This week’s devotions are based on this week’s message: Shadows: A Glimpse of a Savior! (WATCH HERE)
John 20:16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
It’s personal.
Perhaps we have been encouraged in life at times, “Don’t take it so personally.” Usually this is after someone makes a negative comment about some aspect of your appearance or behavior. Their statement can be general, but has direct link to you…but you aren’t supposed to take it personally. Which is hard to do.
It can be hard to take Easter personally.
After all, maybe a few days past, the reality of Easter has faded and you may already be forgetting what you did or what you had for lunch or who was even at your house. Maybe you are back into the routine of a fairly normal week after a busy Holy Week and preparation leading up to Easter. And so the impact of Easter is waning…a bit.
Easter is easy to see as an “event” on the calendar, a day off of work, or opportunity to get together with family and friends. We enjoy the break, treasure the memories and yet are often “glad Easter is done.”
But like a comment that someone makes and you take it personally is hard to get out of your mind, in a positive and more impactful way, take Easter personally.
It’s not a corporate or church event, it is an even that Jesus meant precisely for you to take personally, very personally.
My daughter texted me yesterday morning and asked, “Have you ever heard the theory of how Mary at the tomb mentions Jesus as the gardener as he came back and is making peace with the world again like kind of referencing the garden of Eden?” To which I responded, “No” and she responded that someone at a bible study this week had brought it up and said, “I do think it is interesting what Jesus was doing while he was just meandering around his tomb…lol.”
I love that she asked and it made me think. Was Jesus just meandering around the garden restoring the creation of the garden to wholeness? I have never heard that nor have I seen biblical teaching for this. (Yes, when he returns a second time he speaks of a new heaven and new earth, but not at his resurrection.)
What I did respond was this, “I haven’t thought of Jesus meandering in the garden, but intentionally appearing there for Mary, just like he appeared to the disciples suddenly in the locked room that night.”
There was a time for a group appearance. The Apostle Paul mentions 500 at once, but in the garden of his grave he had one purpose, to make it personal for Mary. Jesus wanted MARY to know he was alive. He wanted his resurrection to impact HER.
The same is true for you. The events of Holy Week Jesus certainly did for the world, but most importantly he did for YOU. Jesus suffered and died for YOU. Jesus rose again for YOU!
The impact isn’t to be just one day out of the year, but every day of the year. Every day, Jesus wants you to know he loves you and lives for you!
Apply: How can you keep the impact and importance of Easter in front of you every day?
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for coming to live and die and rise again…for ME! AMEN.