My Kingdom is Not Of This Earth – Sunday, April 11, 1982
Perhaps the longest hours mortals have ever suffered were those of the Jewish Sabbath just after Jesus Christ was crucified. His disciples scattered. His followers agonized. Where was the Master whose promise had been stronger than Roman tyranny? Where was the Savior whose words had moved them beyond dead tradition? He seemed gone forever.
And to make it harder on Sunday morning when Mary Magdalene had come with other women to anoint His body with spices, the tomb was empty. It seemed that even His body, this last bit of comfort, had been stolen. Mary did not know that an angel had come in the night and rolled back the stone. She did not comprehend when the same angel told her, “He is not here: for He is risen.”1 Neither did Peter and other disciples comprehend the meaning of the slackened grave clothes.
Finally, only Mary Magdalene was left, weeping alone in the garden. “Woman, why weepest thou?”2 asked a voice. Mary was not sure who addressed her, but assuming it was the caretaker she moaned that she did not know where her Lord’s body had been taken.
“Mary,”3 said the voice, the tones familiar, personal. And then she knew.
Now we might wonder why Mary did not immediately recognize Christ. Were her eyes so cast down with grief that she did not look up when she sensed a person there? We do not know. Perhaps she saw Christ but did not comprehend, just as the disciples heard the message of the resurrection but did not understand.
We today, have the same problem. World-weary and tired, our eyes cast down, we do not let Him through our misery or self-imposed barriers. “Why weepest thou?” He asks and thinking it’s the caretaker we dismiss the voice. “Whom seekest thou?” He asks, and caught up in ourselves, we hang our head. Even when He reaches arms around us, all we sometimes feel is the cold reality of our own frustrations.
We need not wonder that His disciples did not understand the resurrection, that one of His dearest friends did not recognize His voice. Mortality is a time when we become preoccupied and often miss meaning. But His promises are real; His caring penetrates to each individual life. “Mary,” He called to one weeping woman in an intimate tone. He calls our name just as clearly.
1 Matthew 28:6
2 John 20:13
3 John 20:16
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April 11, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,747