John 20: I Have Seen the Lord

John 20 offers a clear message of the Christian faith: Jesus is alive.

More specifically, John provides several eyewitness accounts of people who saw Jesus after his resurrection. The first person to see Jesus? Mary Magdalene.

Jesus could have chosen Peter, John, his mother Mary, or anyone else he desired to appear to first. Why Mary Magdalene?

We don’t have all of the reasons to answer this question, but one observation that came to mind as I wrote out this chapter was this:

Jesus shows up when we show up.

Let me explain: Mary Magdalene was with the first group of women who came to the tomb of Jesus on the first day of the week, Sunday morning. The tomb was empty, Mary wept, and Jesus appeared. Peter was not at the tomb at daybreak, nor were any of the original Twelve apostles. But Mary was.

Mary’s past included demon possession and a bad reputation in her community. But Jesus changed all of that. Now she had receives forgiveness and a new life. She wanted to be near Jesus, even in his death.

And in her mourning, she experienced the resurrected Jesus.

One application for me in these words is that those who see the Lord are those who go where he is. He speaks through prayer and through the Bible. If I want to hear from him clearly, I need to go to him in prayer and seek him through his Word.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author or co-author of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of the New Testament in 2011 at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.