For a Sunday school lesson, the teacher gave each student a plastic egg and told him or her to go outside and to find something to put inside the egg that would symbolize Easter.  When the children returned, one little girl showed that she had put a budding flower petal inside her egg to stand for new life.  Another child put a small stone inside his egg to symbolize the stone that was rolled away from the tomb.  When a mentally challenged child opened his egg, there was nothing inside it.  At first the teacher felt embarrassed for him, thinking that he had not understood the assignment.  But then the child explained, “There’s nothing inside my egg, because on Easter morning, Jesus’ tomb was empty.”

The story of Easter is comprised of two parts.  The first is the discovery of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene and the second the account of Christ’s appearance to Mary.   The character of Mary Magdalene holds these two together.  The first part of the story stresses several things.  Mary apparently comes to the tomb for no other reason than to be near her Lord whom she dearly loves.  She does not come to anoint the body, for that has already been done.  Finding the tomb fills her with fear that the body had been stolen.  Grave robbery was very common in that day and place.  Then Peter and the beloved disciple come to the tomb at Mary’s bidding, find it empty, and return to their homes.  It means that what the beloved disciple believed is uncertain.  What is certain is that Peter doesn’t seem to understand at all, and both of them return to what they were about before Mary’s intrusion.

The story continues on with Mary still at the tomb mourning.  Her love of Jesus fills her with such sorrow that she cannot think of anything but that someone has made off with the body.  She says to the two angels and Jesus the same thing she has announced to Peter and the beloved disciple: ‘someone has taken the body away, and she doesn’t know where it is.’  She is not all moved to marvel and awe by the appearance of the angelic beings.  There is but one thing on her mind: to find Jesus’ body.

Maybe that is why she does not immediately recognize the risen Christ.  Her sorrow, her preoccupation with finding the body, and her uneasiness for an encounter with the risen Christ all combine to cover her eyes.  The covering, however, is ripped off by the sound of her name, “Mary.”  Jesus calls his sheep by name.  To have Christ call us by our names allows us to see as we have not seen before.  Mary responds with an affectionate reference to her master and falls at the feet of the Lord.  However, Christ orders her, ‘Do not hold on to me.’  Christ is present, but now in a new form.  Mary now has a new relationship with Christ different from the one she had known with the earthly Jesus.  Yet it is a relationship still filled with love.   Mary cannot hold on to the risen Christ but must share the news of her experience with others.

Mary obediently does what her master has asked her to do.  She announces to the other disciples very simply, “I have seen the Lord.”  With her announcement there is a whole new beginning for Jesus’ followers.  She, ‘a woman!’ brings the news of the resurrection to her colleagues.  As one scholar has said, “Mary is the apostle to the apostles.”  She is the first to announce the resurrection to those who will now announce it to others.   This is a surprise ending, isn’t it?   So, our surprise is that the risen Christ may appear to us in the disguise of a gardener, call our names, and send us on a mission.

Happy Easter!

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