There are times in our lives where we become distraught and overcome. Situations will feel out of control and perhaps even hopeless. Let this expert remind you that in the midst of grief and tragedy Jesus still sees you. If you keep your ears attuned to His voice, He will speak through the confusion and loss and bring you back to a place of joy and hope and awe.
Read over these verses from John chapter 19 and 20. “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” John 19:25
“Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 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.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 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.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 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.’” 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.” John 20:11-18
While reading these chapters, verse 16 caught my heart. It reminds me of the Hagar moment in Genesis 16. Hagar, though she had made some choices to despise and annoy Sarai, she experienced loneliness, anxiety, and fear out by that desert spring. In her grief, God appeared and told her she need not fear or worry. He told her, I see you, trust in Me, and she did.
Mary Magdalene’s life was drastically transformed because of Jesus. She loved Jesus and followed Him. She served Him and with Him. She heard His messages and His promises. She watched Him die, and she saw Him raised to life again. But her life wasn’t easy. Her testimony is steeped in strong emotion. I would think the moment recorded in chapter 20 verse 16 was always fresh in her heart.
Mary walked closely with Jesus during His ministry which meant she saw His love, purity, mercy, grace, peace, authority of scripture, and submission to the Father with perfect clarity. She herself was delivered from seven demons which meant she saw personal horrors and felt the pain and bondage of living without a savior. It’s only because she tasted such darkness that she knew without contestation that Jesus was the light of the world, the freedom from sin and shame.
Mary watched her beloved Savior die an agonizing death. The One she knew to be perfect and pure and love-embodied. She saw His skin torn and bleeding. She saw spikes driven through His muscles and bones. She saw Him pierced by spear. This man, who gave her so much, who she devoted her life, testimony, and all her resources to, shamed, tortured, and murdered in front of
a crowd divided between mockers and mourners. And painfully, she had to wait days to properly prepare His body for burial.
I doubt Mary slept during those first days of grief. I’m sure she did all she must to honor Christ on the Sabbath, but the moment she was able to attend to His broken body in the tomb, she went even alone, in the darkness of night, in a strange city. It was probably a bit dicey and bold to take that trip, but it was also pure devotion.
In the midst of Mary’s grief and tragedy, she craved Jesus. She wanted proximity with Jesus. She wanted to honor Jesus. She wanted to be with Jesus. And true to His promise to never leave us or forsake us, He speaks her name. Isn’t that what we all crave? Jesus speaking our name through the pain and confusion and loss and reminding us that He never left us. He is still doing the work of His father and our Father.
I love that Jesus didn’t have to give a complicated speech or do a miraculous sign to reveal His presence; He simply said, “Mary”-the one word that would speak most directly and tenderly to her. Hearing her name on her beloved Savior’s lips brought her back. Jesus spoke through the confusion and loss and brought her back to a place of joy and hope and awe. And because her ears were attuned to His voice, this moment became a powerful testimony for His resurrection. Because the proper amount of time elapsed, and He finished His earthly work, scripture would come alive in a whole new aspect. Mary and the other disciples would now understand Jesus’ authority of Scripture because He told them what would happen. Her Savior really was like no other and worthy to be praised. She realized once again that Jesus was supernatural, but He was also personal.
How has Jesus whispered your name through the mess and brought you to a new understanding of who He is? Or do you need that hope today? He can and will bring back your joy and hope and awe, but you have to be listening. His timing is perfect.