SPEAKER_01 0:00

The Lord be with you. Thanks so much. What a great morning. John, I'm one of the pastors here. It's a gift to celebrate with you this morning the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the day I'm pretty sure C.S. Lewis had in mind when he said, wrongs will be right when Aslan is in sight. At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more. When he bears his teeth, winter shall meet its death. And when he shakes his mane, it shall be spring again. Winter shall meet its death. And if I can push that just a little bit farther, death meets its dying. And dying gets reversed into birthing. And we breathe oxygen as if for the first time the light's so bright you have to close your eyes or it'll hurt. And the cold, frigid reality of a world gone awfully wrong will only be a faint memory because of the warm that will be one day when winter meets its death. And it's spring again. Amen. This is the day. This is resurrection day. This is the day that Christians throughout time, and I'm talking like 2,000 years, and every place celebrate that God in Jesus Christ took on death to take death down. They killed him because he loved too much. They crucified him because he cared too much. They extinguished the flame of his life not realizing a fire was lit that would never go out. They put him to death thinking it'd keep him. But he rose up in resurrection because you can't stop him. So shake off the final four cobwebs, y'all. Or we could talk about that if you'd like. Or any disappointment you carry because you're not in a warmer place like your friends. And if you're online on that warmer place, it's give at pillarchurch.com. And let's open our hearts now to the one who loves too much. He just loves too much. Let's open our hearts to the story of the one who cared too much. Early on the first day of the week. While it was still dark. Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed. So she ran and told Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, they've taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they've laid him. So Simon Peter and the other disciple, they went towards the tomb. They were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down and looked into the tomb and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter came following him. He went into the tomb and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head rolled up and placed by itself. Then the other disciple came into the tomb and he saw and he believed. For as yet they did not understand the scriptures that he must rise from the dead. And then they went home. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. She bent down. She looked inside the tomb and saw two men sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at his head, the other at his feet. They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've laid him. When she had said this, she turned and she saw Jesus. But she didn't know that it was Jesus. He said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? What are you looking for? Supposing him to be the gardener. She said, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've laid him and I'll take him away.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

And he said, Mary.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

And she said, Raboni, which in Hebrew means teacher. He said, Don't touch me. I've not yet ascended to my father, but go. Tell my brothers, I'm ascending to my father and to your father, to my God and to your God. And she went and she said to the disciples, I've seen the Lord. And she told them all the things that he said to her. When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples met were locked for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. And he showed them his hands and his side. And when they saw that it was the Lord, they rejoiced. He said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And he breathed on them. He said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they're retained. Now Thomas, who was called the twin, was not with them. So the disciples went and said, We've seen the Lord, but Thomas said, Unless I see the mark of the nail in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nail and my hands in his side, I will not believe. A week later, they were together again in the house, and the doors were shut, and Jesus came and stood among them. Thomas was with them. And Jesus said, Peace be with you. And he said to Thomas, put your finger here. Put your hand in my side. Don't doubt, but believe. And Thomas said, My Lord and my God. And Jesus said, Do you believe because you've seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen me, but have come to believe. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. These are written that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him, you may have life in his name. This is the word of the Lord.

unknown 7:48

Thanks be to God.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Thanks be to God. It's John chapter 20, if you want to find it around the egg hunt later this afternoon. So much going on in John's account of the resurrection, isn't there? Stones are rolling. Rolling stones. Angels are talking. Resurrection happening. People running. Why is everybody running? Mary runs from the tomb. Peter and John run toward the tomb. Mary runs back. She runs again. I thought we weren't supposed to be in such a hurry. I read that book, you know, Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, and here we are, running everywhere. Peter and John, they they see the linen wrappings lying there. They believe, but they don't understand. Which I take as permission. You believe, but you don't always quite understand. The disciples, they're they're hiding out. You would too. The doors are locked for fear of the Jews. You ever been scared? So scared you lock the doors? Like a baby sitting at a new house. You hear some sound. Check the doors. Mary, Mary, she's she's she's crying. She's weeping. You know what it's like to cry? Uh when I became one of the pastors here at Pillar, this is like 15 years ago now, if you can believe that. Uh I'm an RCA pastor, okay? And at the time Pillar was a CRC church, so I came to the CRC church alongside Chris DeVos, who's a CRC pastor, and I'd preach these sermons on those Sunday mornings early in Pillar's reestablishment, and they were phenomenal. And invariably I'd cry. You know, you can talk to my therapist about why. I'd cry, and one Sunday, Chris's daughter asked her dad, Do all RCA pastors cry like that? That's a true story. I don't know, I don't really care. I just want to know why are you weeping? When I do premarital counseling, and in pretty much every other setting I can find myself in, I ask people to write their autobiography of loss. I'm not trying to like re-traumatize or you know stir up pain. I just want to know why are you weeping? Like, what makes you hurt? Because you know what happens when we don't tend to grief? You know what happens? It's like cancer. It grows and it presses on our organs and they stop functioning until we die. That's what happens. This is why people you've heard it said, hurting people hurt people. Well, yeah. David Brooks wrote in the book, How to Know a Person: Pain That Is Not Transformed is transmitted. So I guess it's a fair question: why are you weeping? The first words out of the mouth of the resurrected Christ. Like, think of the options.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

You know? We did it, Mary. We got him, Mary. Let's get him, Mary. Let's get him.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

That's probably what I'd say. He says, Why are you weeping? They told me, they told me empathy was weak. Have they met him? They told me tears were soft. Do they know him? They told me sympathy was for losers. I'm not sure you've met him. Why are you weeping? On one level, it's a simple question. You know? Like, are you the only stranger in Israel who doesn't know what's happened there in these days? That's Luke, Luke's gospel? Like, don't you know? What have you you gardener? What are you doing? I don't even want to talk to you right now. But it's not a simple question, it's a complicated question. Jesus is asking Mary to go to the place of her own pain. To go to her ache. Not to wallow, but to remember that's where he goes. That's where he is. That's what he does to rewrite the story, to reorient our lives. So why are you weeping? Wars rage, troops march, bombs kill. Cancer destroys, cancer hurts, hope. Cancer brings faith to its knees. Marriage is hard, but singleness is tough. Jobs are necessary, but sometimes frustrating, and sometimes frustration is more than we can take. So why are you weeping? There was a pillar men's retreat last weekend. I went to like 45 minutes of it, so I'm just sharing what I heard. Someone there reported some data that the average American male, you ready for this? You're gonna love this, has half a friend. Well, let me help you. If there's two guys, one of them has a friend. And if there's ten guys and one of them has five, nine of them don't have any. So why are you weeping? I read somewhere that young moms are among the demographics in the U.S. who are lonely. I don't know, I'm not one, so I'll tread lightly, but something about postpartum and sleeplessness and the emotional toll and the physical challenge and no time, so when you find it, you go to take a nap, and when you wake up, nobody's there. Why are you weeping? It's kind of a complex one. And depending on how you look at it, you can sort of see it. Well, like, what are you talking? Like, you don't know? And then, and then, like, whoa, whoa, where are you? What are you doing here? Why are you asking? And then on another level, it's like almost rhetorical. Why why are you weeping? Didn't did don't the stone's been rolled back? The tomb is empty, the linen claws are lying there, but he's standing here? He's asking not just to make her go back to the place of pain, but to promise her he redeems us in our pain. That's why he came. To take on the pain and undo the pain, to restore us again. So don't be afraid to ask and answer, why are you weeping? You'll find him there. You'll meet him there. This is why when we recite the Apostles' Creed, you know, on a Sunday morning and it says he descended into hell, there is no place he won't go. And then he asks, What are you looking for? Is your ham gonna be okay? Because I got I got a while yet. What are you looking for? The the question word and the heart language of the New Testament, like who, what, when, where, why? It's only one word. There's not like five words, there's one word, tiss. You better check me on this because I'm going off the top of my memory here. So you don't really know what he's asking. Is it who are you looking for? What are you looking for? Why are you looking? I don't know. I mean, uh simply, it's the same answer the Sunday school teacher told you to give. You know, what are you looking for? Right. Simple, but it's not. It's John's gospel, it's complex. What are you looking for? Freud told us we were looking for sex. Marx told us we were looking for money. Nietzsche told us we were looking for power. I might have the philosophers wrong, but I've got the question right. What are you looking for? Frederick Biekner has these great lines. Each must say for himself what he searches for. And there will be as many answers as there are searchers. But perhaps there are certain general answers that will do for us all. We search for a self to be, we search for other selves to love, we search for work to do. And since even when to one degree or another we find these things, we find also that there's still something crucial missing which we have not found. We search for that unfound thing too, even though we don't know its name or where it's to be found or even if it's to be found at all. So what are you looking for? We're all looking for something. We all want something. Something's waking you up in the morning. I made something up this morning in one of the services. I made it up. I call it once-I life. Once I am in a relationship, then I won't be so lonely. Once I get through this project, I won't carry so much stress and I'll be much nicer at home. Once I get the job, I won't be so worried about money. Once I lose this, or once I gain that, once-eye life. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Well, the testimony of history, once I living never satisfies. I mean, you could do your own research. Once you have the thing you're looking for, you realize it's not all you're looking for. So what are you looking for? Jesus, the first words out of the resurrected mouth? I mean, of all the things to say. Chest bumping and high fiving, and let's go. Why are you weeping? What are you looking for? And then we don't get an answer. Which is kind of a gospel trick. When the gospel writers ask a question they don't answer, it's because they want you to ask. Why are you weeping? What are you looking for? All we get is supposing him to be the gardener. Incredibly unhelpful. A case of mistaken identity, I suppose. Supposing him to be like, why do we I don't know? Why who can't like give us some details about the resurrected body, you know? Was he bigger? Was he like stronger? You know? What? We got nothing except he's got holes in his hands and scars in his side. And she thinks he's a gardener. Would you actually pay attention there? This is John's Gospel. John's gospel begins in the beginning, was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came. John's gospel begins in a garden, and here we are now after the resurrection in the garden with a gardener. He takes us back to the beginning when God made the world, and it was all so good, so very good, but something so awful happened, tragic, really, traumatic, actually. Sin got out, brokenness broke loose, death emerged. Cain killed Abel, Lamech killed a man. You can read that, Genesis 3 and 4. Suffering happened, diagnoses took place, children hurt, wars rage, bombs explode, guns go off, social inequalities happen, racial injustice everywhere, it's death. Emerged. And the first words out of the mouth of God after the fall. Where are you? The first words out of the living God's mouth after the fall is a question. And here we are after the resurrection with more questions. I'm picking up a pattern. Where are you? Why are you weeping? What are you looking for? Supposing him to be the gardener. The gardener's gardening again is the point. The gardener's overturned the soil, you know? Like if you're trekking with me, they dug it out. The gardener's pulling the weeds again so they don't choke us out. Again. The gardener's bringing. That's what it says. That you may have life in his name. The gardener's gardening again. He wants so much for us. He wants too much for us. That he meets us where we are to take us to the place he wants us to be. That's what he's doing. He's the gardener. It's not a case of mistaken identity, it's a promise. Until that great day when the elder will say to you too, he wipes tears from our eyes and says, See the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, he has conquered. And he's worthy. So come to the table today. Come to the table. Feast on the goodness of a God who gardens. Of a God who sets a table, of a God whose heart is so full of love for you, so full of care for you. That one day the lion and the lamb will lie down together and there will be peace on earth. One day swords will become plow shears and spears will become pruning hooks. One day the hungry will have all they need to eat, and the thirsty will drink endlessly. One day everything will be made right because Jesus Christ took on pain, went to the grave, and rose up in resurrection. So come to the table. He's just wanting you to locate it appropriately at the feet of the throne of grace. Amen? In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.