This is the scene, Jesus had died, been buried and today is the third day, these are the precious moments that the ones the Lord loved got one more chance to see His beautiful face and be comforted by His presence in person. I've thought of that so often this year as I went through some trials and was studying the book of John...
To see the literal face of Jesus, and have His literal hands to hold, my mind cannot fathom it, and it makes me want the day of heaven to hasten!
There are two stories here that stick out to me, and I will tell you why..first, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, and He finds her distraught, weeping, and wondering why this tomb of her Lord's is empty.. She sees and man approach her, probably in fear she cries out.."where is His body? What have you done with it? Please tell me so I can go and get it.." And then what happens next takes me breath away...Jesus looks at His sweet daughter and he utters her name...
And with just utterance of her name, she recognizes her masters voice and cries out for HIM! Isn't that beautiful..she did not at first recognize His face, (I'm not sure why) but when He speaks, she knows it's Him instantly, giving life to these verses:
"He calls His sheep by name and leads them out...When he has brought out all of His own, He goes on ahead of the, and His sheep follow Him because they know his voice.."
-John 10:3b-5
Isn't that so beautiful? I just began to cry when I read that, because the same is true of us my friends...When we are fearful, possibly with our faces to the ground and tears streaming down our cheeks because of the fear at hand, you know the sound of the Savior's voice vs. the lies in your head do you not? Don't you recognize His gentle tone and loving words when He picks you up as His most loved daughters and son's and whispers to you, "Don't be afraid! It is I! I will never leave you nor forsake you!" I have heard His voice, and my heart does recognize it and the thought that he takes the moments to stoop down, pick me up from my heap on the floor, is amazing to me.
So then, after He appeared to Mary, He tells her, "go and tell my disciples this news of my rising from the dead" (paraphrased!) and so she does, I can only imagine this scene my friends, here is Mary, heart thumping out of chest, her mind screaming..."The Lord is alive! The Lord is alive!!" and with tears of joy and disbelief she runs to tell her friends, and His disciples..
When she reaches them and blurts out her news, they are in utter disbelief...and two of them took off running for His tomb. I love that as well. I love it because I have run for the Lord in my fear, in my disbelief, in my confusion and in my need for joy, I have run.
There were two of them, running, one Peter, the other John, but John couldn't hold his excitement in, He ran full throttle passing Peter and sprinted marathon Olympics style to the tomb..
(John 20: 4) And then it states that this disciple saw and believed...even though he still did not understand. Have you ever felt this way friends? To put this to life let me tell you of my personal experience..
It was one of the coldest days that I can remember having for some time, and I my fear, my distrust and my disbelief had gotten the better of me throughout the night, my dreams had been restless as well as my sleep and I knew as awoke and I didn't even need to open my eyes to know that this was going to be a day that I could not make it on my own. So I'm telling you friends, I lurched from my bed, knowing my children would awake soon and I needed my time with the Lord and I ran to my kitchen table and got to my Bible and waiting, breathlessly as I knew that He would speak to me. And do you know what? He did. He gave me words, He gave me signs of greater things to come and He calmed my fears and I too saw and believed.
The most amazing thing to me of this whole experience was this: it was not always like this for me, and this needing the Lord, that was new to me. And as much as I was fearful of my circumstances, I was thankful for the recognition of the Savior, and for the breathless way I needed Him.
I pray you hear this from my words: He knows you, and when we are breathless for Him, we recognized His voice as well. We don't need to know what anyone on tv's voice sounds like or what the magazines say someone sounds like or what "so and so" can do for you to fix your fear, you need the Savior, the Shepherd and the one who needs to speak only one word for you to be calm. Isn't that comforting..now we know where to go, and I sure feel reassured. I hope all of you do to. SO don't just walk to the Lord, RUN!!!
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