Do you ever find that in amongst the daily-ness of life, you lose Jesus? Somehow, I lose my Saviour and I wake up dry....Starved for love. Or maybe you feel like Jesus' presence has been taken away from your life? Snatched? And you don't know where He's gone.
Maybe I look for Him in the wrong places. In tombs. And that's why I feel empty.
Mary was the same....She went to the last place she saw Jesus. She was dwelling in the death of her Lord. Not realising that Sunday morning had already come and the Resurrection had happened.
'Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "And I don't know where they have put Him."
At this, she turned around and SAW Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus.
"Woman," He said, "Why are you crying? Who is it that you are looking for?"
Thinking He was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!"
Jesus said, "Do not hold onto me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that He had said these things to her.'
(John 20:12-18).
I love that all Jesus says to her is simply her name, and then her eyes are opened and she can see Him before her. I love that I can simply turn around, turn a corner, and You are there. You lift me up even when I have given up. Jesus you are FAITHFUL to us. You don't meet us in tombs, but You call us out of them into life.
He asks you, in the most gentle and humble way, 'Why are you crying?' For me, I was weeping because I had lost the only satisfying love I have ever found, and I was wasting away. It's so easy to do, whether it's on holiday or in the day to day sameness of routine. But the strength, enduring, and persistent love of Jesus overwhelms me. It will aways and forever astound me why He constantly and consistently seek me out. And what can I say in response?
A quiet 'Thank you.'
