Church History: 10Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." 16Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” 18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Here we have a description of the great love of Mary Magdalene, which she expressed towards Christ, after his resurrection; she went to his sepulchre early, when it was yet dark; she hastily calls the disciples Peter and John, to the sepulchre; and she stays behind weeping at the sepulchre when they were gone away to their own home. And as Mary first sought him, and longest sought him, so she first found him. Mary's gracefulness and behavior towards her Savior: that is discovered by her patient attendance, She stood alone at the sepulchre; by her passionate mourning, she stood at the sepulchre weeping; by her unwearied diligence, She stooped down and looked into the sepulchre. Here was great love indeed in this poor woman; a love stronger than death; a love which did outstrip and go beyond the greatest apostles.
Mary Magdalene's love for Christ, and unwearied attendance at his sepulcher was rewarded; she did not find the dead body of Christ, and it is well she did not; for if death could have held him, it would not have let him go. Instead she found two of his servants there, two angels. Of all things in the world, one would have least expected to find an angel in the grave, spirits in the place of dead bodies, and immortality in the place of corruption. The posture of these angels described; the one sitting at the head, the other at the feet. It is a matter of comfort to the members of Christ, that angels do not wait upon the head only; but upon the feet also; and it ought to be matter of imitation also.5
When the angels asked her “why are you weeping” she responded “They have taken away my Lord” It was conjectured, John 19:42, that the body of our Lord was only put here for the time being, that, after the Sabbath, they might carry it to a more proper place. Mary seems to refer to this: They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. This removal she probably attributed to some of Christ’s disciples, or to some of his friends.1 At that point she turned and saw Jesus standing beside her, but she did not recognize him. Before the angels could speak the glad news to Mary, Jesus himself became his own messenger. That Mary did not recognize him may be due to her grief, for tears blind our eyes to many of the tender providences of God; but to reason by analogy it seems more likely that her eyes "were fixed" lest the shock of his sudden appearance might be too much for her, as it was for even his male disciples. Conversation with him assured her that he was not a disembodied spirit. (TFG 743-744) 8
Christ called her by name, making such a sound as he certainly knew she understood. She called him Rabboni, which is as much as to say: My Master.3 Christ spoke "Do not lay hold on me and detain yourself and me; I have not yet ascended; this is no brief, passing vision; I am yet in the world, and will be for some time, and there will be other opportunities to see me; the duty of the moment is to go and tell my sorrowing disciples that I have risen, and shall ascend to my Father." Jesus does not say "our Father." Our relation to God is not the same as his. While, however, our Lord's language recognizes the difference between his divine and our human relationship to the Father, his words are intended to show us our exaltation. We have reason to believe that next to our Lord's title as Son our title as sons of God by adoption is as high in honor as any in the universe.8 Mary then returned and told the disciples that she had seen and spoken to Jesus.
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