THE APPEARANCES (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen Him, they did not believe it.

Mark 16:9-11

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and 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 realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, 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.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending 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 20:11-18

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Mary Magdalene owed Jesus a great debt of gratitude for He had literally brought her out of the bondage of the devil himself and brought her new life, a life that allowed her to be free from possession and able to serve and worship Him fully. And so she did.

Mary Magdalene traveled with Jesus from Galilee with the other women who attended to Jesus’ needs. She didn’t run away from Jesus when He faced His own encounter with evil but stood by Him at the cross, present as He suffered and died. And on the first day of the week after His crucifixion, she traveled to the tomb with other women to anoint Jesus body with spices and perfumes, such was her love and respect for the man who exorcised the seven demons that once tormented her.

As we see in the two passages which serve as the framework for this second of six messages on appearances Jesus made after His resurrection, Mark and John placed particular emphasis on Mary Magdalene with Mark’s Gospel telling us that she was the first person that Jesus appeared to.

It happened right after Mary Magdalene had discovered the tomb empty. John’s Gospel tells us that as she stood outside the tomb weeping, she looked up and saw two angels dressed in white sitting where Jesus’ body had once been. They asked Mary why she was crying and she explained that someone had taken her Lord away and she didn’t know where.

Mary’s emotional state here shows us just how devoted she was to Jesus. Her heart was fully invested in tending to His body, so much so that she was left in deep despair over it being gone. She was in need of consolation and comfort but we see that this wasn’t provided by the angels. Rather, Mary has an encounter with Jesus Himself and learns why He was absent from the tomb for He was very much alive.

Of interest here, Mary Magdalene didn’t recognize Jesus at first. In fact, she thought He was just the gardener who took care of the grounds where Jesus’ tomb was. And thinking that maybe the gardener could have moved the body from the tomb, she pleaded with the man in front of her to tell her where the body was so she could go to it. She desperately wanted to find her Savior and Lord Jesus and so she did with just one simple word.

For John’s account tells us that Jesus simply spoke Mary’s name and her eyes were opened to who He was. This was no gardener talking with her but the Christ, her Teacher and Lord who she acknowledged by crying out, “Rabboni!” in Aramaic.

Jesus was alive and I’m sure Mary Magdalene never wanted to leave His side. She must have been clinging to Him, never wanting to lose Him again but we read where Jesus lets her know He had things for her to do. She couldn’t hold onto Him because He was soon to ascend and return to God so He sent her on a mission to go and tell His disciples, those He refers to here as His brother, that He was alive and that she had seen Him with her own two eyes. She was also to tell the Eleven about the coming ascension and as we study the other Gospel accounts, we know Jesus commanded His followers to meet Him on the mountain in Galilee where He would return to the heavens.

And so Mary Magdalene did just as Jesus asked. She went to the disciples and reported on everything she had seen and heard. Unfortunately, as we read in Matthew (and also in Luke’s Gospel), the disciples refused to believe her. Such was the way that a woman’s testimony was received in those days. It was seen as lacking credibility.

Nonetheless, no rejecting attitude of the Eleven could take away from what had really happened. Mary Magdalene was the first person to have a personal encounter with the risen Jesus who personalized the experience by calling Mary by name.

Since that day in the garden outside of the empty tomb, Jesus has continued to appear to those who need salvation and freedom from the bondage of sin, every encounter being highly individualized. Jesus knows all of us by name and wants to be our personal Savior with the emphasis on personal. He longs to be in a special relationship with us now and carry on that relationship for all eternity.

My prayer today is that you have heard Him calling your name and have accepted His invitation to call you His own.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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