IN FOCUS - "I HAVE SEEN THE LORD "| KAIROS GLOBAL | APRIL 2019

Author: Ammu Zachariah

Intro: What is this Easter season trying to tell us.  Ammu Zachariah tries to find the meaning through Mary Magdalene’s encounter with Christ

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear, Easter? To me, it’s food. Finally, after weeks of saying no to certain food, it’s the day I binge on all that delicious spread. Sometimes it feels like the whole 40-day lent was a preparation for these delicacies.

Then, what exactly is the message of Easter? If not food, if not get togethers, what exactly is the Easter season trying to tell us?

One person who might help us here is, Mary Magdalene. Mary loved Jesus dearly. He was her teacher, her master, and she was a faithful follower. When his own disciples were hiding, in shame and fear, Mary was bold enough to follow him even on his way to Calvary. 

The Gospel of John narrates the incident where Jesus appears to Mary after resurrection. According to the scripture, she went early in the morning, while it was still dark (Jn 20:1). Imagine her excitement and anticipation. I’m sure she wouldn’t have slept the previous night. But, when she couldn’t find his body, she was heartbroken. She was clueless about what happened to her “rabboni.” The uncertainty and fear of what could have happened to him, crushed her. Feeling helpless, she stood weeping outside the tomb.

Then she sees a man and mistakes him for the gardener. She pleads with him to tell her where Jesus’s body is. At this moment, the Lord calls her by name, and she recognizes him. Imagine that! All this while Jesus was in front of her and she couldn’t recognize him. But, when he called her by name, she recognized it was her Lord. Merely by his voice! How? Because it was the same voice who once called her by name. The same voice with great power that seven demons who had been tormenting her for years fled her body instantly. The same voice with great compassion, for the first time in a long time, Mary felt loved. And it was the same voice which calmed the tempest within her soul. She recognized that voice. Because nobody had called her with such depth of love and mercy. Mary recognized the Lord.

Jesus calls us by name daily. Can you recognize His voice? Can you recognize the love and mercy in his voice? Can you feel your tormenting demons fleeing? The demons of lust, of anger, of unforgiveness, of pride, of attachment to material things, of loneliness?

And after their encounter, he gives her a task, to go and announce the good news that, He is risen! That He will meet with them. “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord.’ (Jn 20:18) ” It was to Mary that Jesus appeared first after his resurrection. She was the first to announce the good news. The good news that Christ is risen! She was the first evangelist.

Even in our sinfulness, He comes to us and delivers us, heals us, merely with His voice. It is the power of love. The power of love which breaks all the chains. And once free, He asks you to go and announce it to others. It is not enough that you have this deliverance. There are people out there unaware of the love that awaits them. And he is asking you to go and announce it to others as well.

Like Mary, will we be excited to go and announce the good news that, by his death and resurrection, Christ has saved us? This is our call. Mary was in a place where she thought nobody can save her. Yet, the Lord proved her wrong. Today, he is trying to tell us the same. There is no situation which he cannot change, heal, deliver. Experience the saving power of Christ and like Mary Magdalene let us boldly go and announce, “I have seen the Lord.”

Ammu Zachariah lives in Maryland, USA with her husband and two-year-old daughter. Ammu was a 12^th batch fulltimer and is currently part of the Kairos Global Editorial Council.