We dont see Jesus because were so focused on the event that we dont see him, and we look for him because we think hes a garden keeper, because we think everything should be in its place. But Jesus says, 'Mary, Mary, why are you weeping, and whom do you seek?' He already knows why she is weeping, but he nurtures her with words. Suffering is not something to avoid, but something to reflect on. It is also a stoplight and a roadblock that stops us in our tracks. When we meet Jesus, the one who made us and saves us, our wandering ends. Jesus cannot be met by human power, which is why the Jesus of the resurrection comes through places and people we least expect. Jesus calls Marys name to shift her gaze from the problem shes crying about to the Lord. Only then does Mary recognize the living Jesus. He comes to you first, right where you are, crying, and calls you by name, and then you just believe youre going to live.
Third, he sends you on a mission: 'This is what he said.'
When Mary recognizes Jesus, she tries to hold on to him because she remembers being with him before, and she wants to go back to that time, dreaming of the good times, because when things are hard, they seem to get a little better. Jesus says, 'Dont hold on,' and now, with a new resurrection value, she selflessly goes on a mission to tell the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord, and he has told me this. The conclusion of my life is the fulfillment of the Bible, we must be thirsty for the Bible until the end, and we must be witnesses of the risen Lord and cry out, 'I have seen the Lord.'
My husband died in one day, and like Mary, I was weak and had nothing to offer, but the Lord made me respond to the words of Ezekiel 18, telling me that my husband had gone to heaven, and I was commissioned like Mary. As I held the funeral at home, I thought how wonderful it would have been if he had been alive and believed with me, and I cried because I was saved that day, and I cried because I couldnt interpret it.
That night, in front of his body, I opened my cutie and my Bible. The Lord told me it was fair, nurtured me with His Word, and called out to me, 'Tailor!' 'Whom do you seek now, why are you weeping? The prophet Ezekiel also took his wife in one day do not mourn for the dead, but lament in silence, wrap your head in a towel, and become a prophet of signs.' My perfectionist husband was a gynecologist who performed liver tests once a month, but when his body collapsed overnight from liver cancer, he confessed his sin of abortion as a gynecologist. After he repented, he said he was only concerned about me and was sorry that I had to go through his funeral without him.I didnt know about my husband, who said that he laid down his life and prayed for me, but God made me greatly realize and repent of the shallowness of the breadth and depth of my love for him, which made me think of divorce and death, and my tears have never dried up until now. I had a stereotype that my husband would never change, but from then on, God made me lay down my fleshly expectations from him and live a life of mission, going to the lost and exclaiming, 'I have seen the Lord!' This survival in my case is not just a comfort, but a witness.
We need to see the Lord in front of us, and need to hear the name of the Lord calling us and turn around and see the Lord who has nurtured us through the most unexpected circumstances, the betrayal of a spouse, the problems of illness, the problems of a child, and need to see the Lord, so that we may live a Bible-fulfilling life, witnessing, 'I have seen the Lord!' in the midst of lifes challenges, and I bless you in the name of the Lord.
