HE KNOWS OUR NAME

HE KNOWS OUR NAME


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_BXOiqo808

10 Then they went home.

11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

16 “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). John 20:10-16a

In the society we live in today, you can sometimes feel like you are just a number, can’t you? You might like to think your mailperson knows your name, but he/she is more interested in the street address number and zip code than your name. If you doubt this, leave the person’s name off a letter and mail it. They will get it! On your drivers’ license, the number is more important than your name The IRS and government keep track of you, primarily by your social security number.



I am not criticizing these entities that identify people by number. As a computer person I know this is more efficient and timely. Here at CHBC, anyone who gives money is assigned an “envelope number”. (But if you don’t know your #, don’t worry we have a list with your name and #.) This makes record keeping a lot simpler. But there are times when we want to be called by name, aren't there? Certainly, church is a place where we like to be known by name. Even in a large congregation, people like to “think” the pastor knows them. He might not know everything about a person, but at least he should know their name, they think. Our names are important and we want to be called by the correct name. A friend’s daughter just recently got married. They had a big reception planned with a disk jockey. The DJ was supposed to announce the couple. He called the bride Kristina instead of her name Kristi. Not a good thing!



We can excuse such mistakes as human error, we might think. But even so, you would like for your daughter to be called by her correct name a her wedding! Names mean something, don't they?



At graduation from high school or college, the speaker can call your name. That is one thing. But when someone you really know, someone you really respect, someone you really need calls out your name - well, that is just different. The speaker at the graduation who is just trying to pronounce your name correctly might not even know you, but the person who calls out your name in the middle of a busy place, a friend whom you have shared much time with - you know their voice. Even if you were blind, you would recognize their voice, and their presence is a comfort. The way they call your name; that familiar sound. If is a child, that can mean the difference between panic and security. In the middle of a packed mall- many people of all different sizes pass by them - it is a strange feeling - feeling lost, and just when they are about to yell for help, they hear a familiar voice, their mother's voice. And suddenly they know that thing is going to be alright. To be called by name, not just by anyone, but someone who knows you as well as you know yourself.



Isn't this the feeling Mary probably had? The text relates that the disciples “went home”, and Mary was left at the grave of Jesus weeping. As she knelt, peering into the tomb, she noticed two angels, one at the foot and the other at the head of where Jesus had laid. They asked her, “why are you crying?”” “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

After she said this she turned and Jesus was standing there, but Mary did not recognize him.



Here Mary is, faithful to her Master, trying to be comforted by being near where Jesus ' body lay, and she was convinced that someone had broken into the tomb, and stolen his body. Resurrection was probably not even in her scope of reality yet. Resurrection was magical thinking. She had been the only one who was so distraught and that she remained at the site of the tomb. It is important to place ourselves in the shoes of the disciples and Mary for a moment.



It is my belief that the followers of Jesus did not even understand Jesus' teaching about his resurrection. They hardly understood the necessity of his death. And we read the manuscript twenty plus centuries later, and in hindsight, think it would have all fallen into place for us. Not so easy. Think about the Jewish thinking of what a messiah was going to be. It was enough that the followers had remained with Jesus, who was not exactly what the traditional Jew would have thought remotely close to a messiah. And the thought of a messiah dying? That was hardly believable. But not just dying; being convicted and executed in the most demeaning way known to that culture, crucifixion. “Surely if Jesus was the Messiah, he would not let this happen!”



We would probably have thought very similarly. We have a hard time understanding delayed gratification. We want immediate justice. Jesus doesn't offer immediate answers all the time. When we become Christian all the wrongs we have experienced are not suddenly made right. The rough places made smooth. Jesus was a different kind of messiah than anyone could have imagined. The followers of Jesus were having a difficult time processing what his death was all about, and now the tomb was empty; broken into by thieves or the Roman government or Jewish authorities.



Discouraged, beaten up, defeated spiritually – we’ve all been there haven’t we? Is it possible that Jesus has walked right past you, and you have not recognized him? We are not that different from Mary, who thought Jesus was the gardener. Has anyone ever come into your life and then departed, and perhaps they touched your life in a way you never thought possible, and it is only later that you realize that they were used by Jesus? Maybe Jesus doesn't literally walk past us, but his spirit does. Many times through the lives of other Christians.



And we are like the two followers on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). We are walking with the risen Lord, yet we fail to recognize him. We cannot look past our circumstances. We cannot get past our grief, our anger, our fear. These negative feelings blind us from seeing the risen Jesus. Mary thought it was a gardener, and the man asked her why she was weeping. “Who are you looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she asked him to tell her where he had taken Jesus' body so that she could care for it. And then the familiar voice says, “Mary.”



And she knew immediately who she was in the presence of. Her feelings probably went from distress and fear to comfort and peace. “How could it be?” Jesus alive. But he was alive, and all he had to do was call Mary by name. And what a difference that made in her life. How many times before his death had she heard the comforting voice of Jesus say, “Mary.” How many times had this voice brought belief to her unbelief and a sense of forgiveness to her guilt? This voice through which she had learned so much in just the brief time they had together.



In the Christian way of thinking, we believe in a 'personal' God. Don't we? A God that was so interested in us that he became human. He inhabited a human body, and became very personal with his followers. Jesus cares for us. We even get the idea that Jesus knows us as a person, on a personal level. You believe that, don't you? Scripture affirms that. In the Gospel of Luke 15:3-7, Jesus uses the analogy of a sheep and a shepherd.



3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

One commentary on this passage reads: “Because each sheep was of high value, the shepherd knew that it was worthwhile to search diligently for the lost one. God's love for each individual is so great that he seeks each me out.” That is an analogy of a personal God. Christianity is unique in that sense, as a religion. Jesus goes on to say in John’s Gospel that he is the good shepherd and that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A commentary on this passage reads: “A hired hand tends the sheep for money, while the shepherd does it for love. The shepherd owns the sheep and is committed to them. Jesus is not merely doing a job; he is committed to love us and even lay down his life for us.”

3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. John 10:3

In verse 14 of Chapter 10 in John's Gospel, Jesus affirms, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me.” This is no distant Jesus or God - this refers to a personal being who has the capacity to know us individually and love us. Jesus knows us by our name and not by some random number assigned to us.

The Shepherd knows his sheep. He knows each one by name. The Shepherd knows us. He knows our name. And he will never forget it. God says “See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands”. (Isa. 49:16).

Quite a thought, isn't it? Our name on God's hand. Our name on God's lips. Maybe you've seen your name in some special places. On an award or diploma or name plate on your desk or maybe even on a walnut door. Or maybe you've heard your name from some important people—a coach, a celebrity, a teacher. But to think that your name is on God's hand and on God's lips . . . my, could it be?

Or perhaps you've never seen your name honored. And you can't remember when you heard it spoken with kindness. If so, it may be more difficult for you to believe that God knows your name.

But he does. Written on his hand. Spoken by his mouth. Whispered by his lips. Our name. And not only the name we now have, but the name he has in store for us. A “new name” he will give us… (Revelation 2:17)