(Audio)
“Woman, why are you weeping?”
Why are we still weeping? We still tend to live and think and act as though Easter had never happened. We still weep for all that we lost in the garden when the choice of the first Adam brought suffering and death into the world.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
This old reality no longer prevailed but Mary Magdalene was unable to see the new reality from her old perspective. She needed a paradigm shift. So do we. Mary Magdalene found herself in a garden similar enough to that first garden in order that she could recognize the beginning of a new creation taking place. Even so, it was not the setting, nor even the similarity of the New Adam with the first Adam that triggered her recognition of the scene in which she found herself. It was rather the sound of his voice, and the fact that he knew her name.
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”
At first the question of why she was weeping probably seemed cruel to have to answer or even consider. But now it made sense. If Jesus had truly been raised then she need no longer weep for him. And not only that, since in himself Jesus had conquered sickness and death, since he himself was now revealed as the resurrection and the life, there was now a reason for joy and confidence so deep as to cast out sadness and despair.
So, again, why are we still weeping? This Jesus has been raised from the dead! What sadness has any true significance in the face of that? We weep for many reasons. It causes us sadness that we might not get all the things and experiences we desire. It causes us sadness that we might lose those we have. We fear pain and suffering, for ourselves and others. All of this presumes that any of this has some sort of finality, that it is the last word we will hear on the subject. But the resurrection is the last word. And it is a joyous word.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (see Revelation 21:4).
We cannot construct this new worldview for ourselves. No Easter flowers, no Easter hymns, no beautiful liturgies can bring us across the threshold to Easter joy. Only the voice of Jesus can do that. Let us read and respond with our own names:
Jesus says to you, [your name]!
You turn and say “Rabbouni,” Teacher!
When we hear Jesus speak these words to us we discover ourselves to be, not in the failed garden of Eden, but in the new Eden created by the resurrection, in the presence of the new Adam who healed the damage of the first Adam. Our whole world is changed. Nothing looks the same. It all has the inner luminance of the resurrection.
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart
The words of the gospel are meant to cut us to the heart. They are sharper than any two-edged sword (see Hebrews 4:12). They do this because we have closed down in defensiveness, in order to open us to all that God desires for us to receive. Let us open ourselves to them.
Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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