Here we are at Easter already. It has been two emotional, stressful, confusing and just plain difficult years since we have been able to celebrate Easter in the church. We can possibly use those same words for the family, friends, followers, the betrayer of Jesus and Jesus himself all those years ago. For them, the past week would have very difficult. Holy week, as it is now called, can be emotional for some Christians today when scriptures are read, especially if it is done in dramatic readings.
We all want that one more moment when a friend or family member passes away, to hold them or say one last thing. I am sure Mary wants that chance too…
Just a week before, people were celebrating Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem for the Jewish holiday of Passover. They waved palm branches, laid them out on the ground along with coats, to set out a path for this king. I guess it would have been like rolling out the red carpet for someone special. Then we have the journey that Jesus made from Jerusalem to Calvary where he would be crucified. I wonder what would have been going through the mind of Jesus, as he walked, knowing it was a walk to his death, death on a cross. He was human after all, or did the fact that he was God, give him the ability to put those emotions aside.
Our Gospel reading for this week begins with Mary at the tomb, an empty tomb. The surprise and I suppose horror that she would have been thinking as she went off to tell someone what had happened. Rushing to the place where Jesus body was laid, the disciples find that it was true, the body of Jesus was no longer in the tomb and after looking around the tomb, realized that what they had been told, and heard from scripture that Jesus must have risen from the dead, that up until this moment they had not truly understood. Maybe we can call this an ‘A-ha moment’? Verse 10 in the Gospel reading says “then the disciples returned to their homes”. I really cannot imagine anyone who just had this experience just going back home. I would think they would have run to the others to let them know what had happened and what they had ‘figured out’. Or was it that they needed to process what they saw and understood to be true, that Jesus had truly risen from the dead?
This now leaves Mary standing weeping at the tomb, all by herself. Did the two disciples try to explain to her what had happened to Jesus? Had they reached the tomb, searched it and already left before Mary returned? In some of the stories we hear about Jesus and his miracles, Jesus tells the person to go and tell no one what had happened. Was this what the disciples did, realizing that Mary needed to understand the disappearance of Jesus in a different way?
I have always wondered why Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus when he speaks to her and appears before her. Having seen angels, in the place Jesus had been lying must have been pretty powerful and confusing and I guess since she would not have expected him to be standing there, that it makes sense that her mind goes to the fact that this must be the gardener who would have been there to tend the area. Once she realizes that this was in fact Jesus, I would think that she was overjoyed to see him again and want to hold onto the moment and actually hold onto Jesus. We all want that one more moment when a friend or family member passes away, to hold them or say one last thing. I am sure Mary wants that chance too, however, Jesus says to her that she could not hold on to him; that he needed to ascend to the Father and her Father, to his God and her God. She was told to go and tell others about what she had been told and “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and she told them that he had said these things to her”.