Easter Sunday is such an amazing day to celebrate the risen King Jesus and all His majesty.
He came, He lived, He died, He rose from the grave, and now He’s alive, reigning at the right hand of the Father.
But this isn’t the end. The story doesn’t stop here until Jesus comes back.
It’s simply the official new beginning.
Little did I know, the scriptures tell us so much about what Jesus did for the next 40 days here on earth after He rose from the dead, but before He ascended to heaven, to sit at the right hand of God. (Mark 16:19)
This captivates me.
The Bible tells us that after He rose, Jesus showed Himself to alive to His disciples, appearing to them over a period of 40 days (Acts 1:3).
Isn’t that incredible?
I mean, Jesus could have just ascended immediately, having provided, taught, and explained more than enough for his followers to live and love and build the church.
But He didn’t.
Jesus went and made appearances in the flesh to many people: Mary, His disciples several times, His brother James, even to a crowd of 500.
Jesus didn’t even leave them alone for 40 days. What love this is! I sometimes wonder if He was waiting with them, as long as He could, until the Holy Spirit was issued to take His place.
The Bible tells us that Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene from whom He had cast out seven demons.
Mary Magdalene.
There is an old hymn that was written about this very encounter, and it is written about Jesus meeting with Mary after He rose from the dead, He Walks With Me.
Pretty fascinating to me how Jesus shows Himself first to the one who was arguably the messiest follower.
She was one of the women who was at the tomb, bright and early.
The one who got up first thing and went to finish the burial anointing of the body of Christ with oils and spices even though her King was gone, or so she thought.
The one who runs toward to tragedy, rather than from it; the one who walks into the trenches of heartache and pain and handles things that have to be done.
She wasn’t hiding.
She wasn’t paralyzed.
She was desperately brokenhearted and even though He was now crucified, she still had to show up to finish the work.
I can so relate to messy.
And I love this truth. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for always finding and meeting with those of us who are just messy.
“And as they went, behold, Jesus met them and said, Hail (greetings)! And they went up to Him and clasped His feet and worshiped Him.”
Matthew 28:9 AMPC
“Now Jesus, having risen [from death] early on the first day of the week, appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had driven out seven demons.”
Mark 16:9 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/mrk.16.9.AMPC
“But Mary remained standing outside the tomb sobbing. As she wept, she stooped down [and looked] into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said to her, Woman, why are you sobbing? She told them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. On saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing [there], but she did not know (recognize) that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you crying [so]? For Whom are you looking? Supposing that it was the gardener, she replied, Sir, if you carried Him away from here, tell me where you have put Him and I will take Him away. Jesus said to her, Mary! Turning around she said to Him in Hebrew, Rabboni!–which means Teacher or Master. Jesus said to her, Do not cling to Me [do not hold Me], for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brethren and tell them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God. Away came Mary Magdalene, bringing the disciples news (word) that she had seen the Lord and that He had said these things to her.”
John 20:11-18 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/jhn.20.11-18.AMPC
Mama Talks Jesus 
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