Have You Ever . . . ?

Imagine mistaking the risen Christ for the gardener!
Have you ever thought what an extraordinary thing that was?

Mary, devoted follower and close friend - if anyone should have recognised Jesus, she should.
Of course, she came to the garden that Sunday morning expecting to find a corpse.
Not
A vacant tomb
Not
Conversations with angels.
And certainly not what she found.

She came in desperate sorrow to tend to His broken body.
The last thing she would have expected was finding vibrant Life after three-days-dead.
No wounds, no blood stains, no weakness from food and water lack -

I marvel at the humility of God, who did not present His Risen Christ in miraculous garments of
heaven-brightness, but in those of gardener-likeness.
So ordinary looking.

And have you wondered why she didn't know Him until He spoke to her?
Did she recognise something in His voice, perhaps? *

Have you wondered why His own disciples didnt know Him immediately either - on a number of occasions?
Doesn't it seem odd?

Have you ever wondered why He didn't show Himself to the people who crucified Him?
To the Jewish leaders and to the Romans?
I mean, wouldn't that have simplified history?
And shut up those who mocked His claims?

I have often wondered about these things - as you may have too
They beg for an answer, don't you think?

* If you wanna read the story, see John 20:1-18