Stop Clinging

Posted on by korgrocker

“Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Thinking that He was the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you put Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene came and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.”
John 20:15-18 NASB

What else could Mary Magdalene do? Here was the Man, Jesus Himself, who she had seen being crucified and dying on the cross. She knew that He had been buried in a sealed tomb. Yet here He was, standing before her. In spite of the misogynistic culture of those days, Mary was overcome with all sorts of emotions, and just couldn’t help herself. She gave Jesus a big hug. How long it went on for we don’t know, but Jesus had an important message for her to take to His  brothers, the disciples. Factually, and unemotionally, John wrote that Mary “came and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”. I suspect that, if I had been a fly on the wall, I would have found it was more than that. Mary would have burst into the room where the disciples were and exploded with shouts of joy as she delivered the message Jesus had given to her. But what would those disciples who were there have made of her display of emotion? We know that Peter and John had seen the empty tomb, so they must have been wondering. But, as cold logic goes, a corpse does not just climb out of a grave and start a conversation with a random woman who just happens to be there. The disciples must have had some thoughts about the reliability of the woman’s account. That something significant had happened would have been without doubt, but Jesus, risen, alive and well? Surely that can’t be true, must have been their thoughts. 

In a way, Mary was a very fortunate woman, who saw the fruit of her commitment to Jesus. Note that there were no disciples hanging around the tomb that Easter Sunday morning. The experience of being the first to see and hold the risen Jesus would never have left her, and I’m sure that there came a day when she was with Him again. Hearing His voice once again say, “Mary”, as she crossed the Great Divide. As we pilgrims take our final breaths, our spirits will also follow Mary into our new home. Will we too renew our friendship with Jesus as He calls our name? We won’t have had the opportunity to cling to Jesus but we can talk to Him in prayer. We can fellowship with Him, walking with Him through the Gospel pages. Constantly wondering about how He loved us so much that He did what He had to do, just for You and me.

Dear Lord Jesus. Will we really hear You call our name one day, as You welcome us into Your home? Thank You for all You did that weekend long ago. Amen.

Mary’s Tears

Posted on by korgrocker

“Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
John 20:11-13 NLT

Our first thoughts are probably about which Mary this was, but further down in John 20 we find that it was Mary Magdalene. Different people grieve in different ways and Mary was at the tomb, returning there after she had told Peter and John about the rolled-away stone. She was breaking her heart because of her loss, probably wondering how Jesus could have been taken from His friends so quickly and so barbarically. Trying to get her mind around a future without Jesus. Feeling pain inside her, but through all her tears she took a peep inside the tomb and found two angels there, sitting either side of where Jesus’ body had been placed. They asked her why she was crying and clearly and succinctly she said, “Because they have taken away my Lord, … and I don’t know where they have put him.” 

People often need a grave to visit after the death of a loved one. Walk around any graveyard and you will find bunches of flowers, freshly laid, or, occasionally, single people or families just standing there by the gravestone, silently reflecting or praying. There is something special with the thought of being near the remains of a loved one, ever though the life that was once enjoyed has gone. In my early years, there was a family tradition to go to my grandfather’s grave several times during the year to tend it, cut the grass and reflect. Today, more and more people are being cremated and the place of memories replaced by a favourite garden, somewhere at sea, where the ashes are scattered, and a gravestone replaced by a plaque on a park bench. 

But how did Mary, or John who wrote the account, know that the two figures in the tomb were angels? Many people today do not believe that angels exist, consigning them to the domain of fairies and the like. But there was something about the two men in the tomb that convinced Mary that they were indeed angels. It could have been their attire. Or the fact that they had never been seen in that area before. Perhaps their features and clothes were glowing. We don’t know, but Mary was convinced about what she saw, and John as well, because he wrote it down. 

We pilgrims will inevitably experience the death of a loved one. It may be expected, after or during an illness. It may be, as in the case of my father, due to old age, when he just slipped away in his sleep. A friend of mine has just lost his 103-year-old father-in-law after a chest infection. The saddest occasions are when a young person or baby dies, unexpectedly and tragically. Families are left in turmoil, whatever the cause of their loss, and the grieving process starts, the tears fall, an emptiness remains. But there is something about the death of a believer, because the believers left behind know where they have gone. Their bodies may end up in a tomb but their spirits live on in the presence of the Lord, and there is always the prospect of a reunion one day. Because of this, we pilgrims must make every attempt to evangelise our families. While the person is still alive they can make a choice of their ultimate destination, their new spiritual home. Those who fail to believe will still live on through their spirits, but in a place where they find they don’t want to be.

Mary was weeping because she didn’t have a tomb where she could grieve the loss of Jesus. But as a preacher once said, “It may be Friday, but Sunday’s a-coming”. Mary was about to find something better than an empty tomb – the risen Jesus Himself.

Dear God. Jesus could never stay in a grave and we thank You that He is alive today. We worship You. Amen.

The Stone

Posted on by korgrocker

“Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!””
John 20:1-2 NLT
“On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?””
Mark 16:3 NLT
“Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow.”
Matthew 28:2-3 NLT

The question, “Who rolled the stone away”, is answered in Matthew’s Gospel. As he wrote, “an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it”. There were a number of guards there, ensuring that no-one came to steal the body and Matthew records that “The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint” (Matthew 28:4). These were seasoned soldiers, battle hardened, and not easily scared. But they saw something early that morning that had a devastating effect on them. It was only Matthew who recorded in his Gospel that an angel rolled away the stone, accompanied by a “great earthquake”, and the amusing part of the story is that the angel then sat on the stone, almost as though he was saying that it would take more than a stone to hold Jesus in the tomb. The stone would have been very heavy, and it took at least two men to move it into place – Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus. So the women who came to the tomb that first Easter Sunday morning were of course concerned about how they would remove it. But they needn’t have worried – the task had already been done.

John records that it was only Mary Magdalene who came to visit the tomb and it was still dark. She must have had little sleep, and was probably feeling a bit frustrated that she couldn’t have been there before, prevented by the Sabbath and Passover events. Mary reached the tomb and immediately she must have assumed that the body of Jesus had been removed, so John records that she ran to find Peter and John, to let them know. In some ways this was a nightmare scenario for Jesus’ friends, because they were unable to complete the burial process. 

We read the account and immediately we are aware of the authenticity of what happened. Small details emerge in the different accounts and come together to set a backdrop for the events yet to come. The rolled away stone emerged as a symbol of the empty tomb, as though God was saying that there was nothing that could keep His Son in an earthly grave. If the story of Jesus had ended with a sealed up tomb then there would be no pilgrims like us, and I wouldn’t be writing these words down. But the stone signified the start of Christianity, and believers in Jesus have increased in every period of history ever since. Were Jesus’ friends and the first disciples starting to feel that something significant was about to happen, as reports of the empty tomb started to circulate? We’ll soon find out.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Jesus, the One who left the tomb, alive and well. Without the empty grave we would have had no faith or belief in Jesus for His forgiveness for our sins. We are so grateful and we worship You this morning. Amen.