Mary Magdalene was a disciple of Jesus who had been healed by him. She was deeply grieved at his death. Though disillusioned, on the first day of the week she came to the tomb where Jesus had been placed. He was gone.

As of yet, none of the disciples understood about the resurrection. For Mary, confusion was mounting. She had hoped that Jesus would restore Israel to a place of prominence in the world and thereby judge her enemies. She had some vague notion of a final resurrection of the dead, but Jewish teaching concerning such an event was sketchy.

She had watched the obvious evil in the civil and religious authorities as they unjustly put Jesus on trial and brutally crucified him. And then to top it all off, his body was missing. She couldn’t even grieve properly. Her world must have been spinning out of control. Stressed beyond belief, she was begging what looked like the gardener, to tell her what they had done with the body. She was willing to get it and find a suitable place for it.

Fully Known, Fully Loved

Then, one word settled her soul.

Like a stiff breeze blows away the fog; like a flipped switch vanishes darkness in a scary attic; like the first sight of home for a child lost in the woods, that word brought immediate comfort. He called her name, “Mary.”

She no longer needed to know all the “why’s.” She knew she could trust. Everything made sense, though it no longer had to. He had defeated death. He was alive. He knew her, and he still loved her.

He knows me. He knows me thoroughly.

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether … My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. — Psalms 139:1-4, 15

We, humans, tend to think that we can’t be both fully loved and fully known at the same time. We fear that if someone fully knows us, they surely won’t fully love us — so we hide the true self, hoping for love. We would like to be transparent. It would shed our hypocrisy and make us feel more authentic, but it is too costly. If others ever discover what goes on in the dungeon of our inner being, or even if they discover what we have done, we will be lucky to avoid jail. Needing love, we trade away being known.

Jesus knows. And he loves us fully.

God Has Acted. Now We Respond.

He has gone before us to live an obedient life in our behalf, thereby reaping the rewards that he transfers to us. He has died to fulfill justice. He has been resurrected from the dead to verify the divine acceptance of his sacrifice. He detoured his trip to the right hand of the Father to tell his disciples that all has been done to assure our participation in his eternal life. He came out to tell Mary and all other disciples that He knows not only our name but everything about us — and he loves us.

What does it mean that he both knows and loves us?

1. Your sins are forgiven. Jesus’ resurrection verifies God’s acceptance of his sacrifice. The final sacrifice has been made. There is no need to try to pay for personal sins.
2. Your shame has been covered. No more hiding behind the bushes in the garden. He sees through your bushes and loves you still. You are no longer categorized as a hostile. You are in the family with the rights of a son.
3. Your body will also be resurrected. You share his life in total. One day your now decaying body will be resurrected like his.
4. Your life can be empowered now by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the grave.
5. He will respect your choice. But you do make a choice. God has acted. Now we respond. If he is not raised, the whole Jesus’ story is a myth. Forget about admiring the teaching of Jesus as a great moral leader. If there is no resurrection he is a fraud. If he is raised, it is the only way through death to life. No one else has died and been resurrected to never die again.

Listen! Do you hear him calling your name?