Easter Day
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark....
-- John 20:1a
Mary came as the inadequate disciple. The world judged her as unworthy. She was said to have been possessed by seven devils before Jesus had healed her, and tradition suggests that perhaps she had been a prostitute. Yet John describes her as the first one to come to the tomb while it was still dark. She stumbled toward faith in the darkness. She did not come with a purpose or a plan. She did not even understand what she saw when she got there. She saw two angels, and yet she only saw them as potential sources of information. "She said to them, 'They have taken away my Lord, out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.' " An empty tomb suggested to her that the body had been stolen.
Of all the possible candidates to witness Jesus' resurrection, she was the one God chose as the first witness. She was claimed by faith before she could claim faith. She did not even recognize Jesus when she saw him. To her, he was but a stranger, perhaps the gardener. She asked if he had taken the body away. It was not an affirmation of faith but only a plea for compassion from the powerless to the powerful. But then she was addressed by name. Hearing God in Christ call out her name filled her with a message of hope. She left the tomb not seeking news but prepared to announce the good news. She was the key witness to the earthquake of faith. Jesus had risen; the finite reality of death was no match for God. The powerless one became the primary witness to hope for the entire world. We come in the dark, weeping for what we have lost, and without any clear sense of direction, God addresses us by name, lifts us up, and fills our lives with new purpose.
-- John 20:1a
Mary came as the inadequate disciple. The world judged her as unworthy. She was said to have been possessed by seven devils before Jesus had healed her, and tradition suggests that perhaps she had been a prostitute. Yet John describes her as the first one to come to the tomb while it was still dark. She stumbled toward faith in the darkness. She did not come with a purpose or a plan. She did not even understand what she saw when she got there. She saw two angels, and yet she only saw them as potential sources of information. "She said to them, 'They have taken away my Lord, out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.' " An empty tomb suggested to her that the body had been stolen.
Of all the possible candidates to witness Jesus' resurrection, she was the one God chose as the first witness. She was claimed by faith before she could claim faith. She did not even recognize Jesus when she saw him. To her, he was but a stranger, perhaps the gardener. She asked if he had taken the body away. It was not an affirmation of faith but only a plea for compassion from the powerless to the powerful. But then she was addressed by name. Hearing God in Christ call out her name filled her with a message of hope. She left the tomb not seeking news but prepared to announce the good news. She was the key witness to the earthquake of faith. Jesus had risen; the finite reality of death was no match for God. The powerless one became the primary witness to hope for the entire world. We come in the dark, weeping for what we have lost, and without any clear sense of direction, God addresses us by name, lifts us up, and fills our lives with new purpose.
