August 18, 1999
LIFE & WORK SERIES:
Listen for the voice Mary heard in the garden
___John 20:1-18
___By Brett Younger
___Lake Shore Baptist Church, Waco
___If we're going to follow Jesus, we'll have to go through the cemetery. Mary went while it was still dark, before anyone else was up, to the place where her worst fears had been realized, to say a private word to the dead.
___Not everyone feels Mary's need to go to the tomb. Is there sorrow in your life? Are you afraid of anything? If the answer is, "No, everything is fine," then don't trouble yourself with the cemetery.
___The path to the tomb is for those whose hope has died. We need to make our way tothe tomb when we feel unloved, when friendships or marriages aren't what they might have been, when we are disappointed with our children or our parents.
___Mary is distressed because she's been robbed of her final goodbye. When she finds the tomb empty she thinks they have stolen the body. She came to confirm what she already knew--that Jesus was dead and buried. It is time to stop believing.
___Mary thought it would have been easier if she'd never believed. There are some people who seem to come to terms with the certainty of unbelief, trusting only in themselves or their work or the answers they think make sense. Letting the door open a crack, considering the possibility of believing, is dangerous.
___Mary goes to the tomb because it is time to shut the door of belief that had been open for a time. But the body isn't there. This crack in the door of belief is upsetting. Mary weeps and looks into the empty tomb. She sees two angels dressed in white and speaks to them like they're nurses stripping an empty hospital bed: "They've taken my Lord, and I don't know where." If the angels answered, she didn't hear their words any more than we hear the words at a funeral.
___She turns to leave and sees someone standing nearby. She treats him like she treated the angels: "Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where, and I'll take him."
___Then she hears her name--"Mary." The voice she hears in the cemetery is the same voice that invited Mary to believe in the first place, sent her demons away and spoke peace into Mary's soul. The voice sounds like a celestial organ whispering its harmony, like a heavenly choir singing its Glorias, like cathedral bells ringing across the hills. The stone rolls away from Mary's sorrowing, unbelieving heart. The door to belief is open again.
___Jesus' followers go to the tomb to remember that what looks like the end is not. Our sorrows are never the whole story.
___The God who restores Jesus' life restores our lives, too. The voice that calls our name brings life out of the gloom of depression, restores friendships that have died and births a new spirit within us.
___So listen for the voice Mary heard in the garden. God calls our name and invites us to follow.
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