and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” The presence of the Lord will end all our tears forever. Then each person said one word only. "Jesus saith unto her, Mary.” She had already had the un speakable privilege of hearing an angel address her, but this voice meant more to her than the voices of the whole of the heavenly host. When Jesus had used the general term “Woman” she was quite unmoved. But when Jesus spoke her name, that was entirely different. His personal knowledge and His deep sym pathy at once aroused her attention and enabled her to see through her tears. As our names are what separate us from the teem ing millions around us, calling a person by name dis tinguishes him from all the people around him. How thrilling it is to hear our name on the lips of the one we love! Jesus gave it as one of His marks as the Good Shepherd that He calls His own sheep by name (John 10:3). As Nebe has put it so well in these words: “ If it is the glory of the great God who made heaven and earth that He tells the number of the stars, and calls all by their names (Psa. 147:4), that He brings out their host by number, and calls them all by names (Isa. 40:26), it is likewise the glory of the Son of God that He is the Shepherd who calleth His sheep by name and leads them out; that He turns His eyes upon each individual and takes him to his heart.” When Jesus said the one word "Mary,” it was the word which dried her tears and so opened the way for the fullest comfort. As the Lord said to Moses hundreds of years earlier: " I know thee by name” (Exo. 33:12). To know that the Lord has a personal interest in us is both gratifying and heartening. Mary then said her one word: “Rabboni.” It is a word for “Master” which has overtones of personal interest and devotion — “my own beloved Master." Jesus was for Mary her Lord and Master. Mary was right in using this title for Jesus. Just before the crucifixion He had commended the disciples’ use of it. “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am” (John 13:13), was His word to them. Her heart was filled with joy as she realized that once more she was in the Presence of the One she thought she had lost forever. Mary at once revealed her joy and her devotion. Jesus then told her that there would be a new rela tionship between them. “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." “Do not cling to me,” Jesus says. The form of the word which Jesus used suggests that Mary was al ready clinging to Him as He spoke to her. From that time onward, communion between Mary and the Lord would be on a spiritual and not on a physical level. That is, she would enjoy exactly what we enjoy today, the spiritual presence of the Lord.
Mary did not need to fear she would ever lose His personal presence again. After He had gone back to His home in Heaven, He would be nearer to her than He had ever been earlier. In fact, He would never be absent: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20), is His encour aging promise to Mary and to us. Instead of clinging to Him, Mary was to be His first messenger. “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” Having been comforted and stimulated herself, she was able to go to the downcast and dispirited disciples and bring hope and the comfort of the Lord to them. Here was a vastly different Mary from the one we saw at the tomb. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” said the Psalmist (Psa. 30:5). How true were those words for Mary! Sadness was gone; tears were dried once and for all; Mary was radiant with joy. She had seen her beloved Master again. He was now her risen Lord, and she was happy to serve Him. Tears were turned into joy because what looked like a defeat was now seen to be a great victory. When the battle of Waterloo was being fought, all England was waiting in anxiety for the result. The people of those days were dependent upon the signals flashed from station to station by semaphore. One of those stations was on the tower of Winchester Cathedral. Late in the day it received the signal: “Wellington defeated.” Just at that moment one of those sudden English clouds of fog shut out the light falling upon the land. The news of the disaster quickly circulated in the city. Later, it reached London; the whole land was in gloom bordering on despair. Then the fog lifted. The message was completed: "Well ington defeated the enemy.” Sorrow turned into joy, defeat into victory. It is the presence of Jesus, the risen, victorious Lord that gives us joy. But why should His presence make so much difference to life? To know that Jesus is with us is to be sure of a love that never fails even when ours fail. It is to be certain of a love that is personal to ourselves and to our individual need. His is a love which singles us out from the crowd while not excluding any other person from that same love and care. How can we be sad when He is with us forever? In the biography of the well-known English poet, Lord Tennyson, by his grandson Charles Tennyson, this incident is related. As the poet was enjoying a walk with his niece, Agnes Weld, he exclaimed: “God is walking with us now, on this Down, as we two are walking together, just as truly as Christ was with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus.” Then he added: “To feel that He is by my side now as much as you are, that is the very joy of my heart.” That joy is ours too just now. Jesus has risen. Jesus is present with us. Joy! ■
MARCH, 1970
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