RESURRECTION WEEK DEVOTION: 7 DAYS. 7 REFLECTIONS. 1 ETERNITY-SHAKING RESURRECTION!

‘Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.’

Mark 16:9 ESV

’But Mary [who had returned] was standing outside the tomb sobbing; and so, as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb;’

John 20:7 Amplified

Mary was a mess. And who could blame her.

Jesus was a rabbi to some, but a literal lifesaver to her. Beset by unimaginable pain and spiritual oppression, Mary had been unshackled from internal torment by this Jesus from her home region of Galilee (see Luke 8:1-3 for the Magdala woman’s origin story).

On this day, tortured with grief and sadness, the sight of a tomb possibly broken into had the effect of breaking her.

The Amplified version of the Bible has a fitting translation when it describes her reaction as ‘sobbing’.

The white figures inside the tomb are comforting, kind in their question:

‘Woman, why are you weeping?

She replies (John 20:13) — no doubt struggling to form the words between the heaving of overwhelming tears — that she fears the body has been stolen. The source of her renewed life is now missing, and maybe her hope, too, against a retreat into darkness.

… “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”…

John 20:13b ESV

Turning from the pair inside the tomb, Mary encounters a man. We know Him as Jesus, but for Mary, the raw grief is blinding.

Jesus Himself asks the same question. He uses literally the identical words His angels have employed: ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’

Twice now, Mary has been asked for the cause of her sorrow. Twice, she has gone to the worst possible thought – He is missing…

… ““Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him”…

John 20:15 ESV

Then, Jesus goes to the very core of her soul when He asks one more probing question:

‘Whom are you seeking?’

Our Lord has a habit of asking questions in moments of pain, sorrow, grief. He did it with Mary outside the empty tomb. He will do it with Peter after sharing breakfast (John 21:15 — ‘Simon… Do you love me more than these?’). He did it with Adam and Eve when they hid in nakedness (Genesis 3:9 — Adam, ‘Where are you?’).

In that moment, struggling for an answer, contorted with pain, probably wanting the ground to open up and suck her down, this grieving woman hears Jesus utter one single word that changes everything…

‘Mary’

That single act of spiritual, personal intimacy with her Lord transformed Mary’s life. This was more than an act of healing and deliverance. This was an encounter with ‘Saviour’, triumphant over death.

In that moment, the tears turned from sorrow to joy, mourning to dancing, fear to hope, doubt to faith, death to life.

On this Resurrection Sunday, avoid the temptation to glimpse merely the big picture icons of a momentous religious occasion.

See Jesus.

Of all the words to say, our Lord chooses personal reconnection and restoration as His first conversation. His sacrifice was about us, by name, each known and seen by our Saviour.

And in total surrender, renewal and a little bit of breaking if needed, let’s call Him again, the risen Lord, by Name: Jesus!

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For a full breakdown of the week leading to the Resurrection of Jesus, see this table provided by the team who brought us the English Standard Version of the Bible: https://is.gd/olgMH0

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