Scripture: John 20:1-18 (NRSV)
Many questions surface for me as I reflect on this passage. Why did the first disciple not enter the tomb? What did he fear?
Why was Mary Magdalene not surprised by the presence of angels?
Why did Mary stay at the tomb after the disciples had left?
However, despite these curiosities, one question remains most pertinent for me: Why could Mary Magdalene not recognize her beloved’s voice?
Jesus’s voice. The very man whom she was weeping about.
Mary seemed so consumed by her own fears and worries that she had forgotten the timbre of the voice of her most cherished person. Someone’s voice that she thought she knew very well. A voice she could never forget. Yet how quickly we forget.
How have you forgotten God’s voice? In what ways are you no longer able to hear your creator?
Through apathy, laziness, arrogance, stagnancy or the illusion of good deeds, we have all experienced seasons of drought in our ability or even willingness to listen for God’s voice in our lives.
Like with Mary, God not only whispers the spirit into our lives, but when our ears have become so deeply clogged God passionately shouts out our names. “Mary!”
“Taylor! Hear my voice, I am ALWAYS with you. Never forget this”
I invite you to reflect upon these thoughts, in hopes that not only your ears, but also all of your senses will be re-tuned and awakened to a state of desire and awareness of God’s voice.
The voice that speaks through people, the sun, the winds, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, the spirit, silence and screams. The voice that warms, challenges, produces, transforms, forgives, affirms and loves.
May we listen, hear, and echo God’s voice!
AMEN
Scripture: John 20:1-18 (NRSV)
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.