That Empty Tomb Feeling
What you feel when things don’t turn out like you expect
Larry Thorson
Scripture Text: John 20:1-9
Jn 20:1 Early on the first day of the week,
while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had
been removed from the entrance.
Jn 20:2 So she came running to Simon Peter
and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the
tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
Jn 20:3 So Peter and the other disciple
started for the tomb.
Jn 20:4 Both were running, but the other
disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
Jn 20:5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.
Jn 20:6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him,
arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there,
Jn 20:7 as well as the burial cloth that had
been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was
folded up by itself, separate from the linen.
Jn 20:8 Finally the other disciple, who had
reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.
Jn 20:9 (They still did not understand from
Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) New International
Version Bible
Introduction to the Series
That Empty Tomb Feeling. While it’s not yet recognized by the American
Psychological Association as an officially sanctioned valid human emotion, it
should be. It’s the name I’ve given for
what we feel when we expect one result but get the opposite. It’s what you feel during those few minutes
following the surprise when you’re standing there scratching your head and
asking “What do I do now?” Like when you
went to your tax preparer expecting to get a refund and discovered that you owed
the IRS $5,000.
I
call it the empty tomb feeling because of what Jesus’ followers and observers
experienced on the first Easter Sunday. They
went to what they thought was his final burial place and it was empty. They were expecting one result and got
another. That’s not supposed to happen
at tombs.
As
I was writing this sermon my wife called with news that her mother’s breast
cancer surgery went so much worse than we had hoped. The cancer had spread and she needed to begin
chemo and radiation treatment immediately.
She and Martha’s dad had Amtrak tickets to come see us from
In
hindsight we now know that the empty tomb on the first Easter meant Jesus was
resurrected from the dead. But the last
time I checked with Lenscrafters or the Wal Mart optometry department neither
one was yet selling glasses with hindsight lenses. We don’t live in a hindsight world but what
if we could?
Each
week in this series we’re going to look in at a different person who
experienced that same empty tomb on the first Easter. It’s kind of like one of
those crime scene movies that shows the crime from the different perspectives
of the participants. There’s the
perspective of the victim’s family, the criminals, the criminal’s family, the witness
across the street, the witness in the high rise and so forth. It’s told in such a way that each response to
the same news of the empty tomb reveals something uniquely interesting about that
person’s past experience.
We see things based upon our past
experiences. That’s why there are so
many different accounts of the same event.
Our past experiences shape our responses to the future. Once we understand how our past experiences are
shaping our present responses we can start to see through hindsight
glasses.
This series That Empty Tomb
Feeling is designed to help us understand why we respond the way we do by
showing us multiple examples of different responses to the same event. The manuscript for each of the sermons will
be available in the courtyard immediately after we preach it and will include a
daily reading Bible reading guide and some thought questions to help you deal
with the material. Notebooks will also
be available in the courtyard for a donation to help you keep the sermons
together. I want to urge you to commit at
least fifteen minutes a day if you’re not already spending time in the Word to
reflect on these Scripture passages and this material. It will help give you the perspective to deal
with the empty tomb unexpected experiences that are bound to be coming your
way.
The First Empty Tomb Experience
We begin the series featuring a
woman, Mary Magdalene. My
wife likes to point out the first person to Jesus’ tomb on the first Easter was
a woman…as she would have expected. Then
she likes to add “And where were the men?”
Personally I don’t think Mary had been
sleeping much that weekend. Some
traditions say that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were dating, some even say they
were married. Leonardo Da Vinci’s
painting of the Last Supper of Jesus appears to show a woman, presumably Mary
sitting beside him among the disciples.
But nothing in Scripture indicates any of that is true. I think Scripture indicates that she really
was in love with Jesus and followed him to his death. In Mark
She was probably tired and possibly even
depressed not to mention confused over how someone who was doing so much good
could be killed so young. It was normal
practice at that time when burying someone to leave their body alone for three
days to make sure they were really dead.
The first thing she saw when she got to
the tomb was the stone at its entrance rolled away. I suspect she knew immediately that something
was wrong. One time a few years ago
before we moved here my wife and I went on a nice ten mile bike ride around
In
Jesus’ day the stone at the entrance of a tomb could have weighed more than two
tons. It was rolled into a trench so it
couldn’t move. The only time it would be
moved was when other family members were being added to the tomb. After the body decayed the family would
return and bury the remaining bones in a separate carved out area in the
tomb. But the tomb would be sealed
immediately following the burial to make sure that it wasn’t tampered
with. The tombstone was rarely rolled
back.
We
don’t bury people in tombs much any more.
They’re a little pricey to build.
For one thing they were hewn out of rocky hillsides. Only the rich in Jesus’ day could afford to
pay the labor involved in such construction.
Jesus wasn’t rich but Joseph of Arimethia, a follower of his was, and he
donated his brand new, recently finished family tomb before they had ever used
it (Matthew 27:57-61). That was an
expensive gift.
Mary ran back and got the
men. Jn 20:2 In John
20:2 we read “So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one
Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,
and we don’t know where they have put him!”
“They?” Who are “they”? No where in that statement does Mary indicate
that she was expecting Jesus to be resurrected.
No where.
Then we read in John 20:3-9
“So Peter
and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other
disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Jn 20:5 He bent over and looked in
at the strips of linen lying
there but did not go in. Jn 20:6
Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw
the strips of linen lying there, Jn 20:7 as well as the burial cloth
that had been around Jesus’ head. The
cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Jn 20:8 Finally the other
disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and
believed. Jn 20:9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that
Jesus had to rise from the dead.)”
The “other disciple” whom Jesus
loved is thought to be the author of this gospel, the Apostle John. It says that they saw the empty tomb and
believed the woman’s testimony that it was empty but still did not believe that
Jesus had been resurrected. This is
important to realize. None of Jesus’
early followers are reported to have believed initially that Jesus was going to
be resurrected. The empty tomb was not
expected.
It’s
not like Jesus didn’t give them enough advance warning about being resurrected
on the third day because even his enemies remembered he had said it as we read
in Matthew 27:62-66.
“The next day, the one after Preparation Day,
the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. Mt 27:63 “Sir,”
they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said,
‘After three days I will rise again.’ Mt 27:64 So give the order for
the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may
come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the
dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” Mt 27:65 “Take a guard,” Pilate
answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” Mt 27:66 So they went and made the
tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.”
Mary,
Peter and John all had experienced Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead within
the last few years and yet the resurrection was not in their expectation. In coming weeks we’ll look more at why they
struggled so hard with the resurrection.
They all eventually believed and spent the rest of their lives telling
their world about the risen Christ.
A Personal Testimony
I
was raised from birth to believe in the empty tomb. My mom was not raised in the faith and my dad
was raised in a faith that was spoken in the language of the old country. Religion wasn’t much of a topic at our house
although we regularly went to church.
At age 14 I doubted whether the
resurrection was true or God was real.
For two years I considered other religions and read a fair amount of
religious materials. Just before I turned 16 I read through the whole New
Testament and got half way through the Old Testament before I realized that my
life was sort of going in circles like the Jews in the wilderness trying to get
to the Promised Land. I was trying to be
a competitive runner and expected that if I trained hard enough I’d become
one. Every time I got near a big race
I’d have a nagging injury that would set me back. I seemed to be just running from one athletic
injury to another. That became my empty
tomb. I wanted my life to amount to
something and so not having all my questions answered by faith I decided to try
inviting Jesus into my heart. It was a
simple faith but it was enough to meet the Savior who has been my best friend
ever since.
I
want to conclude this morning with a story I read by a man named Harry
Pritchett, Jr. about a young friend named Philip.[1] “Philip was born with Downs Syndrome. He was a pleasant child-happy, it seemed-but
increasingly aware of the difference between himself and other children. Philip went to Sunday school at the Methodist
church. His teacher, also a friend of
mine, taught the third-grade class with Philip and nine other eight-year old
boys and girls.
You
know eight-year-olds. And Philip,
because of his differences, was not readily accepted. But my teacher friend was creative, and he
helped the group of eight-year-olds.
They learned, they laughed, they played together. And they really cared about one another, even
though eight-year-olds don’t say they care about each other out loud. My teacher friend could see it. He knew it.
He also knew that Philip was not really a part of that group. Philip did not choose nor did he want to be
different. He just was. And that was just the way things were.
My
friend had a marvelous idea for his class the Sunday after Easter last
year. You know those things that
pantyhose come in-the containers that look like great big eggs-my friend had collected
ten of them. The children loved it when
he brought them into the room. Each
child was to get one. It was a beautiful
spring day, and the assignment was for each child to go outside, find a symbol
for new life, put it into the egg, and bring it back to the classroom. They would then open and share their new life
symbols and surprises one by one.
It
was glorious. It was confusing. It was wild.
They ran all around the church grounds, gathering their symbols, and
returned to the classroom. They put all
the eggs on a table, and then the teacher began to open them. All the children stood around the table.
He
opened one, and there was a flower, and they oohed and aahed. He opened another, and there was a little
butterfly. “Beautiful”, the girls all
said, since it is hard for eight-year-old boys to say “beautiful.” He opened another and there was a rock. And as third graders will, some laughed, and
some said “That’s crazy! How’s a rock
supposed to be like new life? But the
smart little boy who’d found it spoke up: “That’s mine. And I knew all of you would get flowers and
buds and leaves and butterflies and stuff like that. So I got a rock because I wanted to be different. And for me, that’s new life.” They all laughed.
My
teacher friend said something to himself the profundity of eight-year-olds and
opened the next one. There was nothing
there. The other children, as
eight-year-olds will, said, “That’s not fair-That’s stupid!-Somebody didn’t do
it right.”
Then
my teacher friend felt a tug on his shirt, and he looked down. Philip was standing beside him “It’s mine,”
Philip said. “It’s mine.” And the children said, “You don’t ever do
things right, Philip. There’s nothing
there!”
“I
did so do it,” Philip said. “I did do
it. It’s empty. The tomb is empty!” There was silence, a very full silence. And for you people who don’t believe in
miracles, I want to tell you that one happened that day last spring. From that time on, it was different. Philip suddenly became a part of that group
of eight-year-old children. They took
him in. He was set free from the tomb of
his differentness.”
That
empty tomb feeling. What you feel when
things don’t turn out like you expect.
Life will always be filled with those but they’re not always what they
appear. That’s the lesson of Jesus’
empty tomb. It was empty because he was
resurrected. Millions of people across
the generations from brilliant scientists to eight year old Philip with Downs
Syndrome have believed that Jesus was resurrected and it has changed their
life.
Say
to God in prayer that I believe Jesus’ tomb was empty because he conquered what
killed him and rose from the dead. Say
to God I acknowledge that I am a separated from you and I want to receive Jesus
Christ as my Savior today. Receiving
Jesus Christ has turned around more empty tomb feelings than anyone single act
I know of. If you’re experiencing some
empty tomb feeling and you know that you’ve never received Christ pray that
little pray I just mentioned.
If
Christ is your savior and you’re feeling the empty tomb because of something in
your life remember that you don’t have hindsight vision. Tell God about it in prayer. Get some others to pray with you and then
know that he will turn your situation around as he did for those he loved on
the first Easter.
Next
week we’ll look more in depth at Mary and how her shedding tears when she had
the empty tomb feeling actually improved her vision. We’ll see how crying prevented her from
missing the greatest sight she would ever see in her lifetime.
Study Guide
2.
Describe your feelings when you
first discovered that something was not going to turn out as you expected. Use feeling words like “I felt sad” or “I
felt mad”, etc.
3.
What do you think kept Jesus’
disciples from expecting his tomb to be empty?
4.
Describe how your past experiences
influenced you during your empty tomb experience.
5.
Just as Larry described his
experience in coming to a faith in Christ, describe your experience.
DAILY BIBLE READING
Monday Mark 15:33-41
Notice who followed Jesus to the
cross and cared for his needs.
Notice the response of the
centurion or guard in v.38.
How do you think you would have
responded in this situation?
Tuesday Mark 15:42-47
Why do you think Pilate was
surprised? (v.44)
List the people who were at the
tomb where Jesus was laid?
Joseph donated his expensive
personal tomb. List the biggest
sacrifices you have made for Jesus over the years.
Wednesday John
What did Mary do differently than
the disciples?
Do you see yourself more like the
disciples or more like Mary? Why?
Thursday
John 11:1-16
Describe
how Mary and Martha felt during the two days they waited for Jesus to
come…vv.5-6.
Describe
how the disciples felt about Jesus going back to
Do
you see yourself more like the disciples or like Mary and Martha in this case? Why?
Friday John
Describe
Martha’s emotions in vv.21-22.
Describe
Mary’s emotions in v.32
Describe
Jesus’ emotions in v.33.
Saturday Psalm 102
Describe
what the Psalmist was feeling (i.e. happy, sad, worried)
Is
there anything positive in this Psalm?
In
light of how Jesus responded to Mary and Martha’s tears in John 11:33 above,
how do you think God would respond to this Psalmist?
Sunday John
Read
this passage again from Wednesday’s reading in light of what you have read and
thought about during the week.
[1] Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes by Charles Swindoll, p.490ff quoting Harry Pritchett, Jr in Leadership Magazine, Summer 1985.