I never saw this before about Jesus.

When He resurrected, he hid Himself for a little while so He could encourage Mary Magdalene. That’s right, maybe He even dressed like a gardener to fool others. But the scriptures clearly tell us He waited for Mary. Perhaps since she was set free from such horrible bondage, He wanted to make sure she didn’t despair when she saw the empty grave.

Read about it here, as Mary had just seen two angels at the empty tomb:

“She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.” “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” John 20:14-17 NLT

To me, this shows Jesus’ heart of compassion for His followers. But she wasn’t His only concern. That same night He walked through a wall into a room where His disciples were hiding for fear. And later, because Thomas missed His grand entrance, He showed up again just for Thomas, so He could believe!

What does this tell us? Jesus cares about what we individually are going through. God is for us. From Mary, to the disciples, to Thomas, and to us, He knows what we experience, and He cares.

In fact, the Bible says He is now in heaven as our advocate before God. An advocate is like a defense attorney. When the accuser of the brethren, Satan, attacks us before God, Jesus is continually there defending us. He reminds God that our sin is fully covered by His blood.

So don’t ever despair. Your Lord Jesus is always interceding for you in heaven, even though sometimes He may appear to be hiding.