Day 34
John 20: 11-18
11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." 14Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing him to be wthe 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." 16Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord" - and that he had said these things to her.
The Angels and Jesus (John 20: 11-18)
The angels ask Mary why she is crying. In the other gospels they assure her that Jesus has risen and perhaps that is what John is implying here. Mary repeats what she had already said, with two striking differences. The words are now intensely personal; he is ‘my Lord’ and ‘I do not know where they have put him’ (verse 13). It is possible that something in their expressions made Mary turn around to find Jesus standing behind her, although she didn’t recognize him at first. This is very strange because tears don’t normally hinder our identification of loved ones (verse 15). In almost all the resurrection appearances there is something that limits recognition (cf. Matthew 28:17; Luke 24:13-31, 37; John 21:4). Can it be that resurrection slightly changes a body? That after resurrection, although we are still ourselves, we have been ‘changed’ in some way (1 Corinthians 15:51)? Jesus asks Mary why she is crying. We have already noticed that to be addressed as ‘woman’ was not as cold and formal as it sounds to us.
Think: What changed Mary’s uncertainty that this was Jesus into certainty?
