"Then the disciples went back to their homes, but 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 recognize it was Jesus.
'Woman,' he said, '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)."

John 20:10-16

This is one of my favorite passages of scripture. It was so good to hear it read in church today and to think about this risen man--this man who was God--named Jesus. This Jesus whom even death could not defeat.

Mary, one of Jesus' followers and intimate friends, was formerly a prostitute of sorts who gave herself to men. Men picked up stones to throw at her for her sin, but this man named Jesus walked into her life and he looked into her eyes...past the prostitute, past the filth and shame, past the fear, past the self hatred...and he saw the heart of a woman who longed for something bigger than herself. She longed to be noticed, to be loved. She was so affected by this man that she poured, literally poured, the most expensive bottle of perfume she owned onto his feet and cleaned them with her hair and her tears in a room full of watching men who despised her for it. This perfume cost her an entire year's wages, but money did not matter in the presence of this man.

She had been with many men in her life. She was used to being treated like dirt, to being walked over, to being used. She was used to being overlooked, being unwanted. She was used to being called, "Woman" instead of by her name, "Mary."

That is why I love this passage of scripture so much. This man named Jesus was not like every other man. He noticed her. He loved her. He appreciated her. He called her by her name.

This is why Mary was so broken when he died. It's why Mary stood crying outside his tomb even while his disciples, his twelve most dedicated friends and followers, went home feeling defeated. It was more than a crime and a heartbreak that Jesus' body was supposedly stolen and moved. It was the worst dishonor he could have ever received...this man, the only man who ever loved her for who she was.

When Jesus came and stood before her, I do not think it is only because Mary was distraught that she did not recognize him through her tear-matted hair. It was because of how he spoke to her...as if he did not want to cause a scene. He did not call her by her name, so she did not readily recognize the intonation of his voice or the look in his eyes.

Knowing she did not recognize him, Jesus said the only word that needed to be spoken.

Mary.

Maybe he said it in a whisper with tears in his eyes. Maybe he said it with a little laughter in his throat. Or maybe he said it while staring into her eyes, into the depths of her soul. However he said it, she knew immediately that it was Jesus.

In that moment, it is as if every event since the day she met Jesus came crashing down upon her from memory. Everything came together. She understood perhaps for the first time that he really was the God of the universe who three days prior had willingly given himself to be murdered for all of mankind. But because He was more than a man, the grave could not hold him. Indeed, He is the Life...and life and death can never abide with one another. This is why she cried out, "Rabboni!" meaning teacher, because she was admitting that there was still so much that she did not understand up until that moment. She was crying out in awe and in gratitude for what she was realizing for the first time...that everything she had ever hoped for was wrapped up in this man, this God standing before her calling her by name.

Jesus did not die and then conquer death in order for us to prove scientifically that there is a God. He was not spat on and beaten and the raised back to life three days later so that he and his disciples could take over the government and establish a literal kingdom. The God of the universe was not cursed and crucified and then brought to life so that his followers could stick their tongues out at all who doubted and say, "Nanana booboo!" Jesus did not and STILL does not have a political agenda or power struggle with men.

On the contrary, Jesus gave himself over to our death, to our sin, to our grave for the sole reason of setting us free. From the moment mankind turned its back on God, flipped him off and chose a different way, a great chasm separated us from Him. The only way to draw us back unto him, to give us a way out of our mess, to tear the veil of the temple from head to foot was to be slaughtered by the ones made in his own image, his prized possessions. But after taking this upon himself, after dying and being separated from heaven entirely, Jesus rose again to show that nothing, NOTHING, is more powerful than him.

Why does this matter? Because Jesus pursues us and draws us unto himself. He showed us with his ressurection that with him all things really are possible. He showed us that He is the only one capable of saving us, of defeating the crap we brought upon ourselves, of taking us to higher ground. His resurrection is a promise to those who love him and abide in him that they too cannot and will not be defeated by sin...that they too have been raised to life in Him. His only agenda from the beginning, his only priority was and is to demonstrate his love for us and draw us ever nearer to his heart.

I can think of nothing more beautiful than that.