Title: Mary Magdalene / John 20:11-18
Contents
Mary Magdalene / John 20:11-18
When it comes to Easter, the most important figure that comes to mind is Mary Magdalene.
He is one of the first witnesses to the resurrection.
She is the main character who first met the risen Lord.
It's not just the first witness of the resurrection that comes to mind.
It is because of the emotion the scene of meeting with the risen Lord gives.
A witness is someone who can tell the truth.
According to the records of the Bible, there are roughly 600 witnesses who can tell the truth of the resurrection.
But they are not the witnesses to explain the resurrection.
Because they don't exist now.
There are only a few witnesses of the resurrection that prove and testify to the fact of the resurrection.
When Easter Sunday approaches, there are actually only a few verses to say.
There are few stories to tell.
There is nothing other than the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the story of Mary Magdalene meeting the Lord, and the meeting of the disciples and the suspicious Thomas.
Why should we focus on those few stories on Resurrection Day?
There is a reason. Not because there is no other evidence.
Because there is emotion.
It must be because there is love.
The present era is called the era of inspiration.
Interest in commercial advertisements that sell one product is also impressive, so it is said that this is the era of customer satisfaction.
But these days, it is difficult to experience deep emotions even if there is a momentary emotion that makes you laugh. School graduation ceremonies in the old days often turned into a sea of tears.
There was a wedding ceremony yesterday, and one feeling of disappointment in my heart is that it is a once-in-a-lifetime event.
A guest is not a true guest. There is no desire to sit comfortably and bring true blessings and impressions. Even at other wedding ceremonies, it has become impossible for me to lead the ceremony and bring the atmosphere to the fore.
I wanted to give even a small impression, so I put my sincerity on a single sheet of paper, and as a pastor who officiates for the bride and groom, I wanted to convey even my deepest heart to you. When I was preparing for the ceremony, my wife told me not to prepare an order to read congratulatory poems. Because the atmosphere of the wedding could not be expected to impress. I thought it would be better for the two of us to read and meditate in a quiet time alone, so I decorated it with the vow of marriage and delivered it.
In a way, emotion is what seems to be more important than reality.
This is because if the facts are not immersed in me with emotion, they cannot be believed and accepted as facts. If a lie has an emotion, it will rather melt in it!
Emotions are important because the facts must be true.
Resurrection is real.
If so, is the resurrection moving?
Easter is not an annual event once a year.
It should be a time to feel the emotion of the truth.
That is why I confirm the fact once again and make the resurrection of Jesus Christ coincide with my resurrection.
The theme of the resurrection is life.
It is no longer a tomb, it is the seat of scholars that acknowledges the tomb that has disappeared, and that the Lord of resurrection is now alive, not that 'he was raised then'
It is a recognition of the fact that the Lord who came to us with emotion at that time is now approaching us with emotion.
The resurrected Lord has never visited his people without being moved.
He came to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus with a transformed body.
He goes to Emmaus out of discouragement and intervenes in the conversation in the form of a guest among them who have a conversation of disappointment. The two disciples had no idea who he was. However, since it is a 25-mile road to Emmaus, it is not a small amount of time, but in the meantime, the guest spoke of his faith in the resurrection. We eat together on the middle road, and at the moment of prayer and blessing, we know that He is the Lord. But the moment I tried to look at it, it disappeared as if it had gone somewhere.
This is the confession of the two disciples.
?쏻ere not our hearts burning within us as He spoke to us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us???(Luke 24:32)
The Lord only touched them.
The explanation of the fact was not as a form, but as a different form of the lips deformed. And he left only impressions.
The scene where the disciples and Thomas, who are afraid of locking the door in the attic, come to visit are also moving. It was the evening of the Resurrection Day.
?쏱eace be with you??(John 20:19).
But there was no Thomas at that time.
Perhaps it was a bitter feeling that he would come to him when he was not there, but when Thomas doubted and refused to believe in the resurrection, the Lord came again.
And he calls him separately.
Let me touch your handprints. Let me touch the spear marks.
"Blessed are those who believe without seeing."
This is Thomas's confession in front of this emotion.
?쏽ou are my Lord and my God.??
Now we would like to meditate more deeply on the touching scene with Mary Magdalene.
Emotions are not just given.
The meeting is moving, and the Lord said, "I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me" (Proverbs 8:17).
I am convinced that no one in the life of Jesus can surpass Mary Magdalene in serving and loving Jesus. She is a woman who loved Jesus as her life. Of course, she is a woman who received great favor from Jesus.
She was a woman possessed by seven ghosts and suffered from nightmares, so she was despised and despised by the world. But the Lord healed this woman.
How could it be that Mary Magdalene was the only woman healed by Jesus!
There were countless others who were better than her.
But why is this name, Mary Magdalene, as we remember it so special!
Wherever Jesus was, this woman was always there.
She was there where the word was heard, and in every field of miracles.
Then one day, the Lord was captured by the Roman soldiers before his eyes.
Even though the disciples were scared and ran away, this woman, along with several other women, did not escape the scene of suffering and pursued her with her life. Weeping and suffering, I followed the scene of being whipped and carrying a heavy cross on my back. Had she been a man, she would have probably taken the place of Simon of Cyrene, who was forced to carry the cross. Before Jesus was crucified, she broke the alabaster, which could be called everything she was, and poured it on the body of the Lord and washed his feet with his head. She was closest to the scene of the crucifixion.
While supporting Mary, the mother of Jesus, he shed tears as the Lord of the Cross shed drops of blood while listening to the Lord's groan. He wept over the figure of the Lord who died after saying, ?쏧t is finished,??and while he and Joseph of Arimathea and Joseph of Arimathea took care of the body that had been transformed into a cold body, he had to be buried in a tomb in a hurry while watching the setting sun that announced the Sabbath.
And it was the woman who visited the tomb door in the morning of the resurrection today.
She has not left the scene of Jesus' death until now.
He does not leave the Lord except during the hours of the Sabbath during the day when no one should move. The first day after the Sabbath is the time to go to the Lord again, and the dawn of dawn is the time when he can see the Lord again even from the grave.
So she went to the tomb at dawn before the sun came up and before the dawn like this. She also did not believe in the resurrection. However, I arrived at the tomb with more spices prepared because I felt sorry for the lack of treatment because I was in a hurry to collect the body. But what was shown before them was an open tomb and a missing body. He was so surprised that Peter and his disciples, who followed after they announced this fact, looked at the tomb and wept again with dismayed faces.
Wiping away her tears, she glanced into the tomb.
Then she saw two angels in her eyes.
"Why are you weeping?"
"I do not know who took you."
At this time, the Lord came and stood behind her. And I say.
?쏻oman, why are you weeping and seeking whom???Angels were not seen as angels in Mary's eyes.
Jesus did not appear to be Jesus.
So they just keep asking questions about the condition of the body.
At this time, Jesus says:
"Mary"
This voice was the familiar voice of the Lord.
Marian's words that came out like a conditional reflex were "Raboni"
"Mary" "Raboni" With this conversation, Mary's sorrow disappeared.
Tears of sorrow turned into tears of joy in an instant.
This is the moving scene of meeting the risen Lord.
Everyone!
You will often feel hopeless in your life.
The resurrection is a message of hope for us.
Mary Magdalene had never experienced such despair in her lifetime. But there is no joy in his life as it is now.
How can we overcome the feelings of despair in our lives?
Just because it is in the life of Jesus Christians does not mean that it is not without despair and frustration.
On the contrary, there are many more.
Then you will feel that the faith you have is gone. Hope shakes.
Sometimes faith dies and hope disappears.
But there is something left.
It is 'love'.
The Lord comes to us with love.
As we live our faith life, we must value personal and loving fellowship with the Lord.
Mary Magdalene is a woman who weeps enough to be called the Lady of Tears.
Those tears are not tears of sorrow, but tears of love, so faith is beautiful.
That love sometimes turns into sadness and turns into tears, and when it turns into joy it turns into tears.
Do you share that love with Him for the Lord!
It is because of this love that we cannot escape even when we are in shame by sinning.
Even if faith is lost, or hope disappears, the body eventually moves its steps to the church. The reason is love.
Without love, we would have gone out into the world right away.
You will live in pleasure in the abyss of sin.
But love can't do that.
This is why faith should become a habit and a relationship.
"Jesus Christ is Risen"
"Truly Risen"
This confession is an Easter greeting and confession of faith, which is customary through prayer by Greek Orthodox believers.
When the communist regime came to power in Ukraine and persecution of Christianity was inflicted in Ukraine, a communist theorist gathered a lot of people at a meeting and refuted the fiction of Christianity piece by piece with his own logic. gave I thought no one would say anything, but one man raised his hand.
After giving them a chance to refute for five minutes, he said.
You don't even need 5 minutes. It only takes 5 seconds.
Then he turned to the congregation there.
Said "Jesus Christ is Risen"
Then the congregations are all reflexively,
"Truly he has risen," he replied.
This confession was all too familiar to them and undoubtedly suppressed the theorist's objections and theories.
Resurrection faith gives us hope.
It is because of our faith in the resurrection that discouragement and despair cannot weigh us down.
Even the beggar Lazarus did not fall into despair because of his faith in the resurrection.