Alasdair Groves offered the last session encouraging us that trauma will not have the last word over us. Sometimes trauma seems to have won over us. It leaves us in a dark place. But we know that in the end, Jesus will triumph over trauma. There will be a day when the healing of the nations takes place and we will be healed of all our trauma.
“A day is coming for us when there will not even be a doubt… not even a wondering if the love of Jesus for you is more deep and high and wide and long than you can possibly fathom.” – Alasdair Groves
Alasdair looked at how Jesus met Mary Magdalene in her trauma. Mary was a woman of deep trauma. She was tormented by 7 demons (Luke 8:2), a number that denotes completeness. It was a complete package of suffering and torment. Demons are portrayed in Scripture as bringing profound suffering. In his ministry, Jesus healed Mary of these evil spirits and the trauma they brought to her.
But Mary was not done with trauma in her life. Alasdair commented on how traumatic it would be for Mary to see Jesus going to His death on the cross. It would have been traumatic to see soldiers gambling over Jesus’s clothing, treating Him as though He were not even alive. In Jesus’s death, all of Mary’s hopes came crashing down and evil seems to have won the day.
How does Jesus rescue us in these moments? In John 20, Jesus appears to Mary while she is weeping at the tomb, looking for Jesus’s body. How does Jesus break through? “He speaks her name. He speaks her name and it changes everything.”
"Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which mean Teacher)." – John 20:15-16.
By speaking her name, we know that Jesus knows Mary. His voice reminded her of his presence and concern for her welfare. Jesus not only knows Mary’s name, but he knows her and her story. “Everything is different because he knows her name.”
Alasdair reminded us that Christ knows our name and we are his treasure. Our name is on his lips and written on his heart. He has written our name in his book of life and stored our tears in his bottle.
“However broken you are like Mary, you are more beloved still and you always will be, for his glorious love will triumph because the Word himself, the Word become flesh, has spoken the final word over your life. He has spoken your name and you’ll be a part of his story of redemption forever and ever.” – Alasdair Groves
