On the morning of Jesus’ resurrection, Mary Magdalene was standing outside the tomb weeping. As she looked inside the tomb, she saw two angels.
When they asked her why she was weeping, she said to them, “‘Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.’ Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus” (John 20:13-14).
Jesus asked her the same question, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Then He asked a follow-up question, “Whom are you seeking?” She replied, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away” (v. 15).
Now, I don’t know exactly how much Jesus weighed. I do know they brought one hundred pounds of spices and aloes for His burial (John 19:39). Take Jesus’ body weight and add one hundred pounds to that. Let’s just say He might have weighed 250 pounds. So when Mary said she would take Him awayโeven if she’d had the strengthโwhere would she have taken a corpse? Clearly, she wasn’t thinking it all the way through.
But love doesn’t ask for the details. Love just shows up. Love just wants to do something. Mary was expressing raw love mixed with emotion. But consider Jesus’ response to her in the next verse. It was one word, her name: “Mary!” (v. 16).
One word changed her life. One word changed her from sorrow to joy. One single word, and she went from despair to the heights. I’m sure Jesus used a special tone with her when He said, “Mary.” Then she turned and said, “Rabboni!” (my teacher).
How did Jesus reveal Himself to her? Not visually, but vocally. It was by what He spoke, not by what she saw.
To me, this underlies the principle that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). Not by seeing, but by hearing. Jesus revealed Himself to Mary by one word, by speaking her name.
Let me ask you, can you relate to that? How often have you wondered, “Where is God? Where is Jesus? Life is so hard. This is so bad. I can’t believe I’m enduring this. Where is He?” And He’s right there. Right in front of you.
Jesus said, “I’ll never leave you. I’ll never forsake you,” and “Lo, I am with you always, till the end of the (world)” (see Hebrews 13:5 and Matthew 28:20). He’s right there. But in our sorrow or trial, we just miss Him when He’s right there.
Let me encourage you to look for Him. Look for Him in the darkest, bleakest, earliest part of the morning. In the latest part of the evening, in the hardest part of the trial, look for Him.
One of the deepest possible levels of fellowship with God happens when we suffer like Jesus. Paul spoke about the “fellowship of His sufferings,” as if there was a special place believers could enter into. “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10).
There’s an intimacy you can have with Jesus Christ only when you suffer. Look for Him. Listen for His voice.
He will never leave you.
