John 20:11-18 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Easter Sunrise Sunday, April 9, 2023 “His Final Steps…Led to His First Steps”
Mary had already taken many steps that Sunday morning. While it was still dark, she was on her way to the tomb of Jesus. When she noticed the stone rolled away from the tomb, she ran. Her running steps brought her to Peter and John in whom she confided, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they put him.” Even more steps brought her back near the tomb again. And that was where she stood, just outside the tomb, weeping. Mary had taken many steps with Jesus prior to that Sunday morning. She was not, as some have invented the story, a wife or partner of Jesus. She was as the Bible describes her, a woman who had supported the ministry of Jesus. She could never forget how Jesus had helped her, had rescued her. Seven demons had controlled her before Jesus exorcised them and freed her. She loved Jesus because Jesus first loved and supported and helped her. And she heard his teaching, and she witnessed much of his ministry. And she knew that he was exactly who he claimed to be, the Lord and Savior, the promised Messiah. In the days leading up to that Sunday morning, she had witnessed many of Jesus’ steps, and they were not what she had anticipated at all. His steps took him to an upper room with his disciples, to the Garden of Gethsemane for prayer, to a Jewish trial followed by a Roman trial. His steps took him to a hill called the place of the skull, to a cross, and to his death. And then he was placed in the tomb near which Mary stood. That was where he ended up after his final steps were concluded. So that was where Mary expected to find him on that early Sunday morning. But she didn’t find him there. No matter how long she wept outside the tomb and no matter how many times she glanced inside, she still did not see Jesus. Her life had been torn apart by his death. She wanted what so many grieving loved ones want. She wanted closure. She wanted to have her moment of mourning after which she could try her best to go on with her life. But as far as she could tell, someone was intent on stopping her. Someone had moved the body. Jesus’ final steps had led to that tomb. It was no mistake. She was in the right place, but everything was wrong. Mary was so confused and so saddened that she didn’t even notice what was going on around her. When she looked into the tomb and saw angels, it barely even registered for her. Unless they were going to tell her where Jesus was, Mary wasn’t interested in what they were doing sitting in the tomb where Jesus had been. She didn’t even recognize Jesus when he walked up to her. It must be the gardener, she thought. Maybe he would know where they put Jesus. But what does Mary’s Sunday morning experience have to do with you? You are not here with tears streaming down your face, though maybe you are hiding those emotions. You are not trying to figure out whether or not Jesus is in the tomb. But maybe you are, at least at times, more like Mary than you realize. Perhaps you know on some scale the uncertainty and the sadness and the confusion that Mary was experiencing. Certainly pain and suffering show up in your life at times. It could be the medical issue that keeps you from doing what you want to do, and it just doesn’t get better. It could be the loss of a loved one. It could be worry about finances. It could be concern about a friendship or another relationship. Whatever the specific issue, doesn’t it feel at times as though you just don’t know where to turn and you just don’t know what to do? Maybe those times also make you question whether you deserve it. Your conscience surely knows. You know that you haven’t been the friend you have wished others would be for you. You’ve judged people without really knowing what they’ve been going through. You have been as much part of the problem as you have been part of the solution. And here’s what sin does: it hides Jesus from our eyes so thoroughly that he might as well still be in the tomb. Sin makes us forget where we should turn. We might as well say it along with Mary: I don’t know where Jesus is. I don’t know where they have put him. But in that sort of confusion and sadness, Jesus steps to Mary, and he calls her by name. She realizes in a moment that he is alive and standing before her. Everything, absolutely everything is renewed. All of the