Facepalm At An Empty Tomb

"Bottom line, guys, Mary is confused because she doesn’t know the real Jesus. She is looking for the wrong Jesus … a Jesus of her own imagination … her kind of Jesus. She is blind to the real Jesus. And the real Jesus has to come after her, to break through her fog. You see, if Jesus had just sat back and waited for her to get it … You know, some of us are like, “You keep searching and eventually you will find,” right? “If you work at it hard enough, if you work at it long enough, you’ll find the truth … your truth.” If Jesus had just stood there thinking, “I’ll just wait here till she figures it out, till she discovers who I really am” … I don’t think Mary would have ever found him. Because that’s not how it works. Salvation is not about our finding him, it’s about him finding us. God always loves us … first. God always nudges us, and draws us … first. God always calls us … first. And he always calls us, every one of us … first. Because God is prodigal with his grace. You’ve felt them, God’s nudges. The real question is, how do you respond? So Jesus says to Mary, so gently, “Why are you crying?” Guys, he knew! Grief? Disappointment … they killed him! Were her tears because she felt broken? Was her hope gone, her direction gone, her purpose for living gone? Were they tears of unfaith, disbelief … stupidity?" Stephen "Doc" Pattison, Lead Minister