Linger until you have met him

Last year I was reading John 20 about Mary and the disciples coming to the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning. As I reflected on it, God showed me how it is an allegory of Bible study. I felt it was something I should share back then but didn’t know how to.  I remembered about it today and think that the blog is the way I should share it now.

In the chapter, first Mary comes and sees the stone rolled away. Then John comes and looks in at the door of the tomb. When Peter arrives he actually goes in and sees the grave clothes.

How does this relate to Bible study?  Mary seeing the stone rolled away is like the simple immediate observations we can make when reading a Bible passage. She simply saw the stone rolled away but didn’t know what to make of it.

Then John looking in the tomb is like looking more closely at a Bible passage. Looking carefully at the words and thinking about them. John examined the tomb more closely to check that not only was the stone rolled away but that the body of Jesus was no longer there. He still did not know what this meant.

Peter going into the tomb seemed to me to be like delving more deeply into the meanings of the words and their interpretation. Peter was the one who saw that the grave clothes were lying there. He found out some more information by going deeper. But he still did not fully understand that Jesus had risen.

The next bit really blew me away. Peter and John go away again but Mary stays weeping. She then sees the angels in the tomb, one at the head and one at the foot of where Jesus lay. I felt God whisper, “The angels were there all the time. I just opened her eyes to see them.” I felt God showed me that for those who linger and long for more revelation, he opens our hearts to truths and messages He has for us in His word that cannot be found by mere intellectual study and digging. The angels were in the tomb when Peter and John went there but they were in a hurry and on a fact finding mission and so they missed out on this further revelation.

The final part of what God showed me left me weeping. Because Mary still stayed. Her heart was seeking Jesus. She did not want to go without finding him. She continued to search and long for Jesus and stayed even after the angels had spoken and it was then that Jesus himself came to her and revealed himself to her. When he said her name she knew it was him.

I felt God say “The greatest treasure is for those who truly seek Me in the scripture, whose hearts are not satisfied until they have found Me.” It is to those who seek and linger and don’t give up that I reveal myself. Then they know that they have met with Me.

Most of the time I just read the Bible in order to have ‘done’ my Bible reading for the day. How little I linger. How quickly I move on. I read for information, maybe I dig a bit deeper and read some Bible notes to get a better understanding. But am I seeking a revelation? Am I prepared to wait, to linger and to press on to seek meeting my Saviour Himself?

I want to be more like Mary and long to meet with Jesus enough to linger until I see him.

Jesus, increase my longing for you so that like Mary I seek you and don’t give up until I have met with you and heard your voice speaking to me.  Amen.