It was a dark & gloomy day for the disciples and other followers of Jesus. They had seen Him mocked, spat upon, beaten, and then crucified.
All hope was gone, as far as they were concerned. He was their Light, but the light had been snuffed out by the hated Romans and the Jewish religious leaders.
And there they were, cowering behind locked doors, because they were afraid of suffering the same horrible fate themselves.
Then on the first day of the week, Mary Magdelene went to the tomb and saw it was empty. She hurried back to tell the disciples, and Peter and John came running.
What they saw was an empty tomb. John looked in, and he believed, “for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that He must rise from the dead.”
They went back in joy and amazement, but Mary stayed, wondering what it was all about. And Jesus showed himself to her. She was the first to see the risen Lord.
Something happened—no one knows exactly what—but it’s presumed that she threw herself at His feet in an act of worship and abandonment and clasped onto them.
He said, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”
Now this was the same Mary Magdalene from whom Jesus had cast out SEVEN demons. She was someone who had known unimaginable suffering.
Why was she grasping onto Him? Maybe because she was terrified that those seven demons might come back to her clean house and make her worse than before.
In this intensely human moment, Jesus’ words may seem hard but in fact are merciful. Mary cannot hold onto Him because He must ascend. But He would send another Comforter that she can cling to by faith—the Holy Spirit.
The Resurrection showed Him to be the Son of God with power. In time He would ascend to take His place at the right hand of the Father. Mary had to let go, as desperately as she wanted to cling to Him.
But no one could take away her faith. His resurrection power continued to give her freedom from the demons of this world even after He was no longer with her in His human body.
And here we are, feeling sometimes cold and abandoned on sketchy April days. There are times when we wish we had Jesus in the flesh to cling to, just like Mary.
The good news is we can cling to Him by faith, through thick or thin. His love continues to be poured into our hearts from the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit.
All we have to do is believe.
Written by Jay Trott
