The Empty Tomb Should Be Enough
St. John 20:17
April 4, 2021 anno Domini
The empty tomb should be enough. Jesus said three times “after three days the Son of Man will rise.” Everything else Jesus said He did. He cast out demons by His Word. He healed the blind, made the lame walk, cleansed lepers. He changed water into wine, walked on water, fed tens of thousands of people with one sack lunch. He was betrayed into the hands of sinful men, He was crucified, and He was buried just as He said.
The empty tomb should be enough. Yet Mary Magdalene goes running to Peter and John, thinking the body was stolen. Peter and John don’t believe Mary, or Jesus’ resurrection, or they wouldn’t go running to the tomb to see for themselves. If they had believed they would have said, “Mary, don’t be silly. Of course, the tomb is empty, Jesus rose from the dead just as He said.”
The empty tomb should be enough for you to believe. You have the 66 books of the Bible spanning 4000 years of human history written by dozens of different men in complete agreement that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled hundreds of Old Testament prophecies. He was born of a Virgin, a descendent of David, in Bethlehem, of the tribe of Judah. He fled to Egypt in his infancy and was brought up like the Israelites out of Egypt. He crossed the Jordan in His baptism and laid in the belly of the earth like Jonah laid in the belly of the big fish. He was like Isaac, the only Son of His Father, sacrificed as the substitute lamb for us sinners. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 written several hundred years before Christ read like reports from the foot of the cross.
The empty tomb should be enough for you to believe. If you believe in the Revolutionary war and the Declaration of Independence and 13 colonies and the oppressive taxes of King George, you ought to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. You did not witness any of those events first hand, but you trust the witnesses – namely the documents that record the history. When you went to college you should have taken an Intro to Philosophy class. There you learned about Socrates and Plato and Aristotle – the great Greek philosophers, who lived before Christ. If you believed your professor then you should believe in Jesus. There’s more documentary evidence and better evidence for Jesus than those great thinkers.
The empty tomb should be enough for you to believe. Ask the simple question, “Where’s the body of Jesus?” The Jewish leaders used their temple guard of Roman soldiers to secure the tomb all night. The disciples could not have overpowered them, plus the disciples were all cowards. They had betrayed Jesus, denied Jesus, and run for their lives. None of the theories to explain away the empty tomb add up – do you really think the women went to the wrong tomb? Or that Jesus was mostly dead, but not quite dead, somehow awoke and rolled the stone away? That the appearances of the risen Jesus were mass hallucinations?
The empty tomb should be enough for you to believe, but the God of Holy Scripture never gives just enough to you. He gives you an abundance because He wants you not only to believe Jesus died and rose again, but to believe that Jesus is the Christ and His death and resurrection are for you.
Jesus appeared alive to Mary Magdalene. Mary could not believe Jesus’ body was stolen. She would not believe He had been raised. She looked in again at the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, but that was not enough. Turning around… (Read 14-16). Then Mary wrapped her arms around Jesus (which means Jesus was no ghost, but a real, living, breathing, body and blood man).
The death of Jesus Christ is not merely historical fact. It is God’s saving work for you. Jesus, a man after my own heart, for not liking hugs, told Mary, (Read vs. 17). The most important words there are, “my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Jesus Christ died that you could be God’s child and He is the only way for God to be your God and Father. God cannot stand sinners. He does not tolerate sin. He is true and righteous and you are not. With your sin and in your sin, you dare not enter the presence of God. You would have no life, no hope, no future.
Mary Magdalene knew this first hand. Jesus had cast seven demons out of her. Somehow in someway Mary Magdalene’s life and body were overtaken by evil. Perhaps she invited it with her own sins. Perhaps the Devil just chose her as a target and God allowed her suffering so that the glory of Jesus might be revealed in her and to her. Mary knew evil and she knew her part in it. No wonder she was distraught that the only man who truly loved her and helped her and saved her was dead and His body was missing.
The empty tomb should have been enough for Mary, but Jesus gave her more. He called her by name. He let her hug Him (and thankfully put a quick end to that.) He said His God was Mary’s God and His Father was Mary’s Father. With His Word and His living bodily presence she knew and she believed. Jesus of Nazareth is not dead, but is living and because He lives she was alive again. She went and proclaimed that to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”
And that should have been enough, but Jesus gave the disciples more. That night He appeared to ten of them. They told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord.” And that should have been enough for Thomas, but the next week Jesus appeared to Thomas and showed Tom his hands and side. And that was what Thomas’ faith needed to believe. Thomas confessed that Jesus is “My Lord and my God.”
Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross outside Jerusalem on the Friday before Passover. He said His death is for your sins. His death counts as your death for sin. That’s what He said and then He did it. And the tomb was empty. And that should have been enough, but Jesus isn’t the sort of guy or God who does just enough. He appeared alive to over 500 people at one time. He let Mary hug him and Thomas touch the wounds. He had a belated Easter brunch with the 12. All so that you would not only know the truth that Christ is risen, but that you would believe He died for your sins and rose again to make you right in the eyes of your Father – forgiven, righteous, holy, His child.
In Saint Mark’s Gospel when the women see the empty tomb one of the angels said, “Do not be alarmed.” If there is one word to describe the state of our nation since last Easter it is “alarmed.” Alarmed at COVID, at politics, at division. Every one of you is alarmed. Marriage problems, divorce, cancer, wayward children, COVID, aging parents, dying parents. If only in those places you look for hope, there is cause for alarm. Don’t be alarmed. The tomb is empty.
The empty tomb should be enough, but the true God always does and gives more than enough for you. Today, and every Lord’s day He gives you more than enough to believe that yours sins are forgiven and you’re alive forever in the name of Jesus.