Portraits of Faith, Week 6 - Resilience
Song of Songs 3:1-4 (NIV)
All night long on my bed
I looked for the one my heart loves;
I looked for him but did not find him.
2 I will get up now and go about the city,
through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.
So I looked for him but did not find him.
3 The watchmen found me
as they made their rounds in the city.
“Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
4 Scarcely had I passed them
when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
till I had brought him to my mother’s house,
to the room of the one who conceived me.
John 20:11-17 (NIV)
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.’”
Discussion Questions
The sermon opened by correcting two common misconceptions about Mary Magdalene — that she was a prostitute and that she was Jesus' romantic partner. Have you carried either of those assumptions? How does knowing the real Mary change how you read the resurrection story?
Mary is described as having been freed from seven unclean spirits — a number representing completeness in Hebrew thought. Whatever her oppression was, it was total. Have you ever experienced something that felt total — a darkness that touched every part of your life? What, or who, began to bring light into it?
When the other disciples went home after finding the empty tomb, Mary stayed. She kept asking her question, kept searching, kept weeping. What does that kind of persistence in grief tell you about her faith — and what does it challenge in the way you think about your own hard seasons?
Mary didn't recognize Jesus when he called her "woman." She only recognized him when he spoke her name. Pope Gregory wrote that Jesus was saying, "Recognize me as I recognize you." What does it mean to you that God knows you by name — not as a category or a condition, but as yourself?
The sermon connected Mary's story to those fighting cancer and those living with mental illness, calling this the "long defeat" — staying with someone through suffering with no guarantee of a good outcome. Have you ever walked that road with someone? What sustained you, and what did you learn about love in the process?
Jesus told Mary, "Don't hold on to me" — which can sound like a stiff-arm when you're clinging to God with everything you have. But the sermon reframes it: Jesus wasn't pushing her away; he was promising to bring her to his Father's house instead. How does that reframing change the way you hear those seasons when God feels distant or withheld?
The Song of Songs ends with the declaration that love is as strong as death — that many waters cannot quench it. Where in your life right now do you most need to be reminded of that kind of love?
The message described resilience not as strength without pain, but as persistence through it — waiting, searching, staying. How does that definition of resilience compare to the way our culture typically talks about strength, and which do you find more honest and more hopeful?
At the close of the service, there was an opportunity for anointing and communion. Whether or not you participated, what is something you are carrying right now that you need to bring before God — something you need to name, release, or simply ask him to meet you in?
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