Mary Magdalene came at daybreak to the tomb of Jesus to anoint his body with funeral spices. She had witnessed it all: Christ’s brutal crucifixion, His last breaths, and His last words, “It is finished.” She had watched as Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus gently removed His body from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.

It had all happened on what we now call Good Friday. The Jewish Sabbath began at sunset on Friday and lasted until an hour after sunset on Saturday. During that time, no work could be done. According to Jewish law, the penalty for breaking the Sabbath Commandment was death. And so Mary Magdalene waited. Those hours must have been a cruel time for her, filled with tormenting memories of the horrors she had witnessed during Christ’s crucifixion.

First thing Sunday morning, she made her way to the tomb where the body of Jesus lay. Roman soldiers had sealed the tomb and guarded the entrance. Mary worried if she would be able to convince them to roll the stone away for her so that she could administer the spices. To her shock, she not only found the stone rolled away, but the guards gone, and the tomb empty. She began weeping, fearing someone had stolen Christ’s body. She turned to find Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize Him.

And isn’t that the case when we are distraught, or stressed, or overwhelmed by life? We can’t see Jesus. We don’t recognize Him, even when He is standing in front of us.

When Jesus said Mary’s name, however, she immediately recognized Him and fell to her knees. Everything at once fell into place. Jesus had told her that after his death he would rise in three days. Without a doubt, He was the Son of God. He had risen, Indeed!

Jesus told Mary to go to His disciples and tell them what she had witnessed. And so it was that Jesus, the Risen Christ, commissioned a woman to announce His resurrection to the fearful and distraught disciples who were hiding behind locked doors in an upper chamber.

Mary Magdalene must have run from the garden to tell the others about her encounter with Jesus. Can’t you envision her long black hair, shimmering in the morning sunlight, flowing behind her in the wind? Perhaps she tripped a time or two, catching herself, palm against cobblestone, to stay upright. She probably raised the hem of her skirt to keep from stumbling on it as she raced up the stairs to the upper chamber where the disciples were hiding. Banging on the door, she must have announced herself, knowing they wouldn’t open the door for just anyone. Gasping for breath, her heart pounding, radiant with joy, she announced to all, “I have seen the Lord!”

I have seen the Lord. Those five words changed the course of history. The resurrection of Jesus confirmed He was the Messiah, the Christ, the only Son of God. Before He ascended into Heaven, He appeared to over 500 people. Both secular and Jewish historians of the time confirm that Jesus was crucified and buried, had risen from the grave, and appeared to many after His resurrection. (Examples include Roman historian Tacitus, Jewish sources including Josephus and the Talmud, and other ancient writers including Thallus, Lucian, Phlegon, and Mara Bar-Serapion.)

This Easter morning, I pray that you, like Mary Magdalene, will recognize the Risen Christ as your Savior. God promises us that the resurrection of Jesus means salvation and eternal life for all who believe. (John 3:16 and Romans 10:9)

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Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

“Mary!” Jesus said.

She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.

John 20:11-18