When God Speaks your Name, It Changes Everything

When God speaks Your Name, it changes everything.  John 20.10-18

Hello.

Why do people like to hear their own name? I googled that question, and was not surprised by the first entry I encountered, “a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”¹  Hmm … true?  Do you like to hear your name, spoken especially by someone you love?

How about God knowing and speaking your name?  ‘God knows your name…’ Exodus 33.12 states.  Have you ever heard God speak your name?  And if he did…would you hear it?  And, would you know it was God speaking to you? In the next scene at the tomb, we see Mary Magdalene’s name being spoken, and all that it meant—recognition, position, and relationship.  Take a look at the passage:

“Then they [Peter and John] went home.                                               Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.       “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 

“Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”                                                             She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”        “Mary!” Jesus said.                                                                      She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).                                                                              “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”                                              Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.”  John 20.10-18

The scene - Mary Magdalene weeping just outside the tomb of Jesus, upset about the notion of where the body of her Lord may have been taken.  Someone comes on the scene, and while she is fully aware of his presence, assumes it is the groundskeeper--that is, until ... he speaks her name.  Then she recognizes her Lord.  Maybe she hadn’t recognized him because her eyes were clouded by her tears … maybe because she only had her course set toward the empty tomb and nothing else, that is, until  … he spoke her name.   Jesus’ recognition of her—as well as his intent that she knows him—changed everything. 

When God speaks your name, it gets your attention.  Remember the young boy, Samuel, who heard God’s voice in the night?²  When God speaks your name, you surely know who you are … or who you are meant to become.  When Jesus spoke Mary Magdalene’s name, she knew … recognition dawned.  She knew it was her Lord, she knew she was safe; she knew what surely lay in store for her, because God had spoken her name. 

I pray you will hear when God speaks your name.  Truly, it changes everything.

Listening?