Who are you looking for?
by Georgie Schuster
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He asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ (John 20:15).
We can only imagine the whirlwind of emotions that buffeted Mary’s mind and heart. Horror, despair, numbness, exhaustion. Now, enveloped in darkness, she makes her way to the tomb to do what needed to be done. Things had happened so quickly, and there hadn’t been time for Jesus’ body to be properly prepared for burial.
And now the stone is removed? Along with his body? Panic and confusion! Peter and John come and go. But where is Jesus? All she wants to know is the whereabouts of Jesus’ body. How could she fulfil the requirements for a proper burial? How could she grieve? And then someone asks, ‘Who is it you are looking for?’
Isn’t it blatantly obvious?
The one who had shown kindness to her when others had abandoned her. The one who had freed her from torment. The one who had spent time with her. The one who had lived, loved and served; the one whose life had been so abruptly and cruelly snuffed out. Then, as Jesus calls her name … a dawning realisation.
Instincts kick in as she goes to cling to the one she loves. But Jesus quickly redirects her to what really needs to be done. Tell the others, ‘I’m going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’.
What emotions would have flooded through her she ran towards the disciples? Her understanding of who Jesus is was expanding, breaking an inferior mould like an Easter egg. I don’t know whether it was in those moments, or in the days to come, that she came to understand Jesus as Saviour. That there was so much more to him than she had known. But I would have loved to be there when she burst forth with the news, ‘I have seen the LORD!’
Dear Father, we praise you for Jesus’ victory over the grave and all that means for us. Help us to share this life-changing news with others. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
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