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Now, here's today's message from Pastor Skip. John chapter 20. Verse 11. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb.
And she saw two angels in white sitting. One at the head. the other at the feet. where the body of Jesus had lain, And then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.
Now, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She Supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, Sir?
If you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him, Rabboni. which is to say Teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father.
and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples, That she had seen the Lord. And that she had he had spoken these things to her. Would you pray with me? Yeah.
Lord, the text that we are considering.
Okay. It's just so wonderful. As we read, a woman Who comes to the understanding that the one that she loved more than anyone else on this earth. is now alive when she had thought There was finality in his death. Many of us can relate.
to this story. Maybe not on the level of Somebody that we thought was dead is now alive, but somebody who is broken hearted and needs comfort. Who needs hope rekindled? Who is in despair and sorrow? And I pray, Lord, that if that describes us, or if we know somebody who is there, that you'd help us to be raised to a higher level.
Through the teaching of your word, In Jesus' name. Amen.
Some of the best advice I ever heard. On dealing with people who are in grief is a simple statement that says, walk softly around a broken heart. Walk softly around a broken heart. Brokenhearted people are fragile people. Brokenhearted people are emotionally distressed people.
Brokenhearted people need hope, and hope is a process. We have a story about a woman who is living there. She's in sorrow. She's in deep distress, depression, you might even say. And Jesus comes along and through a Simple and quick process brings her immense hope.
There is a journey that a person takes from despair to hope. And somebody who's ever counseled grieving people knows that. Intuitively. And Patiently will take the person from step to step. to bring that person into hope.
Yeah, but Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and The stone had been rolled away. She thought somebody stole the body. She was wrong. There had been a resurrection. She's about to discover that her assumptions were wrong.
The body. hasn't been stolen. It hasn't been taken and placed somewhere else. But she's going to discover that. I have a story I want to read to you.
Supposedly, a true story from Sarasota, Florida, based upon the police. Records. An elderly Florida lady did her shopping. And upon returning to her car, she found four males in the act of leaving with her vehicle. She dropped her shopping bags.
and drew her handgun. Yeah, it's Proceeding to scream at the top of her lungs, I have a gun and I know how to use it. Get out of the car. Nice little old lady. The four men didn't wait for a second threat.
They got out and ran like mad. The lady, somewhat shaken, then proceeded to load her shopping bags into the back of the car and got into the driver's seat. She was so shaken that she couldn't get her key into the ignition. She tried and tried. And then she realized Why?
It was for the same reason she had wondered why there was a football, a frisbee, and two packs of beer in the front seat. A few minutes later, she found her own car parked. four or five spaces further down. She loaded her bags into the car and drove to the police station to report her mistake. The sergeant to whom she told the story couldn't stop laughing.
He pointed to the end of the counter. There you go. were four pale men We're reporting a carjacking. Get this. by a mad elderly woman.
Described as white, less than five feet tall, glasses. Curly white hair. carrying a large handgun. No charges were filed. That is the best senior moment I've ever heard of right there.
Oops, wrong car.
Now that woman thought her car had been stolen. She was wrong. Mary Magdalene thought that her Lord had been stolen. She was wrong. Now fortunately, the police chief And four pale men dealt very tenderly and compassionately with this elderly woman with the handgun.
And fortunately, Jesus Christ deals very lovingly, mercifully, compassionately with Mary Magdalene. who also was wrong. As we look at the text today, there are four principles I want you to see about handling people who are grieving or in sorrow or are distressed or are depressed. Those who have suffered great Loss. Four principles.
The first principle is probably the most obvious, and that is crying is natural. Crying is natural. We find in verse 11 that Mary stood outside by the tomb. Here's the word weeping. It means to wail loudly, not like sniffling a little bit, wiping a few tears.
She lost it.
Now, let's go back in time just a little bit to the night before. I tend to think that Mary Magdalene didn't get much sleep the night before. She was tossing and turning, and every little noise she heard woke her up, and the visions of The crucifixion, the blood flowing down the face of Jesus. It it shook her, it it woke her up. messed with her.
Finally, she got up early and she went to the tomb. Chapter 20, verse 1 uses the term early in the morning. And that's a technical term I mentioned last week for the fourth watch of the night, somewhere between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. She gets up and goes.
Sabbath is over. She couldn't leave on the Sabbath. You can't walk according to Jewish law more than two-thirds of a mile. That's over.
Now she goes. She goes to the tomb. Jewish mourning. Lasts a period of one month, thirty days. That's the period they carve out to deal emotionally with the loss of a loved one, 30 days.
The first seven days are the more intense. During the first seven days, the survivors They don't bathe, they don't anoint themselves with oil or any product, they don't wear shoes, they don't engage in business or study. They basically look disheveled. That's their way of saying, I'm mourning.
Somebody that I love has died. And the wailing is not. Contained. It's very loud and vociferous. There's the tearing of the garments.
To signify a broken or tearing heart. There's the sackcloth that is. Put on the body and ashes that are sprinkled on the head and over the sackcloth. to say that this person is in deep mourning. Even Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, you know it well, there's a time to weep.
And there is a time to laugh. There's a time to mourn. And there's a time to dance. This is Mary's time. To weep.
And a morn. It's very natural.
Now, there's even a Jewish legend that says, I don't know if Mary Magdalene was into this, but she could have. Fallen into that superstition. Many Jewish people believed at that time that the spirit of the departed person actually hovered over the grave for three days, seeking to re-enter the body. But that on the fourth day, Yeah. Because decomposition has well set in that the spirit departs.
There's no hope of returning. Of course, they never had that happen.
So, the idea of that was we want to get as close to the deceased person, that body, as possible during the first. Three days.
So she comes the first day of the week, chapter 20, verse 1. She finds the stone has been rolled away. She freaks out. She runs and tells the disciples. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition.
Before we return to Skip's teaching, have you ever wondered what it really means to grow up spiritually? In Adulting, a study through the book of James, Pastor Skip Heitzig walks you through 21 powerful teachings that show you how to live a mature, Christ-centered life, one shaped by conviction, consistency, and character. This practical and encouraging series is yours when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heidzig and share teaching like this one today with more people around the globe. Request adulting as a CD package or digital download at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Let's return now to today's message.
The disciples being John and Peter. ran to the tomb. John beat Peter. Wrote it down so everybody would know forever and ever.
So by the time Mary gets to the tomb, Peter and John have left, and she's all alone. You can see that in verse 10 and 11. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. Obviously, they didn't cross path with Mary, who was going to the tomb. She comes back.
Mary stood outside by the tomb, loudly wailing. And as she wept, she stooped down and she looked. into the tomb. She just stopped and just broke down. Tears have a language all their own.
They don't need interpretation. And her tears flowed freely. Because crying is Natural. God designed us to cry. You have around the orbits of your eye lacrimal glands, they are called.
They secrete a serum into the eyes to lubricate the eyeball, to take away foreign bodies. They're attached to the emotional centers of the brain. If you're very, very happy, usually when you're very, very sad, they emit more serum. More water, tears. Freely.
It's natural. It's normal. In fact, it's unhealthy to suppress that. One doctor noted that suppressed sorrow can wreak havoc on the entire nervous system. And even cited one patient of his that died of ulcerated colitis because she suppressed grief when her father had died.
And yet, Hmm. What do people say when somebody is crying usually? Don't cry. Why not? Or the little boys who are crying.
Big boys don't cry. Really? Did their lactrimal glands fall out?
So by the time the little boy gets to be age 12, he thinks that crying is not masculine. Really? It's not masculine? What do you do with Jesus in chapter 11 of John, shortest verse in the New Testament? Jesus, what?
Wept. Jesus wept. The man. The Son of God wept. And.
He seems to notice all the times when We weep. Until finally, in Revelation, there will be no more tears. But until then there will be, and God takes note of it. David writes poetically in Psalm 56: You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.
Imagine that. It's as if he writes it down. He takes notice of the times that you shed tears. Every pastor knows that when there's deep distress, Every counselor knows when there's grief happening, when there's loss in a person's life, the most natural thing. is for tears to flow.
One pastor by the name of Charles Graham Scroggy, who pastored, get this, in England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, the United States, and Canada. Oh, and by the way, eventually took over. Charles Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. He's pastored a lot of people in his lifetime. He's seen a lot of people die and get buried and worked with grieving families, and he writes these words.
Let grief do its work. Tramp every inch of the sorrowful way, drink every drop of the bitter cup. To see things our loved ones have left behind will give us daily pain. The clothes they wore, the letters they wrote, the books they read, the chairs they sat in, the music they loved. But what would we be without these reminders?
Yeah. Those who truly love will say they have found in sorrow, a new kind of joy, a joy which only the brokenhearted can know. There's nothing wrong with crying. It is therapy for a broken heart. But Tears can never blind a person, must never blind a person, should never blind a person.
From the truth, the eternal truth, heaven, all of those kinds of far-reaching truths. And sometimes they can't. Brings us to our second point. Not only is crying natural, in grief Questions are helpful. Look at verse 13.
Then they said to her, These are the angels now talking. The angels said, Woman Why are you weeping? Do you find that a strange question? Let's see. A woman At a graveyard, Crying.
Is that so weird? Would you walk up to a woman at a local cemetery who's crying in front of a grave? Would you walk over to her and go, hey. Why are you crying? You better not.
But the question is asked, woman, why are you weeping? And she said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Jesus will ask the same question to her, and then a follow-up question after that. First of all, the angels. Talk to her.
If you were to compare this with Luke and Mark's account. They don't call them angels, but men. They were men there. That's because they were angels sent from God, special messengers out of heaven, but they were allowed by God to take a human form. at that time.
Because when people see angels in their glory, they usually what? Freak out.
So there's a couple men there dressed in white. but they're actually angels John describes to us. 34 books of the Bible. Talk about angels. 17 in the Old Testament, 17 in the New Testament.
They're all over the Bible. They're God's secret agents, Billy Graham calls them. They show up in the life and ministry of Jesus at very Specific and important times like his Annunciation announcement. The announcement of his conception, his birth, that was given to Joseph and Mary by an angel. At his birth, angels hovered over Bethlehem and gave that announcement: the Messiah has come.
At Jesus' temptation, the angels came and ministered to him. And here at the resurrection they're here to announce that Jesus is alive. It seems that angels are very, very interested in our salvation. Peter writes. In 1 Peter 1, these are things, that is our salvation, these are things which angels desire to look into.
I think we are a marvel to the angels. I think they marvel at God's love. You love them that much? You love these? Creatures?
That you would do that for them? And then I think they look at us sometimes, they go, I don't get it. How come these people don't really rely on God and don't turn to God and pray more and love more and they just can't figure us out? These are things the angels desire to look into.
Something else I found out, I hope you'll find it as interesting as I did. We never find angels sitting except at the resurrection. They're always like busy, right? They're doing stuff. They're working.
They're active. It's at the resurrection only that we find angels. Sitting down. They're just like hanging out. They're one on this side of that bench where Jesus' body was, and one at the other side of the bench.
Oh, and Matthew tells us that the stone that was rolled away from that tomb, there was an angel sitting on that. Just sitting there. Waiting for people to come by. I don't know if they were eating angel food cake before they got there or what, but.
Okay, so this is what my mind does. When I read about an angel on this side and an angel on that side where Jesus' body was, my mind goes back to the Old Testament, to the mercy seat in the tabernacle. You following me? Remember on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, there were two angels, one on one side, one on the other side, and the wings spanned over. And God said, God said The only place that I'm going to meet with you is on that mercy seat.
Jesus Christ. in the New Testament. is the mercy seat. The only place God will meet with the human being is over the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that symbolically is set forth here.
Look at verse 14.
Now when she had said this She turned around and saw Jesus standing there and didn't know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, Sir? If you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him.
Now, please listen carefully as if you've never read this before. Tell me where you have laid him. And I will take him away. Yeah, right. Frail little Mary is going to carry the dead weight of an adult man somewhere.
Let's say she could. Let's say this is like Brunhilde. This chick can lift. Big weight. Where have you laid him?
Where is she going to take the body?
Well, that's sort of my point.
Okay. When you love somebody like Mary loved Jesus, you don't care about those impossibilities. You don't care about those questions. I'm going to deal with it. Just tell me where he is and I'll take him.
1 Corinthians 13, that great love chapter, one verse in the Phillips translation is rendered. Love knows no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope. We're so glad you joined us today for Connect with Skip Heidzig. Before we go. Don't miss this opportunity to request Pastor Skip's series Adulting, a study through the book of James.
This 21 message series dives deep into what it means to live a spiritually mature life. full of faith, character, and Christ-like purpose. Adulting is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's word with more people. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. And while you're there, sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and get a free download of a chapter of Skip's The Biography of God.
We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Make a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
