Encounters with the Risen Savior: Listening for His Voice

Each year as we celebrate Easter, we often lead up to it by detailing the account of the Passion or Holy Week going all the way to the empty tomb. We celebrate the fact that “He is Risen” on Easter morning and then move on to focusing on other parts of Scripture.

It can be easy for us to lose sight of the fact that Jesus continued appearing to people after His resurrection for 40 days before He ascended to Heaven. What do we know about those days and appearances, and what can we learn from those encounters with the Risen Savior?

During the next few weeks, each Thursday we are going to take a look at one of the post-resurrection encounters with Jesus that are mentioned in the four gospels. Today we are going to start with the one we may have heard about on Easter Sunday: the women at the tomb.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all begin their accounts of the resurrection indicating that Mary Magdalene and some of the other women following Jesus headed to the tomb to finish properly preparing Jesus’s body for burial. When they arrived at the tomb, they found that the stone had been rolled away and an angel gave them that great message so famously quoted from Matthew 28:6 “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.” The women were then instructed to go tell the disciples.

After this happened, Matthew tells us that Jesus appeared to the women and they worshipped Him and went to tell the disciples. Mark and John single out Mary Magdalene and tell about her encounter with Jesus after His resurrection. John describes it this way in chapter 20 verses 14 though 18:

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means, Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord,’ and that He had said these things to her.

As we look at these encounters with the Risen Savior during the next few weeks, we will see that Mary was not alone in not immediately recognizing Jesus after the resurrection. Clearly He no longer looked the same. Even when He first spoke there was not an immediate recognition, but when He said her name something changed.

We don’t know exactly what it was about that that made her realize who He was. Maybe it was just that He didn’t give her ears to hear until that moment. Maybe she was too distracted by her grief until that moment. Maybe it was the familiarity of His voice speaking her name that finally broke through. Maybe He spoke her name with such care and compassion that she realized it could only be Him.

This makes me wonder: Do I listen to Him that carefully? Do I recognize His voice as clearly as Mary eventually did? Or do I fail to recognize His voice like Mary first did because I am distracted with my own thoughts and a difference focus?

My prayer today for me and for you is that He will open my ears and hear Jesus clearly. I pray that we don’t miss out on anything He is saying to us because we are too distracted to recognize His voice. Then when we hear His voice, let us be like Mary and boldly be able to tell others “I have seen the Lord.”