Resurrection Beatitudes John 20:11-23 Westside Fellowship CRC; 4 April 2021 Rev. Dr. Heidi S. De Jonge

Read John 20:1-10 as Call to Worship

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

This morning we are going to see how the beatitudes show up in the Resurrection story – I want to start already now with “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.” I want to focus in on the inherit the earth part because it’s a resurrection blessing – because it’s the blessing that reminds us that even though there are some ways in which the world is not our home - this world is our home! The earth – the world – is something that we inherit – it is our home now – and will be for eternity. Scripture doesn’t tell us that we’re going to float away and live forever in the clouds. Scripture tells us that Jesus will return and this earth – this very earth – will be renewed. We will inherit THIS EARTH forever. And Jesus’ resurrection is the first fruit of that. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave as a ghost. Jesus rose from the dead fully embodied in his

1 resurrection body. Christianity – the way of Jesus – is an embodied religion. It is an INHERIT- THE-EARTH religion. Christ the Lord is risen today. Hallelujah!

Read: John 20:11-16a

11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

The Beatitude: Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

Mary was deeply grieved. Her teacher and friend was dead and she couldn’t even find his body to tend to it. It was grief on top of grief. He wasn’t just dead. He was dead-dead. Dead and gone. In her grief, she doesn’t even register that she had just spoken to heavenly beings. In her grief, she doesn’t recognize Jesus. In her grief, her grip on reality starts slipping… thinking that she has a super-human strength… thinking that if she could just find the body, she could go and get it herself and put it back where it was supposed to be. “Tell me where you have put him, and I’ll get him” (v. 15).

And Jesus said to her, “Mary.” And with that one word, Mary knew a comfort that she had never known before. There was the Blesser before her. (Comfort means With and Strong… The Blesser was strongly-with her.)

Blessed are you who mourn (and maybe you don’t think you’re mourning… maybe you are just perpetually angry right now – I’m here to remind you that mad sometimes covers sad… and so your grief might be showing up as anger). So blessed are you who mourn or rage with a grief that blinds you to heavenly beings – that keeps you from recognizing Jesus, even when he is right next to you… Blessed are you who mourn or rage with a grief that messes with your sense of reality so much so that you think that if you could just find the person or the thing that you are looking for, you could put everything back. All by yourself. Just so. May you hear your name through your tears or your fears or your anger. May you hear your name like Jude heard his name in the woods. May you hear your name like Jude’s parents heard him say, “Mommy” and “Daddy.” And as you hear your name, may you be comforted. May the blesser be strongly-with you.

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Read John 20:16b-17

[Mary] turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

[and then it seems that Mary must have grasped hold of him because…]

17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

The Beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Sometimes when we reach the very end of our rope all we want to do is cling – is to hold on tight to whoever comes our way… Like a drowning person grabs with desperation onto her rescuer. Jesus has to remind Mary that they can’t stay in this moment… They both have a mission – a shore to reach… – a kingdom mission, a heavenly mission. He is on his way to the Father and she needs to go and speak to the disciples. Don’t cling to me, Mary, Jesus says. Release your hands – we have shores to reach.

Blessed are you when you have reached the end of your rope and you are clinging to whatever is right in front of you: food, the first person who is kind to you, a hobby or a distraction. Release your desperate grip. Listen for the mission. You have a shore to reach and it’s further up and further in.

Read John 20:17 again – emphasizing “brothers.”

17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

The Beatitude: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Jesus’ disciples had deserted him. They had run away at the time when he needed them the most – when he needed them to bear witness and stand with him. When he needed their emotional strength. They slept when he needed them to pray. They denied him when he needed them to claim him. Nearly all of them were nowhere to be found when he actually hung from the cross and was dying.

But Jesus speaks gospel with one word. Brothers, he says. Go and tell my brothers. With this one word we know that there is peace – that they are still part of the same family.

Blessed are you when you do everything in your power to stay connected to the family of God, even when they have failed to bear witness and stand with you. Even when they deny that you are family. You are brothers. You are sisters. You are siblings. You are children of God. Children of the God whose Son is the prince of peace. And has made peace in his body through his blood

3 shed on the cross. He is your brother. He calls you his brother. His sister. And he will bring us together.

Read John 20:18

18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

The Beatitude: Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.

Someone with a pure heart is a person of integrity. Their inside matches their outside – yes… and they are people of their word, living according to their design and the way God made them – and following the plans that the Lord lays out for them… They give their word to things and then they do what they say they’re going to do when they say they’re going to do it in the manner in which it was meant to be done. Mary lived according to her design and the plan that the Lord laid out for her. And her message is the blessing of the pure-hearted: “I have seen the Lord!”

Blessed are you when you live according to the design God has given you and when you give your word to living the kingdom life, and then keep the word that you have given. Blessed are you when you testify to what you have seen and heard. Blessed are you when there are times that you don’t see God – when God’s face and hand seem hidden – and yet you go on trusting God’s heart. As Jesus says later in this chapter: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (v. 29).

Read John 20:19

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

The Beatitude: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The disciples were afraid. So afraid that they went into a room and locked the doors. They were perhaps afraid that the Jewish leaders would accuse them of having stolen Jesus’ body… or would learn the truth about them – that they really were followers of Jesus – and that they should have the same fate as Jesus had. Perhaps if they could have had their greatest wish, it would have been that the Jewish leaders would give up the trail – and leave them alone to go back to their fishing and their families. But instead, Jesus showed up in the locked room.

Blessed are you when you are afraid of the things on the other sides of the doors – when your greatest wish is that your enemies would just Go Away. Look! Jesus is right here with you in this locked room. The kingdom of heaven isn’t over there on the other side of the enemy line – on

4 the other side of the struggle… the kingdom of heaven is yours. Right here. Right now. In this very room.

Read John 20:20

After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

The Beatitude: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are you when you long so deeply for things to be made right. May God surprise you with joy – more joy than you could have known that you were longing for – more right- relationship than you even thought was possible. May you be filled with joy. May you overflow with joy. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Read John 20:21-23

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

The Beatitude: Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

Jesus breathed peace and forgiveness and mercy on to the disciples… and he sent them out to be that peace and forgiveness and mercy. In a way, our communion service this morning is like the breath of heaven – the breath of the Blesser – the breath of Jesus… giving us the Holy Spirit… giving us the ministry of reconciliation and forgiveness… We all have a mission – and we need the risen Christ to give himself to us and to send us.

(Transition to communion)

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