You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Can you imagine just how emotion packed that walk to the grave must have been? How heavy those spices were? How it was a struggle to take each and every step to the tomb? Yet, the women were focused and felt they had to do this for the Lord. They had to pay their respects and prepare him properly for his resting place. I imagine this was about the only thing they were thinking of the day prior. Due to the laws of the Sabbath, they would not have been able to do this work then. So, before the sun had even risen, they made their way on that Sunday. And sometime right around when they made their way, wouldn’t you know it, another earthquake took place. The second in three days. What in the world was going on? If that were not crazy enough, when they had made their way to the grave, the stone had been removed from the entrance!

Although we see from the other accounts that it was a number of women who went to do this, John chooses to focus solely on Mary Magdalene. It appears that she almost immediately sprints to go get Peter and John to let them know what had happened, even though she didn’t yet realize what had happened. In her mind, this had been a grave robbery.

Let’s take a step back for a moment and understand the relationship Mary had with Jesus. Although she was obviously in his “inner circle” of friends by this point, it had not always been that way. In fact, the first time Jesus probably met Mary, she was in bad ways. For she was a woman who had been possessed by seven demons. Yet, the Lord being the Lord took compassion on her and drove those demons out. Just think about what that would have done for Mary. This was a woman who had no control over her body or her life. It belonged to Satan’s minions. And in a brief moment, that all changed. Jesus once again gave her the ability to move and speak as she wished. She owed everything she was and had to Jesus. But, she felt that had all been taken away from her.

Once again she found herself powerless. She had to just sit and watch and cry as she saw Jesus, her best friend in the entire world, beaten to a pulp and dying on a cross. She had to witness the blood and water flowing from his side as the soldier made sure his death was finalized. And now she couldn’t even pay her respects to her friend and God. She couldn’t even prepare him for burial because someone had taken the body. With him out of the picture, would those demons come back? What would stop them? Who would protect her now?

After she had spoken with Peter and John and watched them run to the grave, she herself finally made her own way back. And just like last time, that stone was still off to the side. So she sat there and cried. Eventually though, she got up the courage to actually look inside the tomb. Still though, no Jesus. Just his grave clothes neatly folded along with two angels. Those angels asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” She probably thought to herself, why do you think I’m crying! My best friend is dead and now someone stole his body!

Mary then turned around and someone else is standing there. Not some angel. But a man. And he asked her the same exact question: “Woman, why are you crying?” He obviously was the gardener, and so had to be the one to move Jesus’ body. Although it would be a tough task to move him by herself, she asks, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

But then with one simply word, her life again changed. As quickly and as impactful as when she had the demons driven out of her, so once again she had been given power. “Mary.” And that’s all it took. This was no gardener or grave robber. This was the grave defeater. This was her Jesus. He had done it, just as he said. He rose from the dead!

I have to imagine that emotions just spilled out of her again. She probably cried as she said, “Rabboni,” but these were tears of happiness now. Not tears of sadness and despair. All had been made right in the world. And she would never, ever let Jesus depart from her again.

Well, at least until Jesus said this, “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.’ ” Wait, what? Isn’t this the day of triumph? Isn’t this the day Jesus wants all people, Mary included to shout, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!?” Why would Jesus say, do not hold on to me?