Episode 1186: In the Garden

In this episode of the 10:10 Thrive Podcast, the focus shifts to the intimate and deeply emotional encounter between Mary Magdalene and the risen Jesus in the garden outside the empty tomb. The scene opens with Mary overwhelmed by grief and confusion, still reeling from the trauma of the crucifixion and now distraught over the disappearance of Jesus’ body. She remains behind even after Peter and John leave, unable to walk away from the place where her last hopes seemed to rest. Her pain is personal—Jesus had delivered her from torment, and now she mourns the loss of the One who gave her life new meaning. In her despair, she sees angels and then a man she mistakes for the gardener—until He speaks her name: “Mary.”

At the sound of her name, everything changes. Jesus' voice breaks through her sorrow like morning light through darkness. In that moment of recognition, Mary understands that Jesus is not dead, not stolen, not a vision—but alive. Her grief turns to joy, and her instincts urge her to hold onto Him. But Jesus gives her a new calling instead: to go and proclaim the resurrection to His disciples. She, a woman once bound by demons and marginalized by society, becomes the first messenger of the gospel, entrusted with the greatest news the world has ever known.

The devotional reflection unpacks the significance of this encounter. Jesus meets us in our grief, speaks to us personally, and calls us into a deeper relationship. His words to Mary—“My Father and your Father”—signal a profound shift: we are now children of God, welcomed into intimacy and communion with Him. This moment in the garden reveals not only the tenderness of Christ but the radical grace of the resurrection. Jesus commissions the brokenhearted, reframes our understanding of God, and assures us that His presence now dwells with us through the Spirit. In our own moments of loss or searching, like Mary, we can find hope in the voice that calls us by name and invites us into resurrection life.