To Encourage You

John 20:1-2 “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’”

Imagine for a moment the perspective of Mary Magdalene on that first Easter morning.  Mary Magdalene, from whom Jesus had once cast seven demons, viewed Jesus as her Lord.  She loved Him.  He was everything to her, but He was dead.  Devastated, she still wished things were different, that He hadn’t been crucified, and that He would still be a part of her life – but He was not.  That was all in the past.  Jesus was now little more than a person relegated to the annals of history.  A great man, but one that no longer had much relevance to her, for he was gone – forever gone – or so she thought.  

Little did she know that the One she thought was dead was very much alive, and very much in control.  Little did she realize how wonderful all this was or what she was soon to experience.  In just a short time she saw an angel who spoke to her, and not only that, she saw Jesus, Who called her by name. Can you imagine the thrill of that moment?  How overwhelming that experience must have been!  

Interestingly, so many people today view Jesus as Mary Magdalene did the moment before she saw the stone rolled away from the tomb. To them Jesus was a good man, someone in the Bible, but little more than a person from history.  They see little relevance of that to their own lives in the here and now.  He’s as distant to them as George Washington, Napoleon, or someone else we can only read about in a book, but that’s all.  However, the reality is that Jesus is just as alive and in control and wonderful right now at this very moment as at the time of Mary Magdalene’s experience at the tomb, even though it took some time for her to realize it.  And like Mary Magdalene, for those who believe in Him, one day not too very far in the future we too will see angels and we will hear them speak to us.  But more than that we will see Jesus, and He will call us each by name.  At that time, we will fully realize that “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:3).  

Just think about that!  It’s such a wonderful thing!  But we don’t need to wait until sometime in the future to experience Him.  Although the things in our life may appear as hopeless and chaotic and “over” as they did to Mary Magdalene that moment when she thought someone had taken the Lord from the tomb and placed Him who knows where, Jesus sees it all, and is with us, and in control of it all at this very moment, no matter what.   Trust Him! He is wonderfully alive, now and forever, and He is intimately involved in your life and mine. We can say of Him these wonderful words, written so many years ago through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, our wonderful Lord: “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.  Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.  You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139:1-6). 

Let us rejoice in the risen Lord!