A Virtual Church

Healing in a Name

April 25, 2011

"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed...."                                  John 20:1 Mary Magdalene comes to the garden to tend the body of her Lord. He is not there. She weeps that they have taken him away. Then she hears her name called......."Mary." She recognizes the voice she hears and in that moment, her grief and fears are healed. She is saved and resurrection is real in the hearing of her name. When the men and women of a residential recovery place in our city came to the church during Lent for a meal, we offered healing prayer and anointing for them after the lunch. I sat in a classroom, praying over the oil and thinking that there might not be anybody who would come for prayer. Was I ever wrong! Here in a program where names are kept pretty anonymous, the young woman came to the door and said to me, "Do you know my name?" I did. I looked at her and said, "Your name is Mary. I would have known you anywhere." Her shoulders relaxed and tears welled up in her eyes. She was known. She was remembered as the whole person God had created her to be. For her, there was healing in a name. This is the experience of Resurrection..... new life is given, healing is found, and in a name, we are re-membered as God's own. To claim Christ risen is to claim life as whole people whose value is not assigned by the world, but by the One who created each of us with purpose and potential. Life is changed and there is healing in a name..... that name is Jesus. Go and tell!  

---