The Lutheran Hour
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"Have You Seen Him?"
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Text: John 20: 18
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Today the living Savior calls our names.
Today the Holy Spirit leads us and enlightens us in the faith. Like Mary Magdalene who was among the first to see the risen Christ, may we say say, “I have seen the Lord.” Amen.
Among The Lutheran Hour listeners today there is probably not one person in a thousand who knows the name Nikolai Ivanovich Beukharin. There’s no reason for you to recall this man who once was an extremely powerful Communist leader. Nikolai achieved celebrity status as a prominent player in Russia’s 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. A man who believed the party line and had the ability of swaying others to his way of thinking, Nikolai was rewarded by being made editor of the official Soviet newspaper, Pravda, and a full-fledged member of the seemingly all-powerful Politburo. Nikolai Ivanovich Beukharin really believed the official Communist position, a position which rejected religion, which denounced all things spiritual.
As an ambassador for atheism, in 1930 Nikolai went to the city of Kiev where he was to speak to a great assembly of people. Like a pastor before his people Nikolai addressed his countrymen. Like a priest who had an important message to share with his parish, Nikolai began. With the conviction of being right and using brilliant oratorical skill he aimed his insults, his arguments, his proofs against what his government felt was the antiquated deity of Christendom. By sheer force of will, He called, cajoled, and enticed people away from Calvary’s cross and tried to shove the Savior back into His tomb. Then, when he was done, Nikolai surveyed the crowd of his countrymen, and confident of his success, called out an open challenge, “Does anyone have any questions?”
The crowd was silent. Not the comparative silence which sometimes takes place before an orchestra plays the first note of a concert. Not the peaceful silence of a mountain meadow with the background sounds of a small stream, singing birds, and chirping crickets. The silence of that auditorium was unique in that it was uncomfortable and unpleasant. Which is why, when one old man stood up, everyone knew. Even the people who were sitting in front of the old man knew that someone was moving. Every eye turned and followed the man as he slowly shuffled down the aisle and ascended the steps of the stage. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the capable Communist who had shown himself to be a persuasive voice of atheism, the old man deliberately tried to look into the eyes, the faces, the souls of as many people as possible.
The oppressive silence was broken when the old man, having taken a deep breath called out two words: “Kristos voskres.” The crowd considered what they had just heard. Kristos voskres meant hope to lives which had been filled with fear; joy to those who had seen only sadness and sorrow; peace to those who had experienced pain. Kristos voskres. Those words meant forgiveness and an unending future. For a second the crowd considered the words the old man had called out, and, then, as one, they threw off the shackles of atheism, the false claims of Communism, rose to their feet and responded with a shout which rocked the rafters. “Kristos voskres,” is what the old man had said. “Vostinu voskres” is what the crowd called back. Kristos voskres. I begin every Lutheran Hour sermon with the English translation of those words. Kristos voskres: Christ is risen! Vostinu voskres: He is risen, indeed.
I believe, if Scripture’s Mary Magdalene had been in the crowd that day, if by some miracle of God’s grace she had been resurrected and allowed to sit amongst the assembly, there would be no doubt that she would have been first on her feet, first to shout out from firsthand knowledge: “Vostinu voskres: He is risen, indeed!” She would have been first, because, almost two millennia ago she had been first at the Savior’s empty tomb; first to report Jesus’ body had been stolen, among the first to see the risen Savior, first to be given the ability to grasp the greatness of God’s grace: first to proclaim, “I have seen the risen Lord.”
Mary Magdalene. In recent years there has been much said about this lady from the Galilean town of Magdala. We shouldn’t be surprised. Ours is an age which greatly desires the truth and often believes that truth can never be found. Ours is a generation which believes in conspiracies, hidden plots, and secret meetings taking place in cigar smoke-filled rooms. We wonder, and we want answers. We want answers about Mary Magdalene and her relationship with the Savior.
We want to know… was she a prostitute? The Bible never says that about her. It does say she had been possessed by seven demons and Jesus had healed her of that satanic possession. People want to know, “Did Mary love Jesus?” Of course she did. Would you not love a doctor who had healed you of a disease which all the experts said was incurable? Would you not love the person who rescued your child from the path of an oncoming car? Mary loved Jesus. Having been healed, she, along with many others, followed Him, provided financial assistance for Him and His disciples. She loved Him enough to stand at the foot of the cross; she loved Him enough to watch a Roman soldier pierce His heart with a spear. She loved Him enough to help prepare His cold and lifeless body for burial. Yes, Mary Magdalene loved Jesus.
But inquiring minds want to know… “Did Mary love the Rabbi from Nazareth as a lover, as a wife?” The wonderfully written and incredibly inaccurate novel The DaVinci Code, using books written hundreds of years after Mary died, implies there was far more than a platonic relationship between the Savior and the lady He had healed. People want to know…doesn’t the Gospel of Phillip say Jesus kissed Mary? Hasn’t a tomb been found in Jerusalem which had bone boxes with the names of Jesus and Mary on them?” The answer is “yes” to all of these questions. The Gnostic Gospel of Philip does say Jesus kissed Mary. Now I could go into all kinds of scholarly stuff and tell you that book written was written well over a hundred years after the events it purports to relate. I could tell you that the kiss described is not a romantic one, a sexual one. I could tell you that it takes a vivid and expansive imagination to take the cordial and perfectly acceptable kiss between relatives or dear friends and translate that into a passionate, sexual relationship which results in a marriage which manages to produce children and, centuries later, the royalty of France. I could tell you that every reliable expert says the so-called tomb of Jesus proves nothing.
People want to know the truth and there are a lot of unscholarly experts who are glad to provide what inquiring ears want to hear. One expert claims to have discovered Mary was in her twenties when she married Jesus and 30 years old when she gave birth to their first child. Another expert, without any historical foundation, says Mary was an unbeliever who died at the age of 60 in southern France. Another authority, trying to establish a reputation, promotes the outlandish concept that Mary is the beloved disciple and author of the Gospel of John. Whatever a person’s flight of fancy can imagine about Mary, there is some expert who has imagined it first.
And it takes a great imagination to believe the church has kept these false facts a secret for 2,000 years. Listen, did you ever try to keep a secret? It was hard, wasn’t it? Secrets scream to be shared; secrets demand to be disclosed, divulged and released, revealed. Still, Mary Magdalene’s modern day mythmakers would have you believe the church has managed to keep her secrets hidden for almost 2,000 years. What monumental silliness. Take a long and serious look at us. We’re just not that good; we’re certainly not that organized, and we’ve hardly ever been united in what we’ve done and said over the centuries. I’m sad to confess this to you, but the truth is this: there have been numerous times in the history of this world’s struggling, imperfect church when one faction would have gleefully been glad to bring down others by the sharing of hidden secrets. The fact that this has never occurred is proof that such secrets do not exist. You can believe me when I say the church harbors no hidden secrets about Mary Magdalene. What we do have is God’s truth which the Holy Spirit has revealed in the verbally inspired and accurate Word of God.
In Scripture’s sacred pages we find that Jesus freed Mary from her demonic bondage. The Bible doesn’t tell us how Mary’s satanic subjection showed itself… and since the Bible is silent, we must be silent, too. While we don’t know what Mary had been, we do know what Mary became. She became a woman who was filled with gratitude for God’s grace. She became a woman who gladly supported the Savior. We know that when the Lord was crucified Mary was in that small and loyal group who stayed with Him until He declared His redemptive work was finished. We know Mary, like so many other women who have lost a loved one, went to Jesus’ tomb to mourn and make sure everything was as it should have been. We know three days later Mary was distraught to find Jesus’ grave gaping open and the body of the Rabbi gone. We know Mary, having told the disciples about the imagined injustice which she believed had been done to Christ’s corpse, went back to that sepulcher to sit and sob in sad, soulful sorrow.
What do we know about Mary? We know this: sometime during those mournful and desolate moments, Jesus came to her. We can understand why she didn’t recognize Him. Her eyes were filed with tears, her heart overcome by loss. She would never have expected her dead and buried friend to appear to her. None of us would expect that. It is a fact of life; those who are dead stay dead. Life has fled and taken with it hope and imagined tomorrows. No, Mary didn’t recognize Jesus. When He asks her, “Why are you crying?” the most she could do is sob out, “Sir, if you have taken away Jesus’ body, would you be so kind as to tell me where He is? If you tell me, I’ll be glad to take care of everything from there.”
Then Jesus spoke. He said one word, her name: “Mary.” You know, as I read the Bible, there have been many times when I find myself thinking, “I wish I had been there to see that.” I wish I could have looked into trusting Isaac’s eyes as his father bound him and placed him on an altar as a sacrifice, and the joy in Abraham’s face when God stayed his hand and spared his son. I would have loved to have seen the awed faces of the Children of Israel as they passed on a path through the waters of the Red Sea and the relief which they felt when Pharaoh’s pursuing chariots were swallowed up. What thoughts would have shown in the eyes of the three men in the fiery furnace when they realized they really weren’t alone? I wish I had been there to gaze into mother Mary’s face when the angel said she would bring forth a divinely conceived child, the Savior of the world. Who would not like to watch the wonder of the Bethlehem shepherds when they heard the angels speak of a baby’s birth and how He would be good news of great joy for all the world? I wish the Lord might have allowed me to see the face of the criminal who was crucified with Christ when he heard that a day which began on a cross would end in paradise. But if I had to pick one, single, special moment from all the events described by Scripture, it would be the moment when a living Lord Jesus came up to a despondent friend and spoke her name, “Mary.”
Look into her eyes. What was happening there? First there would have been recognition. She hears her name, she knows the tone: “Mary.” The word overflows with love and banishes sadness from her heart, sorrow from her soul. “Mary.” She turns and sees – she sees a vision which is valid, an impossibility which has become reality. “Mary.” She rises to her feet, and she realizes that Jesus is no mirage, no illusion, no delusion. Jesus is God’s ultimate reality. Her teacher who had delivered her from the devil, now has defeated death. “Mary.” She comes closer. In glad recognition, she calls out, “Rabbi, Teacher!” She hugs Him, is afraid to let Him go lest He disappear from her life. She would have held Him forever, but He had work for her to do. “Tell My disciples,” Jesus says, “Tell them I am alive.” A transformed Mary did as her Savior asked. A transformed Mary, a smiling, laughing, hope-filled Mary went to Jesus’ frightened friends and said, “I have seen the Lord.”
Did you notice? When Mary spoke to the disciples, she no longer used the title “teacher.” She said, “I have seen the Lord.” By the Holy Spirit’s power she had been brought to the knowledge, the belief, that while Jesus is the greatest educator this world will ever hear, He is far more than a teacher; He is the sinless Son of God, the Savior of the world. Mary said, “I have seen the Lord!” Yes, Jesus had, in His earthly ministry taught her many things; but now, with faith in the living Christ, she would learn of forgiveness and resurrection. Mary said, “I have seen the Lord.” Those words must have danced with delight as Mary knew her sins had been erased and her soul saved. Yes, I would have liked to have been there to hear Jesus call her name: “Mary.” I would like to have heard that female follower of the Christ, for the very first time, try to describe the Redeemer’s resurrection which a sinful, sorrowful world had waited to hear. I wish I had heard her say those three words which would change the world, our worlds, our lives. I wish I might have heard her say: “I have seen the Lord.” Kristos voskres. Christ is risen.
As I was writing this message, I realized that I have seen these things. There was the time; oh it was 30 years ago, when I was asked by a worried mother to call on her son who was in prison. He had been found guilty of using a baseball bat to kill a man so he might steal a $30 saddle. With thick glass separating us, I spoke over a telephone. That day the Holy Spirit convicted a sinner of his crime and the damnability of his dark deeds. But that same Spirit showed that man His Savior who had carried every sin to His cross. That day the Savior called a murderer’s name and that man’s life was changed. I have never seen a person dance with joy before, but that day a convicted murderer heard Jesus call his name, and he danced.
“Mary,” Jesus had said. I have heard the Lord call the names of other people. At the graveside of a child, I heard Him call to parents and turn their eyes from a casket and refocus them on a heavenly reunion which would never end. I have seen Him call the name of someone who was dying and substitute peace for fear, hope for despair, victory for defeat. I have seen Him call the names of an entire family in baptism. That family which had grown up in abuse and anger, were transformed when Jesus spoke their names. Mary’s name is only the first name spoken by the Savior. He has, for thousands of years, and in tens of thousands of languages, continued to speak the names of sinners. And all who have heard the Savior speak his or her name have been given joy beyond belief. The Savior who lived a perfect life for them; who suffered and died for them; who rose on the third day for them; has let them know Spirit-given faith can release them from condemnation and will do so. When a sinful soul hears Jesus call His name, he is no longer alone, no longer doomed to eternal damnation.
Years ago, McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago had a staff member called Joseph Haroutunian. As an immigrant from Armenia, the Professor was saddled with a difficult to understand accent and an even more difficult name. Finally a friend told him: Look, if you work at it, you can do something with your accent; but your name, that is impossible. Nobody can say, Haroutunian. Why not change your name to Harwood or Harwell or something like that? Having heard what the man had to say, Haroutunian asked, “What do they mean?” “What does what mean?” the man replied. “What do those names mean?” After Haroutunian was told the names meant nothing, he replied, “When my grandfather was baptized they named him Haroutun, which means Resurrection. I am Joseph Haroutunian, I will be a son of the resurrection all my days.” To make you into sons and daughters of the resurrection is why the Savior calls your name today. Do you hear Him? It is your name He speaks. That is the message of The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for July 22, 2007
TOPIC: Offense of the Cross – Part 1ANNOUNCER: Now Pastor Ken Klaus with questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor, a listener out west wants you to comment on something that’s been going on at her church.
KLAUS: Mark, as you know, we try not to do that. It’s pretty difficult for us to be here and make any kind of adequate statement or judgment about something which is happening out there – and by “out there,” I mean in the local parish wherever that might happen to be.
ANNOUNCER: I’ll tell you what, let me read the letter and see what you think. It reads, “Dear Pastor Klaus, at a recent congregational meeting, our pastor suggested that we take the cross down from our sign board and also from our steeple. He thinks the cross is hindering our outreach to the community, because the church is close to the highway and some of the people driving by might be offended by it. Well, I voted against this proposal, but there weren’t many of us that voted that way. Could you explain what our pastor is thinking? Was this decision the right one?”
KLAUS: Once again, I think it’s difficult for us to say anything definitive about what’s going on out there. Even so, this is a question I am obliged to answer. But since we may not have all the facts, let’s speak in generalities and not to the actions of this specific pastor or church.
ANNOUNCER: So you’re saying, “Let’s deal with those situations where Christians are afraid the cross or other Christian symbols might somehow be offensive to society in general.”
KLAUS: Yes, offensive may be one motivation; feeling the cross might keep people from meeting the Savior might be another.
ANNOUNCER: And we are assuming here that this congregation is not being pressured by a local government or activist group. This is something they voluntarily took upon themselves to do.
KLAUS: Exactly. So, having put on all of those qualifiers, let’s take a look at the word offense. In the Greek, the word would be skandalon. A skandalon is a trigger, a trap, a snare – something which causes people to stumble, fall, get trapped. Practicing Christians don’t want to be a skandalon to others. We who have been released from the condemnation of the law are now free to do what is right. Which means we have to take into consideration the faith, the situation and mindset of those who are weak in their faith. We are considerate because we don’t want to do anything which might make them stumble.
ANNOUNCER: Now, that all seems like a good thing.
KLAUS: It certainly can be. Nobody wants their church to seem cold or standoffish. Christians personally, and congregationally, want to reflect the love that they have received from the Savior.
ANNOUNCER: Does that mean it’s OK to take down the cross?
KLAUS: Mark, as Christians we’re not supposed to offend or scandalize anybody. Our Christian freedom shouldn’t be used to give offense – with one exception.
ANNOUNCER: And what’s that exception?
KLAUS: Something we’re going to call the offense of the cross.
ANNOUNCER: So, you’re saying there are times when we might offend people?
KLAUS: Not exactly. It’s not our intention to offend people, but the reality is, they will be offended. Let me explain. A moment ago I mentioned the “offense of the cross.” That’s a reference to what Saint Paul wrote in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. He said, “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
ANNOUNCER: Saint Paul says the cross is a stumbling block for some and it’s just religious foolishness for others. But it’s those things not because we want it to be, but by its very nature and what happened on the cross, that’s how it is.
KLAUS: Exactly. Paul knew that the world cannot help but be offended by the idea that they can only be saved through the sacrifice of God’s Son on the cross of Calvary.
ANNOUNCER: Because most people prefer to think and most religions teach that we are all going to be saved by our own good works.
KLAUS: Still, the offense of the cross is something Christians are compelled to give. We cannot cover up the cross. To do so makes what we preach null and void. No matter what may happen, we must remain faithful to the cross and empty tomb. As Saint Paul said in the sixth chapter of Galatians: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds” From Hymns for All Saints: Lent, Easter, Pentecost (© 2006 Concordia Publishing House) Augsburg Fortress/SESAC
“Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia” arr. James Kosnik and J. Michael McMahon. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds” From O Sing Unto the Lord! (© Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, Indiana)