Scripture: "Jesus saith unto her, Mary! She turned herself, and satih unto Him, Rabboni! which is to say. Master."—JOHN xx. 16.
Here we have the first manifestation of the risen Saviour, to Mary Magdalene, the woman who loved much.
Think of what the morning watch meant to Mary. It is not a proof of the intense longing of a love that would not rest until it had found the Lord it sought ? It meant a separation from all else, even from the chief of the apostles, in her longing to find Christ. It meant the struggle of fear against a faith that refused to let go its hold of its wonderful promise. It meant Christ's coming and fulfilling the promise: "If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." It meant that her love was met by the love of Jesus, and she found Him, the living Lord, in all the power of His resurrection life. It meant that she now understood what He had said about ascending to the Father, to the life of divine and omnipotent glory. It meant too that she received her commission from her Lord to go and tell His brethren of what she had heard from Him.
That first morning watch, waiting for the risen Lord to reveal Himself, what a prophecy and a pledge of what the morning watch has been to thousands of souls! In fear and doubt, and yet with a burning love and strong hope, they waited until He Whom they had known but little, by reason of their human feeble apprehension, should breathe upon them in the power of His resurrection life, and manifest Himself as the Lord of Glory. And there they learned, not in words or thought, but in the reality of a divine experience, what it was that He, to Whom all power had been given on earth and in heaven, and now taken them up into the keeping of His abiding presence.
And what are we now to learn ? That there is nothing that can prove a greater attraction to our Lord than the love that sacrifices everything and rests satisfied with nothing less than Himself. It is to such a love that Christ manifests Himself. He loved us and gave Himself for us. Christ's love needs our love in which to reveal itself. It is to our love that He speaks the word: "Lo, I am with you alway." It is love that accepts and rejoices in and lives in that word.
