“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.”John 20:1
While it was still dark Mary went to worship. While it was still dark, Mary chose Jesus. While Jesus was alive, she was wherever He was. She loved His presence. She was with Him as much as she could. When He died, all she had left was His body, and that she could acknowledge. She went to honour Him when it was still dark, and she witness the announcement of His resurrection. Our worship is truly amazing when we chose Him no matter what it looks like, even if there is no bright light of resurrection yet, even if there is no evidence of supernatural. We truly worship Him, when we choose Him by faith despite all evidence. Mary went to worship a “seemingly” dead Jesus and met the risen One. She did not go expecting Him alive, but she went never the less. She went to acknowledge Him, to offer an act of worship, and she ended up being the first to see Jesus alive. Worshipping in the night hour, grants us a front-‐row sit to witness God’s wonder. Steve Thomson speaking about this passage says that Mary’s worship was so “powerful” that caused Jesus to interrupt His journey back to the Father. “Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”” John 20:17
Jesusmade a short stop in his journey back to the Father, to comfort a worshipper, to console one of His devoted ones an to reinsure her, that He was alive and that she did not have to morn any longer. Jesus responded to worship that did not have an agenda or demands. When we worship in the night hour, we place the highest value on God who we do not see. We blindly acknowledge Him even if the circumstances we find ourselves in, do not really display Him as “powerful” and as in “control” as we thought. We see only in part writes Paul, but despite that, we choose Him. We choose Him even if we do not understand everything, and when things are not quite clear yet. By placing on Him supreme value, even when it does not make sense, we worship Him. When is the darkest, is time to worship Him and acknowledge Him for who He is, for what He has done and for how he has changed our lives. While it is still dark we worship Him not for what He might do, but simply for what He has done and for who He is. Worshipping “while is still dark” might surprise us, and lead us to encounter not a memory but a risen Lord.
