Truth Revealed
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Welcome
Welcome
We spoke last week about the Truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ after his brutal death on the cross and burial in the ground for three days. I also made reference to an interesting phenomena that happened on several occasions after the resurrection. We’ll look today primarily at two passages where disciples of Christ—those who walked with him and studied under him, those who were closest to him—encountered the resurrected person of Jesus Christ and spoke with him without recognizing him.
Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene as she came to the tomb early in the morning...
1 On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!”
3 At that, Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. 5 Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then, following him, Simon Peter also came. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. 7 The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself. 8 The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then also went in, saw, and believed. 9 For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to the place where they were staying.
11 But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’s body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“Because they’ve taken away my Lord,” she told them, “and I don’t know where they’ve put him.”
14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus. 15 “Woman,” Jesus said to her, “why are you crying? Who is it that you’re seeking?”
Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you’ve carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him, and I will take him away.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
Turning around, she said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”—which means “Teacher.”
17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus told her, “since I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what he had said to her.
[pray]
Who was Mary Magdalene?
Who was Mary Magdalene?
Mary Magdalene is a prominent disciple, who appears at critical moments in Jesus’ story. Her most significant participation is that she was the first to learn of Jesus’ resurrection and she was the first to proclaim his resurrection to the other disciples. While the account differs slightly in the four gospels, they all agree that she was the first to reveal the truth of the resurrection to the others.
I used an example last week of encountering one of you in HEB and recognizing you and being able to carry on a conversation with you about things we had discussed previously. It is not likely that I would not know you or recognize you, even if I had heard news of your death. In fact, I would recognize you and celebrate that were still alive and well.
However, in John’s gospel, Mary encounters Jesus and does not recognize him. In fact, she thinks he is the caretaker in the graveyard.
Let me be clear in telling you, Mary Magdalene knew Jesus well and Jesus knew her. Mary Magdalene is often confused with Mary of Bethany—the sister to Martha and Lazarus, who anointed the feet of Jesus. There are actually six or seven women named Mary in the New Testament, which makes this somewhat confusing.
Mary of Magdala is part of a group of women who provided for Jesus and the Twelve disciples out of their means. Mary was one of several who had demons removed...
1 Afterward he was traveling from one town and village to another, preaching and telling the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary, called Magdalene (seven demons had come out of her); 3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others who were supporting them from their possessions.
Mary Magdalene knew Jesus yet She did not Recognize Him
Mary Magdalene knew Jesus yet She did not Recognize Him
Mary Magdalene knew Jesus and should have recognized him when she encountered him in the graveyard after his resurrection. Yet she did not recognize him.
11 But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’s body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“Because they’ve taken away my Lord,” she told them, “and I don’t know where they’ve put him.”
14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus. 15 “Woman,” Jesus said to her, “why are you crying? Who is it that you’re seeking?”
Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you’ve carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him, and I will take him away.”
We are not told why she did not recognize him. It could have been that she was crying or speaking to him while he was not facing her. It was early in the morning and he could have been concealed from her in the shadows. She certainly was not expecting to find him resurrected in the flesh, even though he had predicted his return from the grave.
However, I believe that Jesus was hiding his identity from her until he was ready to be revealed.
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
Turning around, she said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”—which means “Teacher.”
Apparently there was great emotion in her response to recognizing her Teacher.
17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus told her, “since I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
She apparently attached herself to Jesus, clinging to him in such a way that she did not want to allow him to escape her sight. Matthew’s account says that she took hold of his feet in a posture of worship.
We don’t get the sense that is an annoyed response to her attachment, rather this seems to be a way of saying that he has a task for them to perform and that he was assuring them that he would see them again before he ascended to the Father.
The Emmaus Disciples did not Recognize Him
The Emmaus Disciples did not Recognize Him
We switch to Luke’s account where there were two disciples walking along the road on the way to Emmaus. This was the same day of the resurrection on the road leaving Jerusalem. Emmaus was seven or eight miles from Jerusalem, perhaps three hours or more walking distance from the graveyard...
13 Now that same day two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 Together they were discussing everything that had taken place. 15 And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them.
This is interesting, the text here says that these two disciples...
16 But they were prevented from recognizing him.
“They were prevented from recognizing him” it says, but we are not told why Jesus hid himself.
17 Then he asked them, “What is this dispute that you’re having with each other as you are walking?” And they stopped walking and looked discouraged.
These disciples, and others, were discouraged by the outcome of Jesus trial and death at the hands of the Roman occupation. At this point we learn quite a lot about what the average follower of Jesus Christ believed about their great rabbi, whom they supposed to be the long-expected Messiah...
18 The one named Cleopas answered him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked them.
So they said to him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. 21 But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened. 22 Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb, 23 and when they didn’t find his body, they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”
These disciples spoke here of their hopes that Jesus would be the long-expected redeemer that would throw off the shackles of Roman oppression and allow Jerusalem to return to its great glory.
They also reveal that they had heard news of the women who visited the tomb earlier that morning. However, they also seem to indicate here that they had doubts about the truth of the resurrection and the news that the women had brought to the gathering of disciples after their encounter with the angels.
Jesus responded...
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.
Jesus rebuked them for their slow response to believe. Jesus clearly spent several hours with these disciples without revealing himself to them. Or rather, perhaps he was slowly revealing himself to them by delving into Scripture and pointing out the truth using the words of the prophets.
28 They came near the village where they were going, and he gave the impression that he was going farther. 29 But they urged him, “Stay with us, because it’s almost evening, and now the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
...
30 It was as he reclined at the table with them that he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?” 33 That very hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and those with them gathered together, 34 who said, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they began to describe what had happened on the road and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
I find this account very interesting. Again, just like Mary Magdalene, these disciples knew Jesus. After having spent several hours walking toward Emmaus and then taking a meal together, precisely at the moment that Jesus blessed the bread and broke it, only then did they recognize him. And just as quickly as they recognized him, he suddenly disappeared from their sight...
How astonishing that must have been.
I sometimes wish that we had more of this lecture recorded in our scriptures as Jesus explained the meaning of all of scripture from Moses to the prophets. How amazing that would be to have that revelation and interpretation.
However, that revelation is hidden from us, except through the teachings of Paul and the other apostles.
The Foolishness of the Cross
The Foolishness of the Cross
In fact, we sometimes see a similar hidden meaning, wherein the meaning of scripture is hidden from those who reject the gospel message.
Paul writes to the Corinthian church talking about the foolishness of the cross...
18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved. 19 For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? 21 For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached. 22 For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. 24 Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, 25 because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
What Paul is saying here is that the wisdom of mankind can never make any sense of the cross and its necessity.
1. Some stumble on the cross - Jews put a heavy emphasis on miraculous signs. The religious leaders repeatedly asked Jesus to perform miraculous signs for them. For the most part, Jesus refused these requests. While they were seeking a powerful king, who would throw off the the oppression of the Romans, Jesus appeared as a suffering servant. Isaiah 53 depicted a very different Messiah, that would be beaten, mocked and killed—dying a death that most Jews would consider shameful.
The Jewish leaders saw Jesus’ death on the cross and his failure to save himself to be weakness.
Principle When you are expecting the wrong result, no miraculous signs will ever convince you of the truth.
2. Some can only see foolishness in the cross - While the Jews looked for signs and miracles, the Gentiles looked for wisdom. We are much like the gentiles in our western ways of thinking. Before we come to know Christ, we look at the cross and only see foolishness. When mankind looks at the Christ with a human point of view, they can only see it to be a foolish act that served no purpose.
Paul knew that most people would never truly accept the truth of the cross, because they were mired in a wrong perspective—a wrong way of thinking.
Principle Human wisdom will never lead you to spiritual truth.
3. God’s wisdom can only be revealed to us by God himself.
Paul taught the Corinthian church that...
God’s foolishness reveals wisdom and God’s weakness revealed a strength greater than we can ever imagine among humans.
The only way that the foolishness of the cross can be revealed as wisdom is through the calling by God’s grace...
13 But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no amount of human wisdom or miraculous signs that can turn the hardened hear to Christ. That is the work of the Holy Spirit—to draw man to the truth of the gospel message.
Paul goes on to explain how God used foolish things in the world to reveal his truth.
26 Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. 27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one may boast in his presence. 30 It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption 31 —in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
He made the last first, the weak strong. He gave glory to those that the world considers to be weak.
He did that so that we could in no way make a claim to have earned our salvation by our own merit. None of us has earned the grace of salvation. Instead we have earned death and torment...
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
However, through Christ, we do not get the death that we deserve, but the justification and redemption that Christ earned for us on that wretched cross.
24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
What Does It Mean?
What Does It Mean?
The Corinthian church, as I have often said, is very much like our modern western churches. Theologian and author, Stephen Um, says that the cultural currency of the Corinthian Christian was intellect (or wisdom) and their commodity was influence (or power). He went on to say that “Their Storyline Is Our Storyline.”
1 Corinthians—The Word of the Cross (Their Storyline Is Our Storyline) - Stephen T. Um
Wisdom, knowledge, intellect, and education are the primary cultural currency in most of today’s cities. We all want to make it—to have influence, to “make a difference”—and the way that we seek to accomplish this is through the accumulation of knowledge. Symbols of knowledge (academic degrees, institutional association, etc.) are symbols of latent power. Our culture places a high value on intelligence, thoughtfulness, and articulation. At the end of the day we respect those who have “made it”—whether by the ordinary channels of cultural ascension (Harvard, Yale, etc.) or by extraordinary entrepreneurial effort.
The Christians of Corinth experienced a spirit of competition and achievement in their culture. This spirit invaded the church, just as it invades our churches today.
I go back to what Stephen Um wrote, because it is so applicable to the condition that we see prevalent in the church today...
1 Corinthians—The Word of the Cross (Spirit of Competition and Achievement)
So what ends up happening? What does this look like horizontally? What happens when we achieve, when we perform, when we grab, when we pursue? It will ultimately bring us to a point where we end up becoming rank-conscious. While we may successfully avoid blatant sectarianism based on race, gender, etc., we will still make a primary distinction between “somebodies” and “nobodies.” While we may not diminish someone based on that person’s race, we may still very well dismiss that person based upon his or her social rank. If we have achieved, if we have performed and earned a valued societal position, it will become easy for us to dismiss someone who is below us. The Corinthians were guilty of this mistake, as are many Christians today.
The spirit that Paul is promoting here is that wisdom and power in God’s estimation are counterintuitive to human wisdom and power structures.
We cannot reason our way to salvation. In God’s way, we have to give up on our earthly wisdom to find God’s wisdom, which is far superior. However, we find ourselves fearing a loss of power when we give up on what we think we know.
For that reason we have to give up on ourselves and what we think we have in order to reach the salvation of the cross...
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.
27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
20 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.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The real question here today is which way are you following in your own life?
Are you clinging on to a power that means nothing in God’s economy?
Are you clinging onto wisdom that makes no sense in the light of the gospel?
Or do you accept the fact that you have to deny yourself—deny your wisdom—deny your power—and take up the cross of Jesus Christ?
Are you willing to lose your life in order to find salvation in Christ?
This is the way to salvation in Christ.