Easter Sunday (April 5). I have seen the Lord

Prepare to Listen.  I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.
 
Prayerfully Read John 20:1, 11-18
1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb….  11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.  As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb;
12and 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. 
13They 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.’  14When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.  15Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?  For whom are you looking?’  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.’  16Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’  She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher).  17Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’  18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
Jesus’ first question in John was to two disciples of John.  He asked them, “What are you looking for?”  They were invited to “Come and see.”  His first question at the empty tomb after his resurrection to Mary Magdalene was: “For whom are you looking?”
 
Left alone at the tomb, Mary looked again into it and saw two angels in white.  She ignored them, didn’t even respond to their question about why she was weeping.  She turned away and was face to face with Jesus, but didn’t recognize him.  He too asked why she was weeping, and also, “For whom [not what] are you looking?”
 
She might have answered, ‘A dead body.’  But that’s not what she was truly looking for.  Did she remember Jesus’ promise to rise again on the third day?  She wanted him—alive.  Her joy overflowed when she heard him call her by name, “Mary!”  Recognition was instant.  She’d found what she was looking for—her living and much-loved Lord.  Unlike the first disciples, she wasn’t given an invitation.  Instead, she was commanded to go back and proclaim the good news to his disciples: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
 
Instead, she proclaimed, “I have seen the Lord.”  Later, they too would see him and would tell the absent Thomas, “We have seen the Lord” (Jn 20:25).  The fact that Jesus didn’t stick around didn’t matter.  They had seen what they were looking for.  It was enough.
 
Perhaps the most important question we face is this: For whom (or what) are you looking?  What’s your answer?  And if you don’t know, hear Jesus’ invitation: Come and see.
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, may I see you today in the people I meet, the events of the day, the places I go to.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  I have seen the Lord.