Mary – Disciples – Peter – Thomas

Mary – Disciples – Peter – Thomas

What do these four have in common? And what might they have in common with you?

Mary Magdalene was in the throes of heartbreak. Her world had been shattered. The disciples were desperately afraid, hiding behind locked doors. Peter had failed Jesus completely. His failure, and his self-loathing and self-condemnation, were overwhelming.

Thomas doubted his close friends’ eyewitness accounts that they had seen Jesus alive. Not only did he doubt, but he also doubled down by challenging Jesus to appear again to him and to show him his wounds.

Perhaps you are experiencing heartbreak. Or you are “hiding from the world” with fear and anxiety. You may have failed Jesus – or a loved one. You may even experience doubt that Jesus is who he said he is, or that he has “overcome the world.”

Jesus met each of them where they were. He sought them out. He did not leave them alone to drown in their sorrow, their fear and cowardice, their abject failure, or their doubt. Jesus did not require them to “straighten up” and get themselves presentable to him, nor did he rebuke them with judgment.

He met them where they were – in their humanity.

And he will you, too.

Here is the gospel. You do not have to get yourself all cleaned up for Jesus. You do not have to perform to his expectations. You do not have to climb a mountain to present yourself to his throne.

He is seeking you out … just as you are. Just open the door and let him in. Let him into your heart for the first time, or let him into the deeper recesses of your heart – the parts you do not want anyone to see. The parts that do need cleaning up or cleaning out.

Jesus’ promise is this,

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” – Rev. 3:20

In Jesus’ culture, to eat with someone was to share personal fellowship and to be in fellowship with them. May you swing the door to your heart wide open to Jesus’ love, friendship, and fellowship.

Just one more thing:

In Jesus’ culture, to sit down to a meal with someone was a sign of peace and harmony. It still is. When the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, the New York Times published a photo of them shaking hands. But the Jerusalem Times showed them sitting down to a meal together.