Lighten the Load

 Read John 20

We remember the exchange between Mary and Jesus on that morning of the first day. I will pick up at the point where Peter and another disciple—likely John—have left the tomb and Mary looks in and sees two angels.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

 

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

 

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

 

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

 

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

 

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

 

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

 

Jesus told her to go and tell the disciples what she had seen.  In other gospels Jesus adds meet me in Galilee or to remind Peter that this message is for him too.

It seems that Mary was the first person to see the resurrected Lord.  She couldn’t give him a big hug because he told her not to—he had yet to ascend to the Father.

Mary did as instructed but it appears nobody returned to the tomb after this. Jesus appeared to them—all except Thomas—on the evening of that same day.  We know the story of Thomas having to see for himself and he got that opportunity a week later.

We remember Thomas not needing to put his finger in the holes in the hands of Jesus or in his side.  Thomas was convinced immediately—my Lord and my God.

I love the words of Jesus that followed.  You believe because you have seen.  Those words applied to all of the disciples not just Thomas. Jesus continued, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

What wonderful words that followed the resurrection, but I would like us to consider what happened to kick this day off.

Mary had gone to the tomb.  The stone had been removed.  Evidently, she didn’t look inside, or maybe she did. She ran back to tell the disciples and told them that they have taken the Lord and we don’t know where he is.

So, maybe she did look in the tomb or maybe she drew her own conclusions. In either case, it was enough to prompt Peter and John to race to the tomb.

Long ago and far away, I was the commanding officer assigned to train and prepare a reserve infantry company to mobilize and go to war.  That day came with the first Gulf War.  When the reserves returned, their first sergeant remained on active duty for a few months.

Every day at noon we would go for a 5, 6, or 7-mile run.  As we were returning to my office and nearing the end of our run, I would ask if we were going to the sidewalk or the flag pole for the end of our run.  The first sergeant would say one or the other and I would sprint ahead of him to that point to make sure I finished first. Yes, I have always been that ornery.

After a couple months we entered the Dam to Dam 20 K Run.  It was 20 kilometers as you might suspect.  We paced each other for the duration.  This probably helped us go a little faster than we might have on our own. 

As we neared the end of the race, there was tape along the sides of the route that narrowed our running lane so the person at the finish line could take our tags and record the order of finish.

As we approached that point, the first sergeant asked me, is that the finish line? I said, I think so. I had never run this race before so his guess was as good as mine, but he sprinted in front of me so the person at the end of the funnel took his tag first.

He got me.  When it counted and our names would be listed, his should appear first. Years later, I googled the run and the year and found a list of finishers.  I was listed as something like 1,012 of over 9,000 runners (maybe more, maybe less—a whole bunch of people) and the first sergeant was listed as 1013.  Somehow, my tag got put on top of his. So for all posterity, I got to the finish first, not that anyone will ever check or care.

John—this gospel’s author notes that the other disciple—probably John himself—beat Peter to the tomb. He stopped but didn’t go in. Peter caught up but didn’t stop.  He went in.

John followed.  Jesus wasn’t there but his burial garments were.  The gospel says:

They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

So what did these two disciples do?  They went home, or at least to their home away from home in Jerusalem.

Upon hearing Mary’s report and seeing for themselves that Jesus was not in the tomb and his burial clothing was left behind, they rejoiced in his resurrection and started singing He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!  Not exactly!

They still didn’t get the big picture, even though Jesus told them more than once what had to happen.  Jesus even chewed out Peter when he said he wouldn’t let it happen.

These two men who would become pillars of the church were dumbfounded.  They didn’t get it.  They did the only thing they could think of—they went home, wherever that was in Jerusalem.

Maybe there would be a little coffee left or half a bagel. If they had stayed in a first-class joint, maybe some yogurt.  They went back to where they were staying.

Other than having a little chuckle at these disciples’ expense, why do I point this out?

There are two things that I will challenge you to do in celebration of today.  The first is begin a year-long celebration of the resurrection.  Yes, find a way to celebrate the victory of Jesus over death every day.  He took away our sins and conquered the grave.  We can look forward to life because of this.

Amen!  Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Oohrah!

We should celebrate today.  It is special not because it’s the actual date on the calendar but resurrection is special, and the love that sent Jesus to the cross is special. We are special to God.

The second thing is that I want you to cut yourselves some slack.  Yes, the Holy Spirit lives within us.  Yes, that same Spirit brings us to conviction when we do something wrong or fail to do what we should have done.  The Spirit is a blessing but very demanding.

It is tough to live up to the right standing that God gave us in the blood of Jesus.

On occasion, consider Peter and John on that first morning.  Despite the great things that they did in the days and years to come; they were somewhat confused.  They didn’t get it.  They were at a loss as to what to do so they went home.

Cut yourselves some slack every once in a while, when you don’t have everything figured out.  Take a breath when you don’t have all the answers.  Just chill every so often and know that God is God and he does have this figured out.  He knows the next steps.

Trust him and quit beating yourself up every time you miss the mark.  We still confess to God where we fall short.  We still aim high desiring to bring glory to God, but we are going to stop beating ourselves up and feeling down when we don’t quite have an explanation for everything—when we are not exactly sure what the next step is.

Who can understand the ways of the Lord?  Who can grasp the whole picture?  Sometimes, we know exactly what we must do, and sometimes, we wait for the Lord to reveal our next step.

We need to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord and what he has in store for us as his disciples.  We need to be known by our love and be a light in the world, and we need to lighten our load a little and stop carrying around the need to know exactly what to do right now.

Sometimes, we are to wait upon the Lord.  Sometimes we just trust and see where he leads us.  Sometimes we just go home, but we must never despair for we know with certainty that God loves us more than we can understand and will never stop loving us.

Let us celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.

Let’s lighten our load.  The Lord will direct our next steps in his time.

Amen.