Several years ago, there was a popular book about a little girl who had a “near death” experience. During the time when she was thought to be dead, she was taken for a moment into heaven. When she described her experience later, she told her parents that she had seen her grandpa there. She described him as a young man with certain characteristics, none of which fit the memories of the grandpa that her parents had known. It so happened, however, that when the parents looked through an old photo album and found a picture of “grandpa” when he was a young man, the girl immediately recognized him as the one she saw in heaven.
We all have preconceived ideas of what people look like, maybe based on how we remember them from the past. If we, by chance, run into them years later, we do not always recognize them?
Today we continue to learn about the surprise visits Jesus made to his disciples after his resurrection (John 20:11-18).
“Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.”
When she looked into the empty tomb, Mary saw two angels there who asked her why she was weeping.
“They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.”
The last time Mary Magdalene saw Jesus, he was a bloodied body wrapped in burial cloths. It was this version of Jesus that she expected to see in the tomb. An empty tomb indicated that some people had stolen Jesus’ body, and for the second time in two days she was thrown into deep grief; not even his body remained for her to honor.
“When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?’ So, she thought it was the gardener…”
Mary was looking for the “old Jesus,” the one she had seen on the cross. She was unable to even imagine that he had risen from the dead. Did the “gardener” even resemble the Jesus she had known when he walked the earth? We wonder why she didn’t recognize him. Did he look too ordinary? Had his original features changed after he rose from the dead? Why didn’t Jesus look like himself so that she could immediately recognize him?
“Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni,’ which means Teacher.”
It was not until he mentioned her name that she knew who Jesus was. Though appearances had changed, the voice of Jesus had not. So many times in the past she had heard Jesus say to her “Mary,” and her heart immediately felt God’s love pouring into her heart. It was the voice of Jesus rather than his face that enabled Mary Magdalene to know that it was Jesus.
Now that Easter is over, do we forget about Jesus and go about our business-as-usual routines? Are we still looking for him as Mary did? Do we feel sad when we can’t find him? And if we are looking for him as she did, will we recognize him when he shows up? In a moment of quiet intimacy will he call us by name as he did in this story?
All that counts in life is to know Jesus. What matters above all is that we find him, or, rather, that he finds us. Will it be in our moments of deep grief and emptiness that we are able to hear his voice speak our name?
Like Lent, Easter season is a new time of waiting. Who are we looking for? When the risen Jesus appears to us as an ordinary person, will we recognize him and turn our lives over to him?
