Stone slab where Jesus' body was lain

Jane Catherine Rozek in Jerusalem, 2016

I thought I knew the Easter story until I prayed and sobbed on the stone slab that Jesus’ body once stretched out on. Until I read the black and white details in the first report of his resurrection… It was a woman – who first saw Jesus Christ alive after his crucifixion on the cross! Can you visualize it? I can, because we
also took this picture of the burial caves near the old city of Jerusalem!

Imagine~~~~

Mary Magdalene, with her women friends, comes to a small cave, the burial tomb where the officials had taken the body of Jesus. But now the boulder is rolled aside.  They run back to tell Simon Peter and John, men who were also close friends to Jesus. Mary returns with them. When the two men enter the tomb, they find only the herb soaked strips of burial linen left, laid out on the slab.

Simon Peter and John go off, not knowing what to believe. Where did the body go? Has Jesus actually been resurrected?

Mary stays behind to cry some more, to mourn. She leans over, peeks inside the tomb herself, and sees two angelic beings in white sitting on the stone slab. They ask her why she’s crying.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead. He has risen!” Luke 24:5-6

And then when she turns around, she sees a man standing there and he too, asks her why she’s crying.

Yet she thinks He’s the gardener!

She doesn’t recognize Jesus in his new form!

Not until he says her name. “Mary.”

Now she turns to him and cries out, “Robboni!” which means teacher. But Jesus doesn’t allow her to hug or touch his dead and damaged physical body, claiming he must first return to his Father in Heaven.

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:18
Olive Grove, Garden of Gethsemane

Ancient olive trees in Garden of Gethsemane, 2016

But that’s just the initial encounter.

That same day two other disciples walk the seven miles to a nearby town when a stranger joins them on the road. They share the local news of the previous local events and the stranger responds with wisdom and insight. The disciples end up inviting him for supper.

Only when their new friend pulls the bread apart to serve them with the meal, do they realize…it is Jesus.

Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. Luke 24:31

Instantly, poof! But they didn’t recognize him all afternoon!

So now they hurry back to Jerusalem to meet with the other disciples. And while they stand, talking about their miraculous experience, Jesus zaps into the physical realm, and supernaturally enters the locked upstairs meeting room to greet them.

They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” Luke 24:37-39

Jesus has to show the nail wounds on his hands from the cross to prove he’s the Christ they know. He has to eat food with them before they can believe Jesus is alive again.

Days later, some of those same men go fishing at night in the small Sea of Galilee. They don’t catch anything until a man on shore hollers out and tells them to throw their net on the right side of the boat. The net fills up so full they couldn’t pull their catch in but have to tow it behind the boat into shore.

Then the man at the edge of the water greets them and says,

“Bring some of the fish you have just caught.”  So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many, the net was not torn.  Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. John 21:10-12

~~~~~

Sudden miraculous events in our lives are difficult to accept as miracles. We write them off as coincidences, or just being lucky. Yet, maybe we too, haven’t recognized the presence of Jesus appearing to us.

What about the inner peace and love we feel watching a beautiful sunrise or sunset? Perhaps in a stranger’s guise who shares wisdom? Maybe in some metaphysical synchronicity that carries significant personal meaning…

This is the meaning of Easter, the risen Christ!

That Jesus lives. He enters our realm at will.

He connects, communicates, He cares for us.

He wants to live in our lives.

♥ I’m going to watch for my next encounter! Will you know HIM when you see Him?

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* Excerpts and links to this material may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jane Catherine Rozek and TheCelestialProposal.com website.