by Stephen W. Smith
The fifty days following the first Easter offer us keen and vital insights into the implications of what happened on that first Easter. These fifty days combined invite us to see, experience and understand what Jesus’ own resurrection means for us today, in a pandemic world, and as we seek to lay a new foundation for our new normal which is ahead.
The Appearance to Mary Magdalene (John 20:10-18)
After the crucifixion of Jesus, we learn through John that the disciples huddled together in a locked home out of fear of what was going to happen to them. They had just witnessed the horrible death of Jesus. Forlorn and in deep grief, they sought the solace in each other’s company. It’s often what we tend to do when a crisis happens—we want the comfort and proximity of others. But, for Mary, we find a different way of finding solace.
Mary stayed and waited outside the tomb. Everyone reacts differently in a crisis and in trauma, don’t we? Mary chose to wait alone. There was no company she sought more than the intimacy of proximity to Jesus. We find Mary having an interesting conversation with someone she presumed to be the gardener—but later we find out it was actually Jesus. We read, “She did not realize that it was Jesus” that she was talking to. She was about to have her own revelation—a revelation that would transform her. What’s more, we learn here that we, too, can have our own revelation that will transform our own lives.
I know this experience that Mary had. Don’t you? Haven’t we all had experiences in a conversation that were so deep; so other worldly; so spiritual in nature that later on in that same conversation or later on that day, we recognize that something really BIG just happened? When I am talking with a close friend, somehow deep inside my gut, I am sensing something very deep is happening here. It is like a slow, gradual awakening.
Invitation to Awaken
Mary’s awakening to the risen Jesus is our invitation to meet the risen Jesus again today. We only have to awaken to it—just as Mary did. The spiritual journey post-Easter is an invitation to awakening. To awaken to who it is that is with us in life now—to awaken to the Presence of Jesus in our midst—to awaken to the fact that even in the pandemic, we are not alone after all. It may seem like we are alone but we may be mistaken, just like Mary was mistaken in thinking it was the gardener who was with her when it was actually Jesus, himself.
For many of us we have a slow, simmering, crock pot cooking way of understanding Easter. It takes time. It takes multiple insights to help soften our hearts to be able to really see with clarity what is happening.
Mary’s clarity grew more certain as we see Jesus calling her name. Jesus said, “Mary.” And with this one word, the cloud lifted; the sea parted and the revelation of the risen Lord came.
This story reminds me of how personal the love of Jesus is for us. Here, we see Jesus calling her name. When the love of God moves from the understanding that God loves the whole world to the realization that God loves me—everything in life changes.
I have been a witness to men and women when the love of God becomes individualized—becomes focused on the person, not just a country or not just a mass of people.
When Love Awakens the Individual
In this post-Easter event, we see that the mission of Jesus was not just to die for the sins of the world but to live for validation of one person named Mary—one person named Steve, and one person just like you!
When we see the numbers of people who have been diagnosed with Covoid-19 and the numbers of people who have died as a result of having the dreaded disease, it feels impersonal—it feels far away.
The pandemic for me has been made more personal because my pastor, his wife and now a good friend have all tested positive. That awful germ is living two miles from where I’m writing this to you. It gets more personal. It becomes more real.
When we see one woman named Mary invited into a highly personalized encounter with Jesus, the entire resurrection becomes more plausible: more believable and more personal. If he called Mary’s name—maybe he will call mine. That’s the longing we have that this story uncovers.
It’s significant to understand that none of the twelve disciples stayed at the tomb. But a woman did. In this episode, Jesus elevated the role, place and position of women by offering Mary this intimate experience—not a trained theologian; not the promising interns we have read so much about in the Gospels. But here we find a woman as the recipient of this amazing experience. She was no longer an invisible woman. She was no longer merely tolerated as a woman. She was no longer dismissed because she was a woman. Mary was loved, valued, given dignity and honored.
If Jesus did this for her, then maybe he will do this for me and for you. This is the hope of this post Easter appearance.
Contemplative Question:
What are you awakening to right now through the pandemic and in these first days after Easter?