This Love

John 20:¹⁶ “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

Immediately Mary recognized that the person she was speaking to was Jesus, the one she had been looking for. She must have leaped toward him, with arms stretched out to hug Him tightly as she would normally do. She probably was already saying, “Rabboni, You made me cry, where have you been?” John 20:¹⁷ “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Why did Jesus tell Mary not to cling to Him? If Mary had clung to Jesus, all the work of salvation would have been corrupted because Mary was impure.

Jesus loves us even though we are impure, in fact, He purifies us. It was the cleansing Blood of the Lamb that makes atonement for you and me that Jesus was carrying in His hands when He stopped to attend to Mary. This truth gives me confidence when I show up before God with all the things that are bothering me. I know that if God did not ignore Mary, He will not ignore me, God cannot ignore me. What is that burden in your heart? Talk to Jesus, He will attend to it. Jesus is abundantly loving. I was having a conversation with my wife about the resurrection of Jesus and she was saying to me that Jesus can walk through walls and there are many examples in scripture.

Back then there were no air conditioners and the disciples locked themselves up, just to show you how scared they were. Jesus walked through walls to be with them, which means that death could not hold Him captive. It was impossible for the stone to have kept Jesus in the grave. Jesus could have walked through the stone. She said, “They had to roll the stone away because Jesus knew Mary was coming and He knew that she did not have the power to roll away the stone. Jesus wanted Mary to see, for our witness, that the tomb was empty.” So, the stone was rolled away before Mary arrived on the scene. The stone was rolled away not to let Jesus out but to let Mary in.

Even though I knew this truth that my wife was sharing with me, I pretended I did not know because it never gets old. The tomb is empty, our Lord Jesus is alive!

Love expressed commands a response. When we look beyond the cross and behold the empty tomb of Jesus Christ, what we come face to face with is the love of the Father through Jesus. This love should command a response in us. What will be your response?

Prayer [song]: You have no rival, You have no equal. Now and forever, God You reign. Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the glory. Yours is the Name, above all names. What a powerful Name… Amen!