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.