April 3, 2018 Tuesday

“But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you 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. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her.” (John 20:11-18 NKJV)

            “Why are you weeping?”  Jesus does not only ask this of Mary but of us all.  Why do we sit at our empty tomb and fret about where God is and where God is leading us?  Why do we want to cling to our memories of Jesus rather than move on to better and deeper experiences?

            Sometimes, like Mary, we don’t see the God who is always with us.  We look for the Jesus we knew but forget when we have grown we experience God in a deeper way.  Jesus does not change but we have changed and have a deeper and better view of Him.

            “Whom are you seeking? “  One of the greatest problems with Christians is that without being guided by the Bible we can lose Jesus and create our own God.  Even when we are near ‘our’ Jesus we really get farther and farther from Jesus.  We get carried away and rather than coming out of our tomb we wall ourselves in our tombs.

            Like Mary we can be looking for a dead Jesus.  Our Jesus is just a good teacher who teaches what we want to hear.  This Jesus is so comfortable until life gets too hard and we cannot seem to find Him.  This dead Jesus also leaves us in the tomb.

            Sometimes we want to cling to Jesus and just stay with Him so everything will be good.  We try desperately to hold on as Jesus continues to move to be with those who are hurting and are so desperate we miss those Jesus wants to use us to help.

            If we seek Jesus the experience is beyond anything we could have thought!  We walk with the Jesus who conquered sin and death, who heals those who are afflicted and has power over the evil one.  We experience the God who also is a Father to us!  We experience the God who came to die for us.

            Who is your God?  Are you your own God?  Are you a creation of God or have you created your own God?

            It always seems to take a couple of days to recover from a big day like Sunday.  This morning I couldn’t wake up or go back to sleep.  For a couple of hours I sat in my chair in a sort of fuzzy in between.  Later Bonnie and I had our devotion and prayed.  In the afternoon I sat out on the porch for awhile.  On days like this I depend entirely on God to see me through.