Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven. Psalm 85: 11

Name

            In preparation for Easter, I read the four Gospel accounts of the resurrection, and was reminded, again, of why the account in John's Gospel is my favorite. While all of the accounts relate stirring, important details, the account in John is for me the most personal, the most relatable. This makes perfect sense, considering John's close personal relationship with Jesus and the many long years John had to reflect on that relationship before writing about it.

            To give a little background:  John was the "son of thunder," and "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (Mark 3:17; John 13:23). John and Jesus spent a lot of time together, not only after Jesus called John and his brother from their father's fishing boat one day, but most likely before that, too. According to Bible scholar, Henrietta C. Mears, in her book What the Bible is All About, "[John's] father was Zebedee, a fisherman in good circumstances,; his mother was Salome, a devout follower of the Lord who may have been a sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus (Mark 15:40; John 19:25)." If Mears and other Bible scholars are right, and John and Jesus grew up together as cousins, it's no wonder John's account of Jesus' life has a more personal tone than the other Gospel accounts.

            Following is the account in John 20: 11 - 18 that touches my heart every time I read it:

11Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

            Mary Magdalene was in the presence of the risen Jesus, and even heard him speak, but still didn't recognize him. Overcome by grief, she was looking (frantically and through tears, I imagine) around the garden for the place his body must have been carried away to.

            But then Jesus did something that broke through her grief; He spoke her name.

            In that moment, she turned to Him. In that moment, she recognized Him.

            He knows your name, too, and mine. He speaks to each of us individually. No, not audibly. Of course not. But in our hearts. As John's Gospel reveals Him to be, Jesus is an up close and personal Savior who calls each of us by name. Have you listened closely enough to hear? He's saying your name right now. Listen. . . .

Daye Phillippo

April 2018