The way we respond matters. And, of course, the more important the matter, the more weight our response carries. The more crucial our response becomes. What stands before us this morning is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and this is an event that demands a response.

The resurrection is unique. It is located as the centerpiece of Christianity; it is the hinge on which all else turns. As we saw last week when we began looking at John’s account of the resurrection, the empty tomb carries great meaning. It means:

a) God comes to help man. Nearly every other religion or system of thought in the world in concerned with what we do. How do we get to God? How do we improve ourselves? How do we appease God’s wrath? “It is painful to pride,” writes Sinclair Ferguson, “to discover that the Christian life is not rooted in what we can do, but it what we need done to us.” And in the words of A. W. Pink: “To declare that God helps those who help themselves, is to repudiate one of the most precious truths taught in the Bible, and in the Bible alone: namely, that God helps those who are unable to help themselves, who have tried again and again, only to fail.” The resurrection shows that God has done what we could not.

b) Death is conquered, not cheated. The main point of the resurrection, and thus Christianity, is not that God provides a way to escape death. We still die. But death cannot defeat us. Christ has overcome it. All death can do for those in Christ is usher us directly into the presence of God. It’s what led Justin Martyr – a man who died for his faith in Christ, and whose name is now a label worn by all who make such a sacrifice – to say to his captors, “You can kill us but you can’t do us any real harm.”

c) There is hope is in what’s to come. Jesus is the firstfruit. Since He has been raised to a new, eternal life in a glorified body, then all those who are found in Him will experience the same thing. We will receive bodies like his; glorified, imperishable, powerful, eternal. More importantly, we will be with him in a “new heavens and a new earth” for all eternity. No matter how bad things here get, the resurrection stands as proof that our true hope is yet to come.

So the resurrection stands unique. Today, in John’s gospel, we will see one woman’s first-hand response to the resurrection. Her name is Mary. As verse 1 of this chapter tells us, this is Mary Magdalene. Now there are lots of Marys in the Bible, so who is this? This is not Jesus’ mother; nor is it Lazarus’ sister. The word Magdalene refers to her hometown, she is literally “Mary of Magdala.” Her first appearance in John’s gospel was just a short while ago, at the cross. What little else we know about her comes from Luke 8, which tells us that she was formerly demon-possessed (by seven demons), was healed, and evidently became a devoted follower of Jesus.

That’s all we know about her; others have speculated that she is the prostitute or adulteress mentioned in other gospel passages, but that is unsubstantiated. If it were true, one of the gospel writers would have likely made the connection for us. Others have claimed she was Jesus’ wife and had a child with him, but that is so outlandishly false and flies in the face of all historical documentation that it is hardly worth mentioning. We only know what Scripture tells us, and that isn’t a lot.

What is significant about this woman is that she is the first to see the resurrected Jesus. But remember that John is doing more than lining up facts for us; he is telling us a story, carefully choosing, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the details to include. This incident in the garden with Mary Magdalene is in his book for a reason. What is that reason? To show us that the resurrection demands a response. As this scene opens, Jesus is already back among the living, but Mary Magdalene still thinks he is dead, so we see her shedding…

1. Tears of sorrow [20:11-15]

Mary stood at the tomb weeping. She had already been to the tomb once on this Easter morning, if you remember. She ran to tell the disciples that the body was gone, and Peter and John raced to the tomb to see for themselves. Those men went home, John tells us, but Mary remained behind.

She is weeping. These are not sniffles but sobs. It's the same word used for Jewish funerals, very loud, noisy lamentations. But why is she weeping? Sorrow. Jesus is dead. Not only that, his body has been taken by “they” who, in her mind, will no doubt subject it to further humiliation. Jesus is dead and gone.

Mary has a typical human response to suffering. We would react the same to the death of a loved one. In fact, Jesus reacted the same, weeping at Lazarus’ grave. But notice that twice in these verses Mary is asked the same question: why are you weeping? Neither the angels nor Jesus expect her to be weeping. They wonder why she is crying. Because Jesus isn’t dead. Grief only makes sense if there is something legitimate to grieve. If the body is still in the tomb, then cry. Cry your eyes out because there’s nothing left to celebrate. But Jesus is risen. There is no more need for tears.

Her weeping reveals that she has no hope. Her devotion has been shattered. Can we blame her? Should she have had hope? Well, the answer, according to Scripture, is yes. Jesus told his disciples on multiple occasions that he would have to die, but that he would rise again. The Old Testament Scripture speaks of the Messiah establishing an eternal kingdom, one without end.

Mary’s own testimony shows her hopelessness. She believes the body had been taken – which means she still believes there is a corpse that can be stolen. The same is true for us: if there is no resurrection, if Jesus’ dead body simply decomposed in a tomb somewhere, then we have no hope.

Mary wasn’t wrong in expressing her sorrow when Jesus was dead. Nor should we, as Christians, seek to minimize or ignore sorrow in our lives. Simply pretending that there is no pain when there is very real pain does no good, nor does it tell an unbelieving world anything useful. This world is full of people who try to ignore pain, talk it away, drown it in liquor, spend it away, or otherwise fail to deal with it in any sort of real manner. What good does it do to have this pie-in-the-sky attitude – everything’s okay, I don’t feel any pain, I always have a smile on, after all I’m a Christian and that’s what we’re supposed to do and we can’t feel or express anything other than smiles, smiles, smiles -- when it’s obviously not a time to smile and when a false smile offers no real help?

What good does a fake smile do you in times of pain? None. What good does a fake smile do an unbelieving world that is looking for something different? None. After all, it’s a ‘fake’ smile! Pretense doesn’t address the problems of sin, death, judgment, and hell. There are people filling up funeral homes this very morning who have hearts full of grief but don’t know how to mourn; they don’t have Christ, so they don’t have hope. What they need to see isn’t another fake smile or make-believe comfort, what they need to see from those in Christ are people who mourn, but differently.

See, we are supposed to mourn when we lose loved ones. Mourning isn’t bad. Jesus wept. The difference is, we don’t mourn like those who have no hope [1 Thessalonians 4:13]. What’s the difference? What’s the hope that we have they those apart from Christ don’t? Resurrection.

Mary is about to come face-to-face with the reality of the resurrection. Before we see her reaction, let me ask you about yours. Because the glorious truth today is that Christ is alive! How will you respond to the reality of the risen Christ? Let’s see how Mary responded:

2. Shouts of joy. [20:16]

Mary Magdalene thinks she is addressing the gardener. He’s the only one who might be in the garden so early, and she is thinking that either he moved the body or he saw where it was taken, and she is appealing to him for help. She’s about to realize that it’s not a gardener she’s addressing, but the risen Lord!

How does Jesus reveal himself to her? By calling her by name. This takes us back to John 10:3-4 where Jesus refers to himself as the good shepherd and says “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” That is certainly, literally true here! Mary hears her name spoken by her Lord and immediately recognizes him.  

Mary calls him “rabboni” which is a strengthened version of rabbi. It means teacher, but it has a very personal emphasis on it; “my dear teacher.” Mary isn’t just saying that Jesus is a mere teacher, she is expressing great joy in seeing one so dear to her; one she thought was dead and gone. But here He is! Alive! Speaking with her! How can joy not fill her heart?

Recognition of Jesus brings genuine joy.  Why is joy an appropriate response to resurrection?

a) Tragedy turned to triumph. Jesus isn’t dead. What seemed like a crushing defeat was actually a total victory. What Satan thought was his greatest achievement was actually the predestined means of his eternal ruin. Colossians 2:15 “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him [Christ].” 

b) Jesus can be trusted. What He said he would do was exactly what He did. So if He is able to keep His word about being raised from the dead, then we can trust him when he says that He will send the Holy Spirit to be with us, that He will never leave us or forsake us, that he is the same yesterday today and forever, that He is the only way to the Father, that His blood can forgive our sins, that he will one day return in full glory for those who are His – all this and more is true, forever true, because Jesus can be trusted; Jesus keeps His word!

This is why Jesus told His disciples (in John 16:20-22) that: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

No one will take your joy from you. Joy is one of the marks of a Christian. It is a fruit of the Spirit. It is the natural, or supernatural, result of encountering the risen Christ. If five of your friends were asked to list words that described or defined you, where would joy be on the list? Would joy be on the list?

Well, what do we mean by joy? Joy isn’t some kind of giddy loopy-ness or silliness. Joy isn’t always expressed by way of jolly.  Sincere believers can have periods of sadness, mourning, or heartfelt concern, especially for others. These things are not incompatible with joy. Joy is an undergirding framework, an internal support structure that our difficulty gets filtered through. It doesn’t remove the pain, but it reminds us that the pain is not permanent. That God has not forgotten us, nor is He ignorant of our condition. It’s as Nehemiah 8:10 says: “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Is that kind of joy evident in your life? Not only to outsiders, but to you? Have you put to use the joy that the Holy Spirit has been cultivating in your heart? You know, later in the book of Nehemiah, it says this: “And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.” [12:43]

How far out does your joy reach? How long does it last when trials come? Joy is one of the marks of meeting Jesus. It’s a joy in knowing that He keeps His word, that He is coming again, and that He will drink the fruit of the vine anew with us in His Father’s kingdom. Christ did it! He is alive! Just as He promised in John 15:11 – our joy is full!

So Mary’s response to the risen Christ is one of joy. But that is not all. She is given a commission by Jesus, as we see in 20:17-18, so Mary also becomes the…

3. Bearer of Good News. [20:17-18]

Now, we have to clear up what Jesus meant by his opening statement. Jesus meant that Mary couldn’t cling to him in the way she had before. The relationship between Jesus and His disciples was going to change. He would be with them 40 days, then He would ascend to the Father. Now wasn’t the time to inaugurate the forever kingdom. (It’s not a command to literally “don’t touch me” because Jesus asks Thomas to do just that in the next few verses and has no problem with touch anywhere else in the gospels, pre or post resurrection.)

Also notice that Jesus calls his disciples his brothers. There is a definite way in which God the Father and God the Son have a unique relationship, but we are now invited to be in Christ which means we share the same access and enjoyment that the Son and Father have in their relationship. We experience it in part now, and will experience it in fullness later, in His presence forever.

But back to Mary Magdalene’s commission. Her assignment from the risen Lord was to go and tell. So, she went and told others, as commanded: “I have seen the Lord!” We too are given a commission, to be ambassadors of God, to make disciples, teaching them to obey all He has commanded. If you read the other accounts of this story in the rest of the Gospels you’ll quickly notice that the disciples didn’t believe her.

This probably frustrated Mary, may have even saddened her, but I doubt it extinguished her joy. She has seen the Lord! Jesus is alive! “I wish you would believe it, but even if you don’t I know it’s real. And I don’t really care if you believe me or not, I’m going to keep talking about it!” Is that you? Or do you give up? Are you the bearer of good news, even when people don’t want to hear it? Do you stay faithful to the commission God has given you, even when the reaction of others isn’t encouraging?

Keep this in mind: the disciples didn’t believe Mary that morning. But by that evening, they had seen Jesus for themselves, and I would imagine that Mary’s story sounded a lot different. So much so that these same men, the ones who literally could not believe in the reality of the risen Christ, would later stand up to religious authorities and continue to preach Christ crucified and resurrected, and who would give their very lives for this truth.

See what John has done here? The point of the story isn’t the empty tomb anymore. It’s a forgotten cave, rightly ignored by the disciples and early church fathers. Why bother with an empty tomb when you can see the risen Christ?! 

One other thing to mention, in closing. Mary Magdalene is an odd choice to be the bearer of this message, isn’t she? She’s not got the best past from a public relations standpoint. She’s got the cultural stigma of being a woman in the first-century middle east, which meant that her testimony wasn’t even admissible in court. Why would God choose her to be the first to see Jesus and deliver His message?

Because God chose to. God makes a habit out of choosing people that we would not. The people of Israel were chosen – not because they were the strongest or largest or best, quite the opposite in fact – but they were chosen because God picked them. The birth of Jesus was announced to shepherds, basically the lowest class of workers in the culture and to foreign astrologers who followed a star to the infant’s home. The first disciples were uneducated fishermen and tax collectors. Who is picking these people? God. Because He chooses to.

And that’s good news for us. That’s great news for us. Because we’re not very ‘pickable’ either. We have checkered pasts, closets full of skeletons, sinful wicked hearts that have been rebellious against God from conception.  Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1: “26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

Did you notice the theme? God chose. And He has chosen, on this day, to reveal the reality of the risen Christ to you. You’ve heard about the resurrection. How will you respond?