RELEASED: Living From Our True Identity, Part 3
SCRIPTURE
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
… Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’s body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
- John 20:1-2, 11-18
MEDITATION
Stepping into John’s narrative of that first Easter morning we encounter Mary in the still dark morning, shocked and running to Peter and John as she wonders what happened to Jesus’s body. After the two disciples come, look and leave, she remains outside the tomb weeping. She then leans to look inside. Mary is encountered by two interactive angels and a man—Jesus—who she supposes is the gardener. As she stammers out her heartfelt plea, Jesus, almost interrupting, says “Mary!” She stops, turns and immediately recognizes him: “Rabboni!”
Everything changed as he said her name. It all clicked. If only we could see this moment of declaring her name in slow motion and in both the physical and spiritual realms! She saw, she understood, she was seen, she then ran with confidence back to the others declaring the good news.
In some of my first listening prayer experiments, after I decided to take what I thought I was hearing as really from God, I would ask questions and expect an answer. When I asked what he called me, I heard, “My Delight.” Another time, “My Bright One.” Wow, that is actually the meaning of my name, Ellen—Light or Bright One. Could it be that he was calling out something placed in me long ago, by him, through my parents? In these early encounters I truly felt seen and heard and connected, and it began to change everything.
There is something profound when, like Mary in this passage or Hagar in Genesis 16, or even me in my listening prayer, God speaks your name and interacts with you. You feel seen and heard and able to run with confidence the race he has called you to.
In the years since those early listening times, he has deepened and enriched my understanding, and given me some assignments to use my name/identity as a light carrier in partnership with him.
I know he loves to say your name too.
REFLECTION
Take some time to hear him say your name. Ask him these questions and listen for the Spirit’s whispers back:
Jesus, who do you say I am? Who am I to you?
What do you call me that is hard for me to see? What do you see in me that I have a hard time seeing in myself?
What name or identity have you placed in me from my beginning?
What name do you want to call to life in me in this season?
Finally, consider what your given name means. How have you seen this meaning shape your life or identity?
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ellen Uebele, a long time Novo friend, currently serves as volunteer staff on the Gospel Movement Shepherd Team. She lives in Portland, OR with her husband Keith, and has three adult children, a lovely daughter-in-law, and two cute grandchildren.