John Ch 20 v11: But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.
And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
They said to her, “Women, why are you weeping?” She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him’.
Mary had not entered the tomb, at first she had run to those disciples who had been closest unto him. Mary was a women who was not seeking to lead, she had spontaneously gone to the men.
But after the men have gone home, one believing that Jesus had rose from that tomb, she then stooped to look into the tomb.
This motion of movement, to see, to understand, to interpret the events that had happened.
This motion of movement for the light of revelation.
She was looking into that empty tomb to see, had she not learned many things from him. Had she not witnessed many events such as Lazarus being raised from the dead and the meticulous manner Jesus presided over the event. And had she not pondered upon the colt being tied up just as he had said, foreknowing events and the means of fulfilling scripture.
This motion of movement already has a life source that springs from the well of eternal life.
Yes, its pre pentecost, but I tell you this motion of movement has a spring of life that the cynic and the atheist secretly dream about.
This motion of movement is love, and love is not inert it had rolled the stone away.
O thank God that Mary responded to see into the tomb, it breathes liberty into the classroom, it speaks freely without fear. This motion of movement by Mary, is a clear sign that the love by which she had been loved with was not in vain, it carried the seed of life and liberty.
The empty tomb was her next lesson to learn, and had not her first encounter with him been while he was interrupted while teaching in the temple. And as he was the teacher, and as he had been asked a question that day to expose him as a liberal, had they not all learned a lesson concerning true theology and the fall and entry of sin into the hearts of men: young and old. And had not the light of life carried her outside that stone temple and had she not started to understand the organic growth that comes from receiving love.
Her weeping had motion as her weeping came from a heart that loved.
Simon and John had not seen the angels, as John later attests it would have distracted his attention from the worship of God, and the true testimony. But Mary, was not distracted by the angels, as her quest was her Lord, she having encountered him in the reality of life’s motions had one goal, to continue in all he had begun to teach and do: her Lord, despite not knowing he had been resurrected.
She answers the angels questions giving her response to why she was weeping. They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.
‘I do not know where they have laid him’. Without the resurrection the grave holds the legacy.
Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Mary didn’t know two things in as many verses, as these two things are part of the same lesson. And the repetition ordained that love might be the roots within the hearts of men again – Ephesians Ch 3 v17.
Twice Jesus had bent down to write and continue to write when he had been asked a question concerning whether her life would be ended there and then due to sin, that her tomb would be a stone tomb.
And twice Jesus had stood in that temple. Both times breaking the chains of accusation and condemnation , so that organic life might be love received.
He had been laid in that stone tomb & he had gone there for her liberty.
But now again, unchanging, he is standing before her, not to condemn but to teach her the certainty that the light that sustains all life is a love that is steadfast and certain and gone through the curtain touching the throne – Jesus is King and I will extol Him, hymn.
An empty tomb with the stone rolled away, and turning around Jesus standing there before her.
Was it not always thus, had not Rahab been saved from the stones that crushed through faith in the testimony of love that had parted the sea of redemption.
The resurrection is the ultimate love story as its the victory over the spirit of death. The resurrection contains the original truth from the foundations of this world, loved with everlasting love.
Jesus said to her, ‘Women, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away’.
Jesus repeats the question the angels asked knowing that she was looking for him?
Whom are you seeking?
Gen Ch 3 v9: But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you’?
Adam had answered this question with a lot of knowledge. But the women here seeking her Lord had no knowledge where he had been taken nor that it was him that she was speaking too.
Glory to God. Sin & death are not the bookends of are life. We do not have a full knowledge of all the things that God has prepared for those who love him.
There is more IN him to know and discover and it always leads to a spring of life & joy.
A ministry of no condemnation is from a life that knows a constant source of love and liberty.
Mary was seeking her Lord, the man who had stood up for her on her behalf in her moment of crisis. Mary was seeking the man who had spoken words of life unto her, covering words that saved her from deception and from the horrors of darkness.
Mary was seeking the Word become flesh, she was seeking the Word from the beginning that had made a garden within which she was designed to be fruitful like the organic life that surrounded every motion of movement.
Mary was seeking the symmetry of harmony.
Face to face with her beloved and no shame or fear between.
Jesus said to her, ‘Mary’. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni’ (which means Teacher).
Teacher, he had shared with her the truth concealed since before the foundation of the world, mysteries that birth the hope of glory within.
She had known that her love for him was not the end of the story, she knew this when she had stooped to look into the tomb, seeking to see the light that shone into her darkness. The rays of the light could not be denied nor extinguished, that had transformed her life.
Evidently, her motion of movement had gone to cling to him. AMEN.
This whole scene breathes spontaneity and liberty, it has an absence of sterile religious rigidity.
Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.
Jesus gives her a commission, and a further lesson concerning his Father and the work on earth the bride (Church) still had to do.
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’ and that he had said these things to her’.
I have seen the Lord – stooping to look into the tomb.
I have seen the Lord – THE LORD – LORD over sin & death and the stones that don’t respond to the Sun rays.
And she obeyed the injunction to ‘speak’, to communicate to all the men that ‘neither do I condemn you’ for failing to protect and cover from deception and the evil one, for blaming me when your own guilt was thicker than treacle – blaming me in the midst of the presence of the Lord who had come into the temple that morning, with the breeze, to teach.
True theology all have sinned and come short of the glory of God – from the oldest unto the youngest.
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’.
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you’.
Notice how Jesus did not come and frighten them all out of their skins. No he allowed the news to spread to those gathered and then appeared – revelation brings insight into the nature of God. The resurrected Lord was compassionate and considerate in manifesting himself unto them.
They were safe inside a locked room, and many in that room would face prison and perhaps he was establishing a principle that as he is the door of eternity it matters not where ever they may find themselves imprisoned in the future.
Twice he speaks peace unto them. This is a peace into the fear and the locked room, a peace that has overcome the world. No need for a religious uprising of brute force, no he showed them his scars, again setting a precedent that his peace has overcome, wars and rumors of wars.
The disciples are glad when they saw the Lord, knowing that he had not been defeated, knowing that what he had taught and done was never going to end. Words of eternal life. This is the bedrock of the Christian faith, the victorious lamb of God who is with us in this present age & who’s Word concerning all things shall be fulfilled.
But knowing that HE, that he HIMSELF would be a present help in the times of their need.
They were glad, just as Mary had looked to learn despite her heartbreak & how she had run to cling to him. They were glad as Jesus didn’t come with religious bondage, he was gladness, and they where glad to be with him again.
Jesus repeats it again ‘Peace be with you’. Followed by ‘As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you’.
The life that overcame the deception and the lie – the cynical and the atheist.
Jesus has commissioned every believer to be ordained with his peace and to be an ambassador for him as a light in a dark world.
Every believer has been sent, it may vary according to task and place. But every child of God is a integral part of the sending.
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.
The symmetry of harmony, living in this world free from the power of sin and death knowing that are saviour is with us, in us, unto the end of the age.
Isaiah Ch 45 v17
eternalrays 