Jesus’ Words in Red God Where Are You?

Jesus’ Words in Red

God Where Are You?

"Why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"

Mary went to the tomb to find comfort in a dead body

But Jesus came to comfort her in what she could not touch

When your heart is broken what are you looking for

"Why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"

God Where Are You?

When life is troubling it is

sometimes hard to see the Lord.

Doesn’t the scriptures say…

“Never shall I leave you

never will I forsake you”

Mary had gone to the tomb of Jesus.

She found it empty.

She was grieving the death of her friend.

She took comfort in her friend’s dead

Body, but her friend’s body was gone.

She had nothing to hang on to.

It is like losing a loved one

where the body is never found.

All of us have had times

we wondered where is God.

Mary looks into the tomb, but she

could not recognize the angels there.

Jesus was there, but she

did not recognize Him either.

Both the angels and Jesus

asked the same question…

"Woman," … "why are you crying?

Who is it you are looking for?"  

Mary was looking for a dead body.

She was looking for the wrong thing.

I wonder how many times we

are looking for the wrong thing.

I wonder how many times the angels and Jesus are

standing with us and we can’t see them for our tears.

What we are expecting or looking

for is less than what God has prepared.

Think about it…

 Had she found Jesus’ dead body, she

would have only found a dead friend.

But Jesus was more than a friend,

He was the resurrected Christ.

 

Something she had

never experienced before.

 

Even though she had been told of the

resurrection, it was not comprehensible.

It wasn’t until Mary heard Jesus call

her name that she recognized Him.

You can just image Mary

as she cried out… “Teacher”.

Rising from her deep grief wanting to hug Jesus.

  

But Jesus said…

  

"Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.

 Go instead to my brothers and tell them,

'I am returning to my Father and your Father,

to my God and your God.'" 

Jesus still had to go to the Father…

 Not only for her, but for all of us.

The Scriptures say…

23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Hebrews 7:23-25

Whatever our sorrow is,

Jesus is interceding for us.

The interceding is to save us completely.

To get us through the process.

To take us from our place of grief

and tears to the glory He has for us.

There was more for Mary

than a dead friend.

 There was more for Mary

than to touch Jesus.

There was a process to bring

her into complete salvation.

Jesus points out one more thing…

His God and Father is also

our God and Father.

We are programmed to

hang on to the physical.

But for us to be saved completely

we need to hang on to the spiritual.

We need to have confidence

that Jesus has not forgotten us.

Because He who has begun a good

work in us will complete it.

Philippians 1:6 

The question isn’t…

 Where is Jesus?

Our prayer should be…

 Help me to see Him.

Because in all your tears

He is calling your name.

Scripture Reading

John 20:1-17 NIV

20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 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." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 "Woman," he said, "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."

16 Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

17 Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"