Ron Dunn Podcast - Why Mary Didn't Recognize Jesus

Episode Date: January 18, 2017

Ron Dunn preaches a message on John 20:1-18 about the Empty Tomb and Mary Magdalene not recognizing her risen Savior.

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. I preached a sermon once on it is more blessed to give than receive. I forget what my points were except the first one. I asked the question, why is it more blessed to give than receive?

This is the only one I can think of. Because when you give, you don't have to write thank you notes. When you receive, you've got to write all those thank you notes. That's a blessing right there, getting out of that. It must not have been a very good sermon. I only preached it once, and I don't remember anything else about it. Well, it's good to see all of you tonight. I want you to open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 20. The Gospel of John chapter 20 the gospel of John chapter 20 and I want to read the first 18 verses the gospel of John chapter 20 verses 1 through 18 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. That's John. John never refers to himself by name in his book. He always refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. The one whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. Then Peter and the other disciples set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter

and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head,

not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed. Now that doesn't mean he believed that Jesus was raised. It just means he believed the body was gone. For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead.

Then the disciples, thinking there was nothing there for them. That's my own little parenthesis. Then the disciples returned to their home. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying,

one at the head and the other at the feet. 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. When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for? Supposing him to be the gardener, she 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 in Hebrew, Rebani, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced it to the disciples, I have seen the Lord. And she told them that he had said these things to her. Mary Magdalene went and announced it to the disciples, I have seen the Lord. And she told them that he had said these things to her. Now, the very first time I was in your church with Michael, I was here once when Billy Smith was here,

but the first time I was here when Michael was here, we had noon services. And I was speaking on Psalm 37, when the upright get uptight. And so after that first noon session, I was standing around, people were talking to me, and a member of your church, who I have learned is no longer here, so I can say this. A man in your church came up to me and he said, Well, Brother Dunn, that was a good sermon, but you realize you missed the whole point of that passage. Well, I didn't know what to say. I certainly wasn't going to ask him what the point was.

And your pastor got a big laugh out of that. And from time to time, he'll write me a little note and say, oh, you missed the whole point. But Michael, I really do wish you would stop calling pastors where I'm going to be in a meeting like Brian Smith at Van Buren and telling them during the meeting, sometime during the service, to say that I missed the whole point of that passage. You admit doing that, don't you?

I mean, yes, you do. You know Brian Smith of Van Vuur? Yes, yes. Well, he testified. You called him and told him to be sure and say that. And he's not the only one. I'm glad your pastor's gotten a lot of blessings out of that. Missed the whole point.

Well, I'm not above missing the point. I don't think I missed the whole point in Psalm 37. I know, I guess it's possible for her. Take a passage of Scripture and miss the whole point. I know one thing. The disciples missed the whole point of the resurrection. They missed the whole point of the resurrection. If I were Jesus, and I speak as a fool,

but if I were Jesus, I think the most disappointing day in my life would have been Resurrection Day. Why? Nobody there to meet me. You ever thought about that? He had repeatedly told them he was going to rise again the third day. You'd have thought they'd have been there waiting anxiously to see this marvel come to pass. And when they were going to show this Star Trek deal, I mean, they had kids camping out.

I mean, they had their sleeping blankets camping out all night so they'd be first in line to get a ticket. You'd have thought those disciples would have camped out so they would have been the first to have seen Jesus come from the dead. But when Jesus rose from the grave, there was not a single one there to greet him. And even the first person who saw Jesus didn't recognize him. And these disciples, they saw the empty tomb, and then they said, yeah, he's gone.

And they went back home, for there was nothing for them there. They missed the whole point. Mary says, where have you laid him? Well, they hadn't laid him anywhere. She missed the whole point. She looked straight at Jesus and didn't recognize him, didn't see him. I think it's possible for Jesus to be present

and not be recognized. I think that many a time you and I have looked Jesus straight in the face and have not seen him. And while we've been looking at him, we've been saying to ourselves, where is the Lord? Now, why did Mary not fail?

Why did Mary fail to recognize Jesus? What is it that keeps us from seeing Jesus? Our desire ought to be every time we come into this worship place, of course, and outside of it day by day to be able to say, I've seen the Lord. I have the sneaking suspicion that if we leave our worship services and are unable to say, I've seen the Lord, that we've missed it somewhere. Because He is here, where two or three are gathered together in His name, there is He in the midst of them, He's here. I wonder how many of us will see him tonight and will recognize him.

Why didn't Mary recognize Jesus? Well, there's some suggestions I'd like to make. It has been suggested that sometimes we fail to see Jesus because our eyes are so filled with tears. The Bible says that Mary in verse 11 stood weeping outside the tomb. And the word weeping there means a loud crying, a loud mourning for someone who's lost.

She wasn't just sniffling. She wasn't silently grieving. But her eyes were filled with tears and she was lamenting a loud wailing of crying. And maybe that's why she didn't recognize Jesus, because her eyes were filled with tears and her heart overcome with grief. And I think many times we fail to see Jesus in a situation

because our heart is so burdened with grief and our eyes are filled with tears. We fail to recognize Jesus when He might be right standing before us, but our eyes are so filled with tears because of a heartbreak, because of a disappointment, because of a broken heart, we fail to see Him. And there are many a time, many a time, I've talked to them and you have too, many a time when people suddenly they find themselves immersed in some kind of suffering or tragedy, they begin to wonder, why has God done this

to me? And where is the Lord as though as He has abandoned me? And all we can see is the pain and the suffering and the incident, and we can't see Jesus in that. We don't see the Lord working in that because our hearts are so filled with grief and our eyes are so filled with tears. It's hard sometimes to see Jesus through our sorrow. Hard to recognize Him. And while we may look straight at him, and yet our eyes are filled with the tears of disappointment and heartache, we fail to see him. It's often hard to recognize Jesus when our hearts are preoccupied with some great disaster or great disappointment. I wonder how many of us, the moment some disappointment comes, the moment some great disaster comes, we immediately

say, oh, the Lord is in this. Is that our first reaction? I think for some of us it is. But I don't think that's the way it is for most believers. Our first reaction when disaster moves in is not to say, Oh, the Lord is here. The Lord is in this. Our first one is to do like Mary. We wail and weep, and we wonder, where is God when I need Him the most?

Where is He when I need Him the most? So maybe she failed to see Jesus because her eyes were filled with tears. And maybe you failed to see Jesus because your mind and heart has been preoccupied with disappointment and grief. But there's a second suggestion. It's been suggested

that perhaps Mary failed to see Jesus because she was turned in the wrong direction. She was facing the wrong direction. It says here in this passage twice, she had to turn in the direction of Jesus. Looking in the wrong direction. It's hard to see Jesus when you're turned away from him

and looking for him in the wrong places. Remember that song popular a few years ago, looking for love in all the wrong places? Oh, what a commentary on today's society. We're looking for fulfillment, looking for love in all the wrong places? Oh, what a commentary on today's society. We're looking for fulfillment, looking for joy, looking for happiness, but we're looking for it in all the wrong places. And people today are searching. They are. You have to give it to people. They are today hungry for something. They don't know what it is, but there is, as the old saying is, there is a God-shaped void in their hearts,

and there's never going to be any contentment and rest until that God-shaped void is filled. But it can only be filled with God, yet we do not know that. We just know there's a void in our hearts, and so we're searching for it, and searching for it, and searching for it.

And this person says, all you need to do is to follow me. And this is the way to do it. And this is the way to find fulfillment. And so we're going from one person to another, from one substance to another, trying to find some fulfillment in our lives. And any sociologist or psychologist will tell you that today the greatest problem among people is their feeling of meaninglessness. That they are a nobody. That they are not fulfilled within themselves. That they are just another number logged away somewhere. That they're just one more little cog in a big wheel.

And there's no sense of real fulfillment, no sense that I am somebody. There is nothing to fill the aching void that is in their heart. And so they're looking everywhere for it. Some people look for it in success. If I could it doesn't we saw if I just had money rich people jump out of windows every day but better windows maybe but they jump out of them. People looking to numb the pain, looking for life, looking for satisfaction, looking for some sense of peace.

Most of the people are looking in the wrong wrong direction thinking they'll find it there I tell you folks I don't have any problem understanding why people become alcoholics I don't have any problem understanding why people become drug addicts I tell you if it wasn't for tranquilizers I'd probably be on the drugs myself.

People are looking, but the trouble is they're looking in the wrong direction. I think there may be a third reason why we fail to see Jesus and why Mary particularly failed to see him. I think sometimes we fail to see the Lord because we're unable to see God's hand beyond the fact. Unable to see God's hand beyond the mere fact of what is happening. Now, here's Mary. She comes to the tomb, and she looks in, and what does she see? She sees two angels.

Now, I tell you what, I'd have been jumping up and down all over myself two angels two angels how about that two angels but she is unimpressed with angels I mean you know

what would you do if you looked in your closet and you saw two angels standing there? You'd be jumping more than Marty was while she was leading that music, I guarantee you. Angels, angels, angels. She looks in there, sees two angels. Now I want to tell you something.

If I saw two angels there, it might occur to me that God was somewhere around. Do you reckon? And yet Mary was not able to see beyond just the mere fact that the body was gone. See, she wasn't weeping that Jesus was dead. She had already done that. She was weeping that the body was gone. See, she wasn't weeping that Jesus was dead. She had already done that. She was weeping that the body was gone. And that's all she could see. That's all she could feel. That's all that her mind could compute. The Lord's body has been taken away. She says, tell me where you've laid him, and I'll take him away.

What's she going to do with that hundred pounds of myrrh and stuff that Nicodemus laid on him you know she's not thinking clearly and she thinks it's the gardener she looks in she sees two angels now I want you to watch this friend one angel's at the head one angel's at the foot.

Like the Ark of the Covenant of the Old Testament. One angel at the head, one angel at the foot. Here's the mercy seat. And she doesn't get it. Isn't that something? Isn't that something? Unable to see God's hand beyond the mere fact of what we see. If you go back to John 13,

where Jesus begins to wash the feet of the disciples, and He comes to Peter, and Peter says, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? And Jesus said, Peter, what I now do, you do not understand, but you will understand later. Oh, Lord, you're never going to wash my feet. Now, you see, Jesus ends this up by saying,

do you know what I've done to you? Do you know what I've done to you? Yeah, you've washed my feet. No, that's not what I've done to you. What I've done to you is to give you an example of love and humility. Peter's problem was he was so spiritually dense that he could not see anything beyond the mere fact that Jesus was washing his feet. See, that's all he could see.

And that was a horrible thing because washing somebody's feet was the lowest job even a slave could do. That was the very lowest of jobs. And here was his Lord and Master. And of course you realize that Peter didn't volunteer to wash Jesus' feet.

No, he's too good to wash anybody's feet. And as far as I know, the only one who walked out of that room with unwashed feet that night was our Lord. He even washed the feet of those that hated him and betrayed him. And Peter said, Lord, you shall not wash my feet. What's wrong with Peter? Peter doesn't have the spiritual sensibility to see beyond the fact that Jesus is not merely washing his feet,

that Jesus is doing something far greater than that. Far greater than that. Far greater than that. And it's so often that when God begins to do something in our life and we do not understand, all we can see is the fact of the disaster. All we can see is the event itself. We don't have the spiritual sense to look for the hidden hand of God in everything, to always be on the lookout for the invisible hand of God, and to realize that behind the most minute and mundane and ordinary of acts, there is the hand of God.

He is doing something more than what you see He is doing. What you see is not what you get. There's far more beyond that. You remember when Mary washed His feet, and she broke that alabaster box and anointed His feet. Then Jesus interpreted that when people began to complain about it. He said, leave her alone. She has anointed my body for the burying. Well, that was news to Mary. Mary had no intention of anointing his body for burial. Why? You don't do that until somebody's dead. And here's Jesus, a young man in his early 30s. He's not even sick. Know what Mary was doing? Well, she didn't know what she was doing. She was just loving Jesus. The only way she knew to do it, the only way she knew to show her love and

worship for Jesus is to take the most precious thing she had and break it and pour it out on him and that for her to her that was the end of it it ended right there but Jesus said oh no this has farther reaching circumstances and wheresoever the gospel shall be preached what you have done today will be spoken of as a memorial for you. And I tell you everything that God does in your life and every little simple act of obedience you do for

God has farther reaching consequences than you'll ever see. Paul said it. How in the world Lord can you take what's going on? How in the world Paul Lord, can you take what's going on? How in the world, Paul, can you handle that? He said, we have this problem and we have this, yet we faint not, we faint not, we faint not.

We don't give up, we don't lose heart. Why? He said, because that which is seen is temporal. And that which is not seen is eternal. See, what you see, friend, that's not the real thing. In Hebrews it says that the world was made out of things that are not seen. Now, I tell you, our big problem is we believe reality is what we see.

Reality is what we do not say that is eternal that is God can you imagine the transformation that would come to our lives if we could ever get that viewpoint and understand that and look for the invisible hand of God in every situation in our life. If we had the ability to see God's hand beyond just the simple fact of what has happened. This is it. This is what has happened and this is the end of it.

Oh no, oh no, oh no. Peter, you don't know yet what I'm doing, but you will someday understand what I'm doing. And he says to many of you, you do not know yet what I'm doing, but one of these days you'll understand. I think Mary was unable to see Jesus, and sometimes we're unable to see Him

because we're unable to see God's hand beyond the mere event. But there is a last reason I believe that Mary could not see Jesus. Did not recognize Him when she saw Him. You know why? Because she was looking for a corpse instead of a living Lord.

She was looking for a corpse instead of a living Lord. Hey, I'm glad she didn't find what she was looking for. Can you imagine? If she had found what she was looking for, none of us would be here tonight. We'd all be in hell already.

She wasn't looking for the living Jesus. She missed the whole point. She was looking for the body of Jesus. She was looking for a corpse. She was looking for a historical Jesus that she had known. And she wasn't looking for a living Lord. I wonder how many times we come to church and we're not looking for a living Lord. We don't expect to see a living Lord here. In a sense, we're worshiping a dead Jesus. In a sense, we're worshiping a Jesus

confined to history of 2,000 years ago. And that's the kind of Jesus we expect to find, and He has no relation to us, no involvement in us, we do not come looking and expecting to meet a living Lord. That's why we ought to be excited when we come into the house of God, and when we gather together for worship, we ought to be excited because we come into the house of God and when we gather together for worship we ought to be excited because Jesus is here alive

and we have a chance to meet him most of us drag in sit down look at our watches let's sing the songs hear the sermon try to stay awake.

Pretend we're making sermon notes and we're just doodling, trying to stay awake. Thank God it's just about over. We go out. Now we're going to get some real excitement. Cowboys are playing. I can't be on. I can remember a day

in my life, the life of our church, where it didn't matter if the Super Bowl was on or not, we'd rather be in church. We're afraid to miss, even on a Wednesday night. Lord, we're afraid we'd miss Jesus. He's going to be there and do something

miraculous. We didn't have to have early Super Bowl Sunday services. We didn't have to try to wrap the service around the church. I mean, we just didn't even mention it and people in our church couldn't care less.

Even if the Cowboys were playing. Wish I could say that today. But we ought to come into this place excited, optimistic, looking. Jesus is here this morning. I tell you, He's here tonight,

friends. We fail to see Jesus because we're looking for a corpse rather than a living Lord. We've come to the place where we recognize Him only in certain forms and only in certain places. Listen to what Jesus said to Mary. He said, touch me not, do not hold me. The Greek has the idea of prohibiting an action that's already in progress.

In other words, he's saying stop holding me, stop holding me, for I'm not yet ascended to my Father. And you can see very clearly what Mary is doing once she recognizes that it's the Lord. She falls down and wraps her arms around his feet and legs and clings to him and hugs him. Jesus says stop holding on to me, stop holding on to me.

Stop holding on to me. Mary, the old relationship is gone. The old physical relationship that you and I had is gone. Now there is a higher relationship, a newer relationship, a spiritual relationship. Don't look for me in the old forms. Don't confine me to the past. I'm alive. So Paul says, henceforth now we know no man after the flesh. What does he mean by that? We do not judge men, and our relationship to men is not based upon the flesh, but it's based upon the Christ who dwells in all of us, the new relationship.

New relationship. And yet there are some of us that we believe you can only see Jesus in certain forms. We fail to see Him sometimes when He shows up in a different form. Now, I know Southern Baptists is God's favorite people but I tell you what he could show up at a different church of course we wouldn't recognize it

or acknowledge it we wouldn't. Because it's not where we expected to see him. Not the form in which we expected to see him. There are some of us who would rather cling to a dead Christ and their ritual, rather than open themselves to a living Lord who lives outside their little boundaries. You know what I mean? I'm afraid sometimes we care more for our idealized pictures of Christ

than for the real thing. Now, we've had some kind of untraditional music here tonight. And I'm really giving you the benefit of the doubt on that. I was brought up traditional worship. I was brought up before they ever had a guitar in a church or drums had a big old pipe organ a piano

and we opened with a doxology. We sang the great old hymns and the preachers and all the staff and most of the members dressed up wore ties and suits. The women wore heels, even hats on Sunday morning woman walk in the church in my day and pants they'd say he just come from off the street. I'm not lying. And that's where I met Jesus.

That's where I learned Jesus. That's where I saw him. But I would be a fool to say that the only place in which you can find Jesus is in traditional worship. Likewise, I'd be a fool to say the only place you can find Jesus was in contemporary worship. I'd be a fool to say the only way and only place you could find Jesus and the only way you could see Jesus is if you're doing it my way. And you would be a similar

fool if you said the only way that Jesus would manifest himself is your way. Now I'm not giving carte blanche to everything that goes on. I'm thinking, I'm talking about everything that goes according to scripture. I'm not talking about a lot of this wild

stuff that goes on where God's not within three miles of it. You see, you see, we fail to recognize Jesus because we only recognize him in certain forms. Let me read you a verse of scripture Matthew 24 25 excuse me

Matthew 25 verse 34 then the king will say to those at his right hand come you that are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for i was hungry and you gave me food i was thirsty and you gave me something to drink i was a stranger and you welcomed me i was naked and you gave me clothing i was sick and you took care of me i was in prison and you visited me then the righteous will answer him lord when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something care of me. I was in prison and you visited me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?

And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you? And the king will answer them, truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto me. A lot of places see Jesus. Lord, when did we see you? When did we see you? When you gave a cup of water

to the least members of my family, you did it to me. When did we visit you, Lord? We never saw you sick and in prison. He said, oh, when you visited the least of these my brethren, you visited the least of these my brethren, you visited me.

When you and I, folks, help out the least of the family of God, give them a drink of water or better, a cream soda. Give them some clothing. Visit them when they're sick or even in prison. You know what? You've seen Jesus and didn't even know it.

You visited Jesus, didn't even know it. You visited Jesus, didn't even know it. And so Mary went off and told the other disciples, I've seen the Lord. Not the Lord that I expected to see. Not the Lord in the old familiar standing and surrounding, but I have seen the Lord. Oh, it would be wonderful to be able to end every day by saying, I have seen the Lord.

He's out there, folks. You may not recognize him, but he's there. He's there. And God, help us to recognize him. Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you tonight for Mary, last at the cross, first at the tomb. So burdened about her Lord. And so many of us unable to see Him.

Looking in the wrong direction, our hearts preoccupied with burdens. Our inability to see You beyond the physical. Demanding that you appear, oh man, in certain forms, certain places. I pray that you'd bless the word of God

to our hearts tonight. And that some of us would be able to go out of here saying, I have seen the Lord. And this is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent.

It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.