Have you read the classic children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit? It is a love story intermingled with grief. A boy gets a stuffed rabbit for Christmas. At first, he snubs the velveteen rabbit in favor of more modern, mechanical toys. One night when his favorite toy is missing, the nanny gives him the velveteen rabbit to sleep with, and little by little the boy and the rabbit fall in love with each other. When the boy contracts scarlet fever, while in bed he clings to his rabbit as a companion. Afterwards the room is disinfected, and the rabbit and other toys are destroyed. Then deep grief sets in when the boy finds out his “friend” has been taken away. Meanwhile the “dead” velveteen rabbit is magically brought to life and becomes a real rabbit playing in the woods. When the boy walks into the woods, he notices that there is something familiar about one of the rabbits there. His rabbit changed but was still with him.
Isn’t this the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus? There is deep love as well as deep grief. We see this in the grieving Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18).
“Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.”
Jesus was everything to Mary Magdalene. He had set her free from seven demons and called her to follow him. Not only did he deliver her from the grip of evil spirits, he delivered into a whole new world of divine love. She became a devoted disciple who was madly in love with Jesus. Mary Magdalene was one of the few who stayed with Jesus to the end and suffered with him as he hung on the cross. Attempting to deal with her grief, she visited his tomb, to honor his body. She was startled to find that the tomb was empty, and became upset that someone had stolen the body.
When she peered into the empty tomb, two angels said to her,
“Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.”
Then she turned around and saw the gardener standing behind her—he was Jesus in disguise.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?’ She thought it was the gardener and said to him, ‘Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’”
Still driven by grief, Mary was determined to locate the dead body of Jesus. Though she was talking with the gardener, she had no idea he was Jesus, until his voice tone changed, and he called out her name. Grief suddenly gave way to joy. Though her eyes and ears did not recognize Jesus, her heart did— as the voice of love spoke in the way he had done in the past. There was something that filled her heart when he spoke her name. Her beloved had returned though in a different form.
Jesus, whom she snubbed earlier in life and later loved beyond measure, had been destroyed and now was with her in a new way.
How attached are we to Jesus Christ? When he seems to be taken away are we nearly as devastated as was Mary Magdalene? If he seems to go away, he will always return, though we may not easily recognize him. Let us pray that the eyes of our hearts be opened to recognize him when he gently and lovingly calls out our name.
“This is the day the Lord has made” (Ps 118:24).
