So she ran…

John 20

JOHN 20:01-31

1Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. 2So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” 3So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. 4The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; 5and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. 6And so Simon Peter also *came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. 8So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. 9For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 10So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

11But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and *said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

19So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23“If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

24But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” yet

26After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”27Then He *said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

30Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

JOHN 20:01-10

So she ran

Sadly, this is about all we know of the women disciples of Jesus. We know that Jesus was prepared for burial by Mary of Bethany, we know that Jesus was joined at the cross by Mary, his mother, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary of Magdala.

We know that a woman at a well in Sychar (Samaria) conversed with Jesus and then went to convert the whole town with her simple message, “He knows everything I did…” thus also saying, “He knows everything YOU did with me…” No wonder they came running!

We also know that Jesus frequently visited the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus just outside of Jerusalem.

What can we tell from the little we know? We can tell that the women showed up—even when the men did not. The women came to Jesus not out of faith or reciprocity, they came out of love. Their faith was destroyed, they believed that Jesus had nothing left to give them, and yet… they came.

And yet…

Do we have an, “And yet…” type of love?

1. These women were threatened on all sides, and yet… they came to Jesus

2. These women had no defense against the power and authority that surged around them, and yet… they came to Jesus

3. Even after they saw the evidence of the risen Jesus they were mocked, literally called “lunatics (starers at the moon)” and yet… they came to Jesus

They came to Jesus solely out of love to offer him comfort and company. Because of a misogynistic culture and history, women are often left in the role of “Showing up.”

Yet, there is such potency in “showing up.”

What is the ministry of “showing up?” Let’s rephrase it “Intentional Presence.”

· It means to be available without trying to solve someone’s problem

· It means to take IN someone else’s pain without trying to take OVER someone’s pain

· It means having the strength to allow someone to reach their own solutions, rather than trying to solve things for them

· Above all, it means consistent, unconditional availability.

It should be noted that Intentional Presence isn’t passive; it’s resilient and, at times, even adversarial. One of its traits is that authoritarians are threatened when you show up. People throughout history have made cataclysmic changes to cultures by their Intentional Presence—intentionally showing up at inconvenient times: Gandhi, MLK, Mother Theresa, Malala Yousafzai, Alexi Navalny, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Greta Thunberg (who was arrested Jan. 19, 2023 for “showing up” at a coal mine in Germany). As the late John Lewis would say, “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble”

The key is where they show up and when. They show up and become part of the most vulnerable at a time when they are most persecuted. These people have a habit of showing up in the right place at the wrong time.

It is time we stop looking at Intentional Presence as passive, it is a primary tool of relational change—socially and personally. What can we do to maximize this tool in our own situations?

JOHN 20:11-18

“Woman, why are you weeping?”

The beings called angels in Scripture don’t usually ask a lot of questions—they usually give commands. Unlike Rafael’s Cherubs, they are generally beings that emit the common response of panic and consistently have to tell people to not be terrified.

Angels are often in the form of unexpected strangers. Visiting Abraham in the desert and wrestling with Jacob as he flees Laban.

The angel in this story not only asks a compassionate question but shows complete cluelessness about the woman’s reaction to the missing Jesus. As if he is saying, “Of course he is not here. Did you not listen to the things he said?”

He goes further to ask, “Whom are you seeking?”

It’s almost as if the difference between angels and humans is that angels have no doubts about God and God’s purpose.

How would it change your life to have no doubts? Obviously, from the angel’s response to Mary, no doubts doesn’t mean no questions—it doesn’t mean you know everything.

Faith is not knowing everything; it is complete confidence in your purpose.

How would it change your life if you had complete confidence in your purpose?

JOHN 20:19-23

“Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

To be at peace was to be sent, to have a cause, a mission, a purpose. Just as God had a purpose for Jesus, Jesus’ peace to his disciples was to be sent forth with a cause.

Do we have Causal Peace in our life? The peace that comes with a confident mission?

· Peace, eirēnē, [1515], welfare, undisturbed

· Send, pempō, [3992[, dispatched, to put, to place upon a journey

“If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

There is a local belief (Mayan) that when a hummingbird visits you, it is the Spirit of a relative who has passed away. I love that thought and understand why people create myths like this to comfort themselves about traumatic events. However, the problem becomes when I am so insecure that I judge people who don’t share my myths. Unfortunately, that is one of the chief issues with religions today.

It is the height of insecurity to judge someone because they don’t share your belief. Sadly, this statement by Jesus has led to exactly that type of attitude.

This is partly due to our misunderstanding of the nature of sin. To the Greek mind, sin meant “missing the target.” It wasn’t inherently bad, it just meant you lacked direction. What is inherently bad is to judge someone who doesn’t have the same insights as you.

If we take the sum of what Jesus said about sin, we realize that his point was not to “judge” these people—and how often does that include ourselves—but to not be “yoked” to these unbelievers [2 Cor. 6:14]. That doesn’t mean we don’t reach out to them offering love and compassion. To be yoked to someone is to share a purpose with them.

It is important to set boundaries that keep us from becoming co-missionaries with people who don’t share our purpose.

There is a statement attributed to Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary, use words.”

Our lives must be ever-invitational, but that doesn’t mean we open our hearts up to people who would damage us. It is part of leading to draw solid boundaries with people who don’t have like beliefs. For me, that includes judgmental religious people.

· Forgive, aphiēmi, [863], to send, leave, abandon, permit, divorce, from apo, [575], ago, away, belong, desert

· Sins, hamartia, [266], failure, from hamartanō, [264], to miss the mark, to do wrong

· Retain, krateō, [2902], to be strong, rule, from kratos, [2904], strength, might, dominion

JOHN 20:24-25

“Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

We all need a Thomas (or some Thomases) in our lives.

Thomas was called the Doubter, but he really was the Critical Thinker; the one who voiced what everyone was thinking. He did this frequently and we can only assume Jesus chose him as a disciple because of this character trait. Do we pick people to be a part of our inner circle because they call into question our beliefs or do we only surround ourselves with people who agree with us?

This says far more about Jesus than it does about Thomas.

There was no guile in Thomas’ questions, he wasn’t being contrary, he just wanted proof. That seems increasingly important at a time when people accept conspiracy theories off social media so readily.

JOHN 20:26-31

Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed

It is important to recognize that Blessed and Believed are in the same sentence. Blessed not only means Happy, but it also means fortunate. We need to always remember that we are blessed IF we believe, not just blessed BECAUSE we believe. Belief is a gift (Ephesians 2:8). Judging someone who does not believe is ridiculous. Would you show up at a Christmas party and judge a child outside the window looking in because he or she doesn’t have gifts?

We need to take the judgment out of this statement by Jesus, he is telling the disciples that they are very fortunate if they have the gift of faith, not making a judgment call on Thomas. This is important because we need to encourage more Thomas’ (critical thinkers) in our lives and churches.

· Blessed, Makarios, [3107], Happy, fortunate

· Believed, Pisteuō, [4100], believe, entrust, from pistos, [4102], entrust, believe, believers