1 00:00:01,600 --> 00:00:04,700 Hello, Originals. I'm so glad to get to be a part 2 00:00:04,700 --> 00:00:09,800 of your Easter weekend and to celebrate, Jesus, resurrection 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,800 with you and what that means. For our lives. 4 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:18,600 Sometimes the experiences of Our Lives can cause us to lose sight 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,900 of what Jesus is, resurrection actually means for us and 6 00:00:22,900 --> 00:00:27,300 because of that, it's so important that in each part of 7 00:00:27,300 --> 00:00:32,100 the Christian celebration and Year, we get to consider again 8 00:00:32,100 --> 00:00:35,700 what it means for Jesus to be with us through different 9 00:00:35,700 --> 00:00:38,800 seasons and experiences of our life. 10 00:00:39,300 --> 00:00:44,800 Every Gardener knows that there are seasons of productivity and 11 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:49,600 then seasons of wrist that there's seasons of quiet and 12 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:53,800 then seasons of great fruitfulness and the Splendor of 13 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:58,800 the garden, the seasons can come and go and we count on them. 14 00:00:59,100 --> 00:01:03,600 However, there Also seasons of Our Lives where we can feel 15 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:10,900 disrupted by famine by pestilence or even by death. 16 00:01:11,500 --> 00:01:16,400 And when those Seasons come, it's really difficult for us to 17 00:01:16,700 --> 00:01:21,000 see this Garden as a place of Life instead. 18 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:26,400 It becomes a reminder of our defeats of our Despair and of 19 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:29,700 death. It becomes so disorienting to 20 00:01:29,700 --> 00:01:30,300 us. Us. 21 00:01:31,500 --> 00:01:35,900 Interesting enough. John reminds us that what we're 22 00:01:35,900 --> 00:01:39,500 about to experience, and the story of the resurrection of 23 00:01:39,500 --> 00:01:43,200 Jesus is actually occurring in a garden. 24 00:01:43,900 --> 00:01:48,600 Jesus was bound up for his arrest, in a garden, where he 25 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:52,000 had been praying. And then, after the crucifixion, 26 00:01:52,300 --> 00:01:57,600 Jesus was bound up in the grave clothes and laid in a tomb. 27 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:04,500 That was in a garden. What can happen in the garden of 28 00:02:04,500 --> 00:02:09,900 our defeat? It's seen here in what happens 29 00:02:09,900 --> 00:02:15,600 in the garden of Jesus's, defeat, and how its transformed. 30 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:20,600 So let's read together from John chapter 19, and I'm going to 31 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,200 read all the way into John chapter 20. 32 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:27,300 We're going to see Joseph of Arimathea. 33 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:31,200 We're going to see Nicodemus and we're going to meet Mary 34 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:36,700 Magdalene, who all had great Devotion to Jesus as disciples. 35 00:02:37,500 --> 00:02:43,100 Our Focus will be Mary Magdalene and her experience of this 36 00:02:43,100 --> 00:02:48,000 transformation that occurred in the new reality of Jesus as the 37 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:51,800 Risen Lord. And so follow with me as I read 38 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:57,500 from John chapter 19, this incredible, text on which all of 39 00:02:57,500 --> 00:03:04,800 the history of humanity hinges. Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked 40 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:09,300 pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of 41 00:03:09,300 --> 00:03:14,500 Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish Leaders with 42 00:03:14,500 --> 00:03:17,400 Pilots permission. He came and took the body away. 43 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,100 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited 44 00:03:22,100 --> 00:03:26,300 Jesus At Night, Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and 45 00:03:26,300 --> 00:03:31,000 aloes about 75 pounds, taking Jesus. 46 00:03:31,100 --> 00:03:36,000 His body, the two of them wrapped it with spices in strips 47 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,300 of linen. This is was in accordance with 48 00:03:39,300 --> 00:03:44,700 Jewish burial Customs at the place where Jesus was crucified. 49 00:03:45,100 --> 00:03:50,800 There was a garden and in the garden, a new Tomb in which no 50 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:55,000 one had ever been laid because it was the Jewish Day of 51 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:58,200 preparation. And since the tomb was nearby, 52 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:06,000 they laid Jesus there. Early on the first day of the 53 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,500 week, while it was still dark Mary. 54 00:04:08,500 --> 00:04:13,700 Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been 55 00:04:13,700 --> 00:04:17,800 removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon 56 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:21,600 Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved and said 57 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:26,500 they have taken the Lord out of the Tomb and we don't know where 58 00:04:26,500 --> 00:04:30,600 they have put him. So Peter and the other disciple 59 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:34,500 started for the tomb, both were running but the other disciple 60 00:04:34,500 --> 00:04:37,900 outran, Peter and looked into the tomb. 61 00:04:37,900 --> 00:04:41,800 First, he bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying 62 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:44,700 there but did not go in. Then Simon. 63 00:04:44,700 --> 00:04:48,200 Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. 64 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:52,200 He saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the cloth that 65 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:54,100 had been wrapped around Jesus head. 66 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:58,500 The cloth was still in its place separate from the linen. 67 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:02,800 Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb, first also 68 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:07,200 went inside. He saw and believed. 69 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:10,800 They still did not understand from the scripture that Jesus 70 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:14,900 had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to 71 00:05:14,900 --> 00:05:20,200 where they were staying. Now, Mary stood outside the 72 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:25,200 tomb, crying as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 73 00:05:25,700 --> 00:05:29,600 and saw two angels in white seated, where Jesus body had 74 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:33,400 been one at the head and the other at the foot. 75 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,600 They asked her woman. Why are you crying? 76 00:05:38,500 --> 00:05:42,600 They have taken my Lord away. She said, and I don't know where 77 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:47,400 they have put him. At this, she turned around and 78 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:51,100 saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that. 79 00:05:51,100 --> 00:05:54,400 It was Jesus. He asked her woman. 80 00:05:54,700 --> 00:05:56,900 Why are you crying? Who is it? 81 00:05:56,900 --> 00:06:00,800 You are looking for? Thinking he was the gardener. 82 00:06:01,100 --> 00:06:05,600 She said, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where 83 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:08,800 you have put him and I will get him. 84 00:06:10,100 --> 00:06:15,800 Jesus said to her, Mary she turned Horton toward him and 85 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:20,000 cried in Aramaic. Rabboni, which means teacher. 86 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:25,100 Jesus said do not hold on to me for I have not yet ascended to 87 00:06:25,100 --> 00:06:30,700 the father go instead to my brothers and tell them I am 88 00:06:30,700 --> 00:06:36,300 ascending to my father and your father to my God and your God. 89 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:39,700 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. 90 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:46,000 I have seen the Lord. And she told them that he had 91 00:06:46,000 --> 00:07:02,200 said these things to her. Defeat disgrace, despair death. 92 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:08,400 It can be so disorienting. For Mary Magdalene and The 93 00:07:08,407 --> 00:07:13,700 Disciples of Jesus. It truly was disorienting. 94 00:07:14,700 --> 00:07:18,100 It was a moment of their shared defeat. 95 00:07:18,700 --> 00:07:23,100 I think any one of them would have said this was our defeat 96 00:07:23,100 --> 00:07:28,300 all of the hopes that we had put in Jesus now seemed to have 97 00:07:28,300 --> 00:07:35,400 dissolved into nothingness. But Here, In This Moment, Mary 98 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:38,800 is transformed. She is turned into what Pope 99 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:43,600 Francis and 2016 called the Apostle to the apostles. 100 00:07:44,100 --> 00:07:46,900 He was reflecting and much older. 101 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:52,300 Reference to Mary Magdalene Mary, the Magdalene came from 102 00:07:52,300 --> 00:07:57,200 magdala a small village on the Sea of Galilee and Luke chapter 103 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:00,800 8 were told that she was in the company of disciples and was 104 00:08:01,100 --> 00:08:05,000 listed with women. Who supported Jesus and the 105 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:08,900 ministry from their own material means from their own 106 00:08:08,900 --> 00:08:10,900 possessions. Here? 107 00:08:10,900 --> 00:08:16,900 She is the first to witness the Risen Lord, Jesus, but earlier, 108 00:08:16,900 --> 00:08:20,600 she had been a first-hand witness to the power of Jesus. 109 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:25,100 The Holy One for, in Luke 8. It also tells us of Mary that 110 00:08:25,100 --> 00:08:31,500 Jesus had driven from her seven demons these forces of death. 111 00:08:31,500 --> 00:08:36,700 These evil spirits. And sickness had been driven 112 00:08:36,700 --> 00:08:40,600 from her. He had freed her from their hold 113 00:08:40,799 --> 00:08:44,900 in the gospels. The Demonic powers are not 114 00:08:44,900 --> 00:08:47,700 powers of Temptation. They're actually powers of 115 00:08:47,700 --> 00:08:51,400 subjugation. That is they would torment and 116 00:08:51,400 --> 00:08:54,500 lay hold of people and physically. 117 00:08:56,200 --> 00:09:01,200 Disable them. They were seen as a power of 118 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:07,400 impurity not of holiness. Jesus was recognized by these 119 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:12,800 Powers as the Holy One of God, and he had the power to drive 120 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:17,300 them away and Destroy them. Mary Magdalene became a devoted 121 00:09:17,300 --> 00:09:22,600 disciple of Jesus and she was able to firsthand testify once I 122 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:28,700 was bound up, but now I am free. The power and authority of Jesus 123 00:09:28,700 --> 00:09:33,500 over these defiling powers. She was also a witness to the 124 00:09:33,500 --> 00:09:37,600 crucifixion of Jesus. It must have seemed like a 125 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:42,100 terrible. Defeat, a terrible disgrace. 126 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:48,700 The Despair and disorienting that came from that moment had 127 00:09:48,700 --> 00:09:53,300 been with them all weekend. Even as they tried to celebrate 128 00:09:53,500 --> 00:09:58,200 the Passover. So, on this first day of the 129 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:02,200 week after Jesus death by crucifixion, she comes to this 130 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:07,000 Garden of defeat. What heaviness would have 131 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:11,500 weighed her heart for any of us who've experienced death of a 132 00:10:11,500 --> 00:10:16,600 loved one, or a great defeat or have experienced such shame and 133 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:19,700 disgrace of those we considered close. 134 00:10:21,100 --> 00:10:24,400 The mind puzzles over that trauma, you know what? 135 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:28,900 It's like we walk around in the waves of grief would come or we 136 00:10:28,900 --> 00:10:32,900 walk around and we try to figure it or our body for a time. 137 00:10:32,900 --> 00:10:39,100 Seems to shut down as we try to make sense as we try to ask why. 138 00:10:44,300 --> 00:10:51,500 Here, Mary, that's confronted three times by the reality of 139 00:10:51,500 --> 00:10:55,800 the good news of Jesus, but it was through the lens of her 140 00:10:55,800 --> 00:10:59,800 defeat that she was seeing it and she was so disoriented that 141 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:05,300 she couldn't make sense of the new reality of Jesus, the 142 00:11:05,300 --> 00:11:11,100 resurrected Lord. First, she sees the empty tomb, 143 00:11:11,700 --> 00:11:16,200 the open door a door, which typically could not be opened 144 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:21,100 from the outside. And so she quickly assumes that 145 00:11:21,100 --> 00:11:25,600 Jesus is body has been taken away and she runs off to the see 146 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:30,000 the disciples Simon Peter and John and tells them. 147 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:33,000 They have taken the Lord out of the Tomb and we don't know where 148 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,600 they have put him. She still is seeing this moment 149 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:42,000 as a moment in formed and shaped by the power of death. 150 00:11:43,500 --> 00:11:47,800 Second. She actually observes inside the 151 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:55,700 tomb, two angels sitting at the head and the foot of where Jesus 152 00:11:55,700 --> 00:11:58,700 would have been laid in this tomb, had would have been laid 153 00:11:58,700 --> 00:12:02,900 in the Tomb in order to Decay and rot, even though he had been 154 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:08,000 served up and wrapped up ministered to in death, by 155 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:11,400 Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. 156 00:12:12,500 --> 00:12:19,100 With the spices Fit For A King. But he had seen no Decay. 157 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:25,100 Jesus had been raised. But through her tears. 158 00:12:26,100 --> 00:12:31,000 She tells the the Angels they have taken the Lord away. 159 00:12:31,200 --> 00:12:37,800 And I do not know where And then third, she turns around. 160 00:12:39,500 --> 00:12:45,400 And Jesus asked about her tears, assuming that this person before 161 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:48,300 her is the gardener. She says, Where have you put 162 00:12:48,300 --> 00:12:49,700 him? And I will get him. 163 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,200 I will carry him. All of her language is. 164 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:58,600 Speaking of one who is dead, a body that must be carried a body 165 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:02,600 that must be laid, a body that must be lifted up. 166 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:09,100 But it was in this fourth move towards Mary. 167 00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:17,400 Where she finally sees? Jesus says her name Mary. 168 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:24,000 Now the recognition comes and Jesus immediately proclaims to 169 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:27,900 her. The new reality, this Garden of 170 00:13:27,900 --> 00:13:31,300 Defeat of Despair. And of death is becoming a 171 00:13:31,300 --> 00:13:37,800 garden of New Life. He declares to her the reality 172 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:41,900 of his kingdom. She must have moved towards him 173 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:46,500 having called him teacher. She moves towards him and he 174 00:13:46,500 --> 00:13:49,900 says do not hold on to me for I have not yet ascended to the 175 00:13:49,900 --> 00:13:54,200 father go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to 176 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:59,000 my father and your father to my God and your god there, Jesus 177 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:03,300 affirms the direction and meaning of the cross on his 178 00:14:03,300 --> 00:14:07,800 life. The creation of a new family and 179 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:12,800 a new people in his power in his life. 180 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:20,300 He sells her that he's going to his father and her father to his 181 00:14:20,300 --> 00:14:23,900 brothers. He uses the words of family here 182 00:14:23,900 --> 00:14:29,100 to describe the new communion made possible through his death 183 00:14:29,300 --> 00:14:34,200 and his resurrection and soon through his Ascension and then 184 00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:40,400 he gives her a new mission to go with the news and tell this to 185 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:46,600 the other disciples. And so she does, I have seen the 186 00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:52,100 Lord Mary's mission that morning, had been to consider 187 00:14:52,500 --> 00:14:56,100 and to reflect on her devotion and what had happened to Jesus 188 00:14:56,100 --> 00:15:01,000 in his death, but now her mission was to consider and to 189 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:04,800 rejoice and to Proclaim. Jesus is life. 190 00:15:06,300 --> 00:15:09,000 In between, in that disorienting. 191 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:11,600 Her Mission had been to recover his body. 192 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:19,500 To lift it up and replace it, tenderly to its place in a tomb. 193 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:26,300 But Jesus had no place among the dead, he was among the living. 194 00:15:26,900 --> 00:15:30,200 And so now she proclaimed and lifted Jesus up. 195 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:37,600 Among the apostles. Afterwards with the gift of the 196 00:15:37,608 --> 00:15:43,600 Holy Spirit, the apostles themselves, Peter and even Paul 197 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:46,800 declared the meaning of this moment. 198 00:15:47,900 --> 00:15:52,100 And Acts chapter 2, Peter says, but God raised him from the 199 00:15:52,100 --> 00:15:55,800 dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was 200 00:15:55,800 --> 00:16:00,200 impossible for death to keep its, hold on him. 201 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:08,800 Paul says in Acts chapter 13 that Jesus says, Resurrection 202 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:12,300 was the Fulfillment of God's promise that he would not let 203 00:16:12,300 --> 00:16:15,800 his holy one. See Decay, indeed. 204 00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:20,000 Jesus body was buried but it had not decayed there. 205 00:16:20,300 --> 00:16:25,100 And as it laid in that tomb, I'm so Paul goes on and Acts chapter 206 00:16:25,100 --> 00:16:29,000 13 to declare their for friends. I want you to know that through 207 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:31,500 Jesus. The Forgiveness of sins is 208 00:16:31,500 --> 00:16:36,400 proclaimed to you through him. Everyone who believes is set 209 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:40,200 free from every sin, a justification. 210 00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:46,000 You are not able to obtain under the law of Moses Easter. 211 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:50,200 Confronts us with a new reality with a new life. 212 00:16:50,300 --> 00:16:54,900 And with a new purpose, the Lord, Jesus becomes the lens 213 00:16:54,900 --> 00:16:58,600 through which we see The Gardens of Our Lives. 214 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:04,200 He who was crucified was buried. He who was buried was raised. 215 00:17:04,500 --> 00:17:09,000 He who was raised has ascended, and he who has ascended will 216 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:12,300 return. And so, though, now we walk 217 00:17:12,300 --> 00:17:16,700 through Gardens, that are sometimes places of death and of 218 00:17:16,700 --> 00:17:19,200 Despair and great disorientation. 219 00:17:20,900 --> 00:17:24,800 The ministry of the spirit of God, and now the people of God 220 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:30,200 is to call each of us back to our hope to the hope of Jesus 221 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:34,100 Christ raised from the dead that indeed, we have been buried with 222 00:17:34,100 --> 00:17:38,800 him in baptism, but we have been raised also with him in New 223 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:42,000 Life. And so now in our common 224 00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:50,000 kinship, We live in and proclaim, the resurrected Lord 225 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:54,200 Jesus. Who is the Holy one who doesn't 226 00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:59,700 just cast out demons and sickness, but who also has 227 00:17:59,700 --> 00:18:02,300 destroyed death. Though. 228 00:18:02,300 --> 00:18:04,800 We may grieve. We do not grieve as those who 229 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:11,700 have no hope, in fact, We are able to enter into the very life 230 00:18:11,700 --> 00:18:16,800 and move up discipleship. Jesus said, unless a seed dies 231 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:21,000 and falls to the ground, there would be no Harvest. 232 00:18:21,700 --> 00:18:27,100 And so Jesus himself became that seed who fell to the ground and 233 00:18:27,100 --> 00:18:30,600 was buried. But he has been raised in order 234 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:35,700 to create a new family and a new people who will be secured with 235 00:18:35,700 --> 00:18:42,100 him forever. This power of life, this way of 236 00:18:42,100 --> 00:18:47,800 considering, even the oppressive forces of Darkness that animate 237 00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:52,300 people today. Is something that has marked the 238 00:18:52,300 --> 00:18:59,100 church for 2000 years now? I was so moved this past month 239 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:04,200 and watching sister, Anna Rose new tongue in my Amar. 240 00:19:04,900 --> 00:19:09,300 We got to see pictures of her on the newspaper with her in her 241 00:19:09,300 --> 00:19:14,700 white outfit as a nun, kneeling before soldiers, hands and arms 242 00:19:14,700 --> 00:19:19,900 extended pleading with them, not to shoot the children. 243 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:24,200 This is what happened when Christian leaders identify with 244 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:29,700 protesters, identify with people who are pleading and looking for 245 00:19:29,700 --> 00:19:34,100 a better way, for those who are facing the powers and forces of 246 00:19:34,100 --> 00:19:37,600 death. This is what happens when the 247 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:41,900 church. Would extend and relinquish 248 00:19:41,900 --> 00:19:47,400 itself. Of Earthly Powers, but would 249 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:50,700 seek the resurrection power of Jesus. 250 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:56,200 We are able to move in Hope, and in life. 251 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:02,400 She says shoot me instead. Don't shoot the children. 252 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:10,800 This Jesus and this Garden of Life. 253 00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:15,700 How do you see him? How do you see this Garden? 254 00:20:18,100 --> 00:20:23,200 Easter is the reminder that Jesus is with us in our losses 255 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:28,700 and in our griefs, in the disorientation of Defeat of 256 00:20:28,700 --> 00:20:35,200 Despair and of death, Jesus reorients us to himself and the 257 00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:39,800 power of his resurrection, to the Forgiveness of our sin to 258 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:43,600 The Fellowship of his communion and of his people. 259 00:20:46,100 --> 00:20:49,300 We now would say we walk in a garden. 260 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:56,300 Where he is our delight, and the resurrected Lord is our life.