Scripture: John 20:11-18, John 4:4-10
Today, we begin a post Easter series regarding the
people who had firsthand experiences in meeting the Risen Christ. Of course, 1 Corinthians 15:6 tells us
that Jesus appeared to over 500 of the faithful in those days leading up to His
ascension, but we only have a record of 4 – Mary Magdalene, Cleopas, The
disciples in the Upper Room and later with Thomas, and finally the fishermen.
In our examination of the encounter, and the reactions
that each of these had, we will also see how they set the stage for our
meeting and discovery that Jesus is alive and living for, and in, all of us –
and each and every one occurs right where they, and we, are at the moment when the
new life of Jesus touched us.
Our first encounter will be that of Mary’s, who
discovered that Jesus was living for her right there in the garden of the tomb,
a place that had always been seen as a place of death.
Read John 20:11-15a
First,
a look at what each of the other gospels reported regarding this discovery
In
Matthew 28:1-15, there were two Mary’s – Mary Magdalene and “the other
Mary”. An angel tells them of Jesus’
resurrection, and then instructs them to tell the disciples, but on the way,
they actually meet Jesus, recognize Him, and stop to worship Him.
In
Mark 16:1-8, there were three
women who discovered that the stone had been moved, but the rest of this
passage is similar to Matthew’s.
In
Luke 24:1-12, there were an undisclosed number of women who discovered
the empty tomb, where 2 angels were waiting for them with a similar message and
instruction that we read of in Mark’s account, and they did exactly what they
were told to do.
In
John’s gospel, John 20:1-10, it is only Mary who finds the tomb empty, but the primary
discussion would be focused on Peter and John’s discovery at the tomb. Mary’s meeting with Jesus wasn’t mentioned
until the later verses that we read today.
The
interesting point that each account emphasizes is that it is the women who
discover the empty tomb, not the men, and that in two of the gospels, Jesus met
either one, or all, of them. Women in
the gospels received Jesus’ presence,
blessings, and His healing, while culturally, they were generally considered
to be a second class person, having little standing in the context of
faith. Jesus was changing all of that – but
we don’t see the evidence in the text until in Galatians 3:28, where we
read “There is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you
are all one in Christ Jesus.”
It
is Mary who is the first to begin spreading the news that Jesus has cheated
death, and has risen from the grave! She
would be seen as the first evangelist to proclaim that Jesus Lives, but the
sorrow at her initial discovery (John 20:11) wouldn’t be relieved until
she heard Jesus speak her name.
Read
John 20:15b-18
Without
knowing it, she had been acting within the will of God, even as her heart was
breaking, but Jesus wasn’t about to let grief continue to rule her life – He speaks
her name, and she knew immediately who this was. His physical appearance had changed, the
situation was unlike anything she had ever known before, but apparently, the
voice and the inflection was perfectly familiar to her.
In
John 10:1-21, Jesus describes Himself as “the Good Shepherd”, and in
verse 3 of that passage, He says “ 3 …
the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads
them out.” The Good Shepherd calls
His own sheep by name (!), and in this instance, the name He calls is
Mary. “The sheep listen to His voice”,
and this time, it is the voice of her Good Shepherd that she responds to!
Has
your Shepherd been calling your name. and what did you do about it? Did you recognize the voice? Did you follow in the way that He leads? And just as Mary did, did you find
overwhelming joy in hearing your “Rabboni” (a personal and affectionate form of
the word for “teacher”) calling you to discover a new experience by following
His lead? And just as important, have you
been sharing the good news that He has given with others who also need to know?
Read
John 4:4-10
This is a portion of Jesus’ encounter with the
unnamed Samaritan women at Jacob’s well.
She had become an outcast of sorts in her own community – she was
shunned and spurned because of her personal lifestyle, and she had no friends
to speak of - until Jesus came into her life, that is! This would be, quite literally, one of those
“sheep” moments the LORD mentions in John 10:16 – “16 I have other
sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too
will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
Not only was she rejected by those living in her own
community, but she had been rejected by every Jew she had ever encountered, until
she met this most unusual Jewish Man.
And what does Jesus ask of the woman?
That she give Him a drink of cool water in the heat of that day, and that
she come to know Him and His voice, just as Mary would one day very soon.
If Jesus had followed the norm for that day, He
would have taken a detour through Gentile territory, to avoid walking
through Samaria altogether. If Jesus had
conformed to cultural normality, He would never have talked to the woman, or
even asked her for a drink of water. And
if He had never struck up a conversation and relationship with her, neither she
nor any of the people in her town would ever have received that new relationship
with God through His Son Jesus.
There isn’t any name on the face of the earth that
Jesus isn’t prepared to call, but He can never call our name, nor can we ever hear Him, if we don’t know and love Him. The Samaritan woman came to know Him when He
gave her a drink of His “Living Water”. Mary,
at first, thought that she had met the gardener who was responsible for the
tombs in the garden. She didn’t know his
name, she didn’t have a relationship with him, and in speaking to him, there
was no relief or reason for her LORD’s disappearance.
But when she heard her name being called, she knew immediately whose
presence was surrounding her.
I want to ask all of you to remember that moment
when you gave your life to Jesus, and what He has given to you in return. And if you have never taken the time to have
that conversation with the LORD, this is the time to have it! Personally,
on the night when I confessed that I could no longer go on without Jesus
guiding me, and that I needed to hear Him telling me what to do, the only thing
I heard was “Trust Me.” – twice. And in
those words, and in that moment, I knew, without a doubt, that the LORD was speaking directly and
personally to me. Have I always been
perfect in my trust of Him during the nearly 30 years since then? No, but I believe that my faith in Him has,
and He has always been perfectly present for me during that time.
In your moment when you truly and fully met the
Risen Christ, what did He call you to do, and how has that been working out for
the two of you? For the Samaritan woman,
she began sharing the truth of Jesus with the very neighbors who would never
give her the time of day, let alone a word of support and encouragement. For Mary, she began telling others that Jesus
was alive almost immediately, and as far as we know, she never stopped. I’ll admit that when He called me into ministries
in nursing homes, and later in prisons, I wasn’t actually overjoyed at the
prospect of going into those places, but each of them, in retrospect, brought
me exceptional joy, and prepared me for pastoral ministry, which, when He
confirmed this next step for me, it seemed strangely and perfectly reasonable.
Where is Jesus calling you to go, and what is He
asking you to do in His name? Trust me,
whatever it is, it will bring blessings and joy beyond anything you could ever
imagine, and I strongly doubt that it will have anything to do with any of your
own desires and plans.
Won’t you give Jesus a chance to richly bless you
today?
