STARTING OVER
Play Audio
If you prefer listening to today’s Bible guide reading, play this audio file.
If the audio bar is not appearing, click here to play the audio.
Opening Prayer
Thank you, Gracious God, for your Word. Please use it to teach me, to inspire me, to convict me. Use it to build my faith and to show me how to better serve you.
Read JOHN 20:11–18
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Take time to reflect on the lyric, ‘All things once sown in weakness you raise in promise.’* What do these words stir in you?Left at the tomb, Mary is still walking grief’s valley, her path darkened by the disappearance of Jesus’ body. Resurrection is not on her radar. Through a haze of tears, the appearance of angels seems not to unsettle her—all we hear is her desperation: ‘Where is he? Where have you put him?’ How she longed to assuage her loss by completing his body’s hasty burial (Mark 16:1). So, in this garden, Mary ‘mistakes’ the second Adam for a gardener (another Genesis reference: Adam was created and commissioned to tend the earth).** I wonder how often we encounter Jesus without realizing, distracted by our despair or determination…
What cuts through the confusion is a voice, a name (v. 16). At creation the Spirit brought shape out of nothing and God’s voice formed light and relationship from the void. Now Jesus speaks a new era into existence—restored and renewed relationship between mankind and his Maker (v. 17)—beginning with the person in front of him. He doesn’t start with emperors or aristocrats; he doesn’t even start with the twelve … he starts with a woman, insignificant in her society. Our God is not afraid to start small, and he invites us to do the same (Zechariah 4:10).
Apply
List some of the ways God has started small in your life.
Closing prayer
Thank you, Father, for those times when you ‘started small’ as you called me, taught me, and proved to me who you are. Help me to see other small beginnings you orchestrate for me.
*‘All Things Rise’, Sam Yoder © 2015 Mercy/Vineyard Publishing,
**Tom Wright, John For Everyone: Part 2 Chapters 11–21 (SPCK, 2002), 146
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2025 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.