October 12, 2021
Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.
~John 20:13-14~
Mary Magdalene, a woman who carried deep love for her Teacher, stayed by His side truely to the end. Her grief struck her after the Lord's death. Grief does a lot to our minds, our souls and our bodies. We tend to act in ways we never imagined. We think on things that cause us to wander. We begin to rationalize our responses and push logic away. Mary watched Jesus die on the cross, she sat by His feet learning and she stood by His feet as He suffered. You can imagine that pain that overwhelmed her heart. All she wanted was one last "goodbye." At least she thought that in her own mind. She traveled back to the tomb to where He laid in hopes of anointing Jesus and saying one more goodbye. Little did she know, Jesus wouldn't be there. Just as He promised to them prior; "And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
(Mark 10:34)
It is so easy for us to look at this scripture and judge Mary for not realizing the truth immediately for why He was missing, but my question to you is this; if you were in her position of watching Your Lord suffer, bleed and die would you be quick to know He would come back? Put yourself in Mary's shoes for a moment. You are grieved, hurting and feeling lost. Would your confidence level be present at all? I believe that any one of us would of reacted similarly to hers. She came to the tomb to see Jesus and He was not there. As a grieving human, she thought the obvious, that someone had taken Him. After all, grave robbing was a large issue in those days. The suspense of seeing Jesus' dead body to pay her last respects so her grieving process would begin caused a blindness to her physical eyes. As Jesus Himself came to her, she did not recognize Him, for the confusion set in and she could only rationalize humanly why He was gone.
Has there ever been a moment in your life when God was doing something right in front of your eyes that You could not even see because some kind of internal pain blinded you from seeing it? I know I have.
"Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?"
(Mark 8:18)
Again, Mary was only human to forget what Jesus had said. She was hurting. It wasn't until she heard His voice again, this time speaking her name, that she recognized it was truely the Lord.
"Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher)." (John 20:16)
When the Lord spoke her name, suddenly the painful blinders came off. She knew it was Jesus! When we love Jesus with such a love that runs after Him, stays beside Him through such darkness and searches for Him even when we can't see Him, we will know His voice to us individually. For He calls us by name, He fashioned us in our mother's womb. Jesus uses Mary's name to get her attention. He did not judge her for not recognizing, rather He spoke in the way He knew would cause her to see again.
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27)
Perhaps the human in her could not recognize Him at first because the last encounter she had witnessed was that He was covered in blood and bruises.
How beautiful of an encounter this was for her now, to be the first one to witness His resurrection and to see His glorified Body standing before her. The suffering we endure with our own eyes, will truely be rewarding as we stick by His side. The pain we feel now that may be blinding us to the glory that is just in front of us is never too much for the Lord to remove. For Mary saw with the eyes of her heart and the Lord used this to opened her physical eyes to see again. What so ever way our eyes may deceive us, if we truely love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and strength then we shall witness all that He has for us as we press forward. Mary never gave up searching, even through her own sorrow, neither should we. For it is the Lord's will to cause us to smile yet again.
Prayer:
Father Almighty, thank you for the eyes of my heart to see what is important. For the ears to hear the voice of my Shepherd as He calls my name. There is truely nothing like it. Your Son means everything to me and I would be nothing without Him. Your plans are so divine and perfect. Where my human instincts kick in, help me to see things spiritually so i may look to the glory that is before me. Align me to His Image so I may eminate His beauty. Direct my steps so I have confidence to keep searching when there are moments I can't seem to feel You.
I love You Lord and I ask for a filling of my cup as I sit at Your feet and learn from You; my Rabboni, my dear Friend and my Comforter, Jesus Christ. Amen.