Wednesday, April 7

Prayer: Thank God for being so willing to spend time with you personally today. Ask him to allow you to sense his nearness as you open his word.

Read:
John 20:10-16
Then the disciples went back to their homes, but 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.

“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.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

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


“Why are you crying?”
It’s a question every parent asks a thousand times. As our children grow up they skin their knees, suffer bumps on the head, and strike out in little league baseball games. As a result they cry. And a caring parent responds by scooping the child up in his or her arms and saying, “Why are you crying?” or “Tell me where it hurts.”

Mary has gone to the tomb in order to perform the ritual of anointing Jesus’ body properly for burial (a task which there was no time to accomplish on the day of the crucifixion). She is brokenhearted for many reasons. She has lost her Lord; she has lost her Teacher; she has lost a great friend; she has lost hope.

So great is her sorrow that she fails to recognize the one standing before her. He asks gently, “Woman, why are you crying?”

Like a loving parent holding a crying child, Jesus invites her to open her heart to him. “Why are you crying?” “Tell me where it hurts.”

And he does so for each of us as well.

Take some time in prayer to invite Jesus to walk with you through the rooms of your heart. Allow him to ask you, “Why are you crying?” He cares about your pain and he wants to bring comfort and healing to the places that hurt the most. Will you share your pain with him? Will you allow him to touch the part of you that you most often hide from others?

Thank him for knowing and speaking your name today!

Brian Coffey