Welcome to our Together on Mission podcast, where we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, scripture, prayer, and meditation, and then continue that conversation with Him throughout your day. Your host is Travis Twyman, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. In this season of the podcast, we're going to be talking about scripture as an epic, an epic that invites unique men and women to play their crucial role within the unfolding story. That is the case with Esther, Isaiah, Mary, and Paul, and you and I.
But it's there and it's real and it's serious. And sometimes it can be downright overwhelming. We're going to spend a couple of podcasts talking about the resurrected Jesus, but more particularly talking about people and lives that Jesus encountered, that the risen Jesus encountered. So he enters into their story and summons them into his larger story, because the reality is it's not God's story or elements of God's story that really actually keep us from giving an overwhelming, unequivocable yes to entering into God's story.
It's actually our story that keeps us from giving that yes to entering fully into God's story. I mean, of course, we don't like to own that. We don't like to say that it's our story or our pain or our fear or our doubt or our unbelief or our failure or our insecurities or whatever. We don want to take ownership that it could be our story that actually keeping us from taking that step into the grand adventure of God story But the reality is it not God story or elements of God story that are actually keeping us from giving that big yes to getting caught up in God story It's actually our story.
And so what God does, what the spirit of God does, and what scripture is pretty much the story of is God arriving, entering into our stories, whatever our story is, saying what needs to be said. And it's always specific, unique, and personal, and then summoning us into his larger story. So in John chapter 20, beginning in verse 11, And we meet Mary Magdalene, and she is in significant pain. So could we just think for a moment about the pain that we are experiencing?
And some of you are like, oh, I don't have any pain. Next podcast. And, you know, maybe you haven't encountered pain yet. Sometimes you have to have a little bit of mileage under your belt before you encounter some pain.
But once you've lived for a little bit of time and once you've had kids, you know, certainly by the time you've had grandkids, you're going to be acquainted with pain. And it could be your pain. It could be something that's happened to you, a sickness, shattered dreams. you know, unrealized vision.
Um, it could be a difficult relationship or it could be pain as a result of watching someone that you love be in pain, choose a certain kind of lifestyle that you don't believe leads to life. Someone that you love is sick. Someone that you love is not adjusting to a new environment or to a new school, um, struggling financially. But there's also just the looking out into the world and seeing the atrocities and the war and the earthquakes and the school shootings and all of the venomous diatribe that happens in the political system and on and on and on it goes.
There's just a lot of pain. And sometimes pain can be a bit debilitating. Sometimes it can just keep us from actually moving. And again, that's what we're going to talk about over the next couple of days, just this idea that it's not God's story.
It's not the stuff that's in God's story that keeps us from engaging in the adventure of the great story of God. It's actually our story and elements of our story and sometimes specifically pain So if we could just bring whatever element of pain we wrestling with right now bring it before God put it out on the table and maybe own that this is just difficult This oh this is this is hard to get over Well, John chapter 20, verse 11. Now Mary stood outside the tomb and she was crying and she wept. And as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb.
And she saw two angels in the tomb, seated there. One where Jesus' head had been laid and one where his feet had been laid. And they asked her, woman, why are you crying? And that's not a bad place to stop for just a moment.
Ask yourself, why are you crying? And maybe you're not crying. Maybe that's not how you handle pain. But however you handle pain, why are you crying?
Where is the pain at? What's going on? Is it in your heart, your past, someone else that you love? Is it going on in the world?
What is, why are you crying? Where is that heaviness of pain that's rumbling around in your heart or your mind? And Mary basically says, well, Jesus' body's gone. He died.
He's gone. Hope is gone. Everything's gone. My friend's gone.
The one who I thought was my savior is gone. the Messiah is gone. The best man I've ever known is gone. And now his body's gone.
There's just absolutely no hope anymore. And Mary is weeping. And because this is a 10 minute podcast, I don't have time to read the entire story, but she turns around and she sees Jesus, but she doesn't recognize him. And then Jesus says to her, Miriam, he calls her by a new name and he renames her.
And unfortunately we don't get all the details of this incredible story, but one of the things that is so important is that when God calls someone, it's always unique. It's always unique. And so there's something about Jesus saying to Mary, Miriam, that is speaking into her pain. It's bringing life into that death.
It's bringing beauty out of ashes. It's bringing light out of darkness. Mourning may last all night, but joy is going to come in the morning. Grieving might last all night, but joy is going to come in the morning.
And so Jesus specifically and uniquely enters into Mary story that is keeping Mary weeping there at the empty tomb And I want to listen this morning for what God might say to us in the midst of our pain whether it's our pain or the pain of a loved one that's causing us pain or the pain in the world or pain from a long time ago or pain every time you think about a certain relationship that you're still wrestling with, that heaviness and that pain. She turned around and Jesus said to her, Miriam, now that might not be what Jesus is going to say to you. Actually, it's not what Jesus is going to say to you, but he has something to say to you. And the story is incredible.
You know, basically Jesus tells her to go announce to the disciples that he's risen from the dead. He gives her a commission. He basically says, Mary, dry your tears and go and announce and take your role in this story that is really getting underway. And so the point is that Jesus shows up specifically and uniquely to Mary in her pain, in her tears, calls her Miriam.
There's a resurrection of Miriam and she's commissioned. And so, again, where does it hurt for you? Because of what someone's done to you, what someone has said to you, what someone didn't say to you that should have said to you, maybe it's the pain of abandonment or the pain of failure, whatever it might be, but let's just take a little bit of time and let's let the Spirit of God speak exactly what we need to hear. Reach into that small story and invite us into the larger story that is underway and is therefore summoning each one of us to play the unique role that we are indeed called to play.
We'll talk soon. Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by it today. If you had any questions about the Inland Vineyard Church, our ministries, or our Sunday services, feel free to connect with us on our brand new app, which you can find in the Google Play and the App Store.
And check out our social media pages like Facebook and Instagram. Or even check out our website at inlandvineyard.org. Thank you.