Saturday, March 25, 2023

Easter: Called by Name

 "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. 

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." John: 10:3


 There may be seasons in our Christian lives when we wonder if the Great Creator God even knows who we are. We may look at conditions and circumstance which we face in life and we and ask " does He even know that I exist?"

We may feel alone and even abandoned by our God. We can be like Mary who stood outside of the tomb of our Lord weeping. Jhn20:11-18 

Our lives, like Mary’s, can be turned upside down. Things that we put our trust in and vested out hope in have come undone. Nothing seems to be right everything has gone amiss.

We can be like Mary in our Christian live. We believe, and have confidences as long as things are going well and then, the unaccounted for occurs, and things come crashing down around us.

We may feel that Jesus is not with us, we may even feel pressured by friends and associates who speculate on the cause of difficulties, some , going as far as asserting that our hardships are the result of and evidence of divine displeasure towards us.

 Seeing Only an Empty Tomb

All this abounds, and we ask "have we misunderstood Him?" do we truly know Jesus, or just know about him? We may feel that our faith is misplaced.

We may peer into the empty tomb and know that Jesus is not there, but miss the most important thing of all.

We may even be able to quote Scripture regarding Jesus' resurrection, we may know that Jesus is resurrection, yet miss the point again. We may see only an empty tomb and that is all that we see.

But the resurrection is more than just a vacant burial place that was once occupied by the dead body of our Lord. The resurrection is, that our Lord lives and stand with us even if he goes unrecognized by us; as Jesus was with Mary.

Jesus Calls Our Name 

Even as in the garden as Mary weeps in perplexity; Jesus is there. She sees Jesus now only as a Gardener, not who he is , yet he is still there with her unrecognized. 

Even as Jesus engages Mary, she does not yet see him for who he is. Mary, at that moment, still sees Jesus as dead, having only been carried off to another location.

"Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jhn: 20:11-15

It is only after our Lord Jesus address Mary, calls her by name, does the realization come. Mary's eyes are then opened to see that it is Jesus who is with her, she sees that Jesus lives, that the bounds of death could not contain him.

We too can be like Mary, we stand outside the empty tomb of Jesus we see that it is empty, but maybe he is just removed, still dead, that Jesus is powerless to help us , our lives have fallen into disarray or our hopes have not come to pass, we feel alone.

It is in such moments that we can fail to see the truth, that Jesus is not removed, dead and powerless to help us, but rather, that Jesus is there even if we mistake him only for the gardener.

It is when Jesus calls us by name, that our eyes are opened we see him and we recognize Jesus as "Rabboni”, we see that Jesus lives, that.

The resurrection speaks not just of a vacant place among the dead but rather proclaims that Jesus lives and is with us. The resurrection is more then an event it is who Jesus is.

“I am the resurrection and the life." Jhn: 11:25

But this opening of our eyes comes only when Jesus calls our name.

"Jesus said to her, “Mary.”She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”)”. (16-17)

the Apostle St. Paul prayed that all of our eyes could be open to see all that He has called us to.

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people" Eph:1:18

 Jesus Knows Us

This calling us by name should not surprise us, he knows us all, and will not forget us even in our difficulties. It is as we read in the Prophet Isaiah 

"See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me" Isa:49:16 

 Jesus has inscribed your name, and all our names, even upon the palm of his hands, this reflects the eternal commitment that he has made to each and to all of us all. 

"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand" Jhn:10:28

Our Lord has called each of us to by name so that we too see that Jesus lives and is with us. Jesus has spoken your name and called you that you might believe and see that Jesus lives and is with you.

Benediction: May we each and all here the voice of our Lord calling our names that our eyes may be open and see that our Lord is here with us , outside the tomb in which he has laid, that Jesus is here to help us and comfort us, and to give us life, today, tomorrow and forevermore .Amen.










Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor

Topinabee Community Church

Topinabee Michigan

If You Would Like to Know More About or to Support the Ministry of Topinabee Community Church You Can go to Our Web Site.

https://topinabeechurch.org/index.html

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                       “If Its Not About Jesus, Its Not About Anything!”  

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