Who Are You Looking For?

Today, Christians all over the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is alive, and He is alive forever. The ground where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus laid his body began to shake, and this massive stone that serves as a door to Jesus’ tomb was rolled away.

And so when the women went to visit Jesus’ tomb early in the morning, they were saying to one another who would roll the stone away. But when they got there, they were surprised to see the stone had already been rolled away.

What they did not know was something extraordinary happened before they got there. Matt. 28:2 says an earthquake shook the place and an angel of the Lord came from heaven to move the stone out of Jesus’ way.

The angel said to the women. Christ is risen! He is not here! Jesus rose from the dead as he said he would. Hallelujah! There is no better way to demonstrate the essence of Christ’s resurrection than the presentation of our drama team this morning. Let’s welcome them with a massive round of applause. HALLELUJAH!

The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the most important doctrines in the Scripture. Last Sunday and in Good Friday, we heard sermons about the betrayal, arrest, sufferings, and the death of Jesus. Today, I hope to remind you that the sting of death is defeated! That Jesus having tasted death proved that death does not have to be the end. Instead, we can make death the beginning of a glorious future life with God if you choose to make room for Him in your heart every day.

John 20:11-18 goes like this:

11) Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb (12) and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’s body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. (13) 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.” (14) At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize that it was Jesus. (15) He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”Thinking he was a gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get away." (16) Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). (17) Jesus said, “Do not hold 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.”(18) Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Jesus Christ is the central figure of Christianity. This is what separates and makes us unique from other world religions. We look at Jesus not just as a gifted teacher and a moral person. We look at him as our Saviour. We look at Him as the one sent by the Father to solve our sin problem. His death and resurrection are a total expression of God’s love and grace. He takes the first step to repair our damaged relationship with God. This guy called Michael Green tried to describe the life of Jesus in his write-up titled "One Solitary Life". It goes like this.

One Solitary Life by Michael Green

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up still in another village, where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty. Then for three years, he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He did not go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place he was born. He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to this enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioner gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid on a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Centuries have come and gone, and today he remains the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this planet so much as that one solitary life.