Baptism Weekend Devotional Day 2

Baptism Weekend Devotional Day 2

DAY 2 – Tuesday

Daily devotional

Read

Mark 16:9-11, John 20:11-18

Ask

Today I am using John’s gospel to give another eyewitness approach to what you are reading in Mark 16. What did it feel like when Jesus called your name? Did you recognize him? Do you know God created you for something profoundly remarkable?

Reflect

On the morning after the Sabbath, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. Mary was bent over with grief. She had followed Jesus and his disciples from city to city, watched him heal the sick and free the captives, turn ashes to beauty, and mourning to gladness. She looked on as Jesus was taken and beaten and bound to a cross, and she watched as they buried him in a tomb, death having silenced the very life that changed her own. Like many women in Scripture, Mary’s tears were perhaps the last desperate words to the God she hoped was listening. The body she had come to anoint and care for was now missing, and she thought the gardener had something to do with it. In devastated affection, she pled for the body of the one she loved: “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him” (John 20:15b).

“Mary”, was all Jesus said. He called her name and she turned and recognized him. What did it feel like when Jesus called your name? Did you recognize him?

I love that Jesus used a woman as the first eyewitness to the resurrection. Not because I am a woman, but because people in the first century did not consider women’s testimony to be credible. You can research the Talmud and discover all kinds of information on this. Given the lack of credibility of a woman’s testimony it causes you to wonder why these women were written in at the telling of each account of Jesus’ life and death and they are the first witnesses to Jesus resurrection. Wouldn’t it had made more sense to have a more credible witness?

God chooses those whom we least expect in ways that are profoundly remarkable! God chooses those in whom we would more than likely overlook…those considered last and least to bear witness to the mighty works of God!

Have you considered yourself a person like this? You were created for something profoundly remarkable! Do you know that? You get to bear witness to the mighty works of God! This should be amazing news, even if it is mixed with fear.