Daily Bread

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They 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.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the 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.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because 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.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

There are a thousand sermons to be written on the resurrection accounts, including this one found in John's gospel. We could focus on the fact that it was 'dark', thinking about all the other significant events recorded in the Bible that took place during darkness. We could focus on it being the first day of the week signifying the first day of 'new creation'. We could focus on the historical markers in the text — things that someone would be unlikely to fabricate — such as the fact that it was the women who were the first to discover the empty tomb and the mention of the race to the scene. However, today, we remember Mary Magdalene.

William Barclay explains the context like this...

"It was the custom in [first century] Palestine to visit the tomb of a loved one three days after the body had been laid to rest. It was believed that for three days the spirit of the dead person hovered round the tomb but then it departed because the body had become unrecognisable through decay. Jesus’ friends could not come to the tomb on the Sabbath, because to make the journey then would have been to break the law. Sabbath is, of course, our Saturday, so it was on Sunday morning that Mary came to the tomb. She came very early. The word used for early is 'proi' which was the technical word for the last of the four watches into which the night was divided, that which ran from 3am to 6am. It was still grey dark when Mary came, because she could no longer stay away."

Mary loved Jesus with a passion, and this passion led her to be the last person at the cross and the first person at the tomb. It wasn't her status or God's favouritism that put her in the position of being the first to witness his resurrection. It was her love for Jesus.

After she had told the other disciples and they too had seen and left, she stood sobbing outside the empty tomb. She had no-where to go and nothing for which to live. Her Lord, her life, had been taken away from her and her heart was utterly crushed, shattered, and broken. She had obeyed the law, and now she had to suffer the indignity of not even being able to perform the ritual preparing of Jesus' body. It was all too much.

Theologians have developed many theories as to why Mary didn't recognise Jesus, but to me it seems obvious. Firstly, she was not expecting to see Jesus alive, and secondly, have you ever been so wracked with pain, grief, and tears that you can hardly open your eyes or focus?

Jesus called her by name — 'Mary' — and the joy flooded into her heart. She wanted to grab him and hug him and hold on tight to him and never let him go, but Jesus had to go — only this time, her perspective had been forever changed. His resurrection meant she would see him again, and that nothing, not even death, could ever separate them.

The story of Mary Magdalene is profoundly moving as she moves from hopelessness to hope, and she stands as a witness to all of us, as a model of true, Godly, passionate, selfless love.

Holy God
In the same way that
Mary Magdalene loved you
and followed you
from the cross to the grave
and beyond the grave,
I will also follow you
and love you
with all my heart,
soul, mind, and strength.
Now and forever.