“‘Mary!’ Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, ‘Rabboni!’
(Which is Hebrew for ‘Teacher’).”
[This] verse records a moment in history when one woman
heard her name. Oh, I’m sure she’d heard her name leave the lips of many people
in her lifetime. But in the darkness of this morning, many centuries ago, I
expect it sounded different than she’d ever heard it before.
This special morning, some women approached an empty tomb.
The rolled-back stone surprised them. They mourned, afraid someone had taken
their Lord to a place they didn’t know. “But Mary stood weeping outside
the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.”
As the story unfolds, the tomb Mary once thought empty
becomes suddenly consumed with the brilliance of two angels. She explained to
them her sorrow, then turned to meet Jesus face to face, yet she did not even
know it.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are
you seeking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you
have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him
away.’”
I imagine her hysterical. Shoulders sobbing. Eyes clouded
with sorrow. Words pouring from her broken heart. Pleading, begging, anything
to find her Lord.
In a moment so raw, Jesus could have done anything. He could
have opened up the heavens and called on a chorus of angels. He could have
announced His triumphant victory over death in a booming voice. He could have
made the earth beneath her feet shake.
But in the very first revelation of Himself—following the
greatest victory in the history of the world—Jesus chose to speak to one woman,
personally: “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to him in
Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’”
Sometimes, it’s easy to wonder what Easter has to do with
our everyday reality. It can feel so big. Like God so loved the whole
world kind of big. And God does love the whole world! So much that He
sent Jesus to be our salvation.
But today I pray you hear Jesus calling your name.
I pray you see Jesus looking into your eyes. And that you can
recognize His voice, in the midst of a noisy world, just like this personal,
intimate moment shared between the God of the Universe and His daughter.
Sometimes, God loves the whole world by loving one life at a time.—Katy
McCown
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