John 20:1-20 (NIV)
Read by: Kathy Haug
Darkness and Stillness. After the longest Sabbath they had ever known, shock and pain hung in the air. Their hearts were broken. Their eyes were red and swollen from tears. A horrifying passover, the silence of Saturday, and still no appetite for lamb or bread. How could this be? Was it all a nightmare? Maybe He wasn’t who they thought he was. What hope was there now? But he was like no one they had ever known! He did things, said things that they never imagined that they would see or hear.
Sabbath was ending. Night was almost over, the sun was about to rise. The first day of the new week is about to begin. And perhaps the only place she felt like she could be was near him, near the place where he lay. To grieve, to cry, to remember. . . So Mary got up and went to the tomb.
----------REFLECT----------
1. What moment stood out to you in this passage? What image, What emotion?
2. Have you ever wondered why Jesus is mistaken as a gardener? John starts the gospel off with the words “in the beginning” and follows the creation narrative through all the way to Jesus laying to rest on the 7th day of the week. And now it’s the first day of a new week when Jesus shows up as a gardener… John’s trying to help us see that when Jesus stepped out of that tomb… the first day of new creation had begun and he is the gardener. In what ways have you seen Jesus as a gardener of new creation in your life, planting seeds, pulling weeds, watering, pruning?
3. As characteristic of John’s gospel, Mary doesn’t at first recognize Jesus, yet he engages her pain. “Woman, why are you crying?” Are there people in your life who are in pain? How might Jesus be calling you to engage their pain, even if they don’t yet recognize him?
----------CONNECT----------
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