"The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." John:10:3
There may be seasons in our Christian life, when we wonder if the Great Creator God even know who we are. We may look at conditions and circumstance that we face in life and we and ask " does He even know that I exist?"We may feel alone and even abandoned by Him. We can be like Mary who stood outside of the Tomb of our Lord weeping. John20:11-18
Our lives, like her's like can be turned upside down, things that we put our trust in and vested out hope in have come undone.
We can be like her in our Christian life we believe and have confidences as long as things are going well, then the unaccounted for occurs and things come crashing down around us. We feel that Jesus is not with us, we may even feel pressured by associates who speculate on the cause of difficulties some going as far as asserting that our hardships are the result of and evidence of divine displeasure.
Seeing Only an Empty Tomb
We see that He is not in the grave but miss the most important thing of all. We might be able to quote Scripture regarding His resurrection, we may know that Jesus is resurrection yet miss again the point. We may only see an empty tomb and that is all that we see. But the resurrection is more than just a vacant burial place that was once occupied by the dead body of our Lord. The resurrection is ,that our Lord lives and stand with us even if He goes unrecognized by us as He was with Mary.
Calls Our Name
Even as there in the garden as Mary weeps in perplexity Jesus is there, she see Him now only as a Gardener, not Who He is. Even as Jesus engages Her she does not yet see Him for Who He is she still to this moment see Jesus as dead having only been carried off to another location.
"Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
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.”
At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
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.” John:20:11-15
It is only after our Lord address Mary , calls her by name does the realization comes and her and eyes are then opened to see that it is Jesus Himself Who is with her, she sees that He lives.
"Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”)".(16-17)
We too can be like Mary, we stand outside the empty tomb of Jesus we see that it is empty but maybe He is just removed, dead, that is powerless to help us , our lives has fallen into disarray or our hopes have not come to pass we feel alone. It is in such moments we can fail to see the truth, that Jesus is not removed dead powerless to help but rather that He is there even if we mistake Him only for the gardener.
It is when He calls us by name that our eyes are opened we see Him and we recognize Him as "Rabboni" we see that Jesus lives, that the resurrection speaks not just of a vacant place among the dead but rather proclaims that He lives and is with us, the resurrection is more then an event it is Who Jesus is. But this opening of our eyes comes when He calls our name
“I am the resurrection and the life." John:11:25
the Apostle Paul prayed that all of our eyes could be open to see all that He has called us to.
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people" Ephesians:1:18
He Knows Us
This calling us by name should not surprise us, He know us all and has will not forget us even in our difficulties. It is as we read in the Prophet Isaiah
"See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me" Isaiah:49:16
Jesus has inscribed your name and all our names even upon the palm of His hands that reflects the eternal commitment that He has made to us all.
"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand" John:10:28
"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand" John:10:28
Our Lord has called each of us to by name to see that He lives and is with us , That Jesus has spoken your name and called you that you might believe and see that He lives and is with you..Amen
Rev.Todd Crouch, Pastor
The
Fountain of Life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion
2101 Old National Pike
Washington,
Pennsylvania.
www.gcfountainoflife.org
The
Fountain of Life is heard on the RKP Radio Network 1710 and 1670 AM in
Washington and North Franklin ,and 1790 AM in the Arden Fair Grounds area
of Washington Pennsylvania, and on 1710 AM in Bentleyville and Monongahela,
Pennsylvania. And online around the world at www.rkpradio.com
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