Risen Jesus

RISEN JESUS

a prayer to open

Help me experience your presence. Lead me to deeper levels of trust.

Give me the courage to put my hands in yours.

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

“Mary!” Jesus said.

She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.

• Use your imagination to enter into this passage of Scripture. Close your eyes and picture yourself there with Jesus. Where do you find yourself? Are you on the sidelines or at the center of the action? What do you see, hear, smell? What do you notice about Jesus?
• How did you experience Jesus in this imaginative time?
• Read Psalm 24. What does this hope-filled psalm reveal to you about God’s power, particularly as you read it in the context of Jesus’ resurrection?

Lord Jesus, you are risen! You are alive!

You are present! You know my name!

May I hear your call.

May I turn to your love.

May I live in your presence.