John 20:10-18 - When Jesus Calls Your Name
I’m sure most of us have seen at least some of the game show, The Price is Right, where Bob Barker announces the contestants one by one, each one by name, “___________, come on down! You’re the next contestant on The Price is Right!” What would you be feeling if you were in that audience, waiting your name? What emotions would you be going through? Fear of failing? Joy? Excitement? Hope? Bubbling over with the potential to be getting lots of great things?
Perhaps none of us will ever be offered the chance to win big on a game show? But each of us is offered a chance to win big, to get things we don’t deserve, to be part of a wonderful plan. And each of us gets this chance when we hear our names called. What do you do when Jesus calls your name?
We celebrate the season of Easter for the victory that it brings. Philips Brooks once wrote: Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer; Death is strong, but Life is stronger; Stronger than the dark, the light;
Stronger than the wrong, the right; Faith and Hope triumphant say, Christ will rise on Easter Day. This is a wonderful time to look at what the empty grave means for the followers of Jesus.
Until district camp time in July, we will be looking at the words of Jesus. Not from the sermon on the mount nor from the cross. But from the time He rose from the dead until the time He ascended into heaven. What was on Jesus’ mind for the 40 days He had a perfect, resurrected body here on earth? What did He say? With whom did He spend time? Today we will look at Jesus’ first words from the tomb, Easter Sunday morning, to a woman named Mary of Magdala.
Who was Mary Magdalene? Before we answer that, let’s recap the events of Easter Sunday morning.
1. Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James, the wife of Clopas/Alpheus, “the other Mary”), Salome (the mother of James and John, wife of Zebedee), and Joanna start for the tomb, Lk. 23:55-24:1
2. They find the stone rolled away, Lk. 24:2-9.
3. Mary Magdalene goes to tell the disciples, Jn. 20:1-2.
4. Mary, the mother of James, draws near and sees the angel on the stone, Mt. 28:1-2.
5. She goes back to meet the other women following with spices.
6. Meanwhile Peter and John arrive, look in and leave, Jn. 20:3-10.
7. Mary Magdalene returns weeping, and sees two angels in the tomb. Then, she sees Jesus, Jn. 20:11-18.
8. The risen Christ tells her to let the disciples know He’s alive, Jn. 20:17-18. We’ll come back to this point in a minute.
9. Meanwhile, Mary, the mother of James, returns with the women, Lk. 24:1-4.
10. They return and see the two angels in the tomb, Lk. 24:5; Mk.16:5.
11. They also hear the angel’s message to come and see, and go and tell, Mt. 28:6-8.
12. On their way to find the disciples, they are met by the risen Christ, Mt. 28:9-10. This was all on the first morning.
But we come back to Mary Magdalene. She was the first that the risen Jesus appeared to, and spoke to. So who was she?
Mary was from the city of Magdala, an important Galilean trading center at the southern end of the plain of Gennesaret, thus her name, Mary Magdalene. She was one of the most prominent of the Galilean women who followed & ministered to Jesus. The New Testament identifies her as one of several women who had been cleansed of evil spirits. She is mentioned 11 times in the Gospels. Though there is no scriptural proof, Mary Magdalene is often identified with the sinful woman who anointed Jesus, washed his feet with her tears, and dried them with her hair, at the home of Simon the Pharisee. We can see that Mary Magdalene’s great devotion to Jesus and to His cause was expressed in very practical ways. She was one of the small group of women who, when Jesus was in Galilee, followed Him and served Him and His disciples at their own expense, as He preached and ministered to the masses.
She faithfully followed Jesus throughout His ministry. Even when nearly everyone fled with fear after Christ’s arrest, Mary hung around lovingly all the way to the cross and watched His painful death. Mary remained faithful to Jesus after His burial, long after the others had given up hope.
Then Sunday came. Upon her second trip to the empty tomb, having been ignored largely by the disciples who were off in their own worlds of confusion, she found two angels in the tomb, sitting where Jesus had been. We’ll pick up the story in John 20:10-18.
At first, she did not recognize Jesus. Perhaps because of the tears, but probably more than He was so different, transformed, glorified, that she could not grab a hold of His identity. But when He called her name, it was clear who He was. He was no mere gardener; He was the Lord.
Let’s picture for a minute what she had been thinking up until this time. She was very devoted to Jesus. D.G Barnhouse said this: “She was a 120 pound woman who had been drawn in her soul for 3 days and who had already made the trip between Jerusalem and the tomb 3 times. She was offering to carry the inert body of a man who weighed perhaps 160 pounds. She couldn’t have done it, but she would have split her heart trying.”
He had healed her and given her life fulfillment. Perhaps she was very aware of what she used to be. She apparently had no family to be mentioned. Because she had not been herself due to the demon-possession, she had had no job, no income except for compassion from others. Jesus gave her life meaning, and she was probably more aware of it than the others. The others could have gone back to fishing, tax collecting and so on. They could have picked up and moved on more easily than Mary Magdalene. But she knew she was lost without Jesus. Jesus gave her meaning and purpose. And now He was gone.
What about you? Is Jesus your whole life? We may sing, “Take the world, but give me Jesus.” But do we mean it? Would we rather have Jesus than our jobs, happiness, pleasure, a full stomach, entertainment, our family? Are you slightly aware of how much life doesn’t matter without Jesus? Do you know how much you need Him? Or could you move on fairly easily if life threw you a curve ball, and because of it you walked away from Him? Are you ever on the verge of throwing up your hands and giving up? Well, let me tell you, the world has nothing more to offer you than Jesus does. Peter asked, “If we walked away, where else could we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.” Is Jesus the very air you breathe? Is he, like Mary, your source of purpose and fulfillment? Is He your object of devotion? Or is He on some shelf, brought down when it’s convenient?
When Jesus spoke her name, Mary was revived from her own form of death – death of her dreams and hopes. And Jesus wants to wake you up too. He’s speaking now to you. He wants to show you He’s alive, and He wants to give you life as well. He gave Mary a clue to what following Jesus is to be: v17. This seems odd, because He often let the crowds touch Him, even after He rose from the dead. But it seems He wanted to make a point, specifically to Mary. She wanted to touch Him, to hold Him, to never let Him go again. But it was as if He wanted to place in her a more sure, more abiding, more permanent faith than what her senses could give here. She seemed unwilling to trust Him out of her sight. But by living in faith, she could trust He was always there, even when He couldn’t be seen.
She couldn’t control Him; neither can you. That’s why He calls us to trust Him, even when our circumstances are dark. You will not progress in your Christian life if you always need to see things to believe. You will get stuck. You will be a slave to the visible, to the temporary. But what Jesus offers is better. He offers us to trust Him. He says, “Test me in this. But you have to let me go out of your sight.”
One last thought about Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene before anyone else. He picked one person. She was completely devoted Him and He chose her. That says a couple of things: 1) Those who seek Him with all their hearts will find Him. God rewards those who seek Him first and His righteousness. It’s as if God blesses those people with a deep love and devotion for Him with a special touch of His presence. And 2) To Jesus she was an individual. He loved her. Not just when she was in a group, but He loved her as a person. He called her name. Like your name from a loved one, He made her feel special. It was a life of favor with Him.
Do you feel loved today? Jesus doesn’t just love you for what you can do for Him. His love for you isn’t based on your performance, your strictness when it comes to religious duties, your talents and abilities, or how much others like you. Jesus’ love for you is unchanging, never lower or higher. But when you grasp a hold of that love for you, you will devote your life to Him. The risen Jesus will fill you with His life and give you, like Mary Magdalene, a life of fulfillment, a life of faith, and a life of favor with Him. Canadian Celine Dion sang these words in her song, “Because You Loved Me”, and they seem to fit what Jesus did in Mary Magdalene’s life. Maybe even in yours.
For all those times you stood by me, For all the truth that you made me see, For all the joy you brought to my life, For all the wrong that you made right, For every dream you made come true, For all the love I found in you, I’ll be forever thankful baby, You’re the one who held me up, Never let me fall. You’re the one who saw me through, through it all. You were my strength when I was weak, You were my voice when I couldn’t speak, You were my eyes when I couldn’t see, You saw the best there was in me. Lifted me up when I couldn’t reach, You gave me faith cause you believed, I’m everything I am because you loved me. You gave me wings and made me fly, You touched my hand I could touch the sky, I lost my faith, you gave it back to me, You said no star was out of reach, You stood by me and I stood tall, I had your love I had it all, I’m grateful for each day you gave me, Maybe I don’t know that much, But I know this much is true, I was blessed because I was loved by you. You were always there for me, the tender wind that carried me, A light in the dark, shining your love into my life, You’ve been my inspiration, Through the lies you were the truth, My world is a better place because of you.
