Hello my friends!

As I mentioned last week, this is my first week on family leave! I have a group of some amazing people who have agreed to share their heart and expertise in the following weeks. But with today being Easter, I wanted to share the final page from my daily devotional I wrote for Lent, "When Love Gets The Last Word."​

I hope you find it encouraging, no matter how this day might find you and how you might find this day.

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Scripture: John 20:1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

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I am an early riser. I love having a few quiet hours before the world starts stirring. During that time, I notice how my mind and body slowly wake up, almost in tandem with the night moving towards the brightness of morning. It’s like feeling the light slowly appear within me while watching the light appear in the world around me.

As we have seen all throughout John’s gospel, he has used this theme of light and darkness not just to single the time of day, but to highlight the level of understanding of the characters we are reading about. Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the darkness and the woman at the well speaks to Jesus at midday, just to name two examples. John also uses light and darkness to outline the differences between God’s domain and the world. The same is true for our passage today.

It begins by letting us know that it was still dark and early in the morning on that first day of the week. It is a reminder of not only the current state of the world but the current state of the disciples level of understanding, especially after witnessing Jesus dying.

This dynamic is made explicit when Peter and “the other disciple” rush to the tomb upon hearing Mary’s news that the stone had been rolled away and Jesus’ body was gone. Even though “the other disciple” looked in and believed, John tells us “they still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” This marks a vital distinction between believing and understanding.

The Greek word used for “believe” here is pisteuó, which is a verb that means “have faith in, trust in.” It is a proactive trust. “Faith-ing” might be a more accurate English translation, if such a word existed. The Greek word used for “understand” here is eidó, which is also a verb that means “to know.” John is highlighting an important difference that we often take for granted in Western Christianity. While “knowing” is largely a cognitive exercise with our minds, “believing” is the act of placing our trust in something. While knowing and trusting certainly relate to each other, the distinction between the two is an important one. We can trust in things we do not know fully and we can fully know something, yet not trust in it. “The other disciple” trusted, yet did not fully understand.

The rest of our passage is no less rich with metaphors. Mary stayed around the tomb even when the other two had gone, still grieving over the loss of her friend and teacher Jesus. It is important to note here that Mary is from a small village near the Sea of Galilee called Magdala. Hence her title Mary (the) Magdalene. Just as Jesus is often called the Nazarene, Mary is also associated with her place of origin. This was not only a status recognition, but something that was predominantly only ascribed to men. This indicates that she was not only a very prominent figure and most likely wealthy, as other sources indicate, but it renders the common trope that she was a prostitute to be most certainly untrue. Given her grief at the tomb, Jesus obviously had a profound impact on her life.

Mary leans into the tomb, still crying, only to see two angels sitting there. John makes it a point to tell us where they were seated, one at the foot and one at the head with where Jesus had been in between them. This is not only causes us to think of the Ark of the Covenant, which was ornamented with angels in the same position, but what it represented: the presence of God’s Word. These two angles were there to testify that Jesus, who is the bodily presence of God’s Word, was no longer in the tomb.

I really admire Mary’s response to the angels here. She seems completely unfazed by the presence of angels speaking to her and singularly focused on finding out what happened to Jesus’ body. Her devotion to Jesus just springs from these verses. After answering the angels, she turns around to continue her search only to see Jesus standing there. Yet here again, it was still the darkness before the dawn in her understanding and she didn’t realize it was him. She thought he was the gardener.

Her identifying him as the gardener makes contextual sense as many tombs in that time were located in or near gardens. This is yet another powerful metaphor that John is trying to drive home. As we see both woman and man standing in a garden, our minds are compelled to go back to a man and a woman in the very first garden. When we do, we see that a grand reversal is taking place. Where once there was division and deception, truth is being revealed. Where the first fruits of sin and death were produced from a tree, the first fruits of resurrection and life have been produced after dying on a tree. Where humanity’s relationship with God, with each other, and with creation was broken, now it is being restored. Jesus certainly is a gardener, but of cosmic and timeless proportions.

Mary has yet to recognize him as Jesus and pleads with him, saying that if he has moved the body of her teacher, he needs to tell her so she can go find him. Then, the most moving part of this passage, Jesus simply says her name, “Mary,” and she instantly cries out in recognition of him. I think we can all recall being in moments of deep vulnerability and grief, searching for some sense of stability and comfort. Then someone we truly love and feel completely safe with comes along and simply says our name. There is nothing like being truly seen and known in that way.

Our passage ends as all four gospels do, with a woman being the first to preach the good news of the resurrection to the rest of the disciples. The gospels begin with a woman giving birth to Jesus in the world and ends with a woman declaring the resurrection of Jesus in the world. This is not only such a powerful and beautiful picture, but a sad reminder of how too often throughout Christian history and even at present, the powerful way that God centers and works through women is minimized and even ignored simply because of their gender. Easter reminds us that God calls women to preach and to lead too.

Where there was darkness, the light of the resurrection has come. John’s gospel account emphasizes that while many of the disciples believed, they didn’t fully understand until after Jesus rose from the dead. The love that not only brought Jesus to the cross but also out of the grave is the lens that brings true understanding for the disciples. The way, the truth, and the life of Jesus finally came into clear focus for those who followed him when they saw it through the power of the resurrection. They finally understood why he didn’t force his will on others. Why he didn’t fear others. Why he could freely live as a peacemaker. Why he didn’t even see others as his enemies. All this and more he embodied because he didn’t fear death. Jesus lived and trusted in the reality that death was never going to have the last word. Love would. His disciples then knew they could live and love that way too. So can we. He is risen. He is risen indeed.

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​Reflection Steps

Today is a day for celebration! It is a day to be released from your fasting and your prayer and take part in the joy of the hope that Christ’s resurrection brings. Not only just for us, but for all of creation! As this day unfolds for you, I want to invite you to let the light of hope and love define this day and cause any darkness that’s trying to hold onto you to be driven away allowing peace to settling in your heart. As the days after Easter unfold into this unpredictable and contentious year, I want to invite you to try to remind yourself daily to live like love will have the last word over your life and this world. When we make that a conscious effort, I think we will see how our thoughts, our actions, and our relationships will be influenced by far greater intentionality and compassion, while leaving very little room for fear. Let love have the last word.

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Now I'd like to hear from you!

What were your thoughts as you read this today? How is this Easter encountering you today?