John 20:9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Christians get it. More accurately they are given this great and glorious truth. They know that Jesus has redeemed them at the cost of His own life. There is in the state of Georgia, a white man who is buried in a cemetery which has traditionally been reserved for black people. The mother of this distinguished man died when he was a small child. The boy's father who never remarried, and according to custom at that time, employed Mandy, a black woman, a Christian woman, to help with the raising of his son. Without being his mother, Mandy gave the boy a mother's love. Among his earliest and warmest recollections was Mandy's tradition of coming up to his room, leaning over and waking him with a gentle: "Wake up, God's mornin' is come." The boy grew, and as some grown boys do, he went off to college. When he came home for holidays and summers, Mandy still began the day with, "Wake up, God's mornin' is come." He never outgrew hearing those words; she never outgrew saying them.

It was later in life after he had achieved some success, the man got the message, "Mandy has died. Can you come to her funeral?" Of course he would come. Standing at Mandy's open grave, he turned to his companions and commented, "If I die before Jesus returns, I want to be buried here beside Mandy. I like to think that on Resurrection Day she'll say, ‘Wake up, my boy, God's mornin' is come!'" The boy had gotten it. Mandy had gotten it. They knew Christ has risen. They knew death could no longer destroy them. They got it.

Sadly, this Resurrection dawn greets a world that is filled with hundreds of millions of people who just don't get it. Some have never heard of Jesus. They can't get it. Some know the name of Jesus, but only when it's used as a curse word. They won't get it. Some don't get it because they refuse to believe that a man who lived and died 2,000 years ago can have any impact or influence upon them. Many refuse to get it. Whatever the reason, millions don't get it. Our world is filled with souls who remain lost, retain their sins, reject salvation and refuse the Redeemer's rescue which has broken the shackles of sin and Satan, death and damnation. Because they don't get it, this Resurrection Day remains dark and drear, depressing, downcast, despondent and devoid of all delight.

Mary Magdelene, a lady who didn’t get it, had been to Jesus’ tomb, saw it open and empty and ran to tell two of Jesus’ closest friends, Peter and John, what she hadn’t seen. John tells us in his words what happened: "So Peter and the other disciple [that’s John] started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed."

But John adds this parenthetical statement: "(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)" Realistically, you can hardly blame them. We’ve all attended countless funerals, and not a single one of them has risen yet. We all know that death is final. At least it’s supposed to be.

John saw those empty, bloody burial cloths and he got it. John got it, because he did some detective work with that linen. That first Resurrection Sunday when he entered that tomb, he might have been thinking, as so many others have thought, "Jesus' Body has been stolen." But when John saw the linen he quickly rejected that idea. Think about it. The thief had to get past the guard, move the very large stone, take time to unwrap Jesus' Body, put the linen back in exactly the same place, in the same shape, in the same manner in which it had been found, and then carry out the naked corpse. John concluded, "Couldn't happen." When John saw that linen, he got it, as you should get it; he knew Jesus' body hadn't been stolen.

But there's more. John, the detective, also knew for the same reasons, that Jesus' body hadn't been moved to another tomb. That linen was obvious, undeniable proof that Jesus had been in this spot, only a short time before. That linen was proof that John hadn't, in his rush, gone to the wrong grave. John got it. Jesus' Body hadn't been stolen; it hadn't been moved; and he hadn't gone to the wrong place. "Wait," I can almost hear you who are playing detectives say, "but isn't it possible that Jesus had only fainted, or gone into a coma when He hung on His cross? Isn't it possible that when Jesus was placed in the cool, damp tomb, He revived, got out of the grave, ran away with Mary Magdalene and lived happily ever after, raising a family in France?"

There was no doubt in John’s mind that Jesus had died. He had been whipped with a weapon that ripped His back to ribbons. He had been beaten, struck and nailed to a cross. He was stabbed through the side by men whose business it was to kill; whose own lives were forfeit if they let the condemned escape from his cross. Yes, Jesus had died.

John got it. No, that's wrong. Since no one can come to faith on their own, but are saved only by the Holy Spirit's calling, I should more accurately say, "John was given it." The text says, "He saw and believed." He believed that Jesus had risen, and because Jesus had risen, just as He said He would, you can know…. (I pick that word carefully), you can know that the heavenly Father has accepted Jesus' sacrifice to save us from our sins. Jesus paid the price for humanity’s sins with his death. His resurrection was God’s receipt that he had accepted his Son’s payment price. And now you can know, (there's that word again), you can know with absolute confidence that everything else the Lord Jesus has said can be trusted. If Jesus said He is with us, believe it. If Jesus said we can cast our cares on Him, He is correct. If Jesus said, I will give you rest, it cannot be questioned.

As John looked at the Savior's burial linen, he didn't understand all of Scripture. Not yet. But John got it. John's getting it would become more complete when a living, breathing, eating, talking, touchable Jesus appeared to him and the other disciples. More would come later, but that Resurrection Day, standing in the empty tomb looking at the collapsed linen, John knew for certain that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was alive. Christ has risen.

We have not seen Christ with our own eyes (at least not yet), but with the eyes of faith we have seen him. We have peered into the empty tomb, seen the burial cloths and believed. James Cameron and the Discovery Channel may believe that he has found the family tomb of Jesus with bones inside, but we know the truth. The real grave is empty. Jesus is alive. By God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s calling, we get it.

The linen is only one, very small bit of evidence to the greatness of God's grace which is ours in a living Christ. There are many more things I could share which prove the reality of the Resurrection. Look, do you think these disciples would have been martyred, holding fast to the preaching of a prank? Do you think these cowering, cringing cowards could be turned into lions for the Lord if they had not believed in a risen Christ? They knew, and armed with the knowledge of a living Lord Jesus, they went into all the world and proclaimed, "Christ is risen."

Under the city of Rome there are over 600 miles of catacombs. Six hundred miles of graves cut into the rock. In these alcoves the dead have been laid to rest. Believer lies next to unbeliever. Look into the Christian graves. Their skeletons tell terrible tales. Heads severed from bodies, ribs and shoulder blades broken, bones calcified from fire. Despite the awful sufferings they endured, the inscriptions on those Christian tombs shout of victory and triumph. One says, "Here lies Marcia, put to rest in peace." Another says, "Lawrence, borne away by angels." Yet another reads, "Being called away, he went in peace." Contrast those graves with the tombs of unbelievers. Without the risen Lord, they warn: "Live for the present hour, since you can be sure of nothing else." Another reads, "I lift my hands against the gods who killed me at the age of twenty." Another says, "Traveler, do not curse me as you pass. I am in darkness and cannot answer."

That's a dramatic difference! What can give hope where once there had been horror, joy where once there had been judgment, peace where once there had been poison? Simply this: Christ is risen. That is the message which is shared today. Christ is risen! That is the truth the Spirit uses to bring you from darkness into light, from horror to hope, from hell to heaven. Christ is risen in this world, and now He wants to rise in your heart.

We get it. That’s why we can sing "I know that my Redeemer Lives" not only on an Easter Sunday, but also at your Christian funeral. That’s why we are not afraid of death, for death is but a sleep from which we will awaken in heaven. Though are sins are terrible and haunting and damning, they are also gone forever – nailed to the tree and buried in the empty tomb. Empty linens prove Jesus is alive. They also prove that because he lives, we will live too.

Philip was born with Down's Syndrome. As a result, he never was part of the group. He was pleasant enough but he looked different and sometimes acted differently than his eight-year-old classmates. Easter Sunday that year, Philip's Sunday School teacher gave each of her students a plastic egg, the kind pantyhose used to come in, and instructed them to bring them back with a symbol of the Resurrection. The following week the eggs were opened and each child explained the meaning of the symbol they had brought. One egg held a pretty flower; another held a butterfly. The children squirmed to see that one. In another, there was a rock. The last egg was empty. Nothing. If you had listened carefully, you would have heard things like, "That's stupid" or "He didn't do his homework." Philip confessed, "That egg belongs to me. It's empty, because Jesus' grave was empty." Philip got it.

That summer Philip got something else – an infection. Most children would have shaken off such a little thing. Philip's body couldn't. At his funeral, nine eight-year-old children, accompanied by their teacher, brought a gift and placed it in his casket. You know what it was? Elementary, isn't it? They brought an empty egg.

We get it. The tomb is empty. We get it. Jesus is alive. We get it. We will live, too. We get it. Though we will all, one day, pass through the dark valley of the shadow of death and be placed in a grave, our graves will on the Last Day be made empty and we will then dwell in the house of the Lord forever. By God’s grace, by Christ’s resurrection, and by the Holy Spirit’s calling, we get it. Amen.