One of the oldest human needs is having someone who wonders where we are when we don’t come home at night. The ache for home lies in all of us. Home is that safe place where we can go as we are and not fear be ridiculed. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home to get food, clean clothes, sleep, and love. Where we love, and are loved, is home. Our feet may leave, but never our hearts.
We are told that Jesus became human and made his home here with us. (Jn 1:14). This fulfilled what had always been God’s desire. Early on he was telling people to make him a sanctuary, so that he could dwell among them (Ex 25:8).
Jesus seemed to be totally at home here on earth. He attracted many followers and did many great things for them. Then in the middle of everything Jesus began show his disciples how he needed to go to Jerusalem to suffer many things, be killed, and then be raised on the third day (Mt 16:21). No one wanted to hear him talk like that. But he did go to Jerusalem, he did die, and he did rise from dead after three days. It wasn’t easy for those near him to understand this. Mary Magdalene was one of these people.
Jesus had cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene (Lk 8:2). Her life was changed forever. She was a transformed woman. She owed Jesus everything. She went to the place of the skull to witness Jesus’ execution. She heard his last words. She saw him die and then be carried off to a tomb.
Then, one morning before dawn, she went to the tomb where he was. Somebody had opened the door and taken away his body. She began to weep loudly. A person heard her and asked, “Ma’am, why are you crying? What’s wrong?” Mary said, “Mister, if you’ve taken him somewhere, just tell me.”
The man then said, “Mary.” She recognized that voice instantly. It was the voice she had heard just a few days ago crying out for water. It was also the voice that had commanded that horrible darkness surrounding her to leave. It was Jesus! She ran to hug him, but his response was strange.
“Don’t hang on to me,” he said. “Go and tell the others what’s happening.”
There’s an interesting analogy here. Like Mary, we long for the good ol’ days. We want things to stay the same. We resist change. We spend our energies wishing things were how they were. The problem is that life is not static. It ebbs and flows. It can be wonderful, it can be painful.
Kids grow up and move away. Some people get married, others don’t. You love people and sometimes they break your heart. People are healed and others die. Things seem easy at times and then very difficult at other times. Great successes and rough failures.
Regrets, hurts, disappointments, or just thinking things were better back in the day, can keep us from experiencing what’s happening all around us right now. If we live stuck in the past, we’re not fully in the present.
Jesus has risen from the dead and Mary is thinking things are going to return to how they were. But his death and resurrection changed everything, and still do. Things will never be the same. Go tell the others what’s happening!
Add a Comment