"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they put him."
Mary Magdalene was still operating according to the old way of understanding in which death was final and people did not return to life. True, there had been exceptions. But Jesus himself was the source of those exceptions, and with him now dead, there was no one available, seemingly do anything about the present circumstances. But she had to account for the fact that the body was missing. It was unexpected, and from her perspective, an annoyance, since she wanted that body as proximate location to pour out her grief. The first hint of the resurrection was not something she was able to receive in a positive way even though it foretold the fact that her grief would soon end and be transformed to joy. The old ways of thinking are comprehensive, consistent, and hard to interrupt or penetrate. We all tend to think things will continue to function as we have seen them do thus far in our lives, and are resistant to the suggestions of outside interference. We too tend to become attached to our grief.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
She said to them, "They have taken my Lord,
and I don't know where they laid him."
Mary Magdalene was so enveloped in her grief that the presence of angels didn't even register as anything surprising or unusual. To her they could be no more than additional sources of facts confirming her suspicions about this final insult of the body of Jesus being hidden from her. It was obviously a very great love that could result in a grief so all encompassing and that could make her so oblivious as to be almost insensible to any alternative to her assumed hypothesis. It was admirable to love Jesus with so great an affection as that. But it was also not entirely helpful when it caused her to assume that her grief must now be an infallible guide to reality in the absence of Jesus. Because she still loved him according to an old paradigm, with an a mind not yet renewed, it caused her to become stuck, unable to process new evidence, unable to move forward.
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
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."
It was not Mary's encounter with the risen Lord that resulted in her conversion of mind and heart. We see ample evidence that she was still unable to recognize that a new world order had been unleashed, still willing to interpret all the data according to previous assumptions. Even the presence of Jesus himself was something she was able to categorize and explain. This person she came across, concerned as to why she was weeping, must have been the gardener. It was as though she was still in the old and fallen Eden weeping for all that humanity had lost. The way she had known Jesus before his resurrection was not so comprehensive that his identity in this post resurrection appearance was obvious to her. She had known him one way before. And there had been much in that way of knowing that was real and true. But now she would need to know him in a new way. And this way was not one she discovered by analysis of the evidence, by intuition, or her own emotional intelligence. Rather, it came when she heard Jesus calling her name.
Jesus said to her, "Mary!"
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
"Rabbouni," which means Teacher.
It wasn't Mary's knowledge of Jesus that allowed their relationship to persist beyond the boundaries of death. Her knowledge of him was still too limited and partial to cross that threshold. It was rather the way that he knew her, with such assurance, with such completeness, and with such love, that the relationship was able to be restored and renewed. Her affection for him did help keep her in the right place to receive this revelation of his resurrection. But she was nevertheless dependent to wait on him to reveal it.
Jesus said to her,
"Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
She had been holding on to previous ways of relating to Jesus and understanding him. But Jesus told her that she was going to have to let go of those ways, and the grief they inevitably entailed, in order to make room for the joy of a world transformed by the light of the resurrection. In what ways are we still blind and insensible to the hope implied by the resurrection of Jesus? Are we still trying to force the facts of reality the conform to a paradigm of hopelessness ruled by death? Most probably we are, to some degree. Otherwise we would have more joy. We would have a joy similar to Mary Magdalene reunited with Jesus, her beloved. We would have joy like the Bride from the Song of Songs when she found him who her heart loved. If we lack this joy we should continue to stay near the Body of Jesus and listen. It won't be long before we hear him calling our name.
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
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