I suppose that for some people, the word "certainties" is a bit of a hot button. I hope it is, anyway. Some like their faith certain. Others prefer a bit of mystery. I think the accounts of the resurrection have some of both.

But I like to have some certainty in my life. I enjoy the routines of the day. I like it that I often stop at the Subway in the strip mall near our home to get a coffee I take into the office in the morning. I like it when my teams keep the same roster, though that is less certain now. There are a host of ways we each anchor our life to what is reliable and dependable.

Today we will repeat the Apostles? Creed once again as part of our worship at the Lord's Table. The form is reliable but what of the content? Well I want to tell you again today that the content is reliable and that you can build a life around it. Particularly, I am certain about the part that says:

"...suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to . . .

I suppose that for some people, the word "certainties" is a bit of a hot button. I hope it is, anyway. Some like their faith certain. Others prefer a bit of mystery. I think the accounts of the resurrection have some of both.

 But I like to have some certainty in my life. I enjoy the routines of the day. I like it that I often stop at the Subway in the strip mall near our home to get a coffee I take into the office in the morning. I like it when my teams keep the same roster, though that is less certain now. There are a host of ways we each anchor our life to what is reliable and dependable.

 Today we will repeat the Apostles' Creed once again as part of our worship at the Lord's Table. The form is reliable but what of the content? Well I want to tell you again today that the content is reliable and that you can build a life around it. Particularly, I am certain about the part that says:

"...suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again..."

 It's interesting that these days we have a host of material in print and film addressing the subject of the life and death of Jesus. It's all interesting, but not all supports the Biblical record. The resurrection of Jesus is the crucial event in the Christian faith. Without a resurrection, Jesus is one more in a long list of wise and heroic martyrs. But with the resurrection, Jesus is Lord and we can claim that his death and resurrection give us forgiveness from moral guilt and the promise of eternal life.

 I am certain of the resurrection. I can't prove it scientifically, because that's impossible, but there is good evidence and reason to accept the account we have in John's gospel.

The John who wrote the fourth gospel may or may not be the John, the beloved disciple who tradition says was exiled to Patmos. Personally, I don't think that much matters. What matters is that his account is accurate and reliable. Like I say, I am betting that it is.

There are a host of reasons and I am not going to go through them all, but there are a couple that come to mind easily.

First is who John quotes.
The first account of the resurrection in John's gospel and the most detailed is the account of Mary Magdalene at the tomb. Mary arrives and leaves separately from the others.

So the obvious question is, "who told John?" Not Mark, the earliest gospel. Matthew doesn't have Mary's account. Luke verifies that Mary, Johana and Mary, Jesus mother were the first at the tomb that day. In fact Luke says that the others wouldn't believe the women. And women today would say, "so what's new?"

 John's account is detailed and has information only Mary could have known, so my guess is that this is Mary's personal recollection or a very close friend's recollection of what Mary said.

 The fact that John used it is unusual. If you were fabricating a story and wanted people to believe it you would put the evidence in the mouth of the most credible witness, I would think. Especially is your audience is first or second century Palestinian, you would not quote Mary for the following reasons. Luke says the men would not believe the women. Women were not considered reliable witnesses in the first century.

You would not quote Mary to prove a point. She came from Magdala which the rabbis of the time said was an exceptionally immoral town. And Mary was said to have been possessed of seven demons before Jesus healed her. Mary simply had no credentials, except that she was there. But if you are giving the account and you know it's true, then you tell it straight whether your evidence is Mary or Caesar himself.

Also, the gospels were not written in a vacuum.
They were written in the community and times of people who had been there and knew what had happened. A bogus account would be treated as bogus. I could write a biography of John F. Kennedy, not that anyone would read it; but if I wrote what was obviously false, there are enough people alive who know the truth and I would be called to task. I would not become the hero of Irish Boston.

Mary's certainty of the resurrection was that she met Jesus who she believed was lost to her. Jesus has to tell her to let go, she is clinging so tightly. Who can blame her? In spite of all Jesus' words about his resurrection, it caught them all off guard. Frankly I am glad that it did because it makes their story more believable to me. They behave exactly the way I do.

Certainties because of the resurrection.

I am certain of the resurrection for the same reason that Mary was. I have met the risen Jesus. No, not in the flesh as Mary did, but he talks to me and guides my life, and I am so certain of the fact of his presence in my life that I would gamble my life on that. In fact, to me it is a wild gamble NOT to base my life on the resurrection.

I can't give you my  certainty. All  I can say is that if you come to him in faith and real desire, he will talk to you in his own way, and in his own time.

Because of the resurrection, life is more certain.

Mary's story is amazing. She has come early, between four and six in the morning on what is called the first watch. This the earliest she could come following the sabbath. She has come to finish the burial and anointing process which was completed hastily because Jesus was buried hastily because of Passover.

She arrives and the stone is already rolled away and there is no body to be seen.
Her logical reaction is that the body has been stolen. She does not come presuming a resurrection or even considering that a possibility. No body means someone has taken it, pure and simple.

She sees a man. He wonders if he is the gardener and asks where Jesus body has been taken.
All he needs to do is call her name..."Mary", and she knows who it is.
Jesus says, in John 10:27:

She grabs him and clings for dear life.
He tells her to let go. It is not his physical body that is her security, it is his Spirit which he will send once he has ascended to the Father.
I am not sure how convinced she would have been at that moment, but hearing him, seeing him and touching him were enough for her at that moment and she hurries off to tell the others, ...who don't believe her and need to see for themselves.

They need their own certainty, which they find.
Mary had hers.
I have mine.

There is a story that was printed in the 1994 Christian Times magazine.

As Vice President, George Bush represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest. There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband. ¹

My hope for you is that you have certainty in the resurrected Jesus and that it is enough to live by.
For me its enough. My certainty of the resurrection gives me certainty for life.
How you find the risen Lord is simple.
You ask.
Mary came looking because of her love and because Jesus had been the source of a new life for her.
He is the same for you, and if you want and need new life and you come looking for him, he will meet you just as he did Mary.
My prayer will be that we all will be given the gift of recognizing his voice when he speaks to us.

Prayer:
Let us pray: Jesus you are alive and present with us this morning. There may be someone here today who has heard of you, but has not yet really experienced your power and presence. I pray that by your Holy Spirit, you will bring that person to a meeting with you and that it will change that person's life. You call us Lord. Help us once again to recognize your voice.
In Jesus name. Amen

preached  Sunday April 11, 2004
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian Church
Victoria, British Columbia

---

Notes
^1.Gary Thomas, Christian Times, October 3, 1994, p. 26. , quoted at sermonillustrations.com