George Burns in his book, How To Live To Be 100 -­Or More has a chapter entitled, "Stay Away From Funerals, Especially Yours." George said that if you look in the obituary column in the morning and your name isn't there, "go ahead and have breakfast." He said that if he ever looked in .the obituary column and found his name was there, he would still have breakfast. He said, "I'm not leaving here on an empty stomach."  Since writing those lines his name has appeared in an obituary column. Death inevitably came for George Burns.

Nothing is surer than death and taxes. Even though some people avoid taxes no one avoids death. Even worse, no one avoids losing people they love.

We don't associate tears with Easter. Yet the truth is tears were very much a part of that first Easter. Mary Magdalene stood outside the tomb weeping. Death is a sad business. The Romans had executed Jesus in the most horrible way imaginable, by crucifixion. This is now the third day since he had cried "It Is Finished!" and gave up the life that was in his body.

His body had been laid away in that tomb, lifeless and battered. A huge stone had been placed at the mouth of the tomb and it had been sealed but as Mary came to the tomb that morning she had found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. After running to Peter and John and telling them she had returned to the tomb and stood there. Tears flowing copiously down her cheeks.

As she wept the two angels seated in the tomb said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said^* to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”

There is some consolation in having the body of the deceased. The families of prisoners of war missing and unaccounted for are somewhat relieved when the body of their loved one is returned. The families of soldiers who die in Iraq or elsewhere are given some measure of closure when the body bags are returned and there is a memorial service. But the tears of Mary at the tomb would not be wiped away by just finding the body of Jesus.

The corpse of the deceased does not relieve death’s sorrow. When you lose someone you love the ache can go on and on. Even some of our children know what it is to lose a pet. Some of our teenagers know what it is to lose a friend in a tragic accident as happened last week when Brian Keel lost his life in an automobile accident. Sooner or later all of us have to confront the reality of death in this life.

But Mary was not only weeping because she had lost someone she loved. She was weeping because she did not understand the grandeur of the Gospel. She had not yet encountered the risen Christ. He was standing right there beside her, but she did not at first recognize him.

Karl Barth was once asked, "Why do people come to church!?" He answered, "People come to church asking the question: “Is it true"

I suspect that is particularly true on Easter Sunday. "Is it true?” People have heard that there is a genius God who created this universe and who presides over it, who knows when even the tiniest sparrow falls from the sky. Perhaps they have heard that because he so loved the world he sent his own Son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life, but is it all true? Can I really trust my life and the lives of those I love to His care? Is it true? Can I count on it?"

Some people say to themselves, "Oh, if I had been alive 2,000 years ago when Jesus walked the earth, if I had seen his miracles, if I had heard him speak and had been there when he raised Lazarus and others from the dead, then it would have been so much easier to believe it is all true.

Wait a minute. Mary Magdalene had been there. Peter, James, John and the other apostles had walked and talked with him and seen all his miracles, yet they were just as despondent and sorrowful as she was.

 In John Gunther's moving book, Death Be Not Proud, Gunther tells of the death of his eighteen-year-old

son Johnny. Johnny was a handsome, tall, fair-haired boy. He went to Deerfield Academy where he majored in mathematics and chemistry. For fourteen months Johnny had suffered from a brain tumor for which he had two operations. But after the second, and about two weeks before he died, he passed his examinations for Columbia. He was a fine, brave young man. After his first operation, the doctors asked his father and mother about the advisability of telling Johnny what was the matter with him. He was so intelligently interested that the doctors thought it wiser to explain, and the older Gunthers agreed. The surgeon went to Johnny alone and told him the full gravity of a brain tumor. The boy listened carefully, then looked the doctor in the eye and asked, "How shall we break it to my parents?“ He was more concerned about his parent's reaction than he was with the prospect of death.

Jesus had tried to break it to his disciples what was to happen to him -- that he must suffer and die and on the third day be raised. Simon Peter had protested. He would defend the Lord all by himself if need be.

The others never seemed to grasp the full import of Jesus' words. Now he had been crucified and they were scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Their dreams shattered, their hearts broken, they were headed back to their fishing nets, back to their farms and their household duties The great void that the Master had filled in their hearts had been replaced with an aching emptiness. They hurt and Jesus hurt for them. Mary Magdalene was hurting. She expressed her pain with tears. In her grief she wanted at least to see him again, even though he was gone from his body.

We can relate to Mary’s grief. Most of us have lost someone near and dear to us or know of someone who has experienced deep sorrow. Grief can be very painful. It happened to the brilliant writer C. S. Lewis.

Lewis lived a comfortable life as a professor and author. He confidently expounded the Christian faith in the midst of skeptical colleagues. His confirmed bachelorhood was rudely interrupted when he met Joy, a Jewish divorcee and a former communist, who became a Christian through the reading of Lewis' books. They were married in an unusual secret ceremony, what he called a "technical marriage," in which they continued to live apart. When it was discovered that Joy had cancer, they married "openly" before God.

          A brief remission of the cancer only added to the devastating grief Lewis had to endure upon her death.

He wrote, “I never knew that love could hurt so much, yet I love you, and all I want is to love you. Beyond every door, I hear your voice saying to me: This is the land of shadows...real life has not even begun yet."

Love certainly does hurt, particularly when we are separated from that person we deeply love

It is amazing in the gospel accounts how little impact the life of the historical Jesus had on his followers.   Seeing the miracles, hearing the most beautiful and important teachings that humanity had ever received did not suffice. They all fled when he was arrested and faced the cross. The cross was an enigma to them.

          Right after Mary Magdalene told the angels she was weeping because they had taken away her Lord , she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said^* to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” ¹⁶Jesus said^* to her, “Mary!” She turned and said^* to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). ¹⁷Jesus said^* to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”

    When Mary Magdalene heard him call her name she recognized him and threw her arms around him. Her tears vanished away. She was ecstatic.  Sorrow turned to amazing joy. Wonder of wonders, He is risen. He is alive in a flesh and bone body forevermore. His body had undergone change so that she didn’t at first recognize him, but when he called her name and told her he was ascending to His Father and her Father she was assured  that it was indeed her Lord in the flesh.

She then came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

There are those who want to see Jesus only as a great teacher, but it is not enough. Others want to elevate him as the perfect role model. He was, but that is not enough. Others want us to see Jesus die on the cross and say that is the kind of courage and sacrificial love we need in the world today. It is, but it is not enough. If the story of Jesus had ended with his life, teachings, passion, and death on the cross, it is clear that the disciples would have gone back to their previous occupations and Jesus would have long since have been forgotten. No, my friends, it was the experience of the risen Christ that transformed Mary Magdalene and that little band of followers into a dynamic missionary community that went forth to tell the whole world the good news of the Gospel, of forgiveness of sins and the resurrection event of Jesus Christ. Let no one say, "I am a Christian, but I do not believe in the resurrection.

That great and committed preacher W. E. Sangster found that he had an incurable disease that caused progressive muscular atrophy. His muscles would gradually waste away. His voice would fail. His throat would become unable to swallow.

On Easter morning just a few weeks before his death, he wrote to his daughter, "It is terrible to wake up

on Easter morning and have no voice with which to shout 'HE IS RISEN!' -- but it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout."  You and I have voices. We can shout, "HE IS ALIVE! HE IS RISEN

Mary’s tears moved Jesus. He spoke her name. The inward tears of many of us who also do not realize the full grandeur of the Gospel, who also have not encountered the risen Christ, move Jesus. Do you hear him calling your name this Easter morning? He is alive. If you know that truth in your heart, doesn't it make you

want to shout? -- He Is Alive. He Has Risen As He Said!

           He paid the full penalty of death that they and we deserve by holy decree. His sinless life is worth more than the entire world. His sacrificial love was poured out to enable God to be just in remitting your sins and my sins. He did not stay in that stone sealed tomb. He rose from the dead victor over sin, over Satan, over death itself. He said of Himself, I am the first and the last, ¹⁸and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

          He will make himself real to you as you confess your sins to him and ask him to come into your heart as Savior and Lord. I invite you to do that right now. 

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The paper and sermon manuscripts from Pastor Todd W. Allen are made freely available for review and distribution. We only request that proper web page attribution be provided if distributed for any reason. Please be gracious to forgive typos and errors of expression. These notes are faithful approximations of what has been preached. May God be glorified in the preaching of His Word.

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