Mary Magdalene – The First Witness to the Risen Lord
Mary Magdalene is the only woman named in all four Gospel accounts of the resurrection. However, in John’s Gospel, Mary is the first witness to the risen Christ, and her moving encounter with Jesus conveys the pure joy she must have felt as she recognized her master.
Mary came to the tomb early on the first day of the week, as soon as the sabbath had ended. Distressed at not finding Jesus’ body there as expected, she ran to tell Simon Peter that it had been removed (John 20:1-2). On her return to the empty tomb, two angels questioned why she was weeping. However, consumed by grief, she persisted in her assumption that the body had been taken away – perhaps stolen by grave robbers (John 20:11-13). When Jesus himself stood near her, Mary even mistook him for the caretaker of the garden where the tomb was located (20:14-15).
How is it that Mary – who knew the one who had freed her from her demonic affliction so well – failed to recognize her beloved Lord? Perhaps her tears blinded her. She may have been so overwhelmed by sorrow that she was deceived by her own expectations, with no room in her heart to comprehend any other possibility than that of finding his corpse. Or maybe Jesus’ resurrected body was so totally and gloriously transformed that he was unrecognizable.
As if to probe Mary’s desire for him, Jesus asked, “Whom do you seek?” (John 20:15). Was she searching for the Lord or, with her limited understanding, for her preconceived image of him as she assumed him to be? When he said “Mary,” it was to his voice speaking her name that she finally responded with joyful recognition (20:16). The noted French writer Henri Daniel-Rops described this meeting vividly:
Then the unknown man spoke one word, “Mary,” and she looked at him, transfixed … This one word sufficed to reawaken in the Magdalene the ardor and certainty of her faith. What Christian has not dreamed of hearing it, the word with which, from all eternity, God calls each one of us, but which the deaf do not hear.
Jesus and His Times
With this single word, Jesus freed Mary again, this time from the hopelessness that had taken hold of her when she watched him die on the cross. The liturgical prayer known as the sequence, recited at Mass on Easter Monday, poetically imagines Mary’s early morning visit to the garden where Jesus was buried: “‘Tell us, Mary, what did you see on the way?’ ‘I saw the tomb of the now living Christ. I saw the glory of Christ, now risen. Christ my hope has risen!’”
When Mary heard her name, she turned and saw the Lord. In a surge of joy and relief she exclaimed, “Rabboni!” – an ecstatic pledge of her faith in Jesus and in his resurrection.
This short reflection is excerpted from the full article, Mary Magdalene: Witness to the Risen Lord, written by © Jeanne Kun 2008.
See the following related articles by Jeanne Kun:
- Thomas meets the Risen Christ
- The Road to Emmaus (two disciples encounter the risen Lord – a poem)
- Simon Peter: transforming weakness into strength
- Mary Magdalene: Witness to the Risen Lord, and Awakened to Eternity (Mary Magdalene meets the risen Christ – a poem)
- Mary Magdalene: A Portrait of Love Stronger than Death
Top image credit: “Noli Me Tangere” (Do Not Touch Me), painting by Titian, 1511-12, National Gallery, London, UK. In the public domain. Source: Commons Wikimedia.
Jeanne Kun is a noted author, and a member of Bethany Association, an international, ecumenical association of women living single for the Lord in various communities of The Sword of the Spirit, and a senior woman leader in the Word of Life Community, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.