Day of Resurrection and Rejoicing

“ Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them, came to the tomb, bringing spices which they had prepared…Behold, two men stood by them in shining garments…they said to them: ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ And they remembered His words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles” –Luke 24: 1, 4, 6, 10 (NKJV).

The day of death and darkness was behind them. The day of rest and waiting was gone. This was the first day of the week, a new day, a new week, a new and glorious beginning. It was the day of resurrection and rejoicing.

But as the women approached the tomb in the garden with their spices to anoint the body of Jesus, they were still downcast, still mourning the passing of their best Friend, their Rabbi, for some their Healer, for all their beloved Lord. I put myself in their place, especially Mary of Magdalene’s lone vigil, the first to see the risen Lord. I can imagine her fear in approaching the cemetery when the sun was not yet up. Every shadow had its threats. Were not the Roman soldiers still about to wreak havoc on anyone who might disobey the Roman law? And she thought she had a task to do: to anoint the dead body of Jesus for burial. And then, from somewhere within that garden she heard the familiar voice of Jesus call her name: “Mary!” Immediately she recognized him as the “Rabboni”—revered teacher.

When Jesus calls us by name, and believe it, He knows each one of us, knows our names, we should immediately respond as Mary did. And Mary went forth from that garden with a message in her heart and on her lips. Imagine her excitement when she told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, alive!

I want to go back a moment to how the graveclothes were laid in the tomb when Jesus arose. John records that the “linen clothes were lying there” (in the tomb), but “the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself.” This seems on the surface to be but a matter of housekeeping, folding the napkin or linen cloth that had covered Jesus’ head. But when we examine the custom of that day, the servants knew that if the napkin were carefully folded and laid beside the plate when the master had to leave the table, they were not to take away the elements of the feast, but that the master would be back to finish the meal.

Thus the napkin, the cloth that covered Jesus’s head in death, neatly folded and lying in another place from the graveclothes He had abandoned in the tomb, meant that Jesus was returning. He had not finished yet!

And, indeed, that was the case exactly on this Day of Resurrection and Rejoicing.

Mary Magdalene was the first to see the risen Lord.

Later He appeared to the other disciples.

And the neatly folded napkin has another meaning: Jesus will come again.

The resurrection was just the beginning of New Life. Jesus’s final promise has not yet been fulfilled. He said, “I will come again.” His napkin lies folded and waiting for the Master’s return to finish the feast! The Resurrection is the beginning of the feast and the rejoicing. There is more to come! We have yet to see Him coming on the clouds in great glory. What anticipation we have, thinking about His return! He fulfilled His words to rise again! He will fulfill His promise to come again. Selah!

Prayer: Today, Lord, may we like Mary of Magdalene and the disciples of old, declare: “He is not here! He is risen!”

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010