Category: Theology, Christian Living, Biblical Studies, Spiritual Growth, Faith and Doctrine, God’s Wrath, Divine Justice, Salvation, Repentance, Grace, John 3, Timothy Keller, David Guzik, Miroslav Volf, N.T

John 20:11–18 | Post-Traumatic Growth and the Fifth Day of Pain

Personal Reflection

I feel detached and disengaged from much of life. I think this is largely due to trauma, and the divide between society and what I’ve learned through therapy and the Holy Spirit. Somehow, what therapy has taught me does not translate into how humanity actually behaves.

Honestly, my best life is when I am reading God’s Word, writing about Jesus, or being stunned by the Holy Spirit as He lifts me from one metaphorical resurrection to another, both in understanding and in my relationship with God (Yahweh, Jesus, Holy Spirit). There is a profound purity in learning from God. It stills the waters of humanity, which so often pierce your side with spears and crown you with labels, identities, and policed politick.

I truly don’t know how Jesus’ followers felt watching Him die on a cross. Their world was shattered. Yes, my life has been shattered too, by broken hearts, addiction, social cruelty, and bad choices, but I have never experienced the earth-shatteringness of watching my belief structure collapse as my Teacher dies before me. Poof. Gone.

I, fortunately, live on the side of the resurrection and the ascension. My life was a complete mess before Jesus. And over these twenty-two years of walking with, learning from, and growing into Christ-likeness, my life has been resurrecting.

As I write this, it’s just a few hours until Mary Magdalene discovered that Jesus had risen. And yet, the trauma she carried to the tomb must have been beyond words.

Post-Traumatic Growth: The Emergence of New Life

The final stage in the post-traumatic growth (PTG) journey is transformation, the integration of pain into a restructured narrative that births purpose, wisdom, and new identity. Tedeschi and Calhoun define PTG as the “positive life changes that follow traumatic events.”¹ This growth does not undo pain but integrates it into a redemptive framework.² Scars remain, but they become part of a divine mosaic of survival and significance.

As one theologian puts it, “Jesus’ wounds remain in the morning light of Easter; Jesus rises in the dawn of life, but He carries His wounds with Him.”³ In this way, healing is not the erasure of damage but the reimagining of meaning. The very presence of Jesus’ scars validates this truth: the resurrection redeems, not by forgetting, but by transforming.

Is it possible that our healing depends not on moving past our pain, but on carrying it with purpose?

Might the traumas we survived be invitations to witness rather than just wounds to endure?

PTG includes redefined identity, strengthened relationships, and spiritual growth, and often culminates in a declaration of mission.⁴ “If I survived that, I can handle anything,” is more than self-empowerment, it is sacred insight born of suffering.⁵

Mary Magdalene and the Resurrection of the Self

Mary stands in the dawn, tears clouding her vision, grief distorting her understanding. “They have taken away my Lord,” she says, “and I do not know where they have laid him” (John 20:13). This moment captures the essence of trauma, disorientation, loss, and despair.⁶

And then it happens. One word: “Mary.” The voice of Jesus breaks through her pain. Her grief turns to recognition, her disorientation to revelation. “Rabboni!” she exclaims. The Teacher lives.⁷

Yet, resurrection does not erase wounds. Jesus still bears the marks of crucifixion.⁸ As Shelly Rambo writes, “Resurrection is not reversal. It is reconstitution in the aftermath of death.”⁹ In trauma theology, this distinction is critical. Healing is not about denial, it is about encounter. Resurrection, like PTG, requires us to face the pain with open eyes, not pretend it didn’t happen.¹⁰

What if resurrection is not a singular miracle, but an ongoing practice of becoming whole again?

Can we let God’s voice speak His name into the place of our deepest sorrow?

Psychological and Theological Integration

Clinical studies confirm what theology reveals: transformation arises from the ashes of grief.¹¹ PTG requires not just survival, but reflection, an intentional meaning-making that reconstructs one’s view of life, self, and the world.¹² In fact, spirituality is often the most predictive factor in whether PTG occurs.¹³

Mary’s shift from mourner to messenger shows this clearly. She becomes the first witness, the “apostle to the apostles.”¹⁴ She does not go back to who she was before trauma, she becomes someone new because of it.

What does it mean that the first gospel proclamation came not from a pulpit, but from a woman whose grief had just been rewritten?

Might this be God’s pattern, that brokenness births the truest testimonies?

Jesus’ followers would go on to embody the very traits PTG research identifies: boldness, meaning, sacrifice, community, and renewed spirituality.¹⁵ What psychology names, Scripture narrates. What trauma studies discover, the resurrection enacts.

Conclusion: The Dawn Will Break

Easter morning is more than an event, it is a template. It assures us that grief does not get the final word. That despair can give way to commission. That death is not the end of the story. The tomb, sealed in trauma, is unsealed in love.

Mary’s words, “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18), resonate across centuries, reminding us that our own pain can become proclamation.

So what if your greatest sorrow could be the soil of your future calling?

What if resurrection was not just something to believe in, but something to live?

Practical Application

1. Name your tombs. Where have you buried your belief in healing?
2. Let God speak your name. Have you mistaken Jesus for the gardener?
3. Witness from your wounds. Who needs to hear what you’ve seen in your grief?
4. Live the resurrection. How might your scars become sacred in someone else’s story?

Prayer

Father God, Jesus, Holy Spirit,

You who rose with scars still showing, thank You for dignifying pain, not discarding it. Thank You that resurrection is not a performance, but a promise. Redeem our losses, reframe our wounds, and resurrect our identities. May we become Marys in the garden, called by name, changed by love, commissioned by grace.

In Your Holy Name King Jesus,

Amen.

Reference Section

1. Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun, “The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Measuring the Positive Legacy of Trauma,” Journal of Traumatic Stress 9, no. 3 (1996): 455–71.
2. Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun, The Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth: Research and Practice (New York: Psychology Press, 2006).
3. “Scars of Hope,” Faith and Leadership, accessed April 20, 2025, https://faithandleadership.com/scars-hope.
4. Richard G. Tedeschi et al., “Posttraumatic Growth: Positive Psychological Changes Experienced as a Result of the Struggle with Trauma,” National Library of Medicine, 2018, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9807114/.
5. Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun, “Posttraumatic Growth: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Evidence,” Psychological Inquiry 15, no. 1 (2004): 1–18.
6. Angela Lewis, “Resurrection Preaching in the Gospel of John,” Religions 15, no. 4 (2023): 514, https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/4/514.
7. “Easter Mourning,” CBE International, accessed April 20, 2025, https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/mutuality-easter-mourning.
8. “Redemption and Resurrection: An Exercise in Biblical-Systematic Theology,” The Gospel Coalition, accessed April 20, 2025, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/redemption-and-resurrection-an-exercise-in-biblical-systematic-theology.
9. Shelly Rambo, Resurrecting Wounds: Living in the Afterlife of Trauma (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2017).
10. “The Monstrosity of Christ’s Resurrection,” Church Life Journal, University of Notre Dame, accessed April 20, 2025, https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-monstrosity-of-christs-resurrection.
11. “Spirituality, Resilience, and Posttraumatic Growth,” MDPI Religions, accessed April 20, 2025, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/spirituality_resilience.
12. “The Role of Repetitive Thinking and Spirituality in the Development of PTG,” PMC, accessed April 20, 2025, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9352075/.
13. “Relationship Among PTG, Spiritual Well-Being, and Social Support,” PMC, accessed April 20, 2025, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10902294/.
14. “Jesus’ Death and Resurrection as Cultural Trauma,” ResearchGate, accessed April 20, 2025, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292487316.
15. “Trauma Theology,” SAET and Liverpool University Press, accessed April 20, 2025, https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/TraumaTheology and https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/mb.2025.8.