John 20:16

Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).  

It’s unfortunate and, in fact, nearly tragic, that Christians are often known for their spiritual pride rather than effusive joy and wonderful humility.  To ask non-Christians one of the chief complaints they have against the church is to hear a round up of the usual suspects.  The university has its professors that rail on about the supposed contradictions of the faith but the so-called man on the street generally takes issue with the “hypocrites” and “holier than thou” types he says proliferate in the church.  Let’s look at both of these for a moment.

The professor, of course, tries to use the great hammer of logic even though he can’t account for it outside of Scripture.  Why should one believe in logic if all is chance?  Logic is like Thor’s hammer, we should know.  The professor can’t wield it, though he tries, not because he’s unworthy but because he insists on starting from a flawed premise.  Only the existence of God makes sense of why there are laws of logic in the first place.  The hammer of logic, therefore, can only be used (with intellectual consistency) by the person who starts from the proper foundation.  It’s a monumental madness, a veritable philosophic delusion and rejection of intellectual sanity to hold to the position that something – anything at all – came from nothing.  After all, if there was ever nothing, there’d always be nothing.  To believe this and then claim to be a man/woman of logic is the grandest joke of the cosmos. The atheist who uses logic is like a madman who insists the world will end tonight but then goes and deposits money in the bank.  Which is it?  Is the universe completely illogical, coming from nothing, or isn’t it?  

In other words, make the professor and the atheist stand upon their own philosophical premises.  Demand it.  Make them account for why there are such things as uniformity in nature, truth, and laws of logic in the first place and don’t grant them the “grand exemption” from which they all argue.  Forced to establish their own intellectual fortress, they can only retreat further into absurdity.  They pretend they have a strong castle, unassailable and potent when, in fact, they have a pyramid of kindling sticks and you have a match.  Always remember the first rule of tearing down the strongholds of man: atheists have to use Christian premises in order to argue against Christ.  So, the first tactic of the Christian who follows the commandment of 2 Corinthians 10:5 is to deny unbelievers the ground they can’t account for and force them upon their own principles.  

Ah, but what of the man on the street and his contention that the church is full of spiritual pride, rank hypocrisy, and sanctimonious bullies?  This is, regrettably, often true and it forms the finishing touch of the atheist one-two, their brutal jab-cross, right to the chin of the church.  The professors say that the Bible is superstitious nonsense and the church-man or woman are arrogant, unloving imposters.  This combination must be countered but it isn’t.  Today’s church has withdrawn from its responsibility; it has abandoned the Great Commission.  It has turned out missionaries for foreign lands but lost its home. It has supported the evangelism overseas while letting its homeland turn into a temple of demons.  It has retreated to rank emotionalism in its worship and abandoned the word of God.  It cares more for its worship band than its doctrine.  It has churned out so-called church leaders that know virtually nothing about the system of principles the Bible teaches, replacing truth with feeling.  But all passages of Scripture, every single one, rest upon the rest of Scripture and the great doctrines of truth therein.  In fact, here is that first principle that will thwart and counter that heavy cross to the chin that so often knocks the Christian message out.  

Jesus says her name and then she sees Him.  

You see, the charge of self-righteousness often sticks against the church because Christians have bought into this nonsensical hokum that Christianity is some kind of morally therapeutic, self-help deistic religion.  No!  A thousand times, no!  Christianity is the truth that God is righteous and that man is such a fallen sinner that only God can save him.  Christianity is the religion of Jesus Christ, not any man.  Our works and church rest upon Him and His word or upon nothing at all.  He calls us and we respond.  It’s not that we work our way to Him and then He responds.  That’s the religion of legalism and legalism downplays both our sin and His grace; it elevates our feeble morality and pulls down His righteousness.  Real Christianity is about God’s holiness and, wonderfully, His mercy.  Mary, like you and I, was powerless to be righteous, and as incapable of true holiness as it is for a fish to build a skyscraper.  Unless Christ calls us, unless He breaks through our sin and self-reliance, we are lost.  That is the message of Scripture, on every page and every book.  God saves sinners.  And there’s no other name under heaven upon which we can build a bridge to heaven, though we try in so many rotten and vain ways.  

This is the antidote against self-righteousness and, we should know, that there can be no such Christian.  A person isn’t a Christian because they have passed a morality test that others failed.  Has this thought crept in on you unawares?  Do you think that you are saved because on that critical test you passed, even if you only squeaked by…getting a 70 whereas your morally wanting neighbors earned scores below that?  Do you think that you are in any way ethically superior to your fellow man and that’s why Christ has called you?  Well, it’s an understandable position to hold but its absolutely unbiblical because all have fallen short.  When Paul says in Romans 3 that “all have turned aside ; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one…” (3:12) he’s including you and me.  How does a person, saved by faith alone, who is redeemed from such a condition, carry on as though they have some natural spiritual advantage over any neighbor?  Could you imagine how it would go if Christ treated you the way you treat others?  Can you imagine what would have become of you if Christ looked for your every deficit the way you look for blemishes to disqualify others?  Indeed, the remedy for legalism is the recognition of our profound spiritual poverty.  The man or woman who struggles with the doctrine of election struggles, in point of fact, with the extreme and incalculable righteousness of God.  

Even though Mary knew Jesus and heard Him teach – even about the subject now at hand – she was incapable of understanding what it all meant.  She comes seeking Him and is slow to comprehend what’s happening.  Have you some thing in your past that vexed you greatly and which caused you to go to God in great tears of mourning, full of fright for your future days and now you look back and see how He was solid all along?  Do you see how gentle He is with Mary though she’s a pitiful wretch, not thinking straight, unable to recognize the Jesus she followed for years?  Isn’t this the experience of every Christian?  Isn’t it a sweet and sublime thing when He comes and speaks (in Scripture now for us), quieting and comforting us?  You were frenzied, all was a daze, the trauma of sin sped everything up, the walls came down so frightfully fast and you panicked.  You cried out, turning this way and that, trying to set your feet on shifting ground.  This is what’s happening to poor Mary.  Her world is ablaze.  Jesus, she thinks, is gone!  All appears lost.  The events have overtaken her and she’s looking for Him and yet would never have found Him because all was turmoil and chaos to her.  

Thanks be to God that Jesus speaks our name.  Thanks be to God that in a day of alarm and tumult that He is unmoved and, not only that, but that He comes for us in love.  It’s unfathomable how the holy God comes so meekly, full of love rather than reproach to His children.  He comes to restore His weak ones who are groping in the dark, lost except for faith in Him.  How then, we wonder, can a man or woman be unloving toward others when they’ve personally experienced Jesus Christ coming to them like this? A Christian knows grace – personally and deeply – or else he/she is no Christian at all and it’s this grace that changes all.

So, if you aren’t in that day now, you will be.  This is a fallen world but we don’t live in it as stoics.  We don’t say, “it is what it is.”  Instead, we say, “It is my Father’s will…and His will is always love towards me, never wrath…and it’s wrath that I deserve…oh, how blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin!”  Thus, let not your heart be troubled or afraid and be of good cheer.  You will have troubles in this world but, in Christ, they will only serve to bring you closer to Him so that you’re protected from the crazed evil of trying to rely on yourself.  In this way, you’ll be set free from both legalism and the rot that is stoicism and your heart will burst forth with joy as you look to see Him in every circumstance and every trial.