It’s been said that the sweetest sound to someone is their name on someone else’s lips.
Have you experienced that: someone walks up to you and says your name? Or perhaps it’s someone you’ve not seen in a long time, and they say your name. It’s special. It’s personal. It’s more than a word; it’s emotional.
Jesus knows this about us; He made us this way. And we’re going to see this in action as we read in John 20:11-18.
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.
John 20:11-18
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.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
New International Version
Early on Sunday morning, Mary was crying at the tomb’s entrance. She was crying for several reasons: not only had Jesus been crucified three days earlier, but now, it seemed someone had taken His body away (verse 13). Mary feared that His body had been mistreated. Treating the body after death was very important to the Jewish religion. Their belief in bodily resurrection made them treat the body (after death) with great respect.
But His body was gone.
The story of Jesus was about to change radically, starting with the least likely person. Not Peter. Not James. Not John. But Mary from Magdala in Galilee.
When she first heard Jesus’ voice, she mistook Him for the gardener. In her grief, she didn’t know it was Jesus.
But then, He said her name, “Mary.” Then, she knew the voice of the Master. He knew her name and called her by it.
When she told the others what had happened, she declared, “I have seen the Lord!” Could there be any words more filled with promise and hope than these? The Master, the Teacher, the Friend had stood before her eyes. Everything had changed now.
Everything changes when we see the Lord, whether we realize it or not. Could we have experienced so many church services and religious events that we have grown dull to the power of seeing the Lord? The resurrection of Jesus assures that everything He said was true. He was not merely speaking as a religious guru with great advice for humanity. He was speaking, in fact, as God Himself. He was God in the flesh. He laid down His life, and He took it back!
Hallelujah! We have seen the Lord—and He knows our name! And as a result, everything has changed.
Life Meets Theology 