The Love of God: Mary Magdalene (John 20) – Part 1

John 20:19. Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb, and so she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved. Say Wow. They have taken away the Lord out of the tombs, and we do not know where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and they were going to the tomb, and the two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead, faster than Peter, and came to the tomb first. Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrapping lying there, but he did not go in. Simon Peter therefore also came following him and entered the tomb, and he beheld the linen wrapping lying there. And the face cloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrapping, but rolled up in a place by itself. Then entered in therefore the other disciple also, who had first come to the tomb, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Oh, you talk about the flow of hearts…So, the disciples went away again to their own homes.

Verse 10 – So the disciples went away again to their own homes…and the next two words, but Mary… But Mary was standing outside the tomb, weeping. So as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb, and she beheld two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 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 beheld Jesus standing there, and did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her the same thing, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking?” Praise God.

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. And Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned to him and said in Hebrew, “Rabboni,” which means Teacher. And Jesus said, “Stop clinging to me. For I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.” And that he had said these things to her.

I want you to know that I would love tonight…I’d just love to see a new era in church history be born this evening. I just really am all for it. I’m not going to stand in the way if it’s possible.

Well, there was God, and He was love, and He had no place to love, and He had no counterpart because His nature was One, and yet a paradox in His being was that He needed a place for His love to go. And He had an idea that had never been had before, and that idea was another God; someone to match Him. And somehow, He counseled within Himself, counted what that would take, and began. He had a creation. Somehow, in that decision, He made it necessary to have something visible; I don’t know why, but He did.

He made man the most perfect and the highest of all His creatures so that, out of that man, He might have His counterpart. He would have to create something, but it would be short of His counterpart, so He would have to alter Himself and come into His creation. It was too low for Him so that He would raise it higher, and in that created being He would find His counterpart.

That created being, called man, fell. I tell you, I don’t know why God did this, but God decided it would be man. If He ever had a wife, a love, a true beloved woman, if He ever had a bride, He was still determined that she would come from that fallen, hideous creature; I’m not using too strong a word…you know how tragic we are. I have a notion that since last Sunday night, when I saw you, every one of you has been a tragedy. Is that not true? It’s just been a tragedy. He decided that out of that fallen creature He would still get His bride.

Well, the whole Old Testament is a story of the… not of that bride, but of the picture of that bride. Is it a beautiful story? Most of it’s not so pretty. Can you imagine God having a difficulty finding one who would say yes to Him? Yet I would say, probably, if we could talk to the Lord face to face, He would have to say this has been one of, if not His greatest, difficulties: a woman who would take her position beside Him.

That’s incredible. The whole Old Testament is the story of that tragedy. God left out. God not wanted. The Lord of the universe…not wanted by the girl. That’s impossible to believe, and yet that is the story of the Old Testament.

I tried to put something into you the other night, and that is: when Jesus Christ broke out of the pictures and got down to reality, there was fire in His eye, and He said, “I have looked at a picture for a thousand years…turn its heart away from me. I have come for my bride…and I will tolerate no interference. I’m going to have her, and nothing will distract me from her, and once I get her, nothing will distract her from me. That was His burning intensity, and you can see it if you read the Gospels carefully. You can see His heart.

Well…He marked down everything that might stand in the way. What would you say, in one nice, conclusive sentence, stood in the way of Him having this beautiful woman? What? The whole fall, all right. These are…here’s the thought I had. It’s no better than anyone else’s. I was going to say the whole human race. I was going to say more than that. The whole creation stood in the way. It had fallen; everything in it was distracted from the Lord. The whole human race was distracted from Him. The whole human race had no heart for the Lord.