Seeing and Believing
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2022 · 24 April 2022
Now we begin to look at the appearances of our Lord after His resurrection. We’ve looked at the empty tomb that is the first evidence of our Lord’s resurrection. We also noted the appearance of the angels, which is the second evidence of our Lord’s resurrection. And the third are the eyewitnesses, and we’ll begin to look at them today, and particularly Mary Magdalene.
The women, Peter, John, and Mary Magdalene have seen the empty tomb. It is remarkably that Jesus appears first to this lady named Mary Magdalene. We know she was a long-time follower of our Lord. We also know that her life was as severely demonic as a life could be before she met the Savior, and obviously her sins were many. There is nothing that says she was a prostitute.
But it is remarkable that this woman with no role in religion would be the first person to see the risen Christ, not the apostles. But in John 4, there was also a woman of Samaria; who had been married many times and was, at the time she met Jesus, living with a man who was not her husband. But it was to that woman who was an outcast from her society that Jesus first declared that He was the Messiah.
The false religions of the world throughout their history generally mistreated women. Christianity is utterly different. We know from Galatians 3:28 that in Christ there’s neither male nor female. We know that God is no respecter of persons. God has exalted women in the truest and purest way by giving them significant places, even in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Matthew 1, the New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus. We know He comes through the line of Abraham and David. He is a Jew and He has royal blood. Genealogies like this are lists of men and their sons, but this one interestingly enough has four women. Tamar prostituted herself to seduce Judah in an ugly immoral act. And there is Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute living in Jericho.
And then there is Ruth who was an idol-worshipping Moabite, and the Moabites were cursed by God. And then there is in verse 6 that famous woman Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah, who committed adultery with David, and by them was born Solomon who is in the Messiah’s line. It’s one thing to put four women in a genealogy, it’s another thing to put those four in.
What is God saying to us? He’s giving us, from the very opening of the New Testament, a message of grace extended to men and women, and particularly elevating women, because in the world they are so suppressed. Christianity is the only legitimate woman’s liberation movement, and here we find the first eyewitness of the resurrection is a woman with a horrendous past.
Now it’s not as if the resurrection was a marginal event, so you could let a woman be the eyewitness. The resurrection is the event without which there is no Christianity, without which there is not salvation, without which there is no forgiveness, without which there is no heaven. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ was the divine affirmation of His work of atonement on the cross.
When God raised Jesus from the dead He was declaring that He was satisfied by Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, had accepted it as full payment for the sins of His people. Resurrection then demonstrates that sin was atoned for, death was conquered, and eternal life is available to those who believe. And it’s impossible to be a Christian and not believe in the resurrection of Christ.
The resurrection is the event by which God validates the sacrifice of Christ. All those animal sacrifices for all those centuries could never take away sin; but the one sacrifice of Christ removes sin on the part of the people of God who believe forever. And God indicated that by the resurrection, by ripping the veil in the temple, ending the ceremonial system and the sacrificial system at that point.
Paul writes, “If there’s no resurrection of the dead, if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain; your faith also is vain. We are false witnesses of God, because we testified on behalf of God that He raised Christ whom He didn’t raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. If the dead are not raised, not even Christ is raised. If Christ is not raised your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
But the most enduring theory of the resurrection, apart from the truth of it, is that the disciples stole the body; and that basically was initiated by the Jewish leaders. When the Roman soldiers came back and they told their story, you remember there was an earthquake, an angel rolled the stone away, an angel even sat on the stone. The soldiers had been literally put to sleep by some divine anesthesia.
The next thing you know there’s an earthquake, the stone’s rolled away, and the body is gone, and the soldiers come to the Jewish leaders in Matthew, and they give this report in Matthew 28, “The earthquake came. We were all asleep, and we don’t know how to explain it.” And so the leaders of Israel say, “Say this, ‘While we were asleep they stole the body,’” If you were asleep, how do you know they stole the body?
Jesus made ten appearances after His resurrection. He appeared to Mary Magdalene. He appeared to the other women. He appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He appeared to Peter, appeared to John, appeared to the ten without Thomas, then the ten with Thomas. He appeared to seven of the apostles on the shore of Galilee, then to 500 brethren on a mountain in Galilee.
He had appearances with them over a month. Acts 1 says He was with them for 40 days teaching things concerning the kingdom, and a final appearance in Acts 1 before He ascended into heaven. So there is massive eyewitness testimony. And all His appearances were to believers. There was one unbeliever to whom He appeared after His resurrection, and that was the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus.
His method of reaching the lost and convincing them of His resurrection is not to make appearances. The way to proclaim the saving gospel is through the preaching of that gospel by the apostles and the preachers throughout redemptive history. In John 12:37 John says this of Jesus, “Though He had performed so many signs, so many miracles before them, they were not believing in Him.”
And Jesus Himself said in Luke 16:31, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.” Not too long before His own death He had raised Lazarus from the dead, and everybody knew about it. And He had raised a couple of other people that are recorded in the gospels, and maybe more that aren’t recorded. But that didn’t convince anybody.
Peter, John and the women have seen the empty tomb, and they still don’t believe in a resurrection. Our Lord determined that He would make some appearances for a 40-day period, and the eyewitnesses would give a record, and they would preach the resurrection from the eyewitness accounts, and every generation subsequently would preach the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And by the preaching of that gospel and faith in that gospel, the Holy Spirit would bring people into His kingdom, which are only believers. No sense in appearing to Israel, He had already pronounced judgment on them. Just eyewitness accounts in the hands of preachers was His method. So here we meet the first eyewitness. Now let’s look at the text, it is a simple narrative.
Verse 11, “But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb.” She goes there to make sure everything’s okay, and maybe some people would be able to roll the stone away. She talked with the women who were with her, but she arrived there first. Maybe the disciples could roll the stone so they could put more spices on the body of Jesus.
Mary arrives there, and she finds the tomb empty. She is weeping because Jesus is not there. Her tears are needless. Her love is manifested. Her tears are because of a broken heart, frustrated, lonely, not understanding what had happened, and having lost the object of her love. Verse 12, “And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.”
Matthew 28 says that one angel was a young man. And Luke 24:4 says there were two young men. So these are angels who are spirits who have taken on, as angels do, some kind of male form. She didn’t know they were angels. Furthermore, she’s sobbing. Her eyes are blurred with tears. So she sees these two men, and she doesn’t really know who they are and what they are doing.
You know that the presence of angels is another proof positive that the tomb was not changed by human hands, that the body was not stolen, but rather that heaven has a vital interest in the resurrection of Christ. She looks in and there is the place where the body was to lie and an angel on each end. God is saying, “I will meet you in the empty tomb. Here I will speak with you.”
Verse 13, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they’ve taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” Again, no thought of a resurrection. Even though our Lord had said He would rise, they just didn’t believe it. This woman rescued from seven demons had been in the sweet fellowship of the Son of God, the Son of love.
Verse 14, “Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but did not know that it was Jesus.” She stayed around out of love for Him; Jesus lingered out of love for Her, this first eyewitness. Her tears are blinding her. She has no reason to believe in a resurrection. And every time Jesus appeared after His resurrection He had to identify Himself, because He was in a different form.
Jesus had a glorious resurrection body. And while there would have been familiar elements to that body, this was not the body that went to the cross, this was an eternal body. That is why on the road to Emmaus, in Luke 24, when Jesus joined those disciples on that resurrection day and walked along, it says in Luke 24:16, “Their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.”
He was not the way they knew Him. And later on in Luke 24:30-31 it says, “Now it came to pass, as Jesus sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.” Even when Jesus appeared to the disciples they did not recognize Him because of His resurrection glory.
Nobody did unless He disclosed Himself to them. Verse 15, “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.” She is sure He is dead, and somebody has taken the body. She thinks Jesus is the gardener.
Verse 16, Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). This is an emphatic way of saying rabbi, or teacher. All He said was, “Mary!” Do you remember what our Lord said in John 10:3, “His sheep hear his voice, he calls his own sheep by name. Because they know his voice, they follow him.” She knew the way He said that name.
And we know she falls at His feet, because that’s what all the women did. Matthew 28 says that when the women met Jesus they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. And that’s what Mary does. The shock of the most exhilarating joy ever comprehended, and the one thought she has in her mind is, “I don’t want to lose Him again.” So she hold on, this is pure love.
Verse 17, “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, and to My God and your God.” Before He got to the cross, He was looking past the cross to going to the Father. That was the joy that was set before Him that allowed Him to endure the cross.
Jesus is saying, “Mary, I can’t stay, you’re not going to be able to keep Me here, because the plan is for Me to ascend to heaven. And when I get there I’m going to send the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ who will be in you. And you will have all that I am in you: all the peace, all the joy and all the power. But for now go to My brothers.” That’s the first time believers have been called brothers.
How did we become brothers who were once friends and once slaves? The cross made it possible for us to become the children of God, brothers and sisters. Hebrews 2:9 says that, “Jesus suffered death, so that He could bring His own to glory because He’s not ashamed to call them brothers.” To say you are the brother or sister of deity would be blasphemous, but it’s the truth.
Verse 18, “Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her.” But the sad reality is they didn’t believe her. Eventually the other women showed up. “They’re talking to the apostles,” Luke 24:10, “but these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.” They did not believe in a resurrection. But their turn’s coming. Let us pray.