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Resurrection Love
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 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.
“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 toward him and cried out in Aramaic,
“Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).”
John 20:11-16
Mary discovers the empty tomb. The disciples are confused and do not know what to make of it. Mary is crying. Jesus appears to be gone. Then Mary turns around to see who she thinks is the gardener and Jesus responds with “Mary.” Jesus calls her by name, and she instantly knows He is the risen Lord.
Back in 1912, Dr. Adam Geibel asked C. Austin Miles to write a hymn text that would be tender in every line and bring hope to the hopeless. This was a time in history when the first Balkan War began, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank, and the Novarupta eruption occurred in Alaska (the largest volcanic eruption in the twentieth century).
Miles opened his Bible to his favorite chapter, John 20, and he was drawn into being a part of this dramatic scene, when Mary knelt before her Lord and cried out “Rabboni!”, meaning my Teacher, my Master. Miles was so moved after reading this passage that he wrote the lyrics to “In the Garden” as quickly as he could and in the same evening composed the music.
If you are like I am, you have sung this favorite hymn for years and never connected the hymn to all that happened that first Easter morning. Like Mary in the garden, we have the assurance that Jesus walks and talks with us wherever we are. He calls us His own. What resurrection love!
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
“In the Garden” composed by C. Austin Miles
Lori Riddle
McCurdy Ministries Board of Trustees
From Pickerington, OH
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