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Context No. 148 of 4322 · John

Context · Reflection

John 20:11-15: in context

11But Mary was standing outside at the tomb weeping. So as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb, 12and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13They asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, and didn’t know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Peter and the other disciple have run to the tomb, found it empty, and gone home. This passage is Mary Magdalene, who stayed. The scene is built almost entirely out of her not understanding what she is looking at.

She stoops and looks in and sees two angels in white, sitting where the body had been, one at the head and one at the feet. Anyone else in scripture who meets an angel is terrified. Mary is asked why she is weeping and answers as though they were staff: they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. Grief has made the extraordinary unremarkable.

Then she turns around and sees Jesus standing there and does not know it is him. He asks the same question the angels asked, and adds one: whom are you seeking? She takes him for the gardener and makes an offer that is heartbreaking in its practicality. If you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him away. She is proposing to carry a grown man's body herself. In the next verse he says her name and she knows him. She was looking directly at what she wanted and could not see it. What am I searching for so hard that I would not recognize it if it spoke to me?

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