John 20:11-18

00:00:00:45 – 00:00:20:06
Clint Loveall
All right, everybody, thanks for being back with us on this Tuesday as we continue through Gospel of John in the 20th chapter, which is the resurrection chapter in the Gospel of John. Yesterday we saw that two of the disciples had, in the aftermath of being told by Mary Magdalene that the body was gone, run to the tomb.

00:00:20:11 – 00:00:46:32
Clint Loveall
They had looked they had not understood what was happening. Today, that story continues. Let’s do the reading first and we’ll come back with some general comments. Jump in here at verse 11. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb as she wept. She bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.

00:00:46:37 – 00:01:14:35
Clint Loveall
They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said, they’ve taken away my lord, and I do not know where they’ve laid him. When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she didn’t know it was Jesus. He said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom 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 will take him away.

00:01:14:40 – 00:01:39:13
Clint Loveall
Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabbi, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord.

00:01:39:18 – 00:02:15:38
Clint Loveall
And she told them that he had said these things to her. As we move into the text, one thing that should be said, and this is true of all the Gospels, it’s a very unlikely reality in the story that Easter, in each case, is first announced to women. The Gospels are of one voice that the resurrected Christ is seen by or announced to women first, and they then take the message back to the disciples.

00:02:15:43 – 00:02:52:31
Clint Loveall
This it’s it’s probably hard to overstate how surprising that is in the context of that world and that culture. Certainly an affirmation of the role of these women. I suppose you could say on one hand that makes sense, because they would be the one dealing with the body. But the idea that women were literally the first evangelists, they were the first to be trusted with the with the good news of the gospel and sent to tell the disciples it is, I mean, we’re comfortable with it, Michael.

00:02:52:31 – 00:03:18:42
Clint Loveall
We’re we’re used to it. But the reality is that it’s a stunning twist in the story with the women have not typically like in this gospel, for instance, there have been women, they’ve done some things, washed his, anointed his feet, and you know, Martha and Mary. But there’s nothing like this where they’ve been, the ones that are sent, they’ve been the ones entrusted to the message.

00:03:18:46 – 00:03:24:47
Clint Loveall
This is really a surprising twist in the story, I think, and it’s hard for us to realize it.

00:03:24:52 – 00:04:07:03
Michael Gewecke
Yet because a woman in the ancient world is not getting called to court to offer testimony, that there are so many cultural connections here that are beyond us. And, you know, in many ways that’s a good thing that we’ve well and and always that’s a good thing that we’ve made this progression. But I think what what we miss in a story like this is there is a kind of editorial choice in including these stories, you know, even if you just think, well, they could have not told this part of the story and instead only told about the the male witness side of it, which would have fit the context that these books would have been

00:04:07:03 – 00:04:38:05
Michael Gewecke
first received. And there’s a kind of compelling twist to the way that the Gospels tell the story. Consistently. You have Peter denying Jesus three times, which is goes against the idea of testifying to the reliability of the witnesses who give the story. And here’s another example of picking witnesses who in some ways undercuts that testimony. And I think it reflects a kind of confidence from the writers that ultimate Lee.

00:04:38:16 – 00:05:00:19
Michael Gewecke
These characters matter even with their flaws and their weaknesses, and all of the questions it would raise to the to the first audience. There’s also a strength in that, because indeed, we know that the early church was full of faithful women, disciples who were witnessing to the gospel, and they were doing the work of the church in so many important ways.

00:05:00:19 – 00:05:26:40
Michael Gewecke
So that that is reflected here even in the story. But we can’t also miss here, Clint, that Mary Magdalene is not a stranger in the Gospel of John. Right. We know, and John’s gone out of his way to make sure that we know that Mary’s had close contact with Jesus in his life and ministry. So all the same, with all of that surprise we should have about the fact that the women are the ones record.

00:05:26:40 – 00:06:14:27
Michael Gewecke
That’s as having these encounters. We should be even more shocked, absolutely gobsmacked. I think at the idea that when she turns around and sees this person, verse 14, she did not know that it was Jesus I this is an interesting detail that John’s giving us, and I think it’s it. Of course, there’s going to be a lot of, you know, discussion about what it does and doesn’t mean I, I just think the idea that you have in your resurrection story that the person who is resurrected is not even recognized by one of those close inner circle people is another detail that you just would be surprised to find in, witness kind of text, you

00:06:14:27 – 00:06:26:34
Michael Gewecke
know, hey, this is what happened. Well, how is it that you didn’t recognize it? I this John is on a afraid of those details, those bumps in the text. And it’s in there for us to have the whole kit and caboodle.

00:06:26:34 – 00:06:56:29
Clint Loveall
We don’t want to get ahead of the thing of the story, the rest of the story. But there is a thing that John does, maybe to some extent it’s in all the Gospels, but I think John really leans on it the most. The resurrected Christ is very strange in the Gospel of John. Mary doesn’t recognize him in the next part of the story.

00:06:56:29 – 00:07:27:41
Clint Loveall
He’s going to walk through, apparently walk through a door, or possibly just appear. He carry scars. This business in this text about you can’t touch me yet. I’m not back with the father. But then he’s going to tell Thomas, put your hand on me. There’s something. There’s something spiritual. There’s something, there’s something that isn’t quite that is impossible to pin down about the resurrected Jesus.

00:07:27:41 – 00:07:54:10
Clint Loveall
And I think John makes the most of that. And I think that sets the stage for this beautiful moment where Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus thinking he’s the gardener, and it’s the moment that he calls her by name that she then sees him and more than sees him. She she praises him as teacher, or she is sort of a gasp, almost.

00:07:54:10 – 00:08:34:49
Clint Loveall
And I think from a spiritual or devotional approach, this is a beautiful moment in the text where it is in being called by name that she recognizes Jesus as the resurrected one, that she now sees him for who he is, if maybe not yet for what he is, but certainly for who he is. And I think there’s just something profound in that, Michael, this idea that Jesus is a stranger to her until she hears her name from his lips, and then and then she’s able to witness, she’s able to see.

00:08:34:49 – 00:08:57:15
Clint Loveall
And, you know, that’s a great preaching springboard. The idea that Jesus calls us by name and introduces himself to us. And it’s only then that we kind of see him in a moment of faith that we call him teacher or rabbi. I, I just, I think that’s really well-written. I think it’s very deep. It’s it’s a nice moment in the text.

00:08:57:19 – 00:09:27:39
Michael Gewecke
It’s a nice moment in the text. I think it also provides for us, I kind of layering understanding of the waves of belief that happens in the faith itself. I do think that John is providing a glimpse of each one of these unique characters response to the miracle of resurrection, and I think we’re going to see in the next chapter, we’re going to see a very different response to the resurrection of Christ.

00:09:27:54 – 00:09:51:10
Michael Gewecke
But here you have someone who is dutifully doing what is required and and is obviously lovingly seeking to do care, but by this body that she’s looking for, I mean this idea that where have you put him? I’ll take him away. Just just let me know. Right. She’s she’s seeking to do this honoring task. It was surely filled with grief.

00:09:51:21 – 00:10:15:37
Michael Gewecke
Also, at this point, we’ve got to imagine some anxiety and fear about what has happened. And. And yet it is in that moment. First of all, thinking, here’s the gardener, here’s this problem. Now she turns into this moment and here’s her name. And then suddenly she begins to recognize, oh, the teacher, the one who has been giving this story this entire time.

00:10:15:37 – 00:10:38:51
Michael Gewecke
That was prefigured then I’m now seeing happening in front of me. I think this idea that it’s not done yet is also powerful in that context, right? This idea that Jesus is saying, don’t hold on to me, that there’s still more to come. The story is not complete yet. I think in the Gospel of John, this is an important moment in the story because it’s a it’s a changing of the chapter.

00:10:38:51 – 00:11:10:08
Michael Gewecke
It’s moving from Jesus Christ, who lived to Jesus Christ, who died. And then ultimately it’s going to be Jesus Christ who reigns and the one who is now witness to by all of those disciples who have come after and have received this good news themselves. There’s a a very dynamic movement to a text like this. And there’s a way in which Mary yes, it’s about her experience, but I think it’s also a very small and targeted snapshot of one person’s response to resurrection truth.

00:11:10:08 – 00:11:32:30
Michael Gewecke
And just see how for her, it’s coming in waves, the reality of it. And we’re going to see with some further snapshots of the the response, the responsibility, all those kinds of things are going to follow as we see other characters. But this character for today, it’s enough. We’re seeing how this is playing out in her awareness and what Jesus Christ is teaching in it.

00:11:32:34 – 00:12:09:40
Clint Loveall
I think there’s an interesting moment in that call it, you know, I’m sure I’m sure, John, scholars have a better sense of this, but I’ve not heard a compelling case. For what? Do not hold on to me. I’ve not ascended to the father means, in the context of the story. I think that I think that we’ve talked before, that John is just not only writing, but there are times that John is preaching, and I feel like at least it feels to me like this is one of those moments where John is preaching.

00:12:09:45 – 00:12:39:04
Clint Loveall
In other words, don’t hold on to what I was. Don’t hold on to your previous experience because I’m more than that. I’m ascending to the father. Don’t not, not don’t hold me back. I don’t think that’s possible at this point in the story. But, Mary, don’t don’t hold on to what you think you know, because there’s so much more to the story that you’re about to see that the disciples are about to learn that the reader and the church are about to learn.

00:12:39:09 – 00:13:03:49
Clint Loveall
I maybe at some point this meant more than that, maybe to the early church. This had a very concrete meaning, but I think if so, at least as far as I know, that has maybe been lost to us. So this is one of those moments I read that John is giving us a kind of almost sermon treatment of the story.

00:13:03:54 – 00:13:36:41
Clint Loveall
I don’t hold Jesus down as the one who was crucified, because he’s the one who was resurrected and the past is about to be rewritten by the future. And and it’s not done yet. So Mary can’t stay in this moment because there’s far too much yet to come again. I’m maybe reaching a little bit, trying to make some sense of this and broadening the context, but that’s at least part of what I voice or what I hear in it.

00:13:36:41 – 00:14:07:42
Michael Gewecke
Now check me on this help my memory. But the commentator points out, and I think that this is true now, this is the first time Jesus has described the disciples as my brothers, and I think there is a new relational turn in this text that I think is significant because the resurrected Christ has done something that has transformed our relationship with God, that that Jesus has made us family.

00:14:07:42 – 00:14:33:54
Michael Gewecke
Jesus has brought humanity into this triune relationship in a way that did not exist before. So the naming of brothers here may seem like a small detail, but we’ve now seen the transformation of relationship, and Jesus has done the work. And so therefore, these disciples are now my brothers and Clint that matters. And ultimately my father, your father, my God, your God.

00:14:33:59 – 00:14:43:28
Michael Gewecke
Jesus is explicitly naming this thing that he has done for us, and the relational language is here to point us towards that.

00:14:43:28 – 00:15:09:13
Clint Loveall
I do think that’s a new wrinkle in the text. We’ve had. We’ve had the implication my father, your father, but I don’t remember it anywhere being as explicit as this. And I think that’s a very good insight, Michael, that Jesus is now saying what I’ve done has changed to fundamentally your relationship with me and your relationship with the father.

00:15:09:18 – 00:15:15:54
Clint Loveall
And he now calls them, calls them brothers.

00:15:15:59 – 00:15:30:20
Clint Loveall
He is previously the closest I’ve gotten, the closest I think we’ve gotten, as I remember it, is maybe I call you friends for that’s what you are. But I think you’re right. I think this is another step in that relational language.

00:15:30:25 – 00:16:03:47
Michael Gewecke
And then just. No, that’s the ending here. I think this has really powerful mathematical link when and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and she told them that he had said these things to her. Mary’s love for Jesus is unquestionable, right? I mean, her devotion. But the task that she bears in the encounter with the one who calls her by name and the one who tells her, go, go, tell the disciples, my brothers, that I’m going back to my God and our God.

00:16:03:52 – 00:16:28:57
Michael Gewecke
She’s the one who’s going to go do that work. She is, by nature of this relational encounter with the risen Christ. Now therefore, given a task which she discharges without question, at least as John tells the story without hesitation. And that is such a powerful teaching tool of what happens at the end of her encounter with the risen Christ.

00:16:29:02 – 00:17:01:55
Michael Gewecke
It’s one particular snapshot of of how that’s called her to task. And friends, make no mistake about John, is not a sermon in the idea that you sit down and you hear someone speak for 12, 18, 60 minutes about scriptures. It’s a sermon in that it provides us insight into the lives of real people and how they encounter the real God, and ultimately, it is not just for the purpose of information, it’s for the purpose of formation.

00:17:01:55 – 00:17:22:15
Michael Gewecke
It’s for the purpose of teaching us, therefore, how we too might live. And I think that this is an example par excellence, that when you are called by name, when you were reminded of your relationship with God, it now gives you a task and I think this is one of those Johannine sections that end with a question implicitly.

00:17:22:26 – 00:17:32:50
Michael Gewecke
And the question is, what will you do with the revealed revelation of Christ that has happened in your own life and in your own ways? And I think that that is built into Mary’s story.

00:17:33:05 – 00:17:59:30
Clint Loveall
Oh, absolutely. Two days on the backside of Easter, we put ourselves in the story. Jesus calls us by name. We see him as the Risen One. He says, go share the good news. And we have seen the Lord. I mean, this is very much, a scene to which we are all invited to take part. And I think that’s part of the power of how it’s written.

00:17:59:34 – 00:18:32:42
Michael Gewecke
So we’re going to cover this when we continue the study tomorrow. So I hope you join us for that and continue along with us. But just note that while this telling of the story is filled with revelation and in many ways, devotion and faith, don’t miss how big of an up turning event this is. There’s going to be a lot of quite, quite frankly, conflict created from an event like a body disappearing from someone who was just executed, by the Roman government.

00:18:32:42 – 00:18:50:33
Michael Gewecke
And so this is a huge seismic moment, and we’re going to see how that plays out as John continues this story. So I hope you’ll join us for that. Like this video, if it’s been helpful in your own study, subscribe so you don’t miss conversations like tomorrow. And we’ll see you then.

00:18:50:42 – 00:18:51:23
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.