How Do You Comfort a Grieving Mother

Title:  HOW DO YOU COMFORT A GRIEVING MOTHER?

Text:  John 20:11-18

            How do you comfort a grieving mother who has just lost her son?  What do you say to someone who keeps visiting a grave?  Maybe we can find the perfect words where Jesus meets His mother at His own tomb!  In this story, Mary Magdalene and Jesus’ mother went to the tomb together.  Jn. 20:11-15

            “Why are you crying?”  Now those words are going to really give comfort!  They seem misplaced…inappropriate at the least…unless the One speaking to them knows something they don’t!

            As far as she knew, Jesus’ body was taken somewhere else.  She thinks He is the gardener.  Jesus could have revealed Himself, but He didn’t just yet.  He simply asks, “Why are you crying?  Who are you looking for?”

            Wouldn’t the compassionate Savior know the answer to these questions?  Of course!  So what’s the point in asking them?  I think it’s because Jesus wants to surprise us with a divine intervention when we are empty of hope!  God never becomes more real than when He surprises us by doing something we never thought possible!  Jesus is at His best when our life is at it’s worst!

            It’s not beyond the Savior to plan a celebration in a cemetery!  The gardener of the cemetery wouldn’t know the names of those visiting the graves.  And it’s when Jesus speaks her name that she realizes He’s not the gardener.  Jn. 20:16-17

            It’s not often you hear you name spoken by an eternal tongue.  But when Mary heart it, she recognized it.  And when she did, she made the right response…she worshipped Him!

            Just when life is the pits and your hopes end up in a tomb, Jesus plans a celebration!

            And here, at the grave where she buried her Son, He speaks, ”Mary…surprise!  It’s Me!”

            Do you need God to interrupt your hopeless situation?  Someday Jesus is going to do something bigger for you than He did for Mary.  One day He is going to open a whole lot more graves, and many names will be called…and yours will be one of them!

            Prayer – “Jesus, in this moment, call our name.  Give us the assurance that everything is going to be all right.”