Matthew 28:5

This verse comes from the morning of the first Easter. Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary had gone to the tomb where Jesus had been buried after being executed on a Roman cross — a form of public, humiliating death used by the Roman Empire. When they arrived, they found the tomb open and an angel waiting, and they were understandably terrified. The angel's opening words are striking: he doesn't just say "don't be afraid" — he says "I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified." He names Jesus precisely, including the manner of his death, as if to make clear: this is not a case of mistaken identity. The one who died is the same one who is no longer here.

Lord, I don't always come to you with hope. Sometimes I come out of habit, or grief, or because I simply don't know what else to do. Meet me there anyway — like you met those women at the tomb. I am still looking for you. Amen.

They came in grief, carrying spices for a dead man. Whatever hope they had held three days earlier had been nailed to a cross alongside him. Now they were doing the only thing grief knows how to do — show up anyway, tend to what remains, go through the motions of love even when love feels pointless. The angel doesn't lecture them for their fear or their unbelief. He says something tender and surprisingly precise: "I know that you are looking for Jesus." Not a generic comfort. Not a theological statement. Recognition. Someone sees exactly where these women are and what they are carrying. There are mornings that feel exactly like that walk to the tomb — when you are not sure what you are hoping for anymore, but you show up anyway. Maybe you pray out of habit more than hunger. Maybe you open your Bible because you have always done it, not because you expect much. Don't underestimate that. The angel's words suggest that simply looking for Jesus — even through fog, even with grief still fresh — is enough to be met by something far greater than you expected to find. You don't have to arrive with confident faith. You just have to arrive.