VS. April 20, 2025 Easter Sunday Devotional

JOHN 20:11-16 | ¹¹ But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, ¹² and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³ They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” 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.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).

Jesus was wrongly accused of being a violent insurrectionist. He was tortured, convicted, condemned, mocked, cruelly crucified, and buried in a borrowed grave. His Resurrection was a great              vindication, a reversal, God’s stamp of approval on His beloved Son. Yet it was such a humble moment.

There were no angelic choruses in the Temple, no divine trumpets. There was no grand appearance before the Sanhedrin, no rallying of chastised crowds to surround a dumb founded Pilate. He         appears first not to His accusers or judges but to a beloved disciple, Mary, in the silence of the cemetery, and she mistakes Him for the gardener. The greatest moment in the annals of human history is a modest one.

Have you ever comforted someone in their grief?

Gracious God,

We marvel at Your modesty, given Your outstanding glory. Thank You for loving, dying, and rising again to help the broken and the lost, like me.

Amen.