I Have Seen the Lord

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Easter” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 7, 1985.

Sermon transcript

Jesus said unto her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabona, which means teacher. We have read this morning a story that you all know, the story of John’s account of the first Easter morning. But did you notice John’s mention of the darkness? Only John, among the gospel writers, tells us it was still dark. When it was dark, that is, when darkness still enveloped everything, including those most devoted to Jesus.

Now, it’s not as if the light hasn’t shined forth. the magnificent light that bursts forth in the resurrection of Jesus. Light much like light bursting forth once before, early on, at the very beginning of time. For you see, this first day of the week reminds us of that very first day in the very first week of creation. And now, as then, God performs a hidden work In the creation, no one but God and his holy angels witnessed what took place. Who was there to hear the Almighty say, Let there be light? And now it is the same at the resurrection of Jesus. It is a hidden work And in this hidden work of God, he brings to life this dark world’s light.

It being a hidden work, it focuses our faith. We might recall what is said about that original creation later on in the New Testament. We are told, since we weren’t there, by faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God. And as it was with that first creation, so it is now with the new creation. And there are other parallels. The testimony of God’s original great act, calling forth the light, was set finally before his creatures, the man and the woman, our first parents, whom he made as the crown of his creating work.

But why them? Unfortunately, we think of Adam and Eve as indiscriminately personality-less and character-less. as if they aren’t the consequence in God’s creative activity of his sovereign, electing, creating power and disposition. Why them? Why those particular bodies? Why those brains? Why those particular features? I am astounded that so many do not believe in God’s election, for you cannot get beyond the first chapter of Genesis without being confronted by it.

But here in the new creation, this marvelous work of God in which a later-day light bursts upon the scene, a new creation to be sure, there are once again chosen witnesses before whom that light then, the testament of what God has done, is displayed.

In John’s account, we have three. We have Simon Peter, we have that special disciple known as the one Jesus loved, and we also have, most importantly here, Mary Magdalene. We want to look at each of them in turn, but we want to look at them in keeping with what we have said at the very beginning, calling your attention to the fact that it is John who says, and while it was still dark, Jesus has been raised from the dead. The light has come for the nations, and yet John says, while it was still dark. The three mentioned here then will be related to that darkness. Our understanding of the darkness, and also our understanding and comprehension of the light.

Simon Peter, called a rock by Christ himself, he an early follower of Jesus. You know of his admirable loyalty and fervor when many were deserting Jesus Jesus then asked the twelve that they would leave him, too. And it was Simon Peter who said, To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of Israel. But we also know of Peter’s, how shall we call it, proud humility, best expressed when he drew back from Christ’s attempt to wash his feet. You’ll never wash my feet, Lord, he said, only to be ashamed by his Lord’s rebuke to such an extent that he explained that the washing of his feet would hardly be adequate.

Lord, not my feet, but my head. No, all of me. Please. But there is an ambivalence in Peter. There is frailty. There is that bold boast, the bravado I will die with you, Lord,” he said, only to have that remark answered in his cowardice by, Know him? I neither know him nor revere him. His response, then, to those who had associated him with Now, before you are too hard on Peter, I want you to consider him in light of what John says in verse 1 of chapter 20. While it is yet dark, even though the light has come, while it is yet dark, To be fair to this man, we have to penetrate him at a much deeper level than we have so far.

For you see, Peter is more than a solitary figure. He is more than just an individual man. He is that one disciple in whom we are struck at one and the same time with, yes, amazing resilience and even faithfulness, and then amazing bewilderment to the point of offensiveness. understanding Peter for all that he is, for all that he is.

We are compelled to see in this one man the deep, agonizing struggle of all within Israel who are longing for their Savior, but yet frightened by the prospect that this Jesus might be the one. Shall we follow Jesus as God’s Messiah, or will we hold back in uncertainty? For in seeing him, I am face to face with the cost of it all.

In this one man, then, Israel is struggling with itself. Because you see, even among the faithful in Israel, the hope of that people is so tied to the land. And this Messiah has come and said, my kingdom is not of this world. To give up Palestine? I don’t know if I can do it. For that has been my life.

But what other demands are made by this Messiah, the one who says that when he is lifted up in coronation, he will draw all men, all nations to himself? What then of the indigenous character and purity of the Jewish people? And I don’t know what he’s doing with the law, but he certainly isn’t handling it like our rabbis. It’s as if, with his coming, there’s been a marvelous transformation, an amazing, a bewildering transformation of even the law. How can I give these things up? Am I able, for the sake of this Jesus and his gospel?” So in the figure of Peter, even though the sun has risen, it is still dark. He is caught in his ambivalence. Now, if Peter speaks to us about uncertainty and ambivalence in Israel, what might we say of the beloved disciple?

How fresh he appears in the passage. He outruns Peter. He arrives first at the tomb. and after giving place to Peter, certainly the older, he answers and we are told he believes. If Peter is hesitant, uncertain and ambivalent Israel, then in this beloved disciple we find here One who is a picture of an almost naive, naive belief, confidence. He is a picture of unhesitancy, unambiguity. As we have said, he arrives first at the tomb. As we have said, having seen what Peter saw, he believed.

But yet, yet, this one who is poised, ready, willing, even for him, it is still dark. He doesn’t realize everything, he doesn’t know what it all means, he doesn’t know how it all fits together, much less what to do about it. We learn then in these two men about the nature of the true Israel of God, those faithfully waiting for the arrival of the Messiah. In Peter we have one holding on to the old, even when the new has come. In the beloved disciple we have one quick, poised, ready to believe and obey, yet not knowing what to do. So it is that both of them are hesitant, as it were, and walking, groping, if you will, in the darkness as yet. For they both return to their homes as if nothing had happened.

How great is this darkness of which John speaks? What is the magnitude of it? We get a glimmer of it in Peter and in the beloved disciple, for you see, that darkness is so great that it overtakes even the best that Israel has to offer. Not even the best of Israel can avoid the shadow. There is no ghost even for them.

But in order to grasp better the greatness of this darkness, we move on to the figure of Mary Magdalene. For she will not merely take us back into the bosom of Israel. She will take us back to the very foundations of the earth. She is the one then through whom we are confronted with the awesomeness of the darkness.

So great is that darkness that apart from God’s sovereign and gracious mercy, it envelops and vanquishes Israel’s best. It is as awesome as the kingdom of darkness and as fierce as that kingdom’s dark prince. Its history is as old as creation and as ancient as the Garden of Eden.

For this woman, will stand over against another woman, the very first woman that ever lived. So it is, then, that we are brought in John 20 to a garden. If in that first garden man died, being disobedient as he was. In the second garden, man is made alive, bringing the woman into perspective. If in that first garden the woman succumbed, in the second she triumphs. If in the first garden the woman found no one, not even her husband, to stand in her place, to die for her in order that she might be reconciled to the life of the glorious knowledge of the true God, in the second garden now she finds the resurrected Christ. who has not only offered himself up for her, but now confesses to her, naming her by name, eliciting from her her own confession that he is Rabboni, my future. He it is, then, who will instruct her perfectly in all of the purposes of God. He it is, then, that remedies the deceit to which she originally fell prey.

The darkness once chased on creation’s first day. invaded the earth through sin, bringing with it its dreaded fruit, death. Even the best of Israel lived under the shadow of death. But now, on the first day of the week in the new creation, darkness is chased again. The light shines in the darkness. The darkness will never be able to put it out. It is chased from the Israel of God. It is driven back from the borders of the nations, from those called of God, as they are ministered unto by the resurrected teacher, Rabboni, the Lord Jesus Christ. His word brings light.

All of us then, with Mary, must learn as she did from that teacher. Notice how the darkness still holds her as she looks at Christ. Initially she wants to hold on to him, as if in finding him she has found a true husband. a new and second Adam. As if in holding him, she, by holding him, can bring to pass a new paradise here upon earth. For his instruction to her and through her to us is that the paradise for which she and we long is not found in any garden in this creation, but rather is above with God in a place unthreatened by any darkness at all.

And that is the place to which Christ presently ascends. In him was life, and that life was the light of man. And now with the instruction that Jesus Christ gives, based upon his resurrection, he chases darkness from the souls and the hearts of men, who up to this time have vainly believed that the real objective is some kind of permanent residence in this world. It is not.

It is his life, his resurrection life then that brings to light all of the purposes of life itself and the reason why you are here. That in the end He who has gone to prepare a place for you might come again and receive you unto himself that where he is there ye might be also. Now in the day that that happens you will be able to say exactly what Mary said to the disciples. After having left this scene, I have seen the Lord.

Here is our life. the light that dispels our darkness and our perpetual hope. Let us pray. The darkness continues even though There has been that resurrection, a dark shroud over the hearts and minds of men and women. Be they the best that the world has to offer, and it is only the risen Christ who is able to dispel that darkness and bring the clear, bright instruction of heaven to bear upon us here. that we may not put our trust or our hope in the things of this world, but in the one who was raised again, who is preparing a place for us, who comes a second time to receive us, that we might be with him forever. Even so, come Lord Jesus, quickly come. Good night.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.