Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2119
“Then the disciples went away again unto their own homes. But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping: and as she wept, she stooped do wn and looked into the sepulcher and saw two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the Body of Jesus had lain. And they said unto her, Woman, why do you weep? She said unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid Him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus said unto her, Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said unto Him, Sir, if you have borne Him, therefore, tell me where you have laid Him and I will take Him away. Jesus said unto her, Mary. She turned herself and said unto Him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.” John 20:10-16
I WANTED to speak tonight to Believers who have lost the joyful Presence of their Lord and who are saying, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!” But when I thought of that matter, I said to myself, Many will be in the congregation who have never yet found Him. Therefore they will not have known His sweetness by experience, and yet they may be longing to find Him. Is it possible to benefit two classes at once?
“Well, well,” I said to myself, “I can speak to the saint, for she who figures in the text was Mary. But I can also, at the same time, talk to the sinner. For she was Magdalene, and that name has somehow become connected with penitent sinners.” I pray, at the beginning, that if there is one here who has long been a Mary, and has followed Christ lovingly— and if there is another here who is more like what is commonly but erroneously known as a Magdalene, both the Mary and the Magdalene may find direction and consolation in my discourse.
I shall have no other preface but these remarks. For we have before us a long text to be handled in a short time and I would not perform my task slightingly. We will advance by a series of observations.
I. Our first observation shall be this—A SOUL SEEKING JESUS HAS WAYS OF ITS OWN.
Read carefully the tenth verse—“Then the disciples went away again unto their own homes. But Mary,” Mary had her own way of proceeding. Mary was seeking Christ more intensely and affectionately than even the choicest of the Apostles. They were more able to wait for events than her eagerness would allow her to do. John was able to go home, because he had seen and believed. Peter went home all the more readily because a cloud darkened his sky.
Mary was of another order from either of these—she loved and longed to see Him whom she loved. Whether He was dead or alive, she would find Him. When you are seeking the Lord, it brings out your individuality. Every truly anxious soul must seek the Lord in his own way. Each case is peculiar—each seeker feels himself to be one by himself. There are not two Mary Magdalenes. And Mary differs from John and Peter.
One part of her way was this—that she would stay at the sepulcher after others had gone to their own homes. So have I seen the lover of the Lord lingering at the Mercy Seat when the prayers of others were ended, and remaining in the use of the means of Divine Grace when others had enjoyed a full portion of them. The meeting is very early in the morning but Mary must be there. And if the meeting was at a distance, she trudges over the miles. One saint is noted for Bible reading and nothing will attract her from it. Another abounds in private prayer and is mighty on her knees. Another
feels bound to go where Christ Jesus is earnestly talked about, and therefore he spends many an hour with the Lord’s people.
Perhaps Peter and John had other necessary business to attend to and their duty called them away from the tomb. But Mary stood there still, hoping to hear something about her Lord and, at least, to know where they had laid His Body. It is a blessed thing when the heart becomes so resolved to find Christ that it cannot be happy without Him. When it cannot even live without Him. When you are resolved to wait at the posts of Wisdom’s doors until the Incarnate Wisdom appears to you, you will not have to wait long.
Mary had ways of her own beside, for she stood there “weeping.” I do not read that, upon this occasion, either Peter or John shed a single tear. They may have done so, but the Holy Spirit has not recorded the fact. Yet He has recorded it of this earnest seeker that she, “stood without at the sepulcher weeping.” She wept as if her heart would break. Where was her Lord? What had they done with that Sacred Body? She had seen it wrapped in spices and fine linen and laid in the tomb of Joseph—where was it now?
The tomb was evidently quite empty of all but the burial garments—where was the Body? What new indignities had the cruel ones put upon it? That dear mangled Body—to what malicious treatment was it now exposed? She stood, in deep emotion, sorrowing as love, alone, can sorrow when its beloved object is in peril. It is a great thing, dear Soul, when you cannot find Christ, to weep your eyes out till you can. When you cannot live without Him for very heartbreak, when all the joy of life is gone, when existence becomes only another name for grieving after an absent love—and that love the Lord Jesus.
Then you are not far off from the happy hour of finding Him. Tears may be as the dew of the morning, the sure prophets of the rising sun. At any rate, many search for Jesus with tears in their eyes. Mary did something more, which was according to her own mode of action—“she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher.” They that would find Christ must stoop to look for Him. They must not merely wait for Him but look for Him on their knees.
I have known some people pretend to wait for the Lord and they have kept up the pretense to their soul’s ruin! They never looked to Him by faith. I have known some weep much but they would not open their eyes to look to Jesus and be saved. True seekers look for Jesus in the Scriptures. They search for Him in the hearing of the Word. They cry after Him in their private room. This is well. If you would be saved, seek Jesus and He will find you. Cry evermore, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him! I would come even to His seat.”
No heart has ever earnestly looked after Jesus but what before long He has been seen. If there is this waiting, this weeping, this stooping, this looking—there will be an appearing in mercy and a recognition in joy. Mary, who looks for Jesus, shall see Him.
Note this peculiarity—she looked in the wrong place. She looked into the sepulcher for the living and risen Jesus. Earnest, true-hearted, zealous, was Mary. But she labored under a mistake. Well might the angels say, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen.” Thus have I known true penitents seek the Lord where He cannot be found. They have expected to undergo a sort of inward purgatory, and they have sought for Jesus in their own feelings. He is not there. They have imagined that they must be carried away with despair before they might lay hold upon the Savior. Yet the Lord is not in the wind of feeling, nor in the fire of despair—His Presence is known by His still small voice.
They have not looked with a simple, childlike trust to Jesus. But they have gone about to this, and that, and to other thing—and all in vain. They have sought for Jesus among forms, and ceremonies, but in vain. Possibly they have gone to human priests, or sages—these are as dead as the tombs. Priest-craft and philosophy are no places for the living Christ to be found.
Yet I am glad that Mary looked into the tomb. For, though she looked in the wrong place, it was a good thing to be looking for Jesus after any fashion. Better blunder in seeking Christ than be so wise as to go away from Him. I mean, better to be a sincere, but foolish, seeker after Jesus, and fall into a hundred errors of doctrine, than to be highly cultured and all the while to be looking to self, or to the world and forgetting the Lord Jesus. Poor Seekers! You are in trouble. I see it by your tears. There is hope for you, for you have eyes and are looking out for something better than you can find in yourselves, or in your fellow men.
I am sure of you, for you will not run away to your home. You stay near the place where Jesus was last seen. You are not rolling stones but you abide in earnest hearing, in Apostolic doctrine, and in prayers. Your constancy and your eagerness are cheering signs that Divine Grace is beginning its work in your hearts. Comfort is on the way to you, I can see the light of it reflected in those tears which glisten in your eyes. God grant that we may not be disappointed in you, for His name’s sake!
II. But now, going a little further on, I would observe, secondly, that A SOUL SEEKING JESUS MAKES SMALL