THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL (JOHN 20:11-18)
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While at summer camp, an 11-year-old named Alex found himself with no toys or books to distract himself during free period. His mom had packed a box that included cards, Legos, yo-yos and a new book he had wanted to read, but the family discovered the box back home in the middle of the living room. The son, who was very worried about being bored during their rest time, was not a happy camper, so he spent the free period writing a letter to his parents and didn’t hold back:
Mom and Dad,
Why the h*** did you not check if I had toys, I was so bored during free period. I expected more from you mom, but not so much dad.”
When Alex finally received his toys in the package his quick-thinking mother, he sent home a sweet letter to thank her:
Dear Mom
Thank you for the package that you gave me. I am working on a Lego set. Are you doing anything interesting? I am. I love you and hope you stay safe
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/whats-hot/you-need-to-read-this-11-year-olds-hilariously-brutal-letter-from-camp/ar-AAopCMK
Women seldom get a fair shake in life, but they played an important, illustrious and inspirational part in the death and resurrection account of Jesus. They followed him from Galilee to Jerusalem (Mark 15:41), and served or ministered to him (Matt 27:55, Mark 15:41). The women did not desert Him even though they could not get any closer, choosing to look on afar off (Mark 15:40, Matt 27:55) or at a distance when he was crucified. Mary Magdalene was never a notorious prostitute, according to the 6th Century Pope Gregory the Great, an iconoclastic saint, according to the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches with a feast day of 22nd July, or Jesus’ companion, according to the Gospel of Philip, one of the Gnostic Gospels.
What can we learn from the faith and fortitude of women? How did the Risen Christ deliver us from doubt and dismay? Why are women God’s strong army and ambassadors in His witness and work?
Be Poised to Persist
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
Satan called together a council of his servants to consult how they might make a good man sin. One evil spirit started up and said, “I will make him sin.” “How will you do it?” asked Satan. “I will set before him the pleasures of sin,” was the reply; “I will tell him of its delights, and the rich reward it brings.” “Ah” said Satan, “that will not do; he has tried it and knows better than that.”
Then another imp started up and said, “I will make him sin.” “What will you do?” asked Satan. “I will tell him of the pains and sorrows of virtues. I will show him that virtue has no delights, and brings no rewards.” “Ah, no!” exclaimed Satan, “that will not do at all; for he has tried it and knows that `Wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.’”
“Well,” said another imp, starting up, “I will undertake him to make him sin.” “And what will you do?” asked Satan again. “I will discourage his soul,” was the short reply. “Ah, that will do!” cried Satan; “that will do! We shall conquer him now.” (Hannah Smith, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, 76-77)
Mary Magdalene is the champion weeper of the Bible. There are four references to her weeping (vv 11 twice, 13, 15), more than any person in the Bible, including Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus, with three references (John 11:31, 33 twice). Rivaling the record-breaking four times the verb “weep” found in this chapter is the four times in Revelation, but there it is divided between the weeping of the kings of the earth (Rev 18:9) and the weeping of the merchants of the earth (Rev 18:11, 15, 19). Weeping is loud wailing rather than the lesser crying. Mary had reasons to weep. First, the body of the Lord is gone. Second, she did not know who took it (v 15). Third, Simon and John had disappeared from view.
Unlike the men, Peter (John 20:6) and John (Jon 20:8), who went into the tomb, she was outside the tomb and looked into the tomb (v 11). She had to think of a way to handle the situation by herself and figure things out for herself. There were three main verbs to describe her: stood, stooped (v 11; bent over, NIV) and saw (v 12) (the verb “looked” (v 11) is missing in Greek). The minority translation for the verb “saw” (theoreo) is behold (Matt 27:55), perceive (John 4:19) and consider (Heb 7:4). The stranded Mary must look and learn for herself. Mary could not afford to feel helpless, hurting or handicapped at this important juncture in her life. She could not understand the unreliable men, who either previously forsook the Lord and fled (Matt 26:56, Mark 14:50) the scene or presently kept to themselves and left her alone. It did not strike her or shock her that the two men sitting at Jesus head and feet were angels. The last thing Mary wanted was to appear to the disciples as a person who was ignorant and not informed, to be irrelevant and not involved, to be invisible, illogical and inconsolable, rather than intelligent, investigative and irrefutable. Not for a person who was once possessed by seven devils (Luke 8:2).
Yet Mary did exhibit strength and not weakness when she declared “I do not know.” In Jesus’ death and resurrection account only two people said “I do not know,” the other person being Peter, who famously said three times “I do not know”:
“I know not what you say.”
“I do not know the man.”
“I know not the man.” (Matt 26:70, 72, 74)
The difference between the quotes of Peter and Mary was Peter’s “I do not know” demonstrates his defiance, dread and deception, whereas Mary’s “I do not know” displays her discouragement, disclosure and discernment.
Be Prepared to Persuade
14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
A converted cowboy put it very well when he said, “Lots of folks that would really like to do right think that serving the Lord only means shouting themselves hoarse praising His name. Now I'll tell you how I look at that. I am working for Jim here. Now if I would do nothing but sit around the house telling what a good fellow Jim is and singing songs to him, I would not suit Jim. But when I buckle on my straps and hustle among the hills and see that Jim's herd is all right, not suffering for water and feed, or being driven off the range and branded by cow thieves, then I am serving Jim as he wants to be served.”
Unlike the first divine question (v 13), the second question differed in a few ways. First, Jesus and not the angels did the asking. Second the question was longer, adding “Whom seekest thou?” (KJV). Third, Mary’s answer this time was more determined. Instead of saying “I do not know,” she said two magnificent and momentous things. First, she said powerfully, passionately and pluckily, with an imperative, “Tell me!” She was unafraid, undeterred and unconvinced. The body could not move by itself. Furthermore the three men’s (two angels and Jesus) simultaneous presence was unlikely out of chance or coincidence. The soldiers were gone with no body to guard, so they cannot be fearless volunteers out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere doing and knowing nothing.
Mary was dignified and diplomatic, not deprecating or demeaning, in the way she addressed the supposed “gardener” (v 15). He was a hireling and a handyman in the field, but she did not minimize or mock him, but called him “Sir” (kurios), which is translated as Lord (Matt 1:20), master (Mark 13:35) or owner (Luke 19:33), a designation equal to Jesus’ title in verse 13 but grander than Jesus’ title of “Teacher” in verse 16. Never was she angry, antagonistic or aggressive with the gardener.
The clause “I will get him/take him away” (v 15) is a shocking statement. It is contrasted with “they have taken my Lord away” (v 13) because the verbs are the same. Out of nowhere she became a stable and strong, if not super, woman, no longer the shell-shocked, stranded and sorry woman. She had to volunteer her strength; the men and the ladies were not around. It’s been said, “The two of them leave without a backward glance at Mary.” (BBC) It was next to an impossible thing and task for her to do, to take an adult man by herself, never mind how messy and dreadful thing it was to transport a dead, deceased body. The Church of Holy Sepulchre and Garden Tomb to Jerusalem is 2.3 to 2.5 miles from Jerusalem, so it was nearly unmanageable and unmovable to carry Jesus’ body without a cart, a beast or an aide.
Be Passionate to Proclaim
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
God looks over the millions of people and says, “Welcome to Heaven. The women are to go with Saint Peter, and the men are then to form two lines. Make one line of the men that dominated their women on earth, and the other of men who were dominated by their women.”
With much movement the women are gone and there are two lines. The line of the men that were dominated by women is 100 miles long but the line of men who dominated women has only one man.
God gets angry and says, “You men should be ashamed of yourselves. I created you in my image and you were all dominated by your mates? Look at the only one of you that stood up and made me proud and prepare to learn from him!”
God turns to the man and says, “Tell them, my son. How you managed to be the only one on that line?”
The man says, “I don’t know, my wife told me to stand here.”
The imperative “do not hold me” or “touch me not” in KJV is nothing magical or metaphysical because Jesus would next invite Thomas to touch him (John 20:27). There are three ways to see why Jesus forbade Mary from touching Him – out of doubt, devotion and distance. First, He forbade Mary from testing Him just like Thomas did in his unbelief. This is the proof test. Jesus had already called Mary by name (v 16). Second He prohibited Mary from grabbing at His feet refusing to let him go out of devotion to Him, just as Matthew recorded that she and the other Mary with fear and great joy held him by the feet, and worshipped him (Matt 28:8-9). Hold or touch is in the present tense. It can be translated as “keep on holding or touching.” Third, it is time to say goodbye. There is no indication Jesus met the ladies again. Jesus had a more important thing or task for Mary to do. It is not the time for reunion, retrospective or revelation stories.
The verbs “go” and “tell” are next two imperatives here in John’s gospel, overwhelming the previous imperative “touch” (me not). The two exact verbs “go” and “tell” occur in the Matthew account (Matt 28:7), but only the verb “tell” is the imperative in Matthew. In Mark 16:7 the imperatives “go your way” (different word) and the same “tell” verb are imperatives. Why were Mary Magdalene and other women, and not the men, were given the task to spread the message and preach the gospel? Simply because they were God’s co-workers, too, and better communicators at that. In Luke’s gospel the women reported (24:9) and told (24:10) these things t0 the apostles, but they believed them not (Luke 24:11). In Mark’s gospel, the apostles did not believe Mary Magdalene had seen Jesus (Mark 16:11). The ladies did not feel annoyed, angry or aggrieved no matter what. They did not lose their voice or verve, running to tell the disciples (Matt 28:8) and preaching to all the believers, so much so that the two travelers to Emmaus admitted, “Certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher…saying that He was alive” (Luke 24:22-23). The verb “astonish” means amazed (Matt 12:23), wondered (Acts 8:13) and beside ourselves (2 Cor 5:13).
There was a gender reason the gospel message was first entrusted to women. First, the men were not as verbal or vocal as the ladies. Peter and John did not say a word earlier in the chapter. Nor did they tell others of Jesus’ resurrection in any gospel accounts. Peter, after seeing the linen clothes laid by themselves, departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass (Luke 24:12). John 20:10 recorded that the “disciples went away again unto their own home.” Besides, there were only two men at the tomb – Peter and John, but they were much more women there, counting Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (Matt 28:1), otherwise known as Mary the mother of James, Salome (Mark 16:1), Joanna, and other women (Luke 24:10). The men had a co-partner, a colleague, a collaborator or a counterpart, but women a choir, a carnival, a coalition or a crowd!
Conclusion: The early disciples were a group of men and women who were transformed by the Risen Christ from feeble to fearless, fretful to faithful, and futile to fruitful witnesses for Him. Do you face the cross courageously, follow His steps closely, and feed His flock cheerfully? Do you give women, ladies and girls the room, respect and recognition they deserved? Do you respect their strength, service and success? Have did the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ given you the valor and vigor to surrender to Him and suffer for Him?
