Day 37, On The Road To Pentecost: WHY ARE YOU WEEPING?

John 20:11-18

                 

A weeping Mary, standing outside the tomb where Jesus’ body had been placed, “stooped and looked into the tomb” (vs. 11).  To her surprise, she “saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying” (vs. 12).  They initiated a conversation with Mary by asking, “Woman, why are you weeping?” (vs. 13). Her response was very human, expressing that she was sad because somebody had stolen Jesus’ body, and taken it to a place she didn’t know about.  

What took place then surprised her. Luke say “she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus” (vs. 14).  He asked her why she was weeping, and thinking he was the gardener she asked him if he knew where they had taken the body.  Then Jesus said one word that changed her life.  He said to her, “Mary” (vs. 16). There was something in His voice that touched her heart, and she knew who it was.  Apparently, she began to hug Jesus out of pure joy of seeing Him alive.  Jesus said to her, though, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father and My God and your God” (vs. 17).

Here we are, two thousand years later, living in a world that has been impacted by Jesus.  Can we believe that, perhaps, He knows our name like He knew Mary’s name?  Can you believe that Jesus knows your name, that He has something eternally important to say to you?  Can you believe that His Father is your Father and that His God is your God?  

The resurrection is God’s proof that He knows our name and that He is inviting us into a relationship with God whereby we have not just an awareness of the reality of God but that we are called into such an intimate relationship with God that we can call Him “Father” (vs. 17).  Jesus brings God out of the heavenlies right down into the reality of life in our world.  In Jesus, God knows our name, loves us, calls us to life, and fills us with His Holy Spirit so that through it all, God takes up residence in us.  

At Pentecost the full reality of what God is doing in the world is released into His faithful people.  He filled them with His Holy Spirit, set their hearts on fire for God, and enabled them to be ambassadors of grace in the world.  Timothy Keller says, 

If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead. (From, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism)

The first Church believed in the resurrection.  It was the one defining reality for all the people.  It is the reason the message of Jesus lives today.