Each of us will be Mary sometimes - Easter

 

By Emily Freeman

There is something special to me about John 20 the scene with Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb.

I have read it on Easter morning for the last several years, and interestingly,

I always try and read it by a window. I just try and read it in the morning sunshine.

I am especially looking forward to it this weekend. Easter is such a special day.

I consider it such a holy celebration. I think about it as the brightest day of the year.

Sunrise on Easter Sunday brings so much hope. There she was. Weeping near a tomb entrance.

Her world was turned upside down. Her heart had been broken.

Mary, quite literally, had just emerged from the darkest of nights.

Her Lord, whom she loved so dearly, had been bruised, broken, whipped, mocked, martyred, and hastily shoved into a borrowed grave. No time to mourn in sweet memory. She didn’t even get to say goodbye.

This was forced upon her and the other disciples with little recognized warning.

There was a night and a day and a night of tragedy and tears. At the first opportunity, she came to pay proper respect and found a stone rolled away. For Mary, the empty tomb brought her to her knees in agony.

His absence added bitterness to the pain. Isn’t it interesting that for this first and great witness of the Resurrection, the greatest symbol of Christian hope–the empty tomb–took her to despair.

How quickly these tears will turn to tears of rejoicing. I read with anticipation, almost forgetting how deeply she ached. My heart swirls with contrasting emotions as her sobbings echo through time.

Each of us will be Mary sometimes. We will feel hopeless and empty and hurt.

We will wonder why, and cry out for relief, and reach for redemption. We will have our Fridays of pain and our Saturdays of waiting. In those days, look up. See the empty tomb.

The high priest of good things to come is not there.  For He is risen.

The greatest evidence that the Atonement is real is the Resurrection.

It is proof He has the power to deliver–even from death, the seemingly most unconquerable enemy of them all.

An empty tomb means the world has a second chance. An empty tomb means that sins can be forgiven.

An empty tomb means that anger and jealousy and hurt and bitterness can be purged from our hearts.

An empty tomb means that mothers can be reunited with their children and wives with their husbands.

An empty tomb means there is hope.  There will always be hope. The Resurrection is the greatest evidence the Atonement is real. The greatest evidence the Resurrection is real are witnesses–beginning with Mary and continuing on through the ages. A group of noble souls testifying of Christ crucified and risen from the grave as an everlasting assurance to the world that your Sunday will come.

What a special weekend we have ahead of us.

God bless all of you.