John 20:11-18 (ESV)

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹¹ But Mary stood weeping outside •the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. ¹² And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. ¹³ •They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴ Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing •him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father•, to my God and your God.’ ” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

Mary is weeping outside the tomb.

Jesus had been buried in such a rush because no one can work after sundown on Friday night. He died so quickly, and they had such little time to prepare His body for a proper burial. The soonest anyone could get back to work was sunrise on Sunday, after the Sabbath had ended.

We usually think of days starting at sunrise and ending at sunset, but the Jewish way of reckoning time is that a day begins at sunset.

The Sabbath, the 7th Day of the week, begins at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday. In Hebrew thinking, time is measured by a progression from darkness to light, “There was evening, and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5) But then it’s dark, so this is her first chance to complete the preparations for Jesus’ burial and rest in the tomb.

Mary heads to the tomb as early as possible so that when the sun came up, she could complete the proper burial practices for Jesus. But when she gets there, the stone has been rolled away.

The two angels in the tomb ask who she’s seeking. I mean, c’mon, Mary. Didn’t you listen to a word Jesus said about rising from the dead? Did any of His disciples listen? Do we listen? We have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight knowing that Jesus is risen from the dead. Christ is risen! But put yourself in their shoes for a minute. How could anyone have understood what Jesus was saying, apart from the power of the Holy Spirit (That was given to the Apostles on Easter, and to the whole Church on Pentecost 50 days later).

Then there’s another dude there. Mary supposes him to be the Gardner. And keep in mind, this says a lot about where Jesus was buried. It’s a garden.

A garden like this one doesn’t just happen. It’s tended. It’s the result of care and effort. So why wouldn’t this guy, out here at the crack of dawn, be the gardener?

Now stick with me here, but I’m not going to say that Mary was wrong.

Is he the “gardener” in the way she was expecting? No. But He is THE Gardener. He is the Second Adam, the caretaker of all creation, the Son of God in exalted power and majesty, right here in the flesh. Is Jesus the Gardener? You betcha, but not just for the garden around His tomb; for the whole wide world.

Adam had been given a very simple command: fill the earth and subdue it. Care for it. Tend to it so that life continues to burst forth from every nook and cranny of what God has made. Adam did this for a time, but Adam also failed. Adam had been given the task of being God’s right-hand-man at the very start, but he gave in to the serpent’s temptation to take God’s place.

The serpent lied, “Ye shall be like God”. To be like someone is to be on the same level. Adam and Eve’s pride meant that they were willing to throw away literally everything so that they would no longer be God’s helpers but God’s equals. Of course, this was a lie. They would never be less Godlike again.

What do you think Mary thought when Jesus said her name? 

He calls her by name. He doesn’t criticize her for not understanding that He was going to rise from the dead. He says her name. And there’s a lot in a name.

Has Jesus called you by name too? 

Absolutely! Yes! It’s a part of the baptismal liturgy. Even if you were baptized as a wee little baby, Jesus called you by name through the pastor He has sent.

In the baptismal service, the pastor asks the person being baptized (or their parents), “How are you named?”. Then, when the water is poured, the pastor says, “(Your name here), I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”.