Rabboni
“Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.” John 20:16
Depending on how you count, there have been twenty or so really world changing moments. This has to rank as number one. This moment was more important than the first self-replicating cell, the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs, the first spoken word, discovery of fire, the wheel, writing, farming, gunpowder, moveable type, the telescope, calculus, the steam engine, the airplane, the electric light bulb, the radio, the telephone, the atom bomb, the personal computer, or the Internet.
If you’re not familiar with the story in the Bible, here’s a quick summary.
Jesus was captured by the Jewish authorities and turned over to the Romans for sentencing. He was tortured and died during a gruesome form of public hanging. A Roman soldier standing guard punctured his heart with a spear just to make sure. He was buried in a donated tomb. Mary Magdalene and the rest of the apostles were grieving in hiding. They felt that it was all over. The Pharisees had won. The dream and their hopes for a new world died along with Jesus. They were confused, depressed, and frightened that they might be next.
Mary Magdalene however, was going to do her best to make sure that Jesus body wasn’t subjected to any additional desecration. After the Sabbath passed, she went to check on the tomb.
Her worst fears were justified. The tomb had been robbed. The stone blocking entry to the tomb was moved. The tomb was open and Jesus body was gone. She saw what she took to be two men in the tomb. She was certain that his enemies had stolen the body and these men were probably involved. She was heartbroken but also fearless. When asked by them why she was weeping, she didn’t think of the risk to herself, but simply said honestly that she was one of this man’s followers and was devastated that someone had stolen his body.
As she turned to leave, she bumped into another man and again assumed that he must be involved. She asked him directly if he knew where the body had been taken. If so, please tell her and she would retrieve it herself.
This man looked back at her tenderly. With infinite compassion and love, he called her by name, “Mary”.
At that moment, the world changed forever. Mary looked back at this man, recognized that it was Jesus, and said “Rabboni” or master.
In that moment she realized that everything that He had said about Himself was true. He had defeated death and demonstrated that life is both spiritual and eternal. She also realized that this demonstration was not only for His benefit but also for her. If this was true about Him, it was also true about Mary and every other person that ever did or will draw a breath.
The world forever changed in that moment because one woman realized that death had lost any power it seemed to have over life, truth, or love.
Mary Magdalene ran back to tell the apostles what had happened, but many of them refused to accept that the world had changed. They thought she was crazy and wanted to continue to live in the old world that they knew. But that’s the interesting thing about these events. Once they happen, things change forever.
More than 2000 years later, we are still learning what eternal life means for each of us, but what we do know is that the world will never be the same.
Happy Easter.