Unecessary Tears

He is risen. Amen. Praise the Lord.

We turn to hymn number 193 on this Easter morning. Jesus Christ is risen today. Hallelujah.

Hymn number 193. The reading is from the Gospel of St. John, chapter 20, 1 to 18. And to the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre.

And she seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to that other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and their other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.

And they ran both together. And the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying.

Yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple that first came to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed.

For as yet they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without the sepulchre, weeping.

And as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? And she saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.

Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? And she supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hath borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. And she turned herself, and said unto him, Rebone I, which is to say, Master.

Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came, and told her disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things unto her.

Amen. I'd like you to turn to John's Gospel in chapter 20. Let me read to you again just a couple of verses that we've heard from Mrs. Jeffrey.

John 20 verse 13. They asked Mary, Woman, why are you crying? They have taken my Lord away, she said. And I don't know where they have put him.

At this she turned round, and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. Woman, he said, why are you crying? Who is it you're looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him, and I will get him. Jesus said to her, Mary.

She turned towards him and cried, Rabboni. I've forgotten how many times I've preached from the 20th chapter of John's Gospel. I certainly ministered on the character of Mary, of Magdala, more than any other person in Scripture, with the exception of our Lord Jesus.

Sunday after Sunday at Easter time, I've come back to this 20th chapter. Sometimes I've wondered, as I did on Friday, just what else is there to share? And as I was going through the record again of this woman who I've come to love dearly, if you can love a historic figure, and I don't see why not, suddenly I came to think about her emotion. You see, there's a double question that's put, that I've just brought out in my reading, that attracted my attention.

Woman, why are you crying? Tears of Mary. Jesus, he repeats the same interrogative, why are you crying? And I began to think about the Jewish idea of tears and crying and weeping. The Psalmist brings it out in an earlier Psalm, it's about Psalm 54.

He makes reference to the person who attends a funeral and sees someone in tears and takes a little pad like cotton wool and places it alongside the tear duct and absorbs the moisture and then in a little file, a glass file, he'll squeeze the tear and it will be preserved. A quaint little custom that the Jews had. The Psalmist makes it clear that God is mindful of our tears.

I was with a man the other day, he came to see me in my vestry and towards the end of talking to him, we started to pray. It was a feelingful prayer. And when I looked up, I saw the tears.

In his eyes, there's something about a man crying that is particularly moving. Our Lord cried. And here's a scene in Scripture that's very much like the occasion when Jesus cried because it was at a graveyard that he found himself in tears when Lazarus, his friend, had died and here is Mary and she too is in tears.

What I want to try to bring before you this morning is something about the tears of Mary and why she cried and what it meant and who eventually dried her eyes. You know, the only way of communication is not verbal. In fact, I've lived long enough to believe that words are not necessarily the main way that one personality can communicate to me.

Words can be cheap. You can't cry cheaply. Tears speak, don't they? And here is Mary, you envisage the scene, it's early in the morning, there's just a little light.

Mary who was last at the cross is first at the tomb. And as she's there, a number of events have happened already and you'll have to read the rest of the Gospels just to work out the sequence. But as she's there, as we see her, she's on her own.

She stands outside the tomb, verse 11, and she's crying. Woman, why are you crying? What do your tears represent? That's what the angel said. There's no reference to angels ever crying in Scripture.

I wonder if angels marvel at the thought of people crying, maybe they can't. And so they say, why, why are you crying? What do your tears represent? Let me suggest to you that the tears of Mary speak of a very real love, a very real love. They've taken away my Lord and I don't know where they've put him.

See, Mary was in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that too sentimental for you? All right, I'll be even more sentimental. I represent a person who is in love with Jesus Christ and I don't blush to say that.

Jesus Christ was so much to Mary that when the question is put, why are you crying, she doesn't say they've taken away the master, rather they've taken away my Lord. He's dead, so she feels, but he's still her Lord. The relationship that she enjoyed previously lives on and the tears, they witness to this.

Tears of a very real love. Tears which speak of a very real debt. I've studied the character of Mary for a long time, as I say.

And many of you won't follow me in this, at least you'll understand what I'm saying, but you may not necessarily agree and that doesn't matter. But I tend to think of Mary, of whom we are told in Luke chapter eight that she had had several demons cast out of her. I tend to think of her as the woman who came and washed the feet of the Lord Jesus and unpinned her hair and did so.

In fact, I was reading a thesis the other day which has virtually won my agreement that Mary of Magdala and Mary of Bethany are the same. And if that is so, and I am only suggesting it though I tend towards agreeing to that, then Mary of Magdala represents in the New Testament literally in the female sex what the prodigal son represents symbolically. Away in Magdala, sophisticated woman gets in touch with high class Roman soldiers and she becomes the scandal of the neighborhood and ultimately Jesus comes.

And Jesus restores her dignity and she returns back to Bethany I speculate, but it's worth thinking it through. I don't have time to give you implications that that is correct from Scripture. You can accept it or reject it at the moment.

But this remains true, that Mary of Magdala from what Scripture positively says about her was a woman who was greatly in debt to the Lord Jesus Christ. He'd made her to be what she hadn't been and Jesus for a very long time he restored to her her dignity. And when you see Mary weeping outside the sepulcher those tears they speak of a real love and a very real debt.

And what's more of a very real loss. The song of Solomon, you get the lover stealing into the garden and saying I sought for him who my soul loves. And here's Mary and she's doing that in the garden by the grave of Jesus.

Whom have I in heaven but thee and who is there on earth that I desire besides thee? The answer for Mary was there's no one. On one occasion Jesus when he'd been preaching suddenly discovered that his congregation melted away. They came for the wrong reason.

He'd fed them, he'd multiplied loaves, he'd multiplied fishes. It had been a wonderful time and then when he started to speak about the heart of his message and how much it would cost to be a follower of his the crowds disappeared. And Jesus spun round and he spoke to the 12 and he said will you go away also? And Peter says Lord where could we go? Now here's Mary and Jesus is no longer there.

To whom can she go? I conducted the memorial services of at least 24 people last year. I've been at the deathbed of more folks than I can recall in actual numbers. Helping them for that final moment of stepping from this world to the next.

And I know something of what it is to lose one whom you love dearly and I've witnessed it many, many occasions on the part of others who've been at the graveside. And here is Mary and she's weeping and I say that one of the reasons for her tears is because of the very real loss that she suffered in Jesus having been taken from her. So that's what those tears speak of.

A real love, a real debt. A great loss. Now we say something else about tears don't we? He's blinded by his grief.

And that's true grief can blind you. That's why when you're in a state of depression it's not a good condition in which to make any decisive decision. It can dull you.

And here is dear Mary by the empty tomb of the Lord. She's weeping not because there's a tenant so to speak in the tomb but because the tomb is empty and the corpse is no longer there. And that's what's causing her to cry.

And the tears they blind her. A sense of recall. If I'm right in suggesting and as I say you've no need to accept it.

It's only a proposition that I put to you for your attention that Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdala are the same. Then certainly her recall was dulled on this occasion inasmuch as Jesus had ministered to her by a graveside previously and he had pronounced those eternal words I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live.

And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. And if Mary of Magdala wasn't present then her closeness with Jesus was such that she certainly heard the echo of his words on many an occasion preparing the disciples for his death and that significant comment when he said it is expedient for you that I go away. But you see when you're smitten with grief it's hard to think clearly because the tears they dim they dim your sense of recall they blur your judgment.

Now that's what happened to Mary too isn't it? They've taken away my Lord I don't know where they've put him and when she spots one whom she believes to be the gardener she says Sir if you've carried him away tell me where you have put him and I'll get him. Blurred her judgment. How on earth does a does a slender woman pick up the dead weight of a decomposing corpse and channel it off? Of course she can't.

But the grief you see it causes her to make a statement that's somewhat irrational. Her judgment is blurred and what's more her perspective is narrow. She's got tunnel vision.

She doesn't so much see the two occupants of the tomb nor indeed the gardener so to speak who accosts her. Her eyes are focused just on the tomb itself and the awful reality that the body of her Lord is no longer there. She reminds me of Peter.

You remember how Peter started to walk on the water and then he suddenly took his eyes off what he ought to have been directing his gaze upon and he looked at the waves. The storm. It caused Peter to sink.

And here is Mary and she's taken her eye from the Saviour to the tomb. She's so involved in the problem that she can't think in terms of a solution. That's what grief does.

It dims recall. It blurs judgment. It narrows perspective.

So she's crying. Mary I shed tears with you. If what you feel has happened is right then it's the bleakest moment not only in your life but it's the darkest hour in the history of man.

If Jesus' body has been spirited away and it's still rotting and decomposing then let my tears be my meat night and day for there is no hope in this dark world. The bones of Jesus lie a-mouldering in the grave then weep ye sons and daughters of Adam for we face a future that's bleak. These tears they speak because tears do talk.

Sometimes I'd rather a person shed a tear in my presence than engaged in a multitude of words. Tears are like jewels and if you understand what they are trying to say they speak more eloquently than mere verbiage. Her tears spoke of a debt and of a loss but her tears they dulled recall.

They dimmed her judgment. They narrowed her perspective. Now it's not the ministry of Jesus to allow you to retain your upset condition.

You read later on in the marvelous book that John wrote called the Revelation you read of God that the day will come when he'll wipe away all tears. What handkerchief does Jesus get? Because he is the gardener. You know that.

You know the story as much as I know it. And you know that there's a man in Durham who's completely misunderstood misrepresenting the issue. If he feels that Mary could somehow confuse the gardener with the Lord Jesus and it's not really the Lord Jesus Christ at all.

You can't stem the tears of a woman who's so heartbroken by a sort of subtle psychological con trick. It doesn't work psychologically. It's just not credible.

You know there's a verse in Scripture that says of Jesus he's our high priest. Wasn't that a marvelous hymn that we were learning last Sunday morning? I hope you thought it was. It was saturated in Scripture.

We have a priest who has gone through the curtain. We have a hope that is sure and certain. What does Hebrews say of our high priest? We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

That's the A.V. I can never recall by memory the words from the N.I.V. There's a double negative. We have not a high priest who cannot be touched. In other words, make it more simple.

When you are in trouble there's one who comes alongside you and he can understand what you're going through because he's felt it before. And as Jesus felt sorrow at the grave of Lazarus and as he shed his tears so there is an affinity between the Lord Jesus and Mary and there is an affinity between the Lord Jesus and you. The Bible says that God is a help in time of trouble.

No, it doesn't. It says God is a very help in time of trouble. He is present when there are difficulties in our lives.

And so the Lord comes to Mary and he doesn't need to take a square of linen cloth and put it to her eyes. He just needs to say one thing. One word which will evoke a one word response a two word dialogue which will shake the world and change the course of history.

I'm not exaggerating. He simply says Mary. And she hears again the voice that she heard in Northern Galilee when she was released of her sinfulness.

She heard again the voice of the man that built back into her her own self-respect. She heard the voice of one at whose feet at least on one occasion and on my reckoning at two occasions she had fallen and unpinned her long flaxen hair and wiped the tears that dropped from her eyes onto his feet with her hair. And she spins round and she says Rabbi Rabboni She knew it.

It was the Lord. This dewy-eyed lady we now discover that her tears cause her eyes to glisten not now with sorrow but with great happiness. She who had come to the garden as a weeper becomes a worshipper as she sinks to her knees again and she reaches out to touch the Lord Jesus Christ and he restrains her.

And then Mary she leaves the garden area and she rushes back into Jerusalem down those cobbled streets maybe up some staircase perhaps back to the house where the last supper has been held she flings open the door and she shouts out I've seen the Lord! Don't you tell me that that was too dramatic. One thing I pray for this church is that we might recover the use of our emotion in describing our relation in the presence of God. You couldn't have stopped this woman with rejoicing in her voice and her eyes still bejeweled with love and amazement and restored hope coming to those disciples.

If she could have chosen a song she would have elected to a song this is the day this is the day that the Lord has made we will be glad and rejoice in it. Why? Well, he's back. He's back.

And now I understand it all the reason for the death the teaching that was obscure when it first left his lips referring to what was going to happen to him when he was handed over to the Romans and to the Jews but now he's back. Peter, I've seen him. John, I've seen him.

The rest of you, I've seen him. I've seen the Lord. And those early Christians they used to get so excited.

And when they met one another on the street they would not in their in our typical British fashion stick out a hand and say, how do you do? Not really wanting a response to the question that you've put in the first place because you're not that concerned. Many a time they would grab one another by the shoulders and they would say, Jesus is risen. And Maranatha the Lord is coming back again.

There were key words, watch words of the Christian church that that spelled out the essentials of the faith. The Lord Jesus, He is indeed risen. The Lord Jesus He is going to come back to this world physically for all men and women.

We are more sure to rise out of our graves than we are to rise out of our beds because of the reality of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. I'm just about through. I want us to sing some praise songs in a moment.

I don't know what brought you here. Perhaps one of the many thousands of people go to church on an Easter Sunday and the next time we'll see is Christmas. That's too long ahead.

Try it next week. We'll still be here. Well, I won't, but most of these folks will be.

Mary could not think of living without Jesus. Did you notice in that chapter His name is never mentioned. The angels say to her What are you looking for? Why are you crying? And she says, well, because He's not there.

She never says who He is. And then the gardener, why are you crying? What are you looking for? Well, because they've taken away the body of my Lord. Never mentions His name.

Why? Well, she believes that everybody's aware of this. This great tragedy. The Lord Jesus Christ, He's away from her.

He's away from everybody and everybody must know who He is. You don't need to identify the reason for the search, the reason for the tears. That is self-obvious to someone who is really in love with the Lord Jesus.

Now I want to ask you Why don't you love Him like that? With all the certainties of living this side of the resurrection. It was a literal Jesus that was brought back from the dead. The Christian faith does not revolve around what Renan referred to as a strange hallucination of a demented woman.

The men heard. On one occasion, 500 were there when Jesus came back. Saul of Tarsus turned around because of the physical resurrection of Jesus.

When John writes of Jesus in one of his letters later on, he says, our eyes have seen, our ears have heard, our hands have handled. Let that go to Durham. May your tears today be turned to tears of joy.

From tears of repentance as you confess your need of a Saviour into tears of a realization of what Jesus Christ has done for you. He's back. And He's granted you forgiveness.

And He makes you holy as He imparts His Spirit towards you. Mary knew that. And she was able to cry.

I've seen the Lord. And tell the rest of the disciples. Let's look into the holiness of our Lord Jesus.

Let's sing When I Look Into Your Holiness. It's a song that's not in the either supplement, but one or two of you who have got words written out and we're going to hear it played through on the piano. And the words will be on the overheads.

We're going to hear the flute also play the tune. And then we'll sing it together. Could you drop that blind? Could you put these lights out at the front, please? ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ Let's stand and sing that.

¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ Almighty God, we bring you praise. If you feel tired when we're standing singing, just take your seat and feel quite relaxed and at home. If you're an older friend and you've got arthritis or you're a younger friend and you've got anodomy early on, well, you take your seat too.

But let's sing, Almighty God, we bring you praise for your Son, the Word of God, by whose power the world was made, by whose blood we are redeemed. Fortissimo, morning star of the Father's glory, we now worship and adore you. ♪ Morning star, morning star ♪ ♪ Morning star, morning star of the Father's glory ♪ ♪ Morning star, morning star of the Father's glory ♪ ♪ King of all, come, let us listen ♪ ♪ We give you all, we worship you ♪ ♪ Almighty God, we bring you praise for your Son, the Word of God ♪ ♪ By whose power the world was made, by whose blood we are redeemed ♪ ♪ Fortissimo, morning star of the Father's glory, we now worship and adore you ♪ ♪ King of all, come, let us listen ♪ ♪ We give you all, we worship you ♪ Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son, 194, in the Orange Book.

Amen. Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son, He is risen. He is risen indeed.

Amen. Amen. Father, we're grateful.

Grateful to the Father, grateful to the Son, grateful to the spirit. Lord, send us out with Easter joy in our hearts, expressing our love to one another. Father, bring us back here this evening.

Bring us back to honor and to worship you afresh, and we ask that we might make this day by your grace so very, very special. Bless all our brothers and sisters in Worthing and every place where the resurrection message has been preached in this country and around the world this day. We ask may Jesus Christ be praised, and Father God, hasten the day when we too can fall at his feet and confess in his immediate presence that he is Rabboni, our master.

Amen.