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The Resting Place
We are a community of believers coming together to establish a new wineskin of renewal in the Midwest. Come and join us as we adventure into the unknown, with hands open to following the wind of Holy Spirit, and hearts hungry for community and to experience an outpouring of the love of the Father.
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The Resting Place
Beyond Reconciliation: The Radical Nearness of God
Have you ever wondered if God pauses His plans to address your personal pain? Easter weekend offers a profound glimpse into this question through Jesus' unexpected interaction with Mary Magdalene.
In this episode of The Resting Place podcast, we explore how the care of Jesus fundamentally challenges our modern understanding of the gospel message. Looking at Holy Saturday through both Orthodox and modern perspectives, we discover how Jesus consistently chose to do things that weren't strictly necessary for salvation but revealed the Father's heart of compassion.
The focus turns to Mary Magdalene weeping outside the empty tomb. Jesus had not yet ascended to apply His blood to heaven's mercy seat—arguably the most significant moment in history—yet He paused to comfort one grieving woman. This wasn't because Mary had worked herself into enough desperation to merit divine attention; it was simply because Jesus cared deeply about her broken heart.
We challenge the common misconception that miracles are exceptions requiring extraordinary faith. Instead, we propose they represent God's normal pattern of care. Through Jesus' self-emptying love (kenosis), He overcame the human delusion that God desires separation. The implications are revolutionary: God didn't merely reconcile us at a distance but invites us into intimate relationship.
Moving beyond mental theology to heart-level transformation, this message invites you to experience the same care Jesus showed Mary. The One who stopped to comfort a weeping woman is the same One who stops for you today—not because you've earned it, but because that's who He is.
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Hi everyone, I'm Ben and I'm Logan and we're the Robins.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Resting Place Podcast. I'm gonna read I've got three passages kind of. I've got three passages kind of ready to rock and roll here and I'm weeding through my heart trying to decide what I want to say and I think I'm going to shoot from the hip a lot today. And we've got a big. We've got a big Easter meal planned together for the group and I've got a ham on my smoker right now. I hope y'all like smoked ham because that's what we have today. I hope that's okay. Lou likes it. Okay, lou likes it. I don't care if the rest of you don't like it. So, um, let's go. Why don't y'all open your Bibles to John chapter 20, john chapter 20. And I'm going to. Before I get to John 20, I'm going to read some notes that I have written. I have not written extensively, but I have written a little something. I've written some thoughts down and we're going to start with those because I'm still weighing in my heart if I want to start with John 20. And that's a preacher's trick is, if you're weighing in your heart something you want to do, do something else before you get to the thing that you're trying to decide to do or not. So that's what we're doing right here, my bent on Easter, especially since we're gathering on Holy Saturday rather than Easter.
Speaker 1:And when I say Holy Saturday, holy Saturday in the Orthodox tradition is obviously it's the day after Yeshua's crucifixion. Traditionally, in church tradition, he descends into the lower parts of the earth. He descends into hell, takes the keys of death, hell and the grave from the devil, and the Word says that he preached to those that were in captivity. He descends into the lower parts of the earth, takes the keys of death, hell and the grave from the devil, and the word says that he preached to those that were in captivity. He descends into the lower parts of the earth, takes the keys of death, hell in the grave from the devil, preaches to those that are in captivity, and the word says that he led captivity, captive and gave gifts to men. In Orthodox tradition, holy Saturday is the day that Yeshua descends down into hell and always when I I had heard he descends into hell. He preaches to the captives. The good Pentecostal version of this is that he took those that were in Abraham's bosom out of Abraham's bosom and brought them into glory, but left everyone else where they were. That's the good Pentecostal version of that. That's the tradition that I was brought up in. The Orthodox tradition is something completely other than that. He descends into hell, takes the keys of death, hell and the grave from the devil, and the Orthodox tradition is that he empties hell. He doesn't just take the keys of death, hell and the grave, he preaches to those that are in captivity and empties hell out and leaves the devil there lonely with his angels. That's what the church fathers would teach that he would completely empty the depths of hell, because who seeing Yeshua in the midst of torment wouldn't pick him? Who, having the choice, would not then say yes to the choice.
Speaker 1:And I could step on about a thousand landmines right now and say a few things that would be really controversial. But it's good to be thought-provoking, I think. I think it's good to explore thought processes. One of the things that we do in the church is we get so stuck in our traditions and we don't realize that, as people who would consider themselves Pentecostal at least have Pentecostal roots. Our roots go back to like 1906, a little over 100 years. We've completely lost the history of the church and we've tried to reinvent the wheel as it pertains to the doctrines of the early church fathers and we lost some of the richness of the traditions of the church fathers. And there's so much wisdom inside of the history of the church fathers that because it's orthodox or because it's Catholic or because it's something other than the tradition that we grew up in, we either completely steer away from it because the Catholic church is the whore in the book of Babylon. If you're Pentecostal, that's what a lot of people. It's nonsense, the nonsense that people say I saw where the now I won't say it right, but the preacher of the church in Rome. So it would have been the. They had the Good Friday celebration in Rome at the Vatican and the preacher of the church of the Vatican something like that taught a message and his message was on the intelligence of the cross and just interesting the way that he came at this the intelligence of the cross. And in an age where AI is taking over everything and it uses calculations and it uses math, the intelligence of the cross is kindness and self-giving love and how that would then affect the trajectory of human history, as opposed to allowing calculations and math. It's an interesting thought process when it comes to the crucifixion and Yeshua's sacrifice for us Very interesting. I respect that, guys. That's an interesting perspective. I don't go all the way with anybody, let alone the Catholic Church, but my God, there's so much that we miss by throwing them completely out. Brother Lawrence practicing the presence of God. Brother Lawrence was a Catholic.
Speaker 1:Madame Guyon, another one from near-revolutionary France, was a Catholic. It's said in church history. Actually, french history records that she delayed the French Revolution by a hundred years through her teaching. Madame Gagne was a mystic and a teacher of the gospel a Catholic teacher of the gospel and would travel villages teaching the goodness of God and in her teaching of the goodness of God, delayed the reign of terror that accompanied the French Revolution. The French Revolution had something called the reign of terror, and the reign of terror was essentially a round-robin of people getting their heads cut off if they got on the wrong side of the political powers. That be so you're going to get imprisoned and you're going to get your head chopped off, unless you're friends with someone who's high up enough in power that can sway the people that are making the decisions to let you out. Essentially, corruption, right? She delayed that by a hundred years. She's a Catholic.
Speaker 1:All I'm saying is we have lost some of the plot with our insistence on reinventing the wheel. There are things that absolutely need to be corrected, adjusted, rethought, thought through, absolutely 100%. Our apostle is the king of rethinking and saying things sometimes just to be different, it happens. But the heart of that is there needs to be an adjustment brought, and he's incredible at bringing the adjustment. I agree 100% with that. But also there's so much value and so much richness that the other parts of the body of Christ bring us that we don't need to just throw those things out.
Speaker 1:So on Holy Saturday, did Jesus empty hell? I'm not sure there's a way that we can know for sure, but it sure sounds better than he just went to Abraham's bosom and got just a few, just got his. I think a Calvinist would like the would like that he just got a few. I think the Calvinist church would love that he just got a few of them, thing I really prefer to. I prefer to ascribe to the thought that his goodness did not stop short of allowing those that had never heard the gospel a chance to pick him. There's a Canaanite that had never heard of the gospel somewhere in there, had never had an opportunity to pick light because of the circumstances of their lifetime and he descends into hell. And why would that Canaanite not say I've never seen anything like that before? I believe I'll go with him. That's all I'm saying, guys. It's a thought-provoking exercise I think it's worth spending some time with.
Speaker 1:So my proclivity on a day like today would be to teach on either the resurrection I'm going to be as cliche as possible the resurrection I'm going to teach on the meaning of the cross and the resurrection and our mystical co-resurrection, our co-burial and our co-ascension with him. We could teach on those things and I'm not going to teach on any of that today and that would be my proclivity. I'm going to teach on the power of God and resurrection power. That would be just right in my wheelhouse, right where I'm comfortable, and Holy Spirit has me in a place right now of not letting me do the things I'm really comfortable with. The things that I prefer to do. The things I prefer to do really are to teach something for about 30 minutes. Get the band back up there, let's play and let's start laying hands on people. That's my thing. That's the best thing. It's my thing. Other people have their thing. That's my thing. That's what I like. I like that. I like the power of God to encounter people. That's, that's my thing. But he's got me in a time right now of I don't know doing things I'm uncomfortable with. So we're not going to teach on that. What we're going to teach on is the care of God. We're going to teach on the care of Yeshua today, and I'm going to come at that from John, chapter 20, but I want to read this first.
Speaker 1:The whole logic of the incarnation is that the Father, son and Spirit wanted to share their life with us, and we take that from Baxter Kruger's seminal work, the Great Dance, the Christian Vision Revisited. If you don't have this, buy it, read it three times. The whole logic of the Incarnation is that Father, son and Spirit wanted to share their life with us. The logic of the Incarnation is that Father, son and Spirit wanted to share their life with us. Where there had once been unbroken communion, sin and subsequently the delusion that Yahweh now desired distance between Himself and His creation now created an intolerable dilemma in the heart of Yahweh. Where there had once been unbroken communion, sin and subsequently the delusion that Yahweh now desired distance between himself and his creation now created an intolerable dilemma in the heart of Yahweh. The issue with sin is this is it makes you susceptible to greater delusion? It makes you susceptible to greater delusion. It makes you susceptible to greater delusion. Sin, hamartia, would be the Obviously missing the mark is the definition of sin.
Speaker 1:However, the root of missing the mark is disagreement with one's pre-designed blueprint or an incongruence in the way that you think about yourself, in the way that you've been designed, or, said more plainly, it is you think differently about you than you actually are. You're living under the influence of a delusional mindset and what happens is missing the mark will then reinforce that mindset If you've not divorced yourself from the mindset or the thinking that has caused you to fall into the trap or the cyclical pattern of missing the mark. What will then happen is you'll miss the mark and reinforce the pattern, and the pattern will reinforce missing the mark. And it's a circular reinforcement that starts to take place and leads you down a path of never being able to escape the pit that you found yourself in. And you'll come out of it a little ways and you'll miss the mark again. It'll just reinforce, just suck it right back down like quicksand. The old church used to sing he brought me out of the miry clay. That's a really good description of what that process is like.
Speaker 1:You get the more you struggle, the more caught you get. The more you struggle, the more caught you get, and you reinforce the lie that you'll never measure up. You reinforce the lie that you'll never measure up, you'll never amount to anything and you'll never truly please God. And the truth is just by being. You please God. If we started there, how different would our journey look? We please God just by being. He's predisposed to being pleased with you and you're predisposed to being pleasing to Him. You just don't know it. You're predisposed to being pleasing to him.
Speaker 1:We just get discipled into patterns of self-flagellating, disgust with ourselves over the way that we miss the mark. And self-flagellation is in the Catholic tradition. Again, it's the beating yourself while you pray, so that you can, so that you can, so that you can commiserate with the wounds of Yeshua, so that you can be part of the wounds of Yeshua. You're beating yourself to remind yourself you took and I'm not good enough and I'm unworthy, and all these. And we do that to ourselves mentally, if not physically, over and over again, and really what we then must do is come at this from a completely different thought process, completely different thought process.
Speaker 1:The sad part is this we grow up in the church. We grow up in the church and we get taught that your effort is the way that you will become free from these things, and your effort will never make you free from these things. It will require effort, it will require decisions, it will require these things, but there's only one thing that can free you from these things and that's the free gift of grace from Yeshua. And you then have to yield to the fact that you're pleasing. This is the hardest thing to do. You have to yield to the fact that you're pleasing to him in the middle of knowing you're messing it up. It's that quote you gave us last week, lou. Yeah, the Christian journey is not striving to get it right, it's realizing you're getting it wrong. Right, something like that.
Speaker 1:I thought that was a really profound thought, also really correct. Because listen, guys, even when we think we have it completely nailed, we don't have it completely nailed. This thing's so upside down and so backwards. It's so upside down and so backwards that, even when we feel like we have it nailed, I'm not saying that it's this long slog of getting it wrong and beating ourselves down and not getting it right. That's completely other than what I'm trying to say. What I'm saying is that there's a glorious inheritance reserved for those that will divorce themselves from the distant, angry, distant, angry and punitive God of our childhood and come into the truth that he's pleased with you and he wants to meet you where you're at, not where you should be. So I said all that to say.
Speaker 1:Where there had once been unbroken communion, sin and subsequently the delusion that Yahweh now desired distance between himself and creation now created an intolerable dilemma in the heart of Yahweh. His creation was spiraling towards non-existence and eternal ruin. Non-existence and eternal ruin is where we were spiraling towards, and what was God being good to do with that? Imagine the dilemma we're spun. Creation is spun out of the dance of perichoresis, when perfect love love, perfect love loved perfect love to the point that they demanded another one to pour their love on. They created us, and in creating us there came a dilemma. They chose something else and in choosing something else they then chose delusion.
Speaker 1:So Adam didn't just choose sin, adam also chose the path of delusion and distanced himself from a God who did not desire distance and God being good. What was he then to do? And it's this non-choice. The beautiful thing is it's a non-choice because he's the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. He knew beforehand. He knew beforehand and did it anyway.
Speaker 1:It's this mind-blowing thing to me that my mind still doesn't really comprehend is he knew how bad we were gonna mess it up. He saw world war ii before he created the earth, saw world war ii before he created the, saw the napoleonic wars, saw the 30 years war, saw the crusades, saw all the different tragedy, all the different human ruin and wreckage that would come about because of Adam's decision to choose sin and subsequently delusion, and said, yeah, I think I want to do that. That's something that my mind can't comprehend. I think I'd have saved myself the headache. I'm having a good time up here. I'm having a good time up here. I'm having a good time up here. We got to get. The three of us have a good thing going. We got all these angels and the devil. He's gone, so we ain't got to worry about him, let's just chill.
Speaker 1:And he said no, I think I'd rather sacrifice myself. I think I'd rather sacrifice myself. See, this is when I say this thing's upside down and backwards, guys. He chooses self-sacrificial, self-giving, sacrificial love every time, every time. He chooses that, without fail. Yahweh chooses that. Even in bringing judgment, he's choosing self-giving, sacrificial love. Guys, even in bringing judgment against something, he's choosing self-giving, sacrificial love in that moment.
Speaker 2:It's more backwards than we think. It's even more upside down than we think. That's how the kingdom is. And Heidi Baker has this thing where she says stop for the one. All the time. Listen, I love when she stops for the one, because when she stops for the one, blind eyes are about fixing to get fixed.
Speaker 2:Somebody who's cross-eyed their eyes are about to straighten out. Somebody who can't speak they're about to speak. Somebody who's cross-eyed their eyes are about to straighten out. Somebody who can't speak. They're about to speak. Somebody who can't walk you're about to get your walking feet back. That's what happens when she stops for the one. That's what happens when she does. She's become such an extension of the love of God that when the love of God compels her to stop for someone in her path, this is what happens.
Speaker 1:There's a subculture around that here in America that likes to tape it and put it on Facebook, and I don't like that.
Speaker 1:I don't like that. I don't prefer that. I don't see. I don't see. Why am I saying this? Just be nice, logan. Why can't I be nice? I want to be nice. There's a subculture around that that wants to put everything on Facebook and wants to document everything, and I understand the heart of documenting things. I think it's important, but I think we lose the plot when we're walking around with a cell phone looking for somebody to stop for. I think it ought to be the love of God compelling us to stop for someone in our path. And in stopping for someone in our path, if they then want to go and put it on Facebook, great, go ahead and do that. But I'm going to slip out the back door, like Jesus would constantly do when performing miracles, and you may or may not ever hear me, and I'm fine with it. We did the thing where the eyes opened and now we're going to slip out the back door because I don't want to draw too much attention to myself.
Speaker 2:But I say that because there's an understanding there and stopping for the one, that this thing's even more backwards and it's even more upside down and it's listen, revelation is important. It is revelation. Revelatory teaching is so much a part of my foundation and I love it. I have nothing bad, we'll never say anything against it, but it must become manifestation. It must, otherwise it's just mental gymnastics.
Speaker 1:Revelation is nothing more than mental gymnastics if we're not going through the metamorphosis or the transfiguration of the heart that causes us then to be able to manifest the thing that is being revealed to us. It's just a different form of entertainment. You might as well go see a comedian, at least you'll laugh.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm serious, I'm serious, I'm serious about that. You may as well just go see a comedian, because at least you'll laugh and you might go through more of a transfiguration laughing than you would sitting through another church service and being mentally entertained or mentally stimulated for another hour about the resurrection of Jesus.
Speaker 2:Brother, I'm not saying those things aren't valuable. What I'm saying is we have to turn from using revelation or using teaching as a as an emphasis of entertainment and mental stimulation and turn to it being the catalyst for transfiguration. That will cause the trend, that will cause the manifestation of what we're teaching.
Speaker 2:Otherwise, guys, we're wasting our time, and it's easy for me to say with 12 people in the house and babies are around and my baby upstairs crying because she woke up, and it's really easy for me to say those things without a crowd around me, but when the crowd does start to gather, I'm going to say the same thing, because it remains true.
Speaker 1:It remains true that we must begin to shift this thing toward manifesting Jesus. That was the great secret of the early church guys. You ever go through the sermons in the book of Acts. You ever go through them. It's an interesting exercise. If you've never gone through them, go through all the sermons in the book of Acts. You ever go through them. It's an interesting exercise. If you've never gone through them, go through all the sermons in the book of Acts and just see what you find.
Speaker 1:Jesus died and rose again Is primarily the emphasis of all of the teachings. They talk about the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus a whole lot. And then they go into miracles and manifesting the resurrected Jesus. Guys, there's a key in that they go into manifesting the resurrected Jesus or bringing the manifestation of the resurrection. What was God being good to do? Athanasius writes that Yahweh utters an intolerable no, so his creation was spiraling towards non-existence and eternal ruin. And what was God being good then to do? Athanasius writes that Yahweh Athanasius, one of the early church fathers, writes that Yahweh utters an intolerable no and Yeshua is sent in the incarnation to reconcile all of creation back to himself. Yeshua accomplished this thoroughly. Yeshua accomplished the reconciliation of all of creation thoroughly. Let me say that that word is important. He thoroughly accomplished this, leaving no stone unturned, leaving nothing unreconciled. Yeshua reconciled all things back to himself. However, this is not all that he accomplished. This is not all that he accomplished.
Speaker 1:John 1.18 says that no one has seen the Father except the dearly loved Son, and he has revealed to us the full explanation of who God really is. So not only is he reconciling creation back to Himself, he's revealing the Father in everything he does, which is, to me, the completion of reconciliation. Why do I say that it's the completion of reconciliation? Because if he had not corrected the lens through which we saw the father, what good would it? What good would it do for us to be reconciled to one that we're still terrified of? What good would it have done for us to be reconciled to one that we believe desired distance from us, lou, what good does that do? That does good in the end. In the end, okay, you get to go to heaven and in the end, things work out okay for you, but your lived experience on the earth is one of misery, self-flagellation and never measuring up to an impossible standard. Misery, self-flagellation and never measuring up to an impossible standard. Yeshua corrects this by revealing who the Father really is in everything he did. It's this term in theological circles they call kenosis.
Speaker 1:Kenosis is self-emptying. I'm going to read this to you real quick. It's not in Peter. We need to get to Philippians. That's where we need to get to Philippians 2.6.
Speaker 1:He existed in the form of God, yet he gave no thought to seizing equality with God as his supreme prize. Instead, he emptied himself of his outward glory. Kenosis, kenotic, emptying. He emptied himself of his outward glory by reducing himself to the form of a lowly servant. He became human. He humbled himself and became vulnerable. By choosing to be revealed as a human, he humbled himself and became vulnerable, choosing to be revealed as a man and was obedient. He was a perfect example, even in his death, a criminal's death by crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God exalted him and multiplied his greatness. He has now been given the greatest of names. The authority of the name of Jesus causes every knee to bow in reverence. Everything and everyone will one day submit to this name, in the heavenly realm and in the earthly realm and in the demonic realm, and every tongue will proclaim in every language Jesus Christ is Lord Yahweh, bringing glory and honor to God, his father Instead, in verse seven is kind of the key to this. Instead, he emptied himself of his outward glory by reducing himself to the form of a lowly servant. He became a human, kenosis, self-giving, emptying to the point that he became human. Essentially, this is the gospel. God condescended to be like us that we might become like him. God condescended to be like us that we might become like him. God condescended to become like us, that we might become like him. That being said, jesus did everything. He did as a man, guys. He didn't do this as God. He did this as a human. He carried perfect union for 33 years with the Father and the Spirit. As a man, guys, he. That's so important. That little piece right there is so important.
Speaker 1:And I know I'm rambling and I'm taking longer than I told Lucy that I would before we started, but she knew I was a liar when I said it. It is Holy Saturday. It's Holy Saturday. I'm going to get I'm going to get absolved from lying, and when y'all taste that ham, you're going to absolve me a second time. I'll get double absolved. And if you don't absolve me, debbie brought cookies. And the only reason that's happening is because we. We said, hey, bring something, and she's like Debbie brought cookies, and the only reason that's happening is because we said, hey, bring something, and she's like hey, cookies. So you have to absolve me because her cookies are good, so my sins get remitted either way. Either way, my sins are being remitted.
Speaker 1:Yeshua is sent in the incarnation to reconcile all of creation back to himself, and Yeshua accomplished this thoroughly. However, this is not all that he accomplished for us. He provided for us the full, complete and perfect explanation of who the Father really is. Full, complete and perfect explanation of who the Father really is. Damon says it like this Jesus is precisely what the Father has to say about himself, precisely what the Father has to say about himself, precisely what the Father has to say about himself. And that was not necessary.
Speaker 1:The beautiful thing about some of this guys is that so much of what he did wasn't necessary. If we're talking about an efficient, an efficiency so this is where my mind goes immediately If we're talking about an efficiency-minded reconciliation of all things back to God. He did not have to provide for us this beautiful picture of who the Father is. He just had to not sin and die. That's all he had to do. He had to not sin and then go ahead and get himself killed. Not sin, go ahead, get yourself killed and all things would have been reconciled back to God. That's not what he did. He took time to show us the heart of what the Father really is like. That's not deep, that's not like earth-shatteringly revelatory, but it is. Jesus did that as a man. He gave us the perfect explanation of what the Father is really like. As a man, he didn't.
Speaker 1:There's some mystery. There's some mystery in the hypostatic union that I don't understand the union of God and man, the God-man Jesus Christ. Right, there's some mystery there that I don't fully comprehend and probably never will. There may be an intelligence factor there. There may be some other things there. I probably will never fully comprehend the exact mystery of the hypostatic union, but I do know this. I do know this. He gave me the exact picture of what the Father is really like as a human being and he remained in perfect union with the Father, son and Spirit. As a human being, he reconciled all things back to the Father through the power of the Spirit. As a man, he didn't take the easy way out of. This is what I'm saying. He didn't use his godly powers. He emptied himself and became a man, married himself to the human form to the point that he still has a body, he's still a man in heaven.
Speaker 1:It would have been enough, it would have been sufficient, to simply reconcile creation through his death, burial and resurrection. That's enough. That's really where we have to get to right, lou. If we boil it down to the lowest mean, where do we have to get if you're Jesus? Where we have to get if you're Jesus is death, burial, resurrection. Don't sin, don't sin. Death, burial, resurrection all't sin, don't sin. Death, burial, resurrection All things are reconciled back to God. Creation has been brought back into perfect relationship with the Father. That's what we're after, right. But where would that have left us if he had done that? That's the question that I'm trying to get at and I hope I'm communicating it correctly. The question that I'm trying to get is if he had not given us the full explanation of who God is through his canonic lifestyle, self-emptying, self-giving love. If he had not done that, where would that have left us? That would have left us reconciled at a distance. Would that have left us? That would have left us reconciled at a distance, and that's where I think most of the church finds themselves today is we're reconciled, at a distance from almighty Yahweh. We're reconciled, we've been brought back into relationship, but we've not been brought back into the kind of relationship that he desires. We've been reconciled at a distance and the delusion that we're under and the delusion that we're under is that that's his idea.
Speaker 1:So John 20, and then I'll was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. Where did she look? She looked into the empty tomb. John and Peter have already raced themselves to the tomb and John made sure to write in that he was faster than Peter. He's faster than the old man. I love it's. Eternal trash talk is what it is. He's talking trash from eternity. At this point, although some people still believe John never died, so we'll see Some people still believe John never died, so we'll see. I was faster than the old man. I beat him there. That's basically what he wrote down. Peter was old and tired and I was young and fast and I beat him in a foot race, just like I knew he would, because he was always old and tired and I was significantly younger and better looking than him. And Jesus loved me. That's essentially the Gospel of John. Essentially, the Gospel of John is Jesus loved me. Peter was old and tired and I'm faster than him. That's essentially the book of the Gospel of John.
Speaker 1:Mary was standing outside the tomb crying and she wept. And as she wept, she stooped in and looked. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. Dear woman, why are you crying? The angels asked her. Because they have taken away my Lord, she replied, and I don't know where they have put him. She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. So, because they have taken away my Lord, she replied, and I don't know where they have put him. She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him. Dear woman, why are you crying? Jesus asked her who are you looking for? She thought he was the gardener and said Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him and I will go and get him. Mary Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out Rabbi, which is Hebrew for teacher, don't cling to me. Jesus said, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go and find my brothers and tell them I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God. And we've been on unintentionally kind of a theme for about two months now and the theme has been the care of Jesus. Yeah, I would say that I think if I was going to define the theme that we have been on would be the present care of Jesus over the last two months, because we're talking about the woman with the issue of blood, or St Veronica. We're talking about the woman at the issue of blood, or St Veronica. We're talking about the woman at the well, or St Fotini. We're talking about the woman outside of Nain who had her son raised, and today we're going to speak just briefly about Mary Magdalene outside the tomb and how Jesus perfectly represented the heart of the Father in those moments.
Speaker 1:One of the things about one of the things, or two things about the gospel as it's taught in the American church that bother me One is that we elevate theory above what took place on the cross. So when we're talking about the crucifixion and the atonement, one of the things that we do is we elevate theory above what actually took place. So we elevate the theory of God's wrath. We elevate the theory of God's wrath over the fact that Yeshua was victorious on the cross. That's a fact. Everything else about the cross is kind of a theory. The world was reconciled back to God and Jesus was victorious are the two primary truths that we need to take from the crucifixion. The world was reconciled back to God and Jesus was thoroughly victorious. Everything else about the cross is kind of a theory. So when we go into theories of the atonement, what we're doing is we're guessing at what the Father was doing. What the Father was doing is really clearly written by Paul. He was reconciling the earth back to himself while Jesus was on the cross. And we elevate this theory of God turned away because he couldn't look at sin. I want to know where you get that. I want to know where you get that in Scripture. You can't find that in the gospel message Two.
Speaker 1:We take things that wouldn't have been the exception to the rule but are the rule for Jesus and we make them the exception of the rule. So we take things like Mary weeping outside the tomb and Jesus stopping and we twist that into her effort in tears and her desperation caused Jesus to stop and you've got to try hard enough and you've got to work yourself into enough desperation to cause Jesus to stop. And what that does is that creates an unhealthy gospel. And I hope I'm being precise enough with my language that it's understandable. What I'm saying is I don't believe that it was Mary's desperation that caused Jesus to stop. I'm saying he cared enough for that woman's heart to make the stop. I'm saying that it wasn't that she's worked herself into this absolute desperation. I've got to see my Lord and nothing else. That may have been true, but I don't believe that was required to make Jesus stop. And what we do with these kinds of stories and I've heard it taught this way she was desperate enough and if you're desperate enough you'll get God to stop. Okay, okay, that's sort of true. At least we're teaching that he's stopping for the woman sort of true. At least we're teaching that he's stopping for the woman.
Speaker 1:What actually took place is Jesus just really cared about her. Jesus just really cared about this woman who was heartbroken, and he had already accomplished the reconciliation of all things and it was not necessary for him to stop for Mary. He didn't have to do it. He didn't have to do it, and one of the beautiful things about Jesus is he did a lot of things that he didn't have to do it. He didn't have to do it. And the beauty, one of the beautiful things about Jesus is he did a lot of things that he didn't have to do. He didn't have to stop for the woman who had the issue of blood. He didn't have to stop for St Veronica. All he had to do was keep walking. She had already been healed. Why did he stop? Why did he stop? Because if she had been healed and left in the same state that she was in, she would have walked around with a worse disease than the one she was dealing with for the last 10 years. She would have walked around with this disease of delusion that would have caused her to believe that God still desired distance between herself and between him. She would have been left in a worse state and if Jesus had not stopped for Mary, he hadn't even ascended to the Father.
Speaker 1:Okay, what does that mean? There's a mercy seat in heaven. We're taught this through Hebrews. There's a mercy seat in heaven. The tabernacle in the wilderness is a pattern of the heavenly tabernacle. That's in the heavenly realm, and there's a mercy seat inside of the heavenly tabernacle. That's in the heavenly realm. And there's a mercy seat inside of the heavenly tabernacle where Jesus was going to apply his blood for the atonement of the earth. That's what he was going to. This is a very important thing that he was about to do.
Speaker 1:The seminal moment of human history was about to take place. There's the incarnation and then there's the applying of the blood to the mercy seat in heaven. This is the seminal moment in the history of mankind. We're being brought back into right relationship with almighty Yahweh and all the benefits that come along with that. And one sad woman caused him to stop, caused him to stop, that's all.
Speaker 1:When I'm preparing, I'm like all right, lord, what do you want me to say? It's Holy Saturday, it's Easter, we've got this meal planned and these folks are going to. What do you want me to say? And he just kept repeating to me I just really cared about that woman. I didn't stop because I had to. I was already reconciling all things. I was already bringing her back into right relationship with the father. I was already the gateway that she could pass through to enter into the perichoresis of the father and son and spirit. I'm already all of those things. I just wanted to reveal something aboutoresis of the Father and Son and Spirit. I'm already all of those things. I just wanted to reveal something about the heart of the Father.
Speaker 1:In that moment is there's nothing more important than me stopping, for you Apply and maybe this is only profound to me, but applying the blood of Jesus to the mercy seat in heaven is about as important as it gets, guys. It doesn't get more important than that. And he said there's a there's a woman who I walked with for a few years. I cast seven devils out of her. She walked with us for a little while and I think I'm going to go ahead and stop and tell her everything's going to be okay. She can't even touch it. She can't even touch him yet. And maybe this is only profound to me. If it's only profound to me, I'll get blessed. That's fine, mary, don't touch me. I still have to ascend to the father, to the Father. But I wanted you to know that everything I said was true and that I really would raise again on the third day. I wanted to comfort your heart on my way to making the final atonement on the mercy seat of heaven. Final atonement on the mercy seat of heaven.
Speaker 1:Why, when we teach the gospel, do we make moments like that the exception rather than the rule? We make these big moments and we take these stories. Blind Bartimaeus, that's the most idiotic name ever to leave him with. Blind Bartimaeus, that's the most idiotic name ever to leave him with Blind Bartimaeus. Homie was able to see a lot longer than he was blind.
Speaker 1:The demoniac of the Gadarenes. I'm convinced Jesus went there just for him. I'm convinced he went there just for him. He went out of his way, for the Syrophoenician woman whose daughter was demon-possessed, went out of his way. You can look at a map of the journeys of Jesus and he stays in kind of a loop and then all of a sudden there's a big kind of outlier where he goes over to this area, where this woman comes to him and says teacher, please help my daughter's grievously afflicted by a demon. He said it's not good to take the children's bread and give it to the little dogs. He said I can't do it, you're not a Jew, I have not come, but for the children of the house of Israel I will not help you. And she stays persistent and he heals her daughter and he can point. He can point really to all the miracles of the gospel. We made those the outlier. We made those the outlier. We made those the outlier.
Speaker 1:I don't know how we taught the gospel in such a way that we made those moments the outlier. We made Jesus stopping for Mary on his way to ascend to the Father. He stopped. Her grief caused him to stop on his way to make atonement. Her grief she was going to be really happy in just a moment when he walked through a wall and said hey to everybody, peace be unto you, but he cared enough to stop. But he cared enough to stop.
Speaker 1:And if he's the full explanation of who the father really is, I want to propose that we've taught the gospel completely incorrectly and that these moments that we treat as outliers because these people were special and they used their faith and caught Jesus' attention with their faith and we whip people into an emotional frenzy over you've got to have, right now, faith and you've got to do all these things I don't think that's true at all. I think he just wants a heart that's open to his moving. I think he just wants a heart that would open itself up and say okay, jesus, if that's really what you're like, why don't you come and touch me right now? I think that's all it requires, lou. I think that's all that it requires. But what that then does is gives us less of something to entertain people with, and we've made the gospel something that's sold by people who are good at communicating. That's what we've done with the gospel We've made it something you can merchandise, and you don't get to merchandise things like it's normal for him to stop, it's not out of the ordinary.
Speaker 1:This was the ordinary. This was the ordinary. This wasn't out of normal, this wasn't out of the scope of what he normally did. This was his whole life, constantly stopping, constantly healing, constantly bringing comfort, constantly doing things that were not necessary for him to do. We were teaching.
Speaker 1:I was teaching the kids about communion last night and they were. I was showing them pictures of the Passion of the Christ because they were like what did it look like, dad? And I was like, well, this is sort of what it might have looked like. And they were like whoa. And I said, and the thing is he didn't have to do that, he didn't have to be bound to a whipping post, Totally unnecessary for the atonement to be done. He did that specifically so our bodies would never be sick again. He did that specifically so our bodies would never be sick again. And we've made the working of miracles secondary to the gospel and I'm telling you they're our primary to the gospel.
Speaker 1:Part of the gospel narrative ought to be he did something excruciatingly painful, to the point that the scripture says that they beat him until he didn't look like a man Not necessary. He lived a life of doing what was unnecessary. You don't have to do that, jesus. Yeah, but I want to. Yeah, but I want to because what it's going to do is going to make it so they don't have to be afflicted by that disease. And what I really would like to do right now, instead of just getting the job done not going to just get the job done I'm going to stop for that little woman right there who is insignificant to what Jesus is about to do.
Speaker 1:She's not a significant part of what he's about to do, but she's significant in that they had relationship. One more thought then we'll take communion, we'll be done, we'll have some ham. He could have left us reconciled, but at a distance, but he chose to, at every stop, manifest the heart of God, desiring relationship with us, not just relationship in that we give him the worship that he's due because he's God and he's austere, and he's at a distance and we're bound to worship him because it's what we owe him. The kind of relationship where, the kind of relationship that gets down into our broken spaces and sits there with us in our broken spaces until we're comfortable enough with his presence to say, okay, you can have that too if you'd like it. This is the heart of God and it's not that gospel.
Speaker 1:Right, there is not a gospel that you can market. That gospel is not a gospel that you can merchandise. It's a gospel that. It's a gospel that requires manifestation, and her joy is just a manifestation right now. That's all that is, and she's telling me it's time to be quiet, so I'm going to be quiet. You'll never merchandise the gospel effectively, never merchandise it effectively enough to bring the desired transformation. It's going to have to be heart-level transfiguration I don't even want to say transformation, transfiguration Heart-level transfiguration inside the heart of the believer that causes the manifestation of Jesus to go with us everywhere we go, because our lives have been transfigured by the true gospel. You don't build mega churches doing that and you don't sell a lot of t-shirts or a lot of books doing that, but what you do is you bring the transformation that those things never could.