Turn Around

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.  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.” 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.” 

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he had told her.  (John 20:11-18)

I’ve always been confused as to why it was Mary Magdalene who wanted to know where Jesus was carried, so she could take him.  She was the chief mourner at the tomb.   She demanded the right to claim Jesus’ body.  No wonder some have suggested this Mary was Jesus’ wife because in Jewish society that right was reserved for the nearest of kin, especially the wife.

It has been suggested that this Mary had great significance in the lives of Jesus’ followers and that the name Magdalene means tall, large, or great.  For this reason it has been speculated that her female presence in close association with Jesus bothered Church leaders, and as a result, they trashed her reputation, calling her a prostitute in contrast to Mother Mary – a virgin and pinnacle of sexual purity.  Again, an interesting speculation.  We will never know what the author(s) of the Fourth Gospel intended.

Nevertheless, there are some clever and attractive guesses.   For example, William Barclay, the renowned Scottish New Testament interpreter, minister and professor, suggested that (as noted in the above passage) Mary did not recognize Jesus and thought he was the gardener because she was blinded by her tears.   We all know weeping at grave sites after the loss of our loved ones blinds our eyes with tears.   Barclay suggested “we must never allow our tears to blind us to the glory of heaven…through the tears we should glimpse the glory.”  Perhaps John tried to make the same point with his likely fictional but spiritually uplifting story with great meaning and symbolism.

Barclay also suggested that we, like Mary, face the wrong direction.  She stared at the tomb and had her back to Jesus.   Then she turned around from the cold earth of the grave because that is not where are loved ones are found.   Worn-out bodies are there, but the real person is in “the heavenly places in the fellowship of Jesus face-to-face, and in the glory of God.”  I like this interpretation. 

Finally, Barclay has a wonderful insight.  Why did Jesus say, “Stop holding on to me [touching me], for I have not yet ascended to the Father?”  According to Barclay, “Sometimes the eyes of scribes who copied the manuscripts made mistakes, for the manuscripts were not easy to read.  Some scholars think that what John originally wrote was not “Do not touch me,” but “Do not be afraid.”  In that case, Jesus was saying to Mary: “Do not be afraid; I haven’t gone to my Father yet; I am still here with you.”  Again, we will never know the correct interpretation.

So soon after Easter, we are left “weeping.”  We’re told by Jesus through the words of John to “turn around” and see him.  He’s not in some grave.  He is here with us.  He is before us in the people we see. Eventually we all will see him and our loved ones face-to-face and in the glory of God.

Deacon David Pierce