Sermon Tone Analysis

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Text: Jn 20:1-18
Theme:
Doctrine: Resurrection
Image: responses to seeing
Need: belief in resurrection
Message: Jesus is arisen, believe
 
*Meeting Jesus*
Jn 20:1-18
*Intro*
Today we come to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
Today is the reason that the Christian church has moved their Sabbath from the last day of the week to the first day of the week.
Honouring the resurrection of Jesus, and our new identity in it is why we gather on this day.
Today we meet together with all the pomp and pageantry we can muster.
Today we come together and sing all our favourite hymns.
Today we clad the church in white and wear all our best clothes.
As a kid my mum always bought me a new Easter outfit, which I had made thoroughly dirty by the end of the day.
Today is the day that family comes together and hard feelings are put aside.
Today is the day when many people who fill the pews are those who do not normally shadow the doorway of a church.
Today we honour quite possibly the greatest day of the Christian calendar.
This day is the day that has evoked so much honour and praise from generations of Christians; praising Christ like Paul did to the Colossians,
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."
(Colossians 1:15-20, NIV)
It might strike us as somewhat odd then, the manner in which John narrates this account.
Most of the things which we associate with the resurrection are conspicuously missing.
We do not hear of the angel appearing to the soldiers and causing them to faint.
We do not hear of the earthquake that angel caused.
We do not hear of him rolling away the stone and sitting on it.
We do not hear of the conversation between this angel and the women.
We do not even hear of the other women going to the tomb with Mary Magdalene.
John strips this account to the bare essentials.
John does not begin with all trumpets blaring, he does not begin with the bright appearance of angels, he does not blanket the atmosphere in glittering white.
He begins in the dark.
*While it was still dark, Mary went to the tomb*
“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.”
Mary left for the tomb while it was still dark, before the sun had come up, before anyone else was up.
Her whole world has been turned upside down.
Her Lord, her master, her hope, had died.
He was crucified.
There is no doubt in her mind he is gone.
She stayed at the cross right up to the end.
She was standing there when Jesus made his last statements.
She was there when he breathed his last.
She was there when the soldier had pierced Jesus's side.
She saw the flow of blood and water.
She knew that the Romans knew how to do their jobs.
She had no doubt he was dead, so she went to the tomb early in the morning.
She went to connect with her master.
Her eyes are red and puffy from all the crying.
She feels like the meaning of her life has been taken away.
While it was still dark, she goes to seek out her Lord.
*While our world is dark, we seek out God.*
While it is dark in our lives, we go seek for God.
Even though we live in the time of the resurrection, the world still seems dark.
It still seems cold.
It would have been nice to have had Easter last weekend; a clear, bright, warm weekend.
It certainly would have made it easier to celebrate.
Easier to accept the truth of the resurrection.
Easier to experience the warmth of God's love.
But I think that the weather today is more appropriate.
It is snowing, it is cold, it is lonely, it is dark.
This is how our lives often feel.
When our children do not live the lives we had wished for them, we feel the cold ache of loss.
When our loved ones pass away at a young age, we feel the stinging claw of death.
When our parents do not give us the love and respect we so desperately seek, when feel the hard barrier of rejection.
When we feel our lives are at the lowest, that is when we begin to seek for our master.
When things are going well, we could care less.
We might honour God with our lips, but really live our lives on our own terms.
But when things go south, when things turn out bad, we seek for our Lord.
*The grave is empty, but Christ has not been stolen.
*
While our lives are dark we go to the tomb, just as Mary Magdalene did.
But she finds something there she does not expect.
Instead of finding the tomb just the way it had been left; instead of finding the large stone firmly planted before the tomb, she finds the stone rolled away; the tomb has been tampered with.
The black hole of the entrance gapes at her from the white rock.
She stands there stunned.
How could she explain this?
What could possibly have happened?
Then it dawns on her; someone has stolen him.
Someone has stolen her Lord.
Someone has taken him away as a last disgrace.
They could not leave him alone in death, just as they could not leave him alone in life.
She runs back to Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, tradition has it this is John himself.
Both John and Peter run to the tomb.
John, the younger and more athletic makes it to the tomb first, but he will not go in.
He does not want to desecrate himself.
He does not want to make himself unclean by entering the realm of the dead.
He bends over to look in the tomb, but instead of a body he sees the linen cloths which were wrapped around Jesus.
Peter finally catches up with John, but impetuously rushes straight into the tomb.
He ignore custom in his grief and confusion.
Looking closely all around the tomb he sees that it has not been robbed.
Things are not messy.
Things are not strewn about.
The cloths which were glued to the body of Christ by the seventy-five pounds of Aloe and spices lavished upon Christ by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, were laying neatly upon the stone ledge.
The cloth which had covered Christ's head was actually folded and lying by itself.
This was no robbery, by Jesus's body was gone.
John comes in after Peter.
He sees, and he believes.
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