Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.” “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (John 20:11-16 NLT)Mary Magdalene was bereft at the loss of her Lord. And to top it off, his body was gone. She didn’t know what to do. She was full of tears.
She had seen the angels at the tomb but didn’t really recognize them for what they were. In fact, she was numb enough from the whole weekend that she really didn’t thin of much except for the supreme sense of loss she had lying on her like an unholy weight.
She turned from the tomb and there was another man, maybe the gardener. He too asked what was wrong. She said again what she had said several times, he is gone. Even his body is gone. Where is he?
The gardener looked at her and said her name. When he did, as he had done so many times, in so many different contexts, she immediately knew who he was. It was Jesus!
It was only after he called her name that she really recognized him.
When God talks to me, I know who he is. His voice rings through me with familiarity and power. It can be no one but him.
Only he can say my name in the way he does. And only he knows me like he does.
When I am in the store and Ella calls my name, I know immediately that it is her. She has called my name so many times in the forty years we have been married that I have instant recognition. I just know her voice. Even though, as she gets older, her voice is gaining a husky quality, I still know her.
And I know God. He is my Lord and has been for a long time.
When he calls me, I know it. And I respond.
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