10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 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.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it 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.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to 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.’”
18 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.
Today's passage is a beautiful one that shows Jesus' love for the ordinary person at their time of deepest need. Mary was weeping tears she didn't even need to weep because Jesus was alive, but her faith wasn't strong enough to believe that yet and she thought His body had been stolen and she was completely distraught. Jesus has rescued her from demon possession and she was likely one of the people who loved Jesus the most. And Jesus chooses her to be the first person to see Him alive. Isn't that beautiful? He didn't have to appear to her. He could've appeared immediately to the disciples - the big three even! But He didn't. He appeared to Mary Magdalene.
She loved Jesus so much. She had been weeping because she was mourning the loss of His presence, even the loss of His physical body when she thought it had been stolen. Do we love Jesus like that? Where we weep at the loss of intimate relationship with Him?
It's so easy for us to get so cold and so indifferent and to stray away from the warmth of a personal experience vital with Jesus Christ and not even care. Some of you people haven't talked to Jesus Christ in a personal intimate way maybe in a long time. Some of you really don't know what it is to experience the fullness of His presence and you don't even seem to mind, that's the sad part. You're not like Mary, you're not sobbing and weeping because He's removed His presence. When you've removed your presence from Him and it doesn't seem to bother you, tragedy. And I'm sure that this kind of affection can set an example for us to be with Him and to desire to be with Him so that if ever we are separated by sin, our hearts are grieved to tears.
She had a lack of faith, but she had no lack of love. May we love Jesus like Mary did!
John MacArthur points out an amazing thing about the angels and where they were sitting.
Exodus 25:17-22 17 “Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. 18 And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. 19 Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. 20 The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. 21 Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you. 22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.
That was called the Mercy Seat.
Where did God meet man throughout the Old Testament? He met man between two angels on the Mercy Seat where the blood was sprinkled. My friends, since Jesus Christ left the tomb, where does God meet men? He meets them between two angels but the Mercy Seat is no longer the Ark of the Covenant, it's the resurrected Christ's tomb. God meets men on the basis of a resurrected living Christ, does He not? There's a new Mercy Seat and nobody needs to go in there and sprinkle any blood anymore because He has once for all accomplished the sacrifice that took care of sin. And she looked in there and she saw a new Mercy Seat.
Isn't that cool? I've never noticed that before.
Notice what it takes for Mary to recognize Jesus in His resurrection body. Mary (in the Greek, Miriam in Aramaic) doesn't recognize Him until she hears Him call her by name. When the voice of the one you love speaks your name, you know them. And she knew Him then. Isn't that beautiful?
And she clings to Him, not willing to separate herself from His physical presence again. But He tells her that she must. Things would be different now. Soon they would no longer have Him physically present because He had to go back to the Father, but He would send His Spirit and they would have a new kind of fellowship, a new kind of communion because He would live within them.
Another thing that's beautiful is that Jesus now refers to His disciples as His brothers.
John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
In John 15 they moved from servants to friends. And now they move from friends to brothers.
In Hebrews 2 it says 10 In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
When we receive Christ we are united with Him in everything - our righteousness is Christ's, our holiness is Christ's, our security is Christ's, positionally before God we are as good as Christ. That is simply a staggering thought.
Do you know that you're as secure, you are as secure as Christ is, you have as much chance of losing your salvation as Christ does of getting expelled from the Trinity. Did you get that? Because to begin with you're there in Christ, the only way you could ever go is if He goes. And Christians worry about losing their salvation. Don't worry about losing your salvation, worry about honoring the God who gave you such a secure salvation. Live your life out of gratitude, not fear.
When God looks at us, He sees Christ, not in the sense that we become God, but in the sense that we are now His own dear children.
So He tells her to go and tell His brothers.
And what is Mary's testimony? I have seen the Lord!
That should be our testimony as well. I've seen the Lord in my life and I want to share Him with you.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 20:19-31
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Psalm 131, 138-139, 143-145
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