It Happened to Them!

Text: John 20:1-18

Focus: The Resurrection

Function: Conversion

Form: Simple devotional

Intro:

The miracle of the resurrection is the keystone of the Christian Faith.

But I submit that there were two miracles that day. The first was the fact of the resurrection, the second was the faith expressed in these people.

Do you ever wonder when and where something good is going to happen to you?

The disciples have seen everything they have worked for the last three years die on a cross.

The hope that they have seems dashed. It seems that all of those warnings by Jesus, that they would crucify Him weren't just parables. Jesus actually meant it.

They had placed all their cookies in one jar, and that jar, the body of Christ had been brutally murdered right before their eyes.

Mary was standing in front of the place where she watched them lay His body.

His body was missing.

She didn't even have a place to come to anymore to grieve.

This Man, this very special man, this Man who never judged her, this Man who forgave her, this Man, who believed in her when everyone else called her names, this Man who listened to her and spoke to her when all the other women in the town despised her was gone.

It felt like all hope was gone.

And to make it worse. It wasn't as if she came from privilege. She wasn't the daughter of some Roman official. She wasn't the daughter of some Priest, or political leader. Her family was poor. And they were under the boot of an oppressive nation that had enslaved them and was taxing them to the place where only the rich could survive.

What is it like to be born in a group of people who are treated as if their lives are worth less compared to others?

I asked a man who operates remote controlled drones in the Middle East if his conscience bothered him when there were civilian casualties from one of our unmanned attack vehicles. He started to respond in one way until he actually heard what he was about to say. He started to say: “Well those people themselves do not have much respect for human life, so....”

And then he caught himself, wait a minute, all life is sacred, all life is important. But remember, at this time in human history, the dominant culture, the Romans traded ten lives for every Roman life lost in conflict.

And this poor woman was raised under this stigma.

And here she is, meeting the Lord of the Universe as He has triumphed over the death itself.

We can believe that on a whole good things can happen on behalf of other people. We believe that as a general principle, good is supposed to triumph over evil.

But what is wonderful about this story is the person Jesus reveals Himself to first. This woman. And her faith is incredible. Because, not only is His resurrection happening on behalf of all humanity, it is happening to her. It happening to her, a prostitute who has been redeemed. It is happening to her, a woman in a society where women were little more than possessions. It was happening to her, a woman, born poor, who lived in a slave nation in some backwater country.

And in that story, happening to her, it happened to us as well.

Jesus didn't just give His life to ransom humanity from the fear of death and the power of sin.

Jesus gave His life to ransom you, every one of you, every one of us.

It happened to us.

Turn to someone and say: “He is risen, He is risen indeed, He is risen for even me!”