Empty rings a note of sadness. The last dollar in your wallet can be sad. The last good-bye always breaks your heart. And the last M&M is truly depressing. There are few things that we prefer or desire empty. Most of us avoid empty.
But there are instances when empty can be a good thing. An empty cereal box might mean trying a new flavor. An empty room upstairs leaves space for hosting a guest. An empty flower bed is cause to plant new flowers.
Little children can be fun to watch. They are often at a loss trying to figure out how to grab yet another toy while their hands are already full. And we never outgrow that problem. Or so it seems. Like little children, most of us reach for more with hands already quite filled, often to overflowing, with the goodness of God's gifts.
Today, Easter Sunday, as we ponder the empty tomb, I hope to lead us in search of lessons regarding the value of having empty hands. I believe that "empty before God" is often the very first step toward something more with God. Let's take a closer look at John's account of the empty tomb:
John 20:1 . . . Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. {2} So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
The tomb was empty.
Mary Magdalene, the one healed of demon possession, raced to the tomb as soon as Sabbath was over. She, and several other women, wanted to complete Jesus' burial. The stone had been rolled away. That might have been a good thing for a lone woman. Instead, the open doorway to the tomb became agony: Jesus' body was gone.
And so, Mary ran to Peter and John with the terrifying news, hoping against hope that they knew something that she had somehow missed. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" Empty left Mary and the others feeling desolate. Empty became a fear that overshadowed the current bad news that Jesus had died. Now things had become even worse.
And what any of us would expect as the next logical step, became the next logical step. Peter and John (men, you know how men are) raced off to the tomb. It was, as Mary had described quite empty:
John 20:3 . . . So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. {4} Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. {5} He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. {6} Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, {7} as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. {8} Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.
John, it seems, may have been in better shape, but was a little bit more hesitant. John was first to the tomb, but Peter (yeah! Peter went in first) was the first to enter. Jesus' body was gone, just as Mary had said. Only the grave clothes remained. John believed. But we are left to wonder exactly what it was he believed:
John 20:9 . . . (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) {10} Then the disciples went back to their homes,
It is probable that he believed what Mary had said.
I can almost picture the disciples slumping off, dragging their feet as they each returned home. But Mary remained behind:
John 20:11 . . . but 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' 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."
Just one more look. Maybe they had somehow missed the body.
Instead, Mary found another audience with whom to share her disappointment and confusion. Two angels, seated where the body had been, began a conversation with Mary. Still not getting it, Mary explained her grief.
Notice how empty can be blinding. Jesus had provided clear teaching regarding his death. And everything had transpired as He had said. And yet, they remained clueless. Once Mary had voiced her concerns, without a second thought about the presence of two angels in Jesus' tomb, she turned to leave and behold: another man. And not just any man. It was Jesus.
John 20:14 . . . At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. {15} "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." {16} Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
Can you hear her frustration? "Just tell me where the body is being kept and I'll take care of it." I don't think Jesus was playing head games with Mary. But I do think he gave her a chance to see Him. When she did not, He spoke so she would KNOW Him. I like that about God.
God always gives us space to find ourselves or to be honest. He did that with Adam and Eve in the Garden. He does that with you and me. Here, beside the empty tomb, Jesus gave Mary an opportunity to find Him, and then He helped her. Notice that Jesus didn't condemn her; He spoke her name. Her response? Recognition.
But this was not the time to linger:
John 20:17 . . . Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning 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.
Mary, the empty one, was now filled with an amazing message: "I have seen the Lord!" And she carried this message to her friends. This is one conversation I would love to have heard a woman with a message reported on very high speed. (This is not a sexist remark. I've listened to more than one excited woman tell a story.)
Notice the words Jesus gave her to share: 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' Jesus was about to leave His disciples empty. For the past few years, Jesus had filled their daily lives with teaching and laughter, food and safety. Jesus had filled their lives with all of the good things of life and of Heaven.
But now, He was leaving. And His departure would leave a giant empty in the middle of their lives. We DO NOT like empty. That is a truth few would challenge. But this empty, the departure of the risen Jesus, is an empty that allows for a greater filling.
Just days before the empty tomb, Jesus had been with the disciples He so loved. And He had explained His departure:
John 16:7-15 . . . "But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. {8} When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: {9} in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; {10} in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; {11} and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. {12} I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. {13} But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. {14} He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. {15} All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you."
"Unless I go away," according to Jesus, we cannot fully know all that He desires us to know. Like little children, we must first be emptied before filled. Jesus's leaving made room in the disciples' lives to grow beyond the immediacy of Jesus. If Jesus had remained, the disciples would have continued to lean upon His physical presence for life.
In His leaving, the disciples grew to a new level of life in Christ. No longer Jesus among them doing the miraculous on their behalf; it became Jesus in them, doing the miraculous through them.
I think we must visit the tomb, find it empty, and begin to realize that Jesus is no longer there. Rather, Jesus has moved, He has taken up residence in the empty spaces of our hearts.
Here is one of those times when "empty" is the better option. We might fill our lives with all that we can gather. And that might make us feel better. But it is when we come to the end of ourselves, when we empty ourselves of the stuff we have carefully gathered, Jesus finds room, empty spaces, to make His home.
As in Mary's case, empty is sad, but only until we recognize Jesus. What about your daily life? Is it empty? Or have you allowed Jesus to fill every nook and cranny? Is your life cluttered with stuff you hoped would satisfy? Or have you allowed Jesus to help you clean your spiritual house? Know that Jesus wants the very best for you.
Rejoice: He is Risen!
