John 20:1-18 – The Empty Tomb20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 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.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 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.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 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.’”
18 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.
Big View: Person of Peace
Small View: Perception – Presence – Proclamation
Gwen Adams
Priceless – Anchorage AK
Observation: I love that Jesus addresses her broken heart first. He could have said, “Mary, stop crying, I am Jesus and I have been raised from the dead!” But instead he comes alongside her in her pain and listens. When a Person of Peace may be standing in front of us, starting with proclamation before we acknowledge that we SEE them is often counterproductive. The beautiful example Jesus sets of first acknowledging that he sees her broken heart by asking her a question first. Then Jesus connects with her by calling out her name, another personal connection. The truth is revealed in a tender and personal way.
Action: The beautiful truth I carry about the gospel of Jesus Christ sometimes causes me to proclaim the truth first without acknowledging the brokenness or pain in the life of the person I am preaching to. I am going to start conversations with questions addressing the reality of a broken world first; then, and only then, can I proclaim the truth.