John 24:1-18 (cont.)
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." - (11-13)
Mary also, then, returned to the tomb, though she is not mentioned in the narrative describing what John and Peter saw. Evidently they didn't pass her on their way back "home," or stop to share what they saw and what John believed. Instead she is left with her grief, with not even her fellow women with her to comfort her in John's account. She answers their query with the most plausible account, one which would tend to worsen her grief.
Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rab-bo'ni!" (which means Teacher). - (14-16)
Mistaking him for the gardener. Jesus' resurrected appearance must have been very different from prior to his death, as at least three appearances in John's gospel involve people who loved and followed him failing to recognize him. Then he calls her by name, and she knows his voice, just as he described in the Good Shepherd discourse (Jn 10:3), leading her out of her sadness. And he tells her to go share the news with the disciples, which of course she does (17-18).
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