Tag Archives: gardener

Agony To Ecstasy!

Bible Study, , ,

AGONY TO ECSTASY!

“Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the feet. They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she said, ‘and I don’t know where they have put Him.’ At this she turned around and saw Jesus there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus.” John 20:11-14 NIV.

Poor Mary! Her eyes were so swollen with weeping and her mind so dulled with grief that she seemed almost to have lost her senses. Two angels were sitting in the tomb where the body of Jesus had lain but they didn’t even startle her. She did not react in fear or wonder. They asked her a question and she replied as though she were talking to her next-door neighbour.

She did not appear to be surprised at the sight of unearthly beings or wonder who they were or what they were doing there. To her at that moment it might have been an everyday occurrence to see angels sitting in a tomb guarding empty burial cloths!

Her reply was exactly what she was thinking. Someone had stolen her Lord’s body and she was distraught because she no longer had free access to the place where she could go to mourn and remember. She had nothing left of Him but memories, and now those memories were stained by more loss, not only the loss of His presence but now also the loss of His earthly remains.

What could she do now but go away and nurse her terrible grief? The pain in her gut was unbearable. She felt as though she would die of sorrow and disappointment. Great sobs wracked her body as she turned to walk away, dismissing the unusual event as though it were of no consequence.

Through the blur of tears she saw someone standing outside the tomb, but she did not recognise Him because tears and grief had blinded her.

“He asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking He was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him and I will get Him.”’  John 20:15 NIV.

Really, Mary! Did you think that you, a frail woman, could carry away a heavy, dead weight corpse? And where would you put Him? In your house, in the front room? She was not only blinded but irrational at that moment. She did not even recognise her beloved Master’s voice. She expected nothing but to mourn at the tomb of the one she loved more than life.

I try to imagine how Jesus felt at that moment. Mary was broken with grief. She had watched Him die. She had seen where He had been buried and had come to mourn for Him…He was ecstatic with joy. He had endured the cross, conquered death and was on the point of revealing Himself to the first person who would ever see Him alive in His resurrection body.

“Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned towards Him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means “Teacher”).” John 20:16 NIV.

What a moment! Disclosure! Revelation! Understanding! Unparalleled delight! Mary exploded with joy! In an instant, her sorrow vanished and was replaced with ecstasy. Jesus was alive and that was all that mattered. Her name, uttered by her Lord, changed everything. All the tender love of the Son of God for a daughter He had rescued and given new life, was packed into that one word.

He had done it! He had taken the devil on and won. Mary represented the whole human race and especially those who would, like her, now be able to embrace Jesus as the Son of God and their Lord, entrust their lives to Him and submit to His loving authority over them for the rest of their lives. She had seen Him, heard Him and she was content.

Have you seen Him with the eyes of faith? Have you heard Him call your name? Do you know that He is alive? Forever? And so are you?

The True Vine

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THE TRUE VINE 

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:1-5 NIV.

Jesus and His disciples had left the upper room where they had eaten their last Passover meal together. They made their way through the dark streets of the city towards the olive grove called Gethsemane. As they walked slowly through the vineyard outside the city wall, Jesus must have stopped and fingered the vine leaves, recalling His intimate knowledge of the Scriptures.

Israel was symbolically God’s vineyard. In Isaiah 5, the prophet sang a song about His vineyard – “I will sing of the one I love, a song about His vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut a wine-press as well.”

Imagine God’s disappointment when, after all the preparation and care He had given His vineyard, it produced a crop so bad that it was worthless to Him. “Then He looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it only yield bad?”

Because His people had failed to fulfil His destiny for them, He had no option but to send them into exile, away from His presence in His temple and from their land so that they would learn to distance themselves from the idols and the wickedness of the surrounding nations.

“Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.

“The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines He delighted in. And He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.” Isaiah 5:1-7 NIV.

There was only one “vine” that could satisfy the desire of the Father for good grapes and abundant fruitfulness — Jesus Christ, His own Son. Instead of Israel, He was the true vine that represented and took the place of God’s people who had failed to live up to His expectation. Jesus was not only the true vine but the way for God to replant His vineyard and reap crops of good grapes through those who would believe in Him.

The way of fruitfulness is the way of abiding or remaining in union with the true vine. Being joined to the vine and remaining in fellowship with Him is the only guarantee that we will produce the fruit that will bring delight to the heart of the Father. The vine, the stock, is perfect and needs no cultivation. It is the branches that need constant attention so that they will be as fruitful as they can possibly be.

The vine-dresser has ways of improving the fruitfulness of the branches. He lifts up, cleans and reattaches the branches that trail down into the dust, not “cutting them off” but treating them so that they will become fruitful again. He prunes the fruitful branches, removing everything that will hinder the production of grapes.

The branches have no other responsibility but to remain in the vine. As long as we are attached to the vine and receiving the sap of its life, we shall be fruitful — revealing the nature of the vine in our lives. The Father’s role is to cultivate and prune the branches according to His skill as the vine-dresser so that the fruit we bear is the fruit that reveals the true nature of the vine.

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty One

Devotion, , , ,

DAY TWENTY ONE

 Then the disciples went back to their home,

but Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb

and saw two angels in white

seated where Jesus’ body had been,

one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken away my Lord,” she said,

“and I don’t know where they have put Him.”

At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,

but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

“Woman,” He said, “why are you crying?

Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking He was the gardener she said,

“Sir, if you have carried Him away,

tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned towards Him and cried out in Aramaic,

“Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

John 20:10-16

 Can you imagine this moment! Mary’s eyes are swollen with crying.  She does not recognise Jesus.  She pours out her grief to the “gardener” and then hears one word, “Mary!” and her world turns the right way up again.