He Knows My Name

Monday, March 31, 2014            He Knows My Name

John  20: 11-18

The details in the conversation between Mary and Jesus in today’s passage are life transforming for me!

Mary is lost in her grief. The tomb is empty. In every other encounter between humans and angels, the humans pull back in fear and awe. Mary’s grief is so consuming, she seems unmoved by her encounter with the angels, and offers the angels a simple reply to their question. In her grief, she didn’t recognize Jesus standing before her, and offered him a simple reply to his question. Then Jesus called her by name, and everything changed.

Has Jesus every called you by name? I haven’t had this experience often, but I have heard him call me by name. I remember a time in March 1990 when I was weary and burned-out. As I sang in a chapel service during a Tres Dias retreat, I heard Jesus say to me, “Alex, I have left the 90 and nine and come for you.” My life changed that day because the promise of scripture was fulfilled in my life: Jesus “calls his own sheep by name. . .” (John 10:3b).

Next, consider the message Jesus gave to Mary: “But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17b). Jesus didn’t say, “go find my disciples” or, “go find my servants” or even, “go find my friends.” Jesus said, “go find my brothers.” Another name Jesus has for you my dear friends is, brother or sister! The Lord of the universe knows you as his brothers and sisters. Jesus, the Lord of the universe, was preparing to ascend to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God. Jesus related to Mary, and he relates to us, in the perfect Trinitarian unity he prayed for us in John 17.

Take time today and open your heart and your mind to embrace the intimacy of the way the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit relate to you, and “be transformed by the renewing of your minds” (Romans 12:2a NRSV).

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.