Realizing

DEVOTION

 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

REALIZING

John 20:10-14

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 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." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

NIV

It is not surprising that Mary would not realize it was Jesus who was standing there as this is a time when the story was unfolding without the benefit of having all the accounts of the story for Mary to read. She had just witnessed his death, his burial and now she has witnessed his tomb being open and his body gone. Before Jesus there were not too many instances of people rising from the dead, so Mary was pretty sure Jesus was dead and someone took his body somewhere. This was extremely upsetting in several ways. She was one of the three women who had carried nearly seventy pounds of fragrances to embalm Jesus with. She was accustomed to the rituals of burial as well as this Jesus was certainly some very special person to her. Although Mary used the word Lord it is certain she did not mean the Lord God, but rather she used this term as a title of respect, her leader, or master, as one a servant would address their superior. If she knew that indeed he was actually the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, she would have expected him to be gone but on his own account, not taken away by someone. What we learn from this encounter at least for the moment, is that people can look at Jesus and not realize who he is. What that translates to is people attending a church without really having a very personal one on one relationship with Jesus. In Fact, people do not actually have to go to church to have this one on one personal relationship with Jesus. This certainly does not mean we should not gather together to worship, but what it means is that a relationship is needed rather than church. We will see that Mary does in fact realize he is Jesus once he speaks to her and that is where we are in our relationship with him. People truly cannot know who he is until he speaks to them.

John 20:15-16

15 "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." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

NIV

We have to bring this next portion of the narrative into play at this point so to see this truth about knowing who Jesus truly is due to his speaking her name. We can attend church until we are blue in the face and never fully understand who Jesus really is. We can sing all the worship songs, listen to hundreds of sermons on how we should live, the next right thing to do, how we should be showing the community the love of God, all the good deeds, and never truly never have a personal relationship with Jesus, hearing him speak our name, call us to himself. Without that kind of a relationship, we are but a human organization operating under a title of church. We need to hear the voice of Jesus speaking directly to each one of us, and then we will know who he is. We will turn to him realizing and cry out his name.