“Rabboni!” (John 20:16-NIV)
I never liked school. You could say I was a school refusal. My mother would bribe me with quarters and fifty cent pieces (back when there was that) to stay in my first grade class room. It wasn’t the teacher, Mrs. Reed who was a very nice lady. I just wanted to stay home with my momma. And I was stubborn. I’d put my blond head on my desk with my fist clenched tightly around that piece of money and cry and cry. My memory fails me as to when I realized that no amount of crying would keep me from school. Learning my lessons lasted a long time. As a matter of fact life’s lessons linger for a lifetime.
Of course later on in junior high and high school I enjoyed all the extra curricular activities which overcame the school phobia. Still, testing beleaguered me. Even now I don’t test very well.
Mary Magdalene, a tested woman of faith learned to trust because of her trials. Demon possessed when first she met Jesus, she learned that He could and did free her from her tormenters. From that day of deliverance, she organized the first women’s ministry. In gratitude she served the entourage of followers and ministered to the needs of the Lord Jesus Christ. After witnessing the crucifixion in anguish of heart, she could hardly wait to minister one more time to His stricken body. One of the last at the cross, she was first at the Resurrection. This woman in Scripture whose name cries out through the centuries teaches us even more of life’s lessons from that first Easter morning.
Mary of Magdala, beset by grief, overwhelmed by sorrow, tested to the ‘enth degree, sought the body of her Lord. She couldn’t wait to get to the tomb, worrying the whole time how she could roll away the stone to get to her appointed task.
The Master Teacher taught Mary Magdalene forgiveness; He taught her freedom from bondage; He taught her agape love; he taught her ministry; he taught her that suffering serves a purpose; He taught her that this ultimate test at Calvary did not end in death but life everlasting.
At the moment, she wasn’t testing very well. She sought the Savior who found her rather than her finding Him. He was a one on one teacher. He was her Personal Instructor who spoke her name. In a moment’s time, Mary recognized the Master and responded to Him. “Rabboni!” Teacher… O to sit in that classroom.
From that moment on that graveyard gave way to the great mystery and became the world’s first school of evangelism. He commissioned her to go and tell His brothers that He conquered death. From the depths of despair to the heights of heaven, lessons learned at the feet of her Rabbi would never grow dim. Mary Magdalene passed that test with flying colors and flying feet as she ran to tell the GOOD NEWS.
Are you a school refusal in the Lord’s graduate school of suffering? Do you hate testing? I am and I do, but having the Risen Lord Jesus as my Rabbi makes a huge difference.
The lesson for today? He is risen! He is Risen, Indeed.
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