The questions Jesus asks: Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday 2025
Faith is often painted as a place to get answers, and yet I find the longer I have walked this life with Jesus the more questions I have.
I have been reading the gospels again, and I am struck by how many questions Jesus poses to his followers and those he encounters along the way. Central to our faith is the value of asking questions and being curious.
As we finish this time of Lent, this time of travelling with Jesus to the cross, I am drawn to looking at the questions he asks and opening my heart to listen to what that question might illuminate in me today. Join with me as we journey through Easter and look at the questions Jesus asks.
Each devotion has a time for reflection and a prayer, if you are listening to this devotion you may wish to press pause whilst you reflect.
The first Easter Sunday didn’t start happily. It started in sorrow and grief. It started with an empty tomb and confusion.
Going down to the tomb early while it is still dark, the disciples find that Jesus’ body had been taken away and they didn’t know where it was. This must have felt like pain upon pain. There is not even a body to mourn.
The disciples return to where they are staying but Mary stays behind weeping at the tomb. The hour is early, the grief is overwhelming, so is it any wonder when she sees Jesus she thinks he is the gardener.
The interaction here is tender, Jesus gently asks questions of Mary in her grief and confusion.
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”).
John 20:15-16 (NIV)
There are times when we are confused and grieving, when we are in despair. Times when we don’t notice that circumstances have changed. Times when hope surprises us and it is almost too hard to believe.
There are times when the God we thought we knew shows us another facet, and often it can take a while for us to adjust.
Sometimes he gently asks us the question, “Who is it you are looking for?”
Was Mary looking for the Jesus who flipped the tables in the temple, or the Jesus who healed the woman from bleeding? Was she looking for the Jesus who broke bread, or the Jesus who rode the donkey into Jerusalem?
Who am I looking for?
Am I seeking a God who blesses me, who heals me, who makes my way smooth? He does all these things. But he is also a God who is with me when I am not healed, when things are rocky, and blessings seem few and far between.
Am I seeking a God who will fight for me, protect me and guard me in all circumstances? This he does and, he is with me when I am beaten and low.
At the end of this passage Mary tells us the Jesus she was looking for was her Lord, telling the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”1. Am I like Mary, willing to call Jesus Lord no matter the circumstance?
“Who is it you are looking for?”
Do I seek a God who protects me from the grief, pain, and confusion, that Mary felt by the tomb that day? Or am I willing to look up through my tears, and see the reality that he is there, bringing hope in ways that confound and startle me. Am I open to being surprised by Jesus? Am I open to him revealing himself in new ways?
Jesus is both Christ of the cross and Christ of the resurrection. He is in the pain and in the hope. He is always revealing himself to me in new and astonishing ways. And like Mary, he calls me by name, to look and see him anew.
Reflection:
“Who is it you are looking for?”
Take some time to sit with that question and answer it honestly. You can do this in the quietness of your mind, or through writing, art, or even speaking it out in prayer.
Prayer:
Today, I would like to pray a blessing over you from Romans 15:13:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
John 20:18