Scripture reading for this post: John 20:1-18
Imagine the moment you had a dream die. This may be a distant memory, or for some it is more recent, very fresh. I guarantee, no matter the time that has or has not passed, it hurts.
Something new and exciting was unfolding. You were walking in a new freedom and seeing things happen. And suddenly, it was over. Instead of light, you were left with darkness. Instead of answers, you were left with questions.
This is where we find Mary Magdalene, standing at the tomb. Crying. Questioning. Struggling. Her Lord and Savior, who set her free, saw her as worthy, and offered her new life, has been crucified, died, and buried in the tomb that she stands in front of. And to make her confusion even worse, the stone before her has been rolled away and the tomb is empty. Jesus is gone. And she doesn’t understand what has happened. She’s informed the other disciples and they are just as confused as she is. So she goes back and she stands in the garden at the empty tomb, mourning. It’s the end.
But it’s not.
Those moments that I described a minute ago, the ones where your dream dies and you’re left feeling like there is nothing more for you? That isn’t your end either.
Earlier this year, I heard a new song on the radio. (If you’re new here, you’ll learn quickly that I draw a lot of my inspiration from the music I listen to.) I remember where I was, just pulling into the babysitter’s driveway to drop my son off before I headed to work. I pulled out my phone to look up the lyrics because it moved me so much. The song is by Josh Baldwin and refrain goes like this:
I wasn’t made to be tending a grave
~Josh Baldwin, “Made for More”
I was called by name
Born and raised back to life again
I was made for more
So why would I make a bed in my shame
When a fountain of grace is running my way
I know I am Yours
And I was made for more
As I got my boy out of his carseat, that very first line echoed in my head: “I wasn’t made to be tending a grave.”
We’ve all tended graves of some sort or another. I’m not necessarily talking about a graveside in a cemetery either, though physical ministering was likely part of the reason why Mary Magdalene was at the tomb in the first place. The gospel of Luke tells of “the women” going to the tomb that morning, Mary Magdalene among them, with spices they had prepared (Luke 24). Jesus had died on the day of Preparation for the Sabbath and there had not been proper time for the body to be attended to. The women went to properly tend to the grave of their Lord. He had done wonderful things for them. It was their turn to repay this last favor.
The earliest chronological appearance of Mary Magdalene is in Luke 8, where she is told to have been healed of seven demons and is traveling with a group of women who supported Jesus and His disciples with their money and resources. She would have heard His teachings and seen the miracles He performed. She would have been there for so many of the stories, all the way to the cross and Jesus’s death. After all she had seen and heard and learned, she suddenly found herself here, in the garden staring at the empty tomb.
It’s easy to wonder what she would have been thinking, although all of us know in some form what she was thinking: “Why?”
In this deep dark point, we all think this question when circumstances leave us floundering. Why has this happened? Why me? Why this? Why? Why?
All of us have been there at some point, but this isn’t where we are supposed to take up permanent residence. Why? Because:
- We weren’t made to be tending graves
That first line of the refrain that was bouncing around in my head struck a chord very deep within me. We know, don’t we? While death is a part of life here on earth, we know we aren’t made to just be tending graves. Yet it is so hard, when something becomes so deeply enmeshed in our desires, to walk away from it–even when it is dead.
I’ll tell you a dream of mine that died once.
From about 8th grade on, I wanted to write a book. I wrote several books, actually, most of which are terrible and should never see the light of day. They are currently entombed in a filing cabinet–too difficult to burn but too embarrassing to do anything more with. As I moved toward adulthood, writing became harder and harder and I agonized because the dream was dying. The more I clutched at it, the more it slipped through my fingers. Compounded with illness, I mourned this dead dream until in the early years of my marriage, I laid it properly to rest and made the decision to move away from the grave and focus on something else. I released my dream into the hands of God and told Him that if writing a book is something He wanted me to do, then He needed to resurrect the dream and lay a very clear path before me. Until it came back to life, I chose not to tend its grave and mourn what I had lost.
Almost 10 years later, God resurrected the dream and placed me with an amazing group of 12 women and we are working on a project together. And those years that I let the dream go? He used them to prepare me “for such a time as this,” to teach me and equip me for what was on the way.
Not every dream will come back to life like mine did. If it doesn’t, God has something even better in store for you–but if you’re too busy tending the grave of what has died, you are going to miss out on His promises and the new work He longs to do in your life. It’s okay to mourn, but don’t stop moving and miss out on the next chapter.
The work of Jesus in His lifetime on earth was remarkable, but with His death and resurrection, it got even better. You and I are here together right now because of the gift of Easter and the willingness of His disciples to share the story of Jesus–not just the 12, but all of those who heard and believed the word, like Mary Magdalene.
- We are called by name.
Mary Magdalene thought her work, her joy, her life was over–until Jesus called her name. There she stood, weeping, distracted by her sorrow, and blinded to the one she believed was just a gardener until Jesus spoke her name: “Mary.” I can only imagine the compassion and tenderness that echoed in His voice as He spoke her name, because something in that single word caused her to whirl around and see–really see–that Jesus stood before her calling her name. That moment changed everything for Mary.
But this was not an isolated incident. Our infinite God is continually calling our names. Isaiah 43:1 (NIV) says, “But now, this is what the LORD says–He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine.’”
The God of creation knows each one of us intimately. He formed us in our mothers’ wombs, as Psalm 139 declares. He calls us by name; He bought us at the highest price–we belong to Him.
The sacrifice of Jesus’s life on the cross paid the ultimate price for our sins. No longer would yearly sacrifices need to be made, no longer would a high priest have to make prayers and atone for the sins of the people. Jesus became the spotless, sinless lamb of God and paid the debt once and for all.
He knows your name. And He longs to be known in return. He longs for relationship with us, not built on obligation but rather on love. Listen closely–can you hear Him calling your name?
- We are raised back to life again.
Luke 8 tells us that Mary Magdalene was delivered from 7 demons. Scripture does not say exactly what those demons were, and though many speculate on what was really meant, I imagine the freedom she found in her healing felt an awful lot like coming back to life again. Her life before Jesus must have been unimaginable, dark and ostracized from society. And then she met the One who cast out the darkness and set her free.
This world wants to hold us captive through so many things. We are sinful by nature, without hope of rescue on our own. We can’t find freedom on our own. We try. We fail. We try again, but in the end, it’s a fruitless cycle that will get us nowhere.
But God…
What a beautiful line, so full of hope. But God…
Easter is a fully “But God” moment. Only God could have intervened. Only God could have set a perfect plan for redemption in motion and carried it through from the Garden of Eden to completion by the cross and the empty tomb. Only God.
Ephesians 2:4-6 (NIV) says, “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”.
God’s great love and mercy for us, His creation, compelled Him to make a way that we will not be lost forever, but have the opportunity to one day be seated in Heaven with Christ.
Come back next week for the rest of this message!
Blessings,
~Lynne
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