Mark 16:9. Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
In the days following the resurrection Jesus appeared to a lot of people. Hundreds of people. These appearances are what we will look at next in this Eastertide series. They begin right away, on Easter morning. As far as we can tell, Mary Magdalene is the first person to see the risen Jesus.
Who was Mary Magdalene?
Mary Magdalene was a woman from the town of Magdala that sat by the sea. As our verse tells us, she once had seven demons inside of her. Those demons must have made her life so terrible. Having one demon living inside of you would be bad enough but seven. It wasn’t normal for people to have a demon in them (it still isn’t). Something had to go pretty wrong in your life for it to happen. And demons wouldn’t just leave a person, someone would have to get them to leave.
The Bible says that Jesus cast out the demons from Mary. Yay Jesus!
Does it surprise you that Mary Magdalene is the first person to see the resurrected Jesus? Maybe it seems like she doesn’t deserve it. Like she must have been pretty bad to get seven demons living inside of her, so why does she deserve the privilege of seeing Jesus alive first?
Or maybe you think that she should be the first to see Jesus. The bible says that after Jesus cast out her demons, Mary became a disciple of Jesus. She travelled with him, helped take care of him, bought things for his ministry, and stayed with him at the cross. So Mary does deserve to see Jesus first.
Well, we need to remember that none of us deserves anything from God. We don’t deserve for Jesus to have come from Heaven to live with us on Earth. We don’t deserve for him to have died on the cross for us. And we don’t deserve to see him after he rose from the grave. Why? Because, like Mary Magdalene, we are all very sinful and the only thing we really deserve is to be separated from Jesus forever.
But one thing Mary did do right is that she went to the garden where the tomb of Jesus was. This is how John’s gospel describes it:
John 20:1. Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
Mary was looking for Jesus that Easter morning and she met him there in the garden! But at first she didn’t know it was him.
John 20:16-18. 16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
Mary knew Jesus’ voice that morning. When Jesus spoke her name she instantly knew it was him. We can only imagine how happy she was to see him alive.
What are you looking for? Who are you listening to? Have you learned to listen to the voice of Jesus yet? You can. He talks to us from the Bible and from inside our hearts. If you know Jesus, then you have Jesus living in your heart (not seven demons, thank goodness). From your heart Jesus will tell you what to do, how to trust him, and how to love others.
One day Jesus will take us all to live with our Heavenly Father. Until then we can hold on to him in our hearts and tell others I have seen the Lord.
You: How can we hear Jesus even though he is not physically with us?
You with Jesus: How can you look for Jesus today like Mary did? Where will you look for him?
Prayer: Father, Jesus will bring me with him to your Heavenly home. Please let that day come soon. Amen.
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