“Recognising The Risen Lord Jesus Christ!”

“Recognising The Risen Lord!”(Jn.20:11-18).
Some Christian male chauvinist sometimes argue lamely that women are inferior to men because Eve wax an afterthought. Then one woman stated boldly that if man’s superiority over woman is because man was created first, then the animals are superior to man since they were created first.
If we were to go by first being superior, then women should boast of being superior Christians since it was a woman who first saw the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately women have willingly cowed under the dominance of men in the Church of Christ.
Yesterday we ended the story of the resurrection at the empty tomb. But the empty tomb could equally be that the body of Jesus had been moved to another place.
And that was exactly what Mary Magdalene thought. Peter and the other disciple went home after seeing the empty tomb. But Mary stood outside the tomb crying. When two angels asked why she was crying, she said, “They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him.”
Jesus himself appeared to him and asked why she was crying. She thought Jesus was a gardener, so she pleaded that if the gardener had carried Jesus away he should tell her where he had put him.
It is only when Jesus called her by name that the scale fell off her eyes and she recignized who he was. Then she cried out “Teacher!”
Mary went home and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord. She recounted to them her encounter with the risen Lord.
Yesterday we all rejoiced that the Lord is risen! But there is a sense in which he may appear to us today and we see him as a gardener or someone else. Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit should open our spiritual eyes for us to see and know the risen Lord when we see him in the Other!
Easter Monday prayer: Holy Spirit open my eyes to see the Risen Lord Jesus Christ in the Other. Amen!
Happy and blessed Easter! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.