Empty tomb

John 17.26 — 25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

It is such a let down to rise from the dead and have your friends not recognize you. The writer John tells us that Mary saw Jesus after his resurrection but did not realise it was Jesus. Jesus asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” “Thinking he was the gardener, she said . . .” I love that line “thinking he was the gardener.” It is so loaded.

Jewish writers like John did things like this all the time in their writings. They record what seem to be random details, yet in these details we find all sorts of multiple layers of meaning. There are even methods to help decipher all the hid- den meanings in a text. One is called the principle of first mention. Whenever you come across a significant word in a passage, find out where this word first appears in the Bible. John does this in his gospel. The first mention of the word love is in 3:16—“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.” We then discover that love is first men- tioned in Genesis 22 when God tells Abraham to take “your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love” and offer him as a sacrifice. John is doing something intentional in his gospel: He wants his readers to see a connection between Abra- ham and his son, and God and God’s son. John’s readers who knew the Torah would have seen the parallels right away.

Back to the empty tomb and Mary’s inability to recognize Jesus. She mistakes him for a gardener. Where is the first mention of a garden in the Bible? Genesis 2, the story of God placing the first people in a . . . garden. And what happens to this garden and these people? They choose to live outside of how God made them to live, and they lose their place in the garden. Death enters the picture and paradise is lost. John tells us that Jesus is buried in a garden tomb. And Jesus is mistaken for a gardener. Something else is going on here. John wants us to see a connection between the garden of Eden and Jesus rising from the dead in a garden. There is a new Adam on the scene, and he is reversing the curse of death by conquering it. As one writer put it, “It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” And he’s doing it in a garden. He’s reclaiming creation. He’s entering into it and restoring it and renewing God’s plans for the world. Jesus is God’s way of refusing to give up on his dream for the world.

Stop and breathe.
Thankyou, gracious Father, that through the death an+d resurrection of your Son Jesus, you have fulfilled your plan to save the whole world.

Silence

John 17.26 — 25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

There is something of an echo to the Genesis story here, for just as the Father rested after the work of creation had been complete, so here we see a Father resting in Christ, silent, in the tomb. There is a pause which is filled with the expectation of the dawning of new life of resurrection Sunday but just now, there is silence.

What Jesus accomplished on the cross was something far more significant than simply on Good Friday. Rather, the im- pact and trajectory of the cross would resonate with the whole of creation. By this, the whole world would know that the death of Jesus defeated the evil that is in the world.

Again, as the mediator and Great High Priest, Jesus prays for those who one day, will join the band of the disciples, in years, decades and centuries to come. Consider how the disciples may have reacted at this point, probably confused and somewhat disturbed. That sense of hearing something you just don’t understand yet it doesn't feel comfortable.

But he prays something incredibly significant for us as a church, that we would be one. In the silence of Saturday pray for believers across Teesside. That we might be one as our God is one. Think about one of the other churches in Mid- dlesbrough and pray God’s richest blessing upon them.

Stop and breathe.

Father, may all your people be one, as you through the prayer of Jesus resounded so clearly. Help me be a blessing to other believers around our town. Show us, as MCC, what we can do to fulfil this part of your prayer.

Friday...Jesus prays for his disciples

John 17.6-19 — 6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you
have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but
they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your
name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hat- ed them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

In the midst of our reflections and thoughts about this solemn day, we find ourselves in the middle of Je- sus’ prayer for his disciples. The prayer he prayed before he was arrested and killed.

Jesus prayed that he would be glorified, in that, through the crucifixion, God would fully reveal himself as the One true God, the lover of Israel and the world. Even in this incredibly intense and emotional moment , Jesus’ thoughts turn towards his disciples, the ones whom the Father had given him as
their mediator, he stands in the gap prays for their sanctification. This Hebrew word points towards

a consecration, where a person is made holy by God. Through the cross and in His own body, Jesus took upon himself the shame, failings, sin and agony of all people, in order that they might know healing and ultimately embody the love of God.

It is out of that desire that he prays for his people, those who earlier, sat around the table, the names we know and those we do not know the names of—but people who had seen a glimpse of the God in Him and chose to trust him with all their life.

In our sanctification, we are placing our lives in God’s hands, for his use, his glory and his mission. In the words of Mary, ‘Let it be to me, according to your word.’

Stop and breathe.

Lord Jesus, be with us as a church as we watch and wait on this solemn day. You loved us until there was no breath left in your body, may we also be faithful to you and because of what you have done through the cross, may we be consecrated for your service.