Live to Love Scripture Encouragement

John 20:15 “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’"
Remember John telling us that Jesus was buried in a garden tomb? Certainly the garden was tended by someone. Who else might Mary expect to see early in the morning if she thought someone had taken Jesus’ body. What’s more, Jesus’ questions seem like questions a gardener might ask.
Since she was standing in front of the open tomb, her reply makes sense. Maybe she thought there had been a mixup, and Jesus had been buried in someone else’s grave. The gardener perhaps had discovered the error and relocated the body with the intention of settling on a final resting place for the man later in the day.
So Mary offered to take the problem into her own hands, and take the body off the gardener’s hands.
It’s almost as if Jesus played the part for a moment like He played ignorant of the current events in Jerusalem as He walked with the two on the road to Emmaus. In both cases He gave them opportunities to express their hearts and love for Him. In this case Mary still wanted to honor Jesus even though she thought He was dead.
Have you noticed Jesus may do the same with us? He may leave us in the dark, so to speak, to give us opportunities to express our love for Him in a disappointing situation or confusing circumstance. The safest way to not miss those opportunities is to always be ready to love and serve. Are you ready?

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 20:14 “When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.”
That Mary didn’t immediately recognize Jesus should not surprise us. We read in Luke 24:15-16. “While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.” That morning with Mary was the first time that Jesus revealed Himself after His resurrection, and God at first prevented Mary from recognizing Him. Why did God do that? I’m not sure, but not recognizing Jesus when He’s right in front of you isn’t a strange phenomenon. It’s happened to all of us. Haven’t we all at some time or another been prevented from seeing Jesus in one of the members of His body because they didn’t appear as we thought they should? Haven’t we experienced mistaking a brother or sister in Christ for a husband, father, mother, wife, grocery clerk, bank teller, or pastor? There they were standing right in front of us, and we were so occupied with our own issues that we missed the opportunity to love and respond to Jesus.
I want to encourage you today with this thought. The more we intentionally practice living to love with Jesus, the more apt we are to recognize Jesus’ presence in others and love them with Him. Peter’s admonition in his first epistle is helpful advice. “Be sober in spirit.” 1:16. From a live to love perspective, don’t let anything in this life intoxicate you and prevent you from recognizing an opportunity to love Jesus by loving Him in another.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 20:11-13 “But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him."
From John’s account, Peter and John went to their homes with the same conclusion as Mary. Mary was weeping because she thought someone had taken Jesus’ body. However her mistaken conclusion was necessary to have her in the place where God wanted her. Consider how Jesus had already loved Mary Magdalene. She was demonized and delivered. Because she was forgiven much, she loved Jesus much. God chose Mary to be the first eye witness to His resurrection.
No offense intended, but I don’t believe this was God’s way of honoring women. I believe it was personal. In Christ, there is no partiality toward any natural class of people. Not only was this for Mary‘s highest good, but it was for the disciples’ highest good and ours. Jesus lived to love whoever God put in His path that morning. He still does! He will do it again today in you and me.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 20:10 “So the disciples went away again to their own homes.”
Had the disciples believed Jesus rose from the dead, do you think they would have split up and gone to their own homes? The implication is that they didn’t know what to do other for each of them to return to their own homes. This doesn’t seem reasonable if they believed Jesus had risen from the dead. It only makes sense if they believed Jesus’ body had been taken and laid somewhere else.
But what would they have done if they believed Jesus had risen from the dead (which they didn’t understand at the time)? We will see later what they did when they did believe He was alive, but from this verse, we can learn that when they didn’t know He was alive, they returned to normalcy—they went home.
Have we returned to normalcy? Are we living as if we don’t believe Jesus lives in us to continue glorifying His Father, manifesting the power of God, and pouring out His love in a dark world? Believers in Jesus Christ may have homes to return to, but they don’t live normal lives because Jesus lives in them. John wrote in his first epistle that we are as He is in this world (1 Jo. 4:17). John described what it is to be as He is in this world. “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jo. 4:9-11). So, have you been loved by God? Then live to love with Him today.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

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John 20:8-9 “So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.”
In these verses, John testified that he entered the tomb and saw the empty grave clothes and the rolled up face cloth. Then he said that they didn’t conclude that Jesus was risen from the dead because they didn’t understand the Scripture yet. What did they believe if they didn’t understand that Jesus was to rise from the dead? If we read these words in the context, they believed what they were told by Mary, namely, that someone had taken His body away.
Have you ever drawn a wrong conclusion because you didn’t understand the Scripture? I sure have—more times than I know. For instance, there was a time that I thought because Jesus rose from the dead that the proper response was that I was to live for Him. I have discovered in the Scripture that I drew a wrong conclusion. Jesus doesn’t need me to live for Him, I need Him to live for me! He was raised so that we might live in and through Him and that He might live in and through us. The Scripture, John 15:5, informs us that apart from Him we can do nothing. Jesus lives to change everything in our lives. He lives to love through us, and that purpose changes and affects everything we do. Today, let’s not make the same mistake the disciples made that first Easter morning. They believed the wrong thing. Instead, let’s live to love with Jesus today for His glory.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com