Easter: When Jesus Whispers Your Name

 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.  John 20:1 (ESV)

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, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”  Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.  

Jesus said to her, “Woman, 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 said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).   John 20:11-16 (ESV)

The walk to the tomb on that first Easter morning was certainly a painful one for Mary Magdalene.  The trauma of watching her teacher, her confidant, and her friend brutally beaten and nailed to a cross must have been continually running through her mind.  She had believed him to be the Messiah, the redeemer of Israel, and now his battered body lay rotting in the tomb she slowly walked toward. Her teacher was gone, the future she had envisioned lay in ruins, and she moved with a hopelessness that enveloped her entire being.

She had helped prepare his body as they hastily placed it in the borrowed burial chamber as the sun was setting on that terrible Friday.  The memory of making her way back into Jerusalem as that day ended was nonexistent, but the thought of washing her friend’s blood from her body and clothes was vivid.  Blood that had dropped on her as she stood beneath the cross.  Blood from caring for the body.  

Sleep did not come that night as she heard, again, the spikes being driven into his hands and feet.  Over and over, her thoughts went to the few words he spoke as he suffered at the hands of those brutal men.  She could picture the absolute agony as he would push himself up to grasp the air he needed to speak those words.  She remembered the cold darkness that covered the land for the last hours of Jesus’ life, as well as the terror they all felt when the earth shook.

  

As she walked, in the distance she could see Golgotha, the hill on which Jesus had breathed his last.  Her mind went to the awe she felt as Jesus had pushed himself up on the cross one last time, gasped for air, and looking toward heaven spoke the words, “It is finished,” as he exhaled his final breath.  She was still amazed at the power and sense of victory that were expressed in those three words from the last breath of a dying man.

Even as she was some distance from the tomb, she could see that something was wrong.  The stone that had been pushed over the opening was moved to the side.  She walked faster, then began to run until she stood outside of the place where they had laid him. With a quick glance she could see that Jesus was no longer there.

In grief, thinking that the body had been stolen, she hurried to tell Peter and the other disciples.  She followed Peter and John as they ran to the tomb, saw that it truly was empty, and turned around to go home.  

Mary could not make herself leave.  Her grief poured over as she stood outside of the empty tomb, weeping with a sorrow greater than any she had ever felt.

What follows is beautiful.  

In the midst of this tremendous heartache and sorrow, Mary turned and saw Jesus.  And it is this part of the resurrection story that has been on my heart this Easter.  Mary turned and saw Jesus, but she didn’t realize that it is Jesus.  She thought that he was the gardener. 

This woman, who had followed Jesus for three years, did not recognize him.  Perhaps Jesus looked different in his resurrected body.  Maybe, since she had seen him die such a horrific death, and had helped place his lifeless body into the tomb, her mind could not reconcile itself to Jesus being alive.  Or, it may have been that in the depth of the agony and the misery of the despair she was feeling, she was not able to recognize him.

I don’t know.  But I do know, that she recognized Jesus when he spoke her name.  Let me emphasize that, Mary recognized Jesus when he spoke her name.  Jesus said, “Mary, it’s me.”  And, with those words, she knew it was her Messiah.  In that instant, her grief lifted, despair fled, sorrow turned to joy, and her life had meaning again.

When Jesus whispered her name, hopelessness was gone, the tears were wiped away, and the darkest of nights gave way to a glorious new day.

In considering Mary Magdalene’s Easter encounter with Jesus I am reminded of the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.   John 10:27-29 (ESV)

“My sheep hear my voice and I know them.”  In her despair, Mary did not recognize Jesus.  But Jesus recognized her.  Jesus knew her.  And when he whispered her name, she heard it, and she recognized that it was Jesus.  When he whispered her name, anguished desperation bowed the knee to the resurrected Savior.  When he whispered her name the darkness, gloom and misery turned to exceedingly overflowing joy.

Friend, I don’t know what you are facing this morning.  Anxiety about the whole COVID-19 pandemic.  Maybe you are without a job, and are concerned about your finances.  Perhaps it is fear for your health or your family’s health.  It could be that despair has blinded you, that misery is your constant companion, or that dread has darkened your soul.  Like Mary, maybe you feel confused and isolated and alone.  It could be because of the coronavirus, or it could just be because life is confusing and hard at times.   

Maybe everything you are feeling, and everything you are walking through has, for the moment, eclipsed the face of Jesus.  It could be that nothing makes sense, and you just cannot see him or recognize him moving in your life right now.

But let me give you a truth as you consider the joy of Easter, and remember the resurrection of Jesus from the grave.

Even when times are dark, and Jesus seems distant.  Those times when the nights seem so very long, and dawn seems so far away.  Even in the seasons when you cannot feel his hand or recognize the grace he has poured out on your life.

Even in those times….Jesus still knows your name….and Jesus is whispering your name.  Quiet your racing thoughts.  Slow down your rushing mind.  Find the place where, in the solitude, you can hear him whisper your name.  And allow him to turn the darkness, gloom and misery you may be walking through into exceedingly, overflowing joy. 

This Easter, allow him to force your anguished desperation to bow the knee to the resurrected Savior.  The Savior who knows you, and is whispering your name.

    

 

Shema Prayer and Good Friday

As I rode the bike trail with our dog this afternoon, I was thinking of the crucifixion of Jesus.  Kind of the proper thing to do on a Good Friday afternoon.  For some reason, my mind went to Judaism’s Shema Prayer.  As I rode my thoughts alternated between the Shema Prayer and the crucifixion of my Savior.

The Shema Prayer is, and always has been, the centerpiece of the morning and evening prayer services of the people of Israel.  It is considered by some to be the most essential prayer of Judaism.

The prayer begins with these words: 

“Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.  Blessed is His name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

As I rode today, I could see people throughout Jerusalem, from the temple to the homes surrounding it, beginning the day with this prayer.  Beginning the day with these words.  And, at the same time, I saw Christ being judged before Pilate, and led to Golgotha.

Here’s a little of what I pictured.

“Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One”

The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.”  Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!”   And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”  Matthew 27:21-23 (ESV)

“Blessed is His name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever.”

And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.   Luke 23:33 (ESV)

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…”

And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”  Luke 23:35 (ESV)

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul…”

 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  Matthew 27:39-40 (ESV)

You shall love the Lord your God with all your might…”

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”  And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.  But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.   Matthew 27:45-50 (ESV)

Then I pictured the body of our Lord, taken from the cross, wrapped in linen, and laid in a borrowed tomb.  And, as the stone was rolled over the opening....from the temple to the surrounding homes….the prayer went up…

.

“Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.  Blessed is His name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

Palm Sunday Amid the Coronavirus

A virus is a tiny thing.  Miniscule, in fact.  While they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, the one thing that they all have in common is that they are small.  Most viruses are too miniscule to be seen by an optical microscope, and would be about one hundredth the size of most bacteria.  For a little more perspective, the polio virus is about 10,000 times smaller than a grain of salt.  So, a virus is a tiny thing.

For people who are into viruses, there is even a healthy debate about whether or not a virus is a living thing.  It would not be an interesting debate for most of us, and I would doubt that the debaters resort to fisticuffs and name calling, but it is a question some people like to discuss. 

One of the arguments against viruses being alive is the fact that rather than being a cell, they are nothing more than particles containing strands of genetic material.  Because of this, they do not have the material that drives the processes which allow for reproduction.  This inability to reproduce is another argument against them truly being living organisms.  You can see how this would turn into a pretty lively debate. 

In order to replicate itself, a virus attaches itself to a plant or animal cell, and inserts it’s genetic material into the host cell.  This material then hijacks the reproductive processes of the host cell and redirects it to ‘photocopy’ the genetic material of the virus.  This material is then sealed inside a new container and a new virus is formed. 

   

As you can tell by my simplistic, inadequate explanation of the life of a virus, I am not a virologist and this will never be the go-to explanation on the life-cycle of a virus.  The point is, in the eyes of many experts, a virus is not a living thing.

And this particle, that is not even alive, that is not a living object, has brought the world to a stand-still.  The majority of the inhabitants of the planet are isolated in their homes, world leaders are stymied, medical systems are overwhelmed, grocery stores are struggling to keep shelves full, and economies are brought to their knees as this tiny, little, lifeless particle moves uninhibited throughout the earth, commandeering one cell after another. 

In much the same way that I am not a virologist, I am also not a theologian.  But as I peruse the news headlines every morning, I am struck by the number of articles, in both secular and Christian publications, that discuss the possibility that the apocalypse spoken of in the bible is upon us.  I don’t pretend to be an expert on the end times, but I do like what Dr. David Jeremiah said concerning the coronavirus:

“Is this a sign of the Second Coming of Christ?  I cannot say with any sense of certainty that it is. But neither can I say with any certainty that it is not.  It could be the early evidence of number three on Jesus' sign list, the coming of pestilence”  

I like that.  Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t.  Kind of the camp I was falling into even before I saw the quote from this end times scholar.

I also liked what N.T. Wright wrote in his article for Time Magazine:

“No doubt the usual silly suspects will tell us why God is doing this to us. A punishment? A warning? A sign? These are knee-jerk would-be Christian reactions in a culture which, generations back, embraced rationalism: everything must have an explanation. But supposing it doesn’t? Supposing real human wisdom doesn’t mean being able to string together some dodgy speculations and say, ‘So that’s all right then?’ What if, after all, there are moments such as T. S. Eliot recognized in the early 1940s, when the only advice is to wait without hope, because we’d be hoping for the wrong thing?”  (https://time.com/5808495/coronavirus-christianity/)

So, I will leave the talk of end times and the return of Christ to the experts, but a couple of thoughts have gone through my mind as I have walked through this season.

First, with Holy Week before us, Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter, my mind goes to our resurrected Savior.  He was crucified, raised from the dead, spent forty days appearing to his followers, and ascended into heaven.  According to the gospel of Matthew, Jesus leaves his disciples with a wonderful truth.  A truth that we, as believers, can cling to even through the most difficult of times.  He gathered them together and left them with these words:

“And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  Matthew 28:18 (ESV)

And then Matthew ends his gospel with this wonderful promise from Jesus:

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”   Matthew 28:20 (ESV)

Friend, if you are a follower of Jesus, that promise is for you.  He is with you every moment of every day.  Wherever you are, he is with you.  Whatever you are facing, he is with you.  In the middle of the most fiery ordeal, he is with you.  Even when you feel alone, isolated, and maybe even abandoned, the absolute truth is that Jesus is with you.  The author of Hebrews reminds us of this truth when he writes, “There is absolutely no way whatsoever that Jesus will ever, ever leave you or forsake you”  That’s a paraphrase of Hebrews 13:5.  But that promise makes the following verse even more true for the believer:

So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6 (ESV)

And, it is a comfort to know that someone is walking with us through the fire.  Someone who will never leave us or forsake us.  Someone who will always be with us.  But what makes it even more comforting is the truth Jesus speaks just before that promise to always be with us.  Jesus says, “ All authority in heaven has been given to me.  All authority on earth has been given to me."  He says, “I have authority over everything.”  Jesus does not say, “I have authority over almost everything,” or, “I have authority over everything, except this little thing over here.”  He doesn’t say, “I have authority over everything except the things Satan has authority over.”  Not at all.  Jesus says, “I have absolute sovereign authority, complete lordship over everything in heaven and on earth.”  So, the one walking next to me, the one who loves me and  who promises never to leave me, has absolute sovereign jurisdiction over all things.  As R.C. Sproul said, “There is not one stray atom in the universe.”  That truth should bring us peace….and security…and rest.

While, for the believer, there is this place of peaceful trust in the authority of this Savior who will never leave us or forsake us, there are also questions.  Why does a loving God, allow this virus to run rampant through the population of the world?  Why do negative things happen in my life?  Why are loved ones taken away?  If he has, “All authority in heaven, and all authority on earth,” why did he allow this to happen…whatever it is?  Some will say that he is giving us a wake-up call.  Others will say that he is judging a world that has, to a large degree, rejected the one who created all things.  Still others would say that it is God preparing the stage for the return of his Son or that bad things happen because we live in a fallen world.

 

In my younger years, I most certainly would have been tossing in my opinion, trying to answer all of the “why” questions.  As I have grown older, I am content to realize that many of our “why” questions will only have answers that make sense in eternity.  The purposes behind the most fiery of trials will only come into focus and been seen with clarity when we begin to walk in God’s dimension.  It is then that we will see that this Jesus, having authority over all things, has truly never left us or forsaken us, and that he has worked all things to the Father’s glory, and to our good.  My hope is in that truth, and my contentment flows from knowing that, for now, I only see in a mirror dimly, but the day is coming when I will see him face to face.  That, in this moment, I only know in part, but the day is coming when I will fully know all things….and that promise is more than enough for me.  (1 Corinthians 13:12)  

I have always been a fan of God’s grace and mercy.  Over the years, as I have preached and taught and written, I have heavily leaned toward grace.  I am fully aware, and often tell people, that if God’s grace and mercy are less than I think they are, I am in trouble.  If the grace and mercy that was poured out on Calvary is any less than I think the Word of God tells me they are, I will never see God.  I will be doomed to hell.  It is by God’s grace alone that I will ever stroll through heaven with him.  It is by his mercy alone, that I will escape the pit of hell.  So, I am a fan of the tremendous breadth of the grace and mercy of God.  I am a radical believer in radical grace.

Having said that, it needs to be pointed out that the preaching of the wrath of God has fallen on hard times.  It is much easier to stand in the pulpit and tell people of the love God has for us, to talk of grace to people who need grace, and mercy to hungry souls needing to hear some good news, than it is to talk about God pouring his wrath out on a world that rejects him.  But the wrath of God is as real as the love of God.  The wrath of God will be as real for those who reject him as the love of God is for those who receive him through Jesus Christ.

I only mention this because as people talk about this virus that has shut the world down, being a judgement from the Creator, or the beginning of the apocalypse, I am reminded of what scripture tells us about the wrath of God.

Without a doubt, this pandemic is taking the lives of people, it is hurting families financially, it is isolating communities, and nations are walking into an uncertain future.  All of this havoc because a miniscule lifeless particle has taken the world captive one cell at a time.
 

As serious and devastating as this disaster is, it cannot be compared to the time when the Creator will pour his wrath out on a sinful and rebellious creation.  When this very alive, all powerful God finally says, “Enough,” it will not compare to the damage done by this inert virus.  When God pours his righteous indignation out on a world that has rejected him, a world that has held the sacrifice of his son in contempt, nations will fall, rulers will hide their faces, and the earth itself will tremble.

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.  Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
Revelation 6:12-17 (ESV)

Maybe this pandemic will be a wake up call for many.  A poll commissioned by “The Joshua Fund," and conducted by McLaoughlin and Associates interviewed one thousand Americans, both Christian and non-Christian, to find out their spiritual reactions to the crisis.  The poll found that one in five non-Christians said that the crisis is causing them to, “Start reading the bible and to listen to bible teaching and Christian sermons on line even though they usually don’t.” 

It is my prayer that multitudes will have their spiritual eyes opened through what is happening and turn to the Father through Jesus Christ.  This lifeless virus slipped up on us and caught the world unaware.  The life-giving Creator has promised throughout his word, that he will pour his wrath out on this world that has rejected him, and we will not have the excuse that we were not aware of what was going to happen.  God has promised it. God has warned us of what is coming.  And God will bring it about.

But the Father has also provided a Savior to bear our sin, to make us right with the Creator and to rescue us from his wrath.  As we approach the remembrance of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on Good Friday, and the celebration of his resurrection on Sunday, it seems like a good time to reach out by faith and receive the grace and mercy poured out on that cross, and allow Jesus to clothe you with his righteousness.