Happy Easter and welcome to Trinity Sermons and thanks so much for joining us today for
our weekly sermon here at Trinity Church, Streetsville.
We're a church located in the village of Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario and we're
so glad that you are with us today for our message of good news on Easter.
A reading from the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 1 to 18.
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.
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.
So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb.
Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb.
He saw the strips of lying there as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus'
head.
The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.
Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside.
He saw and believed.
They did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.
Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying.
As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where
Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
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.
At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was
Jesus.
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.
Jesus said to her, Mary.
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, rabboni, which means teacher.
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.
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news.
I have seen the Lord and she told them what he had said, these things to her.
The word of the Lord.
How many of you know what your very first words were?
Your baby words when you were a baby.
What were the first words that ever came out of your mouth?
Today I want to talk not about last words, but I want to talk about first words.
Just a hands up, you don't have to tell me what they are, but hands up if you know what
your first words were.
Yeah, not a lot of people know what their first words were.
I think it's an interesting topic.
Some parents actually have a baby book and in that baby book they write down, oh, this
was baby's first step or this is baby's first smile or this is baby's first poop or this
was baby's first word.
I actually asked some of our staff here, I said, hey staff, what were some of your first
words?
Some of them got back to me.
I'll just give you a couple for examples.
For example, Libby, our worship director, Libby McGrath, I asked her, I said, Libby,
what were some of your first words?
I wonder, I said, hey Libby, what was your first word?
That's a picture of Libby when she was just little.
Her first word was no.
And actually, if you know Libby, you're like, yeah, that kind of makes sense.
That kind of fits, right?
And then so I asked our amazing media director, Alex Stevens, I said, hey Alex, what were
your first words?
And so he called his folks and he asked them and his first word was mama.
And so doesn't he look like a mama's boy?
I mean, he's a total mama's boy.
Absolutely.
And those words that they said while they were on a road trip to Nova Scotia.
And then I asked Elizabeth Archer, our amazing online engagement director, I said, Elizabeth,
what were your first words?
Oh, wait a second.
No, no, you're not seeing double.
You're not seeing double.
Do you guys know that Elizabeth Archer is an identical twin?
She's an identical twin.
Right.
So the first question I want to ask you is, which one is Elizabeth?
On the left or the right?
How many think left?
How many think right?
All right.
And you're right.
She is the one on the right.
And what do you think Elizabeth?
Elizabeth's first words were papa.
That's what her folks told her.
And so just for full transparency, this is a picture of me when I was a kid.
I don't know what is going on out here.
It's like electric.
And I asked my folks, I said, you know, what was my first word?
And I have to say, I was a little bit surprised at this one, but they said my first word was
kitty.
Kitty.
Which if you know me, you would know that cats are not necessarily my favorite animal.
But anyways, you know, kitty it was.
Kitty it was.
So there you have it.
There's four amazing first words.
No, mama, papa, kitty.
And of course, all parents think the first words their kids say are absolutely amazing.
Whenever there's a first word, they get on the phone, they call grandma and grandpa.
They'll say, you'll never guess, you'll never guess what he said, he said kitty.
He said kitty.
But first words in a real way actually are quite amazing because the first word somebody
utters it's not just noise anymore.
It's not just goo goo and ga ga.
It's actually a signal.
They're actually trying to tell us something.
It's one of the first forms of human expression.
It's it's they're telling us, giving us a clue about who they are and what they're all
about.
So first words are very, very powerful.
Now after Jesus was crucified, oh my goodness, Jesus had spoken so many amazing words throughout
his life.
But after he was crucified, his enemies thought we finally silenced him.
No more Jesus and no more words.
In fact, we spent the last six weeks, seven weeks looking at the famous last words that
Jesus spoke.
So they had finally put him to death and he was in the tomb.
No more Jesus, no more words.
But on the third day, Jesus broke his silence and he rose from the dead and he took his
first resurrection breath and then he took his first resurrection step and then he spoke
his first resurrection words.
And I got to tell you folks, these were no ordinary words.
These were no, you know, mama, papa, no kitty, Gaga, Google.
These four words that Jesus spoke were earth shattering, world changing, life transforming
words.
You know, when you write a book, you know, the first line is so important.
The movie, the first line of a movie is important.
The first lyrics of a song are so important because they're they're telling us they're
setting the tone for where the rest is going.
And these four words that Jesus spoke are telling us something and they've been recorded
and they have been preserved for for 2000 years for us, not in some baby book, but they've
been preserved for us in the Bible by numerous gospel writers.
And they are saying they are saying, look at what Jesus said.
It's a signal.
It's telling us something about who he is and where he is going.
Today, I just want to look at the famous first words, the first four words that Jesus spoke
after he rose from the dead.
OK, here we go.
The first words that Jesus spoke, I want to say I'm going to call them they were words
of caring, words of caring.
The risen Jesus approaches Mary Magdalene and she is crying and she's weeping and she's
broken hearted.
And the first thing he says, the first words out of his mouth on this side of the tomb
were woman, why are you crying?
Now I just want you to take that in for a moment.
The first thing he says as a resurrected Lord is a word of compassion, a word of caring
toward another person's deepest pain.
Now you have to understand the weight of these words in order to understand that you got
to understand the context in that society.
In that society, women were often marginalized and in that society, men totally dismissed
the emotions of women.
Now of course, in our society, right today, men are deeply compassionate and emotionally
tuned in to the to the feelings of the women in their lives.
But it wasn't always that way, right?
Back then it was different.
Back then a man would rarely even talk to a strange woman, much less go up to them and
then ask them a deeply compassionate question.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, what's wrong?
What's wrong?
You're crying.
What's going on?
Tell me what?
Why are you crying?
These words resonate with every single one of us who has ever felt the sting of grief
or loss in our own life.
We can relate to Mary's tears.
We've had times when we've been brokenhearted, when everything seems to have fallen apart.
We've had times when we've been wandering around the garden aimlessly, looking in vain
for some kind of comfort.
And Jesus offers those words of comfort to all of us today.
The question, why are you crying is comforting, but it's actually also discomforting in another
way, because that question forces you to kind of go deep into and to like ask the question,
why am I crying?
You got to go deep into those emotions, unpack all that.
And sometimes we don't want to unpack all that.
And so for that reason, sometimes we don't even want to cry.
We don't want to draw attention to ourselves.
And we fight back to tears because we just don't want to deal with all of that.
But it is in our vulnerability.
It is in our vulnerability that Jesus meets us and tears therefore are not a sign of weakness.
They're actually a gift in a way.
In fact, Pope Francis, when he was looking at this very passage, he said this, he says,
at times in our life, our tears become the glasses that enable us to see Jesus.
Tears have a way of softening your heart.
They have a way of opening your eyes to see Jesus is there offering you a word of comfort
and care.
Jesus asked Mary, why are you crying?
Jesus asks you this morning, why are you crying?
Now I know you're not crying, crying, but what burdens are weighing on your heart today?
Maybe you've lost someone.
Maybe you've had a relationship fall apart.
Maybe, you know, things aren't going your way.
Maybe your whole life feels like it's falling apart.
I don't know.
But why are you crying?
These famous first words aren't just for Mary Magdalene.
They are for you and they are for me.
Inviting us, acknowledge our pain, inviting us to embrace our vulnerability and find comfort
and care in Jesus.
What amazing first words, amazing first words.
Why are you crying woman?
But those are just the first.
He's got some more to say.
And so that takes us to the second amazing first words that Jesus ever spoke.
I'm going to call these words of searching.
Right after he says woman, why are you crying?
He says, whom are you looking for?
These are words of searching.
Now at first glance, these don't seem profound at all.
Who are you looking for?
It's just like obviously she's looking for the dead body of Jesus.
She cannot find it.
Jesus already knows the answer to that question.
It's not profound.
If you found me wandering around the shopping mall aimlessly and you said, Rob, who are
you looking for?
I'd probably say, I'm looking for my wife.
And actually you could probably, I hate shopping malls so much.
You could probably also say, Rob, why are you crying?
Right?
I really don't like shopping malls.
But the risen Jesus.
The risen Jesus asks you, who are you looking for?
That is different.
That's a different question.
That is a deeper, deeper question.
And here's the problem with that question.
We often don't know what it is we're looking for.
You know, Bono, you too, the famous song, I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
When he sings that chorus again and again, there's an anguish in his voice.
And rightly so because it really hurts us.
It's really hard when you can't find what you're looking for.
But what's even worse, what's even worse than that is when you're not even sure what it
is that you are looking for.
Many of us spend our lives with this indistinct longing that we just don't know how to satisfy.
We want something, we're looking for something, but we just don't even know what that thing
is.
You know, King Charles, he spoke of his belief that for all the advantages of science, there
remains deep in the soul, this persistent, unconscious anxiety that something is missing.
And while Charles and Diana certainly didn't get along all the time, they agreed on this
point because Diana once spoke of an overwhelming sense of loss and isolation that undermines
our efforts to cope with the complexities of life.
We know, she said, something is missing.
Sometimes we think, oh, I know what's missing.
If I were to go and get a university degree, then that feeling would go away.
And it doesn't go away.
We say, oh, maybe if I could get a girlfriend or a boyfriend, it would go away.
And we do.
And it doesn't go away.
Or maybe if I got married or maybe I got a job or maybe if I finally made some money
or maybe if I finally made something in my life, got a reputation, got had some success,
and it doesn't go away.
It doesn't seem to matter how much food or how much money or how many TV sets or how
many houses or cars or children or whatever we get the feeling that feeling does never
seems to go away.
But here's the thing.
When Jesus asked the question, what are you, who are you looking for?
It's a question.
Yes, but it's also an answer.
In these first words, he's actually saying he is the fulfillment of your deepest longings.
For 1500 years ago, St. Augustine said, you've made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts
are restless until they rest in you.
And these amazing first words, Jesus saying, look at your heart, Mary, do some soul searching,
Mary.
He's inviting you to do the same.
What are you looking for?
Is it recognition?
Is it success?
Is it wealth?
Is it happiness?
Is it revenge?
Right?
You're here this morning.
You're at church on Easter Sunday morning.
What are you looking for?
All we discover is underneath all of our searching for what, there is a who underneath our deepest
longings for something.
There is a someone who's the answer to our greatest desire.
It's Jesus.
Who are you looking for?
These are amazing first words.
They keep coming.
The third of the fourth words that I want to share with you, I call a word of knowing.
And this one, again, you're going to say this does not seem like much, but man, oh, man,
it is powerful.
Jesus says this third, he says, Mary, Mary.
Again, you might say, well, what's so amazing about that?
But think about this.
Think about this.
The magnitude of the resurrection, how significant this event is.
How is Jesus going to do the big reveal?
How is he going to get the word out?
Was he going to show up first to King Herod and say, here I am.
I'm back, baby.
Right.
Did he know he was going to do it or was he going to show up miraculously in the temple
in front of crowds of people so they could all see him?
Or maybe because Jesus is Jesus and God is God, he could find a way to reveal to the
whole world all at once through thunder claps and lightning bolts and earthquakes that he
is risen from the dead.
But no, you know what Jesus does instead?
He chooses one person, Mary.
Even a few moments earlier, he could have showed up.
Mary and John and Peter were there, but he's like, no, no, no, too many.
I just want one.
I just want Mary.
I want this to be personal.
I want to be someone I know.
I want it to be personal.
The first time, interesting, the first time Jesus spoke to Mary, do you know what he called
her?
Remember he said woman, but this time he says Mary.
And you know what she realizes when she hears that she says, wait, wait, wait.
She knows me.
He knows me.
Right?
There is this deep longing in each and every one of us to be known, truly known.
And yet the same time we're scared to death of being truly known because what if people
reject us once they find out who we really are?
And once we reveal ourselves to a person, but as Ed Welch says, he said to be truly
known with nothing to hide is life at its best.
Jesus knew Mary.
He called Mary by name.
Mary knew Jesus at first.
She didn't think she knew him.
She thought he was the gardener.
She was probably walking away, but then he says Mary and she stops and she says, wait,
wait, and maybe it was the tone of his voice or maybe he said it like he always used to
say it.
I don't know what it was, but when he said her name, she said, Hey, whoa, whoa, he knows
me.
Many people struggle feeling alone and unknown.
We live in this world where real connections are like increasingly rare.
And I know it's we're connected through technology and we're connected through social media,
but the studies all tell us we are lonelier and more isolated than ever.
We need to be known.
You saw those baby pictures from the time that we're babies.
We have this desire to be connected, this desire for attachment with others.
And as we grow older, that feeling and that need does not go away.
These famous first words tell us Jesus knows us personally.
Jesus knows us intimately.
Jesus once said, I am the good shepherd.
I know my own and my own know me.
Maybe you're like Mary and you're like totally overwhelmed by what life is throwing at you.
And when we're overwhelmed, we cannot see Jesus even is he, if he is standing right
in front of us.
And yet if we stop and if we look and if we listen, he's there, he's calling us and he's
calling us by name.
He's inviting us into a relationship with him where we can be fully known and fully
loved.
So I want you to know when Jesus says Mary this morning, he's not just saying Mary.
He's also saying Andrew, he's saying for Rita.
He's saying Scott.
He's saying Curlin.
He's saying Elliot.
He's saying your name, saying my name because Jesus knows you.
He wants a relationship with you.
I just want to add a little side note here.
At churches like Trinity, it is sometimes hard to feel known, right?
You're just like a face in the crowd.
You might feel like just a face in the crowd even this morning, but just as Jesus wants
to know you, we want to know you too.
And so if you're new here this morning or you're visiting, we want to invite you into
this community where you can become known and you can feel loved.
It's hard to experience that on a Sunday morning, just sitting in a big crowd.
But that's why at Trinity, we have these things that we call life groups and these life groups,
they provide a place where strangers can become friends, where you can start to get to know
other people and you can start to get to know Jesus as well.
And I just want to say, if you're all interested in being known and going a little deeper in
community here, visit our welcome desk after the service out there and ask the volunteers
about life groups, because like Jesus, we want to get to know you too.
That brings us to the last first word.
I said that right, right?
The last first word of Jesus.
And this may be the most amazing of all the words that Jesus spoke, because if Jesus didn't
speak this fourth word, we never would have known the first, the second, and the third
word.
After his words of caring and after his words of searching and after his words of knowing,
Jesus speaks a word of sending.
He says, go and tell.
When Jesus speaks these words, he sets a process in motion that will change Mary's life.
It will change the disciples life.
It will change your life.
It will change my life.
It will change the life of every single human being on this planet.
Because with these words, Jesus entrusts to Mary Magdalene a profound mission.
Go and tell others what I have told you that I am risen from the dead.
And with these words, she becomes the very first messenger of the greatest news that
humanity has ever, ever heard.
You guys might have known in the Bible, they use this word apostle and apostle is just
a fancy word, a Greek word for someone who is sent.
And mostly when people think of apostles, they think, oh, Peter, the apostle or Paul,
the apostle Paul.
But I got to tell you, the very first apostle ever was Mary Magdalene, because she was the
very first one who ever went and told others the good news of Jesus.
This amazing first word of Jesus, go and tell.
It reminds us that the resurrection is not merely a message for you.
It is a message for you for sure.
But it's a message for you to take with you.
It's a message for you to take with you today when you go home to your families.
It's a message for you to take with you when you go to visit your friends later on this
week, when you go back to work later on this week, take that message with you.
When you get together with your fiance, you're to take this message with you.
When you get together with your boyfriend or your girlfriend, take this message with
you, with your parents, with your kids, with your grand.
You need to take this message with you, because if you have heard this story, you are to share
the story.
Jesus entrusted this message to one woman who lived in a hostile world, a culture that
would overlook her and ignore her, a culture that would laugh at her when she told them
about this, that would roll their eyes at the message she had.
But that's who Jesus gave the message to.
That's who Jesus sent, but Jesus believed and was confident that Mary could go and tell.
And she did.
And the rest is history.
You wouldn't be here today if she hadn't gone and told.
This is usually the part of the sermon that people hate.
It's the part where the preacher tells us to go and tell others.
And we don't like the idea of telling others, right?
We're afraid of rejection.
We're not confident to tell others and we're insecure.
And what if I look foolish and all that stuff, right?
Listen, if you don't know how to share this message, I have to say, do it like Mary did
it.
Some people might be like, Mary did say, he's risen.
I've seen the Lord.
If that's you, if that's your style, go for it.
Tell people that way.
But actually, I think it's very interesting that what Mary really did is she told them
that Jesus had said these things to her.
Wait, wait, wait.
What things did Jesus say to her?
What things did Jesus say to her that she went and told them?
Well, Jesus said words of caring.
He said words of searching.
He said words of caring to someone who was hurting.
He's searching for someone who was looking for something.
Words of identity for someone who felt alone.
You see, if Jesus' first words to Mary became Mary's first words to others, and that means
they can become your first words too.
So listen, if you don't know how to go and tell others, do what Jesus did.
When you see someone who's hurting and grieving, go up to them and say, hey, why are you crying?
What's going on?
You seem upset.
Do you want to talk about it?
Can we get together?
And as you show care and compassion to that person, you know what?
They're going to see the risen Jesus in you.
That's how you share this message, just like Jesus did.
Right?
You still don't know how, then do it.
Then again, do what Jesus did.
When you come across someone who's lost or they're like searching and they don't know
whether it is they're looking for, why don't you just say, hey, it looks like you're searching
for someone.
Who are you looking for?
What are you looking for?
Maybe I can help you find what you're searching for.
And maybe you get together with them.
Maybe you have a coffee with them and maybe you have a conversation with them.
Maybe you invite them to alpha and you listen to some of their questions and you speak to
them.
And in that course of that, the risen Jesus will speak through you.
That's how you do it.
That's how you do it or do it like Jesus did.
Would you come across someone who's just ignored, bullied, left out a coworker?
Maybe it's a classmate.
I don't know.
Maybe you speak words of knowing, call them by name.
Say, Hey, it's a, it's Mary, right?
It's Scott.
Wait, aren't you?
Naomi is, isn't that who you are?
Let them know you see them.
Let them know you care about them.
Give them the gift of a relationship and they will see the risen Jesus in you.
Those were Jesus famous first words, words of caring, words of searching, words of knowing
words of sending.
Those were Mary's first words too.
And they can be your first words as you go from this place into your homes, your classrooms
and community.
Let these be our first words as we go and tell others.
Thanks be to God.
Thanks so much for joining us today.
And again, happy Easter.
Make sure to come back next week as we begin a new sermon series on how to read the Bible.
This sermon was taken from the Easter Sunday, March 31st, 2024 sermon at Trinity Church
Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario.