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Having purchased spices late on Saturday evening after the Sabbath had ended (Mark 16:1-2), Mary Magdalene and the other women got up before dawn and made their way in the dusk of morning to the tomb of Jesus. Upon arriving at the tomb, the women found the stone moved away and the tomb open and empty (John 20:1).

Mary's mind raced to try to understand what she was seeing. "What had happened to his body?" "Where have they taken my Lord?"

After alerting Peter and the beloved disciple, Mary Magdalene was left alone in her grief and confusion:

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 foot.

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 standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

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."

Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher").

Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

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 20:11-18 TNIV).

This incredible, simple, and touching appearance of the resurrected Jesus' to Mary Magdalene is filled bits of glory-filled wonder. Confusion becomes conviction. Horror transforms into hope. Weeping is replaced by witness!

Mary Magdalene, once terrorized by seven demons (Luke 8:2), is saved once more by Jesus. Her intended acts of faithful kindness to Jesus' battered and lifeless body become the turning point of human destiny. In a time where women were to be neither seen nor heard, the resurrected Jesus commissions Mary to become the apostle to the apostles: "Go instead to my brothers and tell them ..." (John 20:17). Her voice will be the first human voice to proclaim history's most profound truth: "I have seen the Lord!" (John 20:18).

And for us, the journey of this one woman reveals the marvelous truth each of us so desperately needs to hear: "You are known. Your tears are noticed. You are valuable to me. You have a mission."

Is this the most important question we will ever answer?

No matter your gender, no matter your past, no matter your brokenness, no matter your loss, the resurrected Jesus longs to enter your life as Lord and give you comfort, hope, community, and purpose. And if you ever doubt this is true, remember Mary Magdalene and her trip with spices to an empty tomb.

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click here.

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