Some thought he was the Messiah. So did she. But she believed there was more to him than that. She had seen him forgive sins, something only God could do, and she believed that somehow he had that power. She heard him tell the leaders of her people that he and the Father were one. That's why they decided to kill him, but she believed that he was right. Certainly being with the Master was somehow like being with God. If that is blasphemy, so be it. Let them kill her too. But they hadn't killed her or his mother or the other Mary or John. They let them stand near the cross while they taunted and tortured him.

She had seen crucifixions before. The Romans did it all the time. But she had never realized how horrible and brutal and monstrously evil they were. But that's the way life is. It's brutal and short and evil and then it's over. And we keep on waiting for a Messiah who will get the Romans off our backs, and they keep killing anyone who might be a leader. But Jesus had been different. His power was of another kind. And yet they had killed him too.

So, she'd come to the tomb--for one last visit. But the stone had been taken away. She ran to find Simon and the disciple Jesus loved the best. And they came and went in and they saw the cloths and returned home. But she couldn't leave just yet. What's this? Good Lord, two angels. "Why was she weeping?" Well, because they've taken his body away and she didn't know where they put it. Remarkable--angels--but so what. Angels appeared to other people too. A lot of good angels had done for the people of Israel. Enough of these angels. Where is he? Where did they put him? Now all of a sudden there's a man who wants to know why she's crying and who she's looking for. He must be the gardener. Maybe he knows. "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away."

And then it happened. Her life came back to her. She was healed. Her hopes and dreams were changed forever. And my God, the world had changed. One simple word turned everything upside down. He called her by her name: "Mary," and she recognized him. It was Jesus, the Lord, and had risen from the dead. "My teacher," she said and ran to him.

But he told her not to hold him for he was about to return his Father and her Father, his God and her God. But she was to go and tell the others what she had seen and heard and where he was going.

So she did what he told her to do. She turned as she cried and she began to laugh and she ran--for she was young and strong and fearless. She had been changed forever. And the news she had would change the world forever. She had seen him and he had called her by name.

No, she couldn't hold on to him. No one could contain him. The tight-knit little group of family and friends and disciples was gone forever. Now he belonged to all his people. Now he belonged to the world. For he was risen and he was Lord of all the world. And he had sent her to tell his friends that she had seen him. He had sent her on a mission that would change the world and that would alter forever the meaning of life and death.

So she ran away from the tomb, for it was empty, and she ran past the other graves, but they held no terrors, for they would someday be empty too. And she ran past Golgotha, that place of the skull, that place of brutality and evil and terror and death, the place where he had died, and she had died too. It was still there, but it had changed. Its power was gone, it had been defeated.

She ran past the Temple. Yes, it was still there too, but somehow it wasn't there at all. The real Temple, had been destroyed, but had already been rebuilt.

So she ran and she cried and she laughed and she ran on faster and faster. She couldn't see into the future. She couldn't see the horrors that were to come: the destruction of her own people, the persecutions of the disciples, plagues and diseases, religious wars, death camps, world wars, countless lesser wars, terrorism, massive destruction, and the billions of broken hearts and shattered lives and tragic deathbeds which were to come. She didn't have to see into the future, for now she knew the future. She had seen the future. It was Jesus, and he was risen from the dead. She had glimpsed the face of God.

So she ran for all of us and she ran to all of us. She ran past all the graves that would ever be dug. She ran past all the calvaries and places of destruction and temples and idolatries that the world would ever construct. And her shattered life, her broken heart was only the first of the billions He would heal.

The sin and suffering and the death of Calvary were not final for Jesus. Nor were they final for her, nor need they be final for anyone. He had shattered sin, overturned suffering and destroyed death. She had seen Jesus. He was risen and he was alive. And she was alive, really alive. She was bursting with the news that would burst open the world.

So she ran and then she found them in their sadness and in their despair. And through them she found us also in our time where we are mired in sin and fear and hopelessness. She found them and us broken and shattered and sitting in the shadow of death.

Her mission was complete, for now she could say what she knew. She could tell who it was that called her--and sent her on her way. Her task was finished, for now Jesus himself would call each of us by name--for he was alive. He was risen from the dead.

So then Mary Magdalene took her place at the center of history. She announced to the disciples and to all the world and to us:

"I have seen the Lord."