"Rabboni!"

John 20:1-18
- As Mary comes to the garden that morning what thoughts and emotions are filling her?
- All that she hoped for, expected, and dreamed about has been destroyed...all that is left is a body.
-Coming to the tomb, she finds even that has been taken from her.
-She calls to others who ponder the mystery for a short time and then return to their routine.
- Mary however, does not. She remains, standing before the tomb, lost in her grief.
- She looks inside the tomb and sees something the others did not; two men dressed in white.
- They speak to her, acknowledging her emotion. "Woman, why are you crying?" Her tears reveal her broken, frantic heart.
- Her answer: "They have taken my Lord away and I do not know where they have put Him." Her honest reply speaks of her desire to find the body...all that she had left...to hold on to the shattered, decaying remains of her dreams.
-Then, she turns and sees the desire of her heart for which she is searching, but she does not recognize him.
- The same question is asked, "Woman, why are you crying?" and then, "Who are you looking for?"
- Still distracted by her grief and the desire to find the body...all that remains...she answers. "If you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him and I will go and get him". The answer is one filled with emotional grief...the fact that she was contemplating going to get a dead body speaks to her desparateness. Dead bodies were unclean and how could she, a woman, possibly transport it? And where would she put it? None of this matters...the only thing that matters to her is that she hold onto the only thing she has left.
- JESUS however, cuts through her distraction, grief, and emotional frenzy with one word- her name. "Mary".
- Then, SHE TURNS TOWARD HIM and RECOGNIZES who is before her...the desire of her heart. Not the dead body, but a resurrected, living, loving Lord!
- Her shattered dream is lost in the overwhelming Reality of who now stands before her. She lets go and embraces the Truth.
- "Rabboni!" What incredible love, joy, and worship that word must have conveyed.
- Again Jesus speaks, "Do not hold on to me...instead, go and tell my brothers..." Don't hold on to the moment and refuse to let go...go and tell what has happened and how the Reality is so much better than could ever have been imagined...spread the good news you have been entrusted with.
- Mary is faithful. She tells the disciples, "I have seen the Lord!"



This story came alive to me this weekend. I wanted to share it from the viewpoint in which I saw it. What a beautiful truth it contains; when we let go of the things that we hold on to most tightly...even if they were good and beautiful...we can recognize that Jesus stands before us and is all that we need. "Woman, who are you looking for?" In the joy filled and painful moments of my life, my desire is that my only answer be, "Rabboni!". Like Mary, my Lord has spoken to me and I can say, "I have seen him!"