<font color='black' size='4' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'><font color="black" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">
<div> <font color="#33cc00" face="Microsoft Sans Serif"><strong><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Free Resource from
GoodPreacher.com!</span></b></strong></font><br>
<br>
<div align="center"><big><font size="3"><big><strong>Preaching
John 20:1-18<br>
</strong></big></font></big></div>
<div align="center"><big><font size="2"><big>by </big></font><i><font size="2"><big>Anna Carter Florence</big></font></i></big></div>
<div align="justify"> </div>
<div align="justify"><em><font size="4">The angels said to
her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" </font></em></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">It’s kind of a foolish
question—asking a woman in a graveyard why she’s
crying—which in retrospect maybe wasn’t so foolish.
Because she could have answered a lot of things,
couldn’t she? </font></div>
<div align="justify"><em><font size="4">Why am I crying? </font></em></div>
<div align="justify"><em><font size="4">I’m crying for his
body, nailed to a cross. </font></em></div>
<div align="justify"><em><font size="4">I’m crying for his
body, laid in a tomb. But what she said was this:
I’m crying for his body, stolen away. They have
taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they
have laid him.</font></em></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">Oh, they’ve taken away
my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve laid him. </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">That’s something we hear
a lot the first semester in seminary, after the
biblical department has had its way with the students.
</font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">Oh, they’ve
deconstructed my Bible; they’ve taken away my Jesus,
and I don’t know where they’ve laid him. </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">But I’ve heard it in
youth groups, too, when the teenagers start losing
what little idealism they had, and coming to terms
with the world we’ve left them: </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">Oh, they’ve ruined my
planet with violence and hypocrisy; they’ve taken away
my Jesus, and I don’t know where they’ve laid him. </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">And I hear it in the
church, whenever a group of people gets scared that
things are going to change if we do this or that, and
what if we don’t like it? What if we can’t tell
whether those changes are Christian or not? </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">Oh, they’ve desecrated
my church with heresies; they’ve taken away my Jesus,
and I don’t know where they’ve laid him.</font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">I don’t think the church
in our time is weeping for a crucified Jesus. I think
the church is weeping for a stolen body, and a
desecrated tomb. They’ve taken away my Jesus; oh,
they’ve taken him away. Do you hear that where you
are, that weeping and wailing? It breaks your heart,
even as it makes you crazy. </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">When you’re crying over
a stolen body, everyone you meet is a potential thief.
That’s where Mary is. Jesus appears right in front of
her, and she can’t even recognize him in the state
she’s in. She thinks he’s the gardener, and that he
did it!—which is major textual irony if I ever saw it.
"Sir," she begs him, "if you have carried him away,
tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him
away." She might as well have said, "Look, I won’t
press charges. Just show me the body, and we’ll
pretend it never happened." I guess that’s what you do
when you’re crying over a stolen body. You hope you
can strike a deal and pretend it never happened. You
hope you can put the body back and no one will get
hurt. Do you hear that where you are? </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">When you’re crying over
a stolen body, I guess that’s what you do, and I guess
that’s what you hope for. Look, just put it back, and
no one will get hurt.</font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">I think we in the church
have been living this pattern for quite a while:
suspicion, accusation, secret deals. A lot of
foolishness, and not very biblical, if you read this
text, because the story isn’t nearly over. Two things
happen. The first is that Jesus calls Mary by name.
And the second is that he won’t let her hold onto him.</font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">When you’re crying about
who took your Jesus away, I guess there’s only one
thing that will stop you. Mary. MARY. You have to hear
him say your name. I don’t know why, except that maybe
we can’t see resurrection any other way. And you have
to see it; you have to see it, because it’s not like
you can explain it; if you could explain it, Jesus
would have said, "I believe you’re operating with a
false hermeneutic, Mary. Sit down and let me interpret
these events for you." </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">No; you can’t explain
resurrection. It addresses you; it calls you out.
Mary! That’s all he had to say, and she knew. There
isn’t any guilty gardener; there isn’t any stolen
body. There’s a risen body! And what are the first
words out of her mouth? A confession: Rabbouni!—which
doesn’t mean "teacher" at all, but, my Lord. My Lord!
</font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">We can guess what she
tried to do next. She tried to embrace him: that’s the
second thing that happens. Because he literally says,
"Stop holding onto me; stop clinging to me." See how
fast it happens? You go from seeing resurrection to
confessing your faith to grabbing it with both fists.
And the next thing you know, the emphasis is shifting
from my Lord to my Lord; mine! There sure is a lot of
that going around, people suffocating other people
with their own clenched confessions. </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">Do you think that’s
what’s going on in the church?—a lot of weeping over
who stole the body and desecrated the tomb?—but also
these moments of absolute clarity when we know we have
been addressed; and we see what resurrection looks
like?—so we make our confession, and then we can’t
help it; we start to cling to it, and control it, and
defend it, and measure people against it, until before
you know it, we think we can judge what resurrection
looks like. Before you know it, we aren’t holding onto
anything but the Jesus of our own expectations. Do you
think that’s what’s going on in the church?</font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">He won’t let us do it,
will he? Don’t hold onto me. Stop clinging to me. </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">It is the first
post-resurrection teaching: </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">You can see the risen
Christ, but you can’t cling to him. </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">You can confess your
faith in Jesus, but you can’t own him. </font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">Don’t cling to him. Go
and announce that he is risen, he is risen indeed!</font></div>
<div align="justify"><font size="4">Happy Easter, sisters
and brothers.</font></div>
<div align="justify"><em><font size="4">Anna Carter Florence</font></em></div>
<strong></strong>
<big> </big><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<div align="center">
<div style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" align="center"><font size="3"><font face="Microsoft Sans Serif"><b><br>
</b></font></font><a target="_blank" __removedlink__476353808__href="http://www.GoodPreacher.com">GoodPreacher.com</a></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" align="center">PO Box 843 | Amelia, VA 23002<br>
</div>
804-561-3566 | <a __removedlink__476353808__href="mailto:office@goodpreacher.com">office@goodpreacher.com</a></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" align="center"><br>
</div>
</div>
<div> <br>
</div>
<div style="clear: both;"></div>
</font></font>