent from us now, in terms of the body.
a. Of course, He is present with us through the Holy Spirit, fulfilling His promise to be with us to the end of the age (Matt.28:20). And yet He is not present with us in the way He was with His disciples, nor in the way He will be present with us when He returns & we see Him face to face.
E. Every one of these absences included some disappointment. They expected Jesus to be there but He wasn’t.
F. And this certainly includes the story of Mary at the empty grave. There was disappointment in the fact that Jesus was not there when the women arrived to finish the burial procedures.
1. Now this isn’t obvious in Matthew’s gospel, where the angels says 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.” But the disappointment is evident in John’s gospel.
2. Now, each of the four gospels includes the story of the women coming to the tomb. But these four accounts are not easy to reconcile with one another.
a. Matthew tells us that two Marys came to the tomb. Mark tells us that Salome was with them. Luke says it was a group of women who had followed Jesus from Galilee. (Of course, there is nothing contradictory about these versions of the story. Saying that the two Marys went to the tomb doesn’t mean that Salome wasn’t with them too.)
b. The gospel of John, on the other hand, just tells us Mary’s story, without regard to other women: she comes to the tomb; when she finds the tomb empty she runs back to the disciples, then follows Peter and John back to the tomb.
c. The other gospels tell us about the interactions of the women with an angel at the tomb.
d. The best explanation of how all these fit together is that a group of women including Mary came to the tomb, but when they found it empty, Mary immediately left the others and returned to report to the disciples.
(1) While Mary was gone, the other women had their interaction with the angel and then departed.
(2) Then Mary returned with Peter and John, and, when they departed, she was left alone at the tomb, and began to weep (John 20:10-11).
G. To Mary it must have felt like salt was being rubbed into her wounds. She’s already been pierced by the loss of Jesus her beloved Lord. The only way she could think to honor Him and love Him at that point was to dress His body for burial. But she couldn’t finish on Friday before sunset when the sabbath began so she rushed out early the next morning after the sabbath to finish the job.
1. But now to add to the overwhelming grief she was already experiencing, the body was no longer there. And the combination of these two was more than she could bear. All she could do was weep over the fact that He was not there, that someone apparently had removed Jesus’ body. Three times in three verses John 20:11-13 tells us that she wept. “He is not here!” (Matt.28:6)
H. But the next verses change everything. John 20:11–16 She stooped to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white... 13 And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 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.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” ~And she saw it was Jesus.
III. Application
A. What we need to notice is that Mary didn’t get what she wanted. She wanted to find the body of Jesus so she could finish preparing it for burial. She didn’t get that. Instead, she got so much more – more than she could have ever dreamed of.
1. And that’s the way it is with us, too. You know, when we merely want God to take away our problems, we’re not asking for too much, we’re asking for too little.
2. The Samaritan woman (John 4) just wanted Jesus to leave her alone to draw here water. But Jesus gave her the water of life.
3. The lame man in John 5 just wanted help getting into the pool, but Jesus made him able to walk.
4. The widow of Nain just wanted to bury her son in peace, but Jesus brought him back to life.
5. In the storm, the disciples just wanted Jesus’ help to survive, but Jesus stilled the storm.
6. Martha just wanted some help making lunch, but Jesus taught her the key to life.
7. Then Martha and Mary wanted their brother healed, but Jesus called him forth from the tomb after he’d been dead four days, saying, “I am the resurrection and the life!” (John 11:25)
8. In Acts 3, the lame man wanted coins from Peter and John, but instead they made him walk.
9. This is our situation too. We want God to take away our problems, but He wants to do so much more. He wants to make us into beings fit to live in a new heavens & a new earth, fit to rule over nations and angels.
a. We want to make it through the day, but He wants to prepare us to be His glorious bride.
b. We get upset about the spot on our back or the wrinkle on our face, but God wants to remove every spot, wrinkle and blemish from our souls.
c. We worry about paying our bills, God wants us to teach us that EVERYTHING belongs to us.
d. We are preoccupied with how we look; God wants to make us the light of the world.
B. In order to accomplish our goals, we need God to take our problems away. But in order for God to accomplish His goals, sometimes He’s got to allow our problems to remain, and sometimes in His great wisdom He needs to bring us more problems. Sometimes our suffering is His best tool.
1. So, the absences of Christ are an important part of His story. His absences are just as strategic as His presences. This is true for all of the times Jesus is not here.
C. Anyone who has studied human development knows about object permanence: at some point in the development of a child, a baby learns that things don’t just disappear, that if a toy is withdrawn, it doesn’t mean that the toy no longer exists, it’s just hidden.
1. Children grow to believe in mom and dad even when they don’t see mom and dad.
D. This is also a part of the development of a Christian. We learn God-permanence, so that even when we can’t see God, we know He is still there. Just because He hides Himself, it doesn’t mean He doesn’t exist.
E. I love playing with little children. And one of the games I like to play is pretending to throw something but then tucking it behind my arm. Then I act like I have no idea where it is.
1. Some kids just cry. Others are completely perplexed, as if the object has disappeared.
2. But some kids not only know that the object is somewhere, they also are determined to find it.
3. This is exactly what I want. I want them to trust that the toy still exists. I want them to work to figure it out. I want them to think and search, determined to get their hands on it again.
F. And I think this is what God wants from us as well. And that’s one reason He gives us this story – and hundreds of others like it.
1. It’s one of the most common themes in the Bible’s stories: It doesn’t SEEM like God is involved in a situation, but in the end He shows He was very much there all along. And through it all, God teaches His little ones to trust. He is teaching His people divine permanence; He’s teaching His people that He doesn’t ever go away: that He is always there, always involved, that He’s not only watching, but ruling over everything that happens.
G. This means there are times when our Savior’s absence is better than His presence.
1. John 16:7 “I tell you the truth: it is 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.” It’s better for us if He is gone.
H. And there’s no greater example of this than when Jesus left them to go to the cross. Not only was the Son of God hidden from them, He was dead. It doesn’t get any darker than that. In fact, the sky went dark as if to signal it.
1. But even death is not powerful enough to snuff out the life and power and presence of God.
2. And if death isn’t enough, nothing is enough. So, even when things look hopeless & cataclysmic, in reality, we are being taught to trust in God’s power, in His grace and goodness.
3. Remember what Paul said in 2Cor.1:8-9, when he tells them about the affliction they had experienced in Asia. He says, “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.”
I. So it is sometimes better for us when God remains invisible to us. And it is better for us that He is not here with us now in a physical way, but interceding for us before His Father, and helping us through His Spirit.
1. We have to trust Him in this, but there are a couple of ways we can understand how it is better:
a. It is valuable because it distinguishes between those who are sincere believers, and those whose faith is only based on circumstances.
(1) Jesus had many followers who only went along because of His miracles, but later fell away.
(2) Jesus Himself said that seeing Him raised from the dead wouldn’t make a person believe (Luke 16:30-31).
(3) And there’s nothing more dangerous than when a person thinks he’s eternally safe, when he is actually perishing. It is far better if he knows he’s in eternal trouble because then he can do something about it.
b. It’s also valuable because Jesus is preparing a place for us (John 14:3).
(1) So, that’s a little strange isn’t it? God can create the universe with the word of His power, why does He need thousands of years to prepare a place for us? We can understand how it takes time for God to prepare us for that place, but why does it take so long to prepare the place for us?
(2) Well, there is at least one important feature of our future home which can’t be created instantaneously.
(3) He can’t snap His fingers and create a believer who has come to see His need for Christ and learned to trust in Him and be prepared to be with Jesus in heaven. That takes time.
(4) There are still people groups with no believers, people groups which need to be represented in that “great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ ” – Revelation 7:9-10 That doesn’t come overnight.
(5) You see, before the foundation of the world, God chose a great multitude of human beings to be His eternal children. And some of those might be people yet to be born; some might be our great-great-great-grandchildren. Some are alive but haven’t yet come to Christ. And in His work of drawing them to Himself and showing them the wonders of His grace, He is preparing our eternal home for us. These are the living stones He is using to build our eternal home (1Pet.2:5).
2. Our life in the next age is going to be better on account of our life here in this age. So, we have to learn to relate to our present struggles with this in mind.
J. Look at Psalm 44:9-22 “You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor...11 You give us as sheep to be eaten ...14 You make us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. 15...humiliation has overwhelmed me... 22 we are killed all day long; like sheep to be slaughtered.”
1. The psalmist is feeling pretty low. What does he do about it? This is important because God put this here to teach us what to do when we feel this way.
2. His faith manifests itself in urgent, personal, direct, bold prayer: “Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not reject us forever. Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul has sunk down into the dust; Our body cleaves to the earth. Rise up, be our help, And redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.” (23-26)
3. His circumstances tell him that God has rejected him, hidden His face from hin, forgotten him.
4. But He knows God is not only still there; He knows that God loves him and is his Redeemer.
5. And He is determined to find Him.
K. This is what should have been happening with Mary. It may seem understandable that Mary was weeping. But Mary really shouldn’t have been weeping. Yes, she probably did better than anyone else. She certainly did better than the Twelve. She surely did better than I would have done.
1. But Mary’s weeping was based on the assumption that Jesus was dead, and would remain dead — even though Jesus had told His followers over and over again that He would die and rise again.
2. As far as we know, they all got it wrong. There is no one in the gospel story who said when Jesus died, “We shouldn’t be upset! This is what He said would happen. On the third day He’s going to rise!” If we had been there, we would have gotten it wrong too.
3. When Mary came to the tomb on the third day and Jesus’ body wasn’t there, this should have been a happy thing for her. What He said had come to pass! But what Jesus had said about dying and rising again was too hard to accept.
4. Likewise, when terrible things happen to us, when heartbreak and loneliness and humiliation crash into our lives, when it seems like God is not there, then we can either feel cheated, we can feel sorry for ourselves, we can conclude that God has abandoned us.
5. Or, we can say to ourselves, “This is exactly what He said would happen! This is exactly what He told me to expect. Instead of resenting my hardships, I’m going to expect Him to bring life out of death, I’m going to trust that He is working it all for good, because He loves me, and has called me according to His purposes.”
6. “For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.” – 2Corinthians 1:5
7. And if we can’t wait in peace for the promise of the Lord to be fulfilled, then we should go after it. We should beg for it, cry out for it like the psalmist. “Where are You, O God? I need You! My heart is breaking! I need your comfort, dear Lord!”
8. And, if we just pray that just once or twice, it shows that we’re not actually desperate after all.
L. But Jesus does not rebuke Mary. He calls her name, “Mary!” And then she recognizes Him and falls at His feet.
1. And one day, He will call our names too. And we will fall at His feet.
M. Dear Friends, there’s a great day coming: a day of resurrection & vindication, a day of glory & triumph!
1. But before it is said, “He is risen!” it is said, “He is not here.”
2. And before we are risen, we are required to walk by faith and not be sight. We are called to walk in the triumph of faith, not yet in the triumph of sight.
3. “Though we do not now see him, we believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls.” 1Peter 1:8-9
4. But this triumph is a triumph that waits, not a triumph that reigns.
5. It’s like David. As a young man, David was visited by the prophet Samuel, who anointed him to be the new king of Israel. It was a great day for David, but it did not mean his struggle was over. Really his struggle was just beginning. For before he actually reigned he had to suffer a lot of pain, he had to flee from a lot of danger, he even had to experience the grief of losing loved ones.
6. Like David, we have been anointed to be kings and queens, but our royal status is hidden from the world. And God doesn’t want us promenading around telling everyone we will rule over them. He calls us to serve them in the love of Christ, just as Jesus washed His disciples’ feet (John 13).
7. But in the meantime, we know where this is heading. We know that our story has a very happy ending. We will have to wait for it, but the time of waiting is not just a time of enduring. It’s a time of preparation, a time of being helped by God, a time of enjoying God, a time of growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
8. He is not here, it is true. But He has risen. And one day we will rise with Him. But for now, “Though we have not seen him, we love him” (1Pet.1:8).