Life Source - Week 11 - Day 2 ** John 20: 11 - 18

We are in John 20.  Today focus on verses 11 - 18.

This is one of my favorite scenes in all of scripture.  I love the tenderness of it ... the incredulity of it ... the overwhelming love that is portrayed.  Rather than share any of my own limited observations ... I want to share a reading with you today.  In 1986 Mary Lou Carney wrote a little book titled: "Heart Cries - Prayers of Biblical Women".  In that book, Ms. Carney takes a few verses that set up a scene involving one of the women of the Bible ... and then creatively imagines a prayer that woman could possibly have prayed to God in the midst of the circumstance or crisis.  My favorite is the prayer she created for Mary Magdalene in this very scene.  May it speak to your heart today ...

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary of Magdala went to the tomb and saw that the tone had been removed from the entrance.  So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tome, and we don't know where they have put him!" (John 20: 1 - 2)

O God -----
          when will this nightmare end!
          Is there no limit to the cruelty of the Romans ... the treachery of the Sanhedrin?
          Now they have taken his body!

The spices I have brought to anoint him lie at my feet in mocking silence.
          Isn't it enough they scourged him ... humiliated him ... crucified him?
          Did they then have to steal his mangled body from Joseph's tomb, denying him even the rites of burial?
          But what do they hope to gain?
                    This makes not sense ... no sense at all ...
          But then nothing in Jerusalem has made sense these last few days.

Only a week ago Jesus rode into the city while the people waved palm branches and pledged
          their allegiance, shouting
                    'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!'

Such allegiance!

Those are the same people who only a few days later clamored for the release of that scum Barabbas -
          and demanded that Jesus be crucified.

I cannot bear to think my Master will not have the simple rituals of death!

God ... I HATE THEM ALL --
          those pious, scheming priests ... that self-centered Sanhedrin.
          They are all hypocrites ... whose mouths mumbled scripture while their hearts planned murder!

O, to be a man ... a man with the courage and strength of Samson!
          Then I would rip out the hearts of those cowardly dogs who cluster in the Temple
                    licking their chops ... savoring their victory.
          And my laughter would drown the sounds of their death groans.
          How my mouth waters for the taste of vengeance!

But even as my anger burns, O God,
          I hear the voice of my gentle Jesus saying, 'Love your enemies,'

Love?!  How is that possible?

Standing here in the garden, I feel the flush of rage on my face ...
          the rush of blood that leaves my hands tingling for revenge.

I can't do it.

I can't love those enemies ... the very ones who nailed my Rabboni to the cross!

O God, you whom Jesus called Father, free me from this consuming hatred
          as once your son freed me from Satan's evil spirits.
God of all power, allow me -- somehow -- to complete this last act of devotion.
Teach me anew to trust you ...
          or my hopes and dreams will remain as dead as the crucified Christ.

Mary stood outside the tomb crying.  As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.  They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"  "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."  At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.  "Woman," he said, "Why are you crying?  Who is it you are looking for?"  Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."  Jesus said to her, "Mary."  She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!"  Mary of Magdala went to the disciples with the news:  "I have seen the Lord!"  (John 20: 11 - 16, 18a)

Jesus' first post-resurrection appearance was to a woman ... a woman with a past.  May you see the Lord today ... in a person or an event or the world around you ... He is there, the risen Lord is there ... waiting for us to see Him, to acknowledge His presence.  And He calls you by name ...