Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
If this were a scene in a movie the camera would fill in many of the blanks that John leaves us with. We would be able to see the garden in the early morning light. John and Peter have just left the garden. They had been running when they arrived, but now they were walking. Their shoulders drooping in puzzlement.
Mary arrives as they are leaving. She barely sees them. She stumbles a bit as she makes her way through the garden to the tomb. She looks defeated. Three days of crying have left marks on her face. The trails of her tears make her look older than she is. Slowly, almost blindly, she finds her way to the open tomb. The camera backs away as she walks to the opening. She looks in. We see her reach out with her hand to steady herself. Her fingers gently touching the stone over the mouth of the tomb.
The scene shifts. Now the camera is next to her head. We can see over her shoulder into the darkened tomb. Two angels sit on a stone ledge next to the abandoned grave clothes. A soft light surrounds the two beings and fills the cave. The angels speak in unison, in perfect harmony, “Woman, why are you crying?”
Again the camera angle shifts. Now we are inside the tomb. The lighting seems surreal, the glow from the angels reflecting softly off of Mary’s anguished face. She is not afraid. We can see that. She looks confused. She does not seem to know what she is seeing. Her answer seems more of a reflex than anything else. She replies, “They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him.”
The camera moves in closer to her face as she is speaking. As she finishes, she hears a noise behind her. She starts and turns away from the camera.
Our view shifts again. Now we are outside of the tomb looking at Mary. The camera is higher than her head. We see what startled her. A man stands behind her three or four feet away. We do not see his face. His back is to the camera. She turns facing the camera and draws a quick breath. She does not look him in the face. Instead, conscious of her appearance and her tears, she looks down.
The camera moves in more closely. Looking over the man’s shoulder we see Mary’s face in detail. She looks as if she wants to run away. The man speaks. His voice fills the garden with its gentle timbre.
“Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Mary still has not looked up. Her hands reach toward the man standing before her. Palms up, in a pleading posture she tries to speak with them. Instead, she speaks to them. Her head bowed in deference to this unknown man.
“Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Now the camera moves to the side. We see Jesus’ face looking down at Mary, and Mary’s face looking down at the ground, her hands still spread, palms up, pleading for help.
Jesus says to her, “Mary.”
Her face turns upward, and in that moment we see a catalog of the emotions that are flooding over her: surprise, delight, amazement, love, relief, incredulity. The moment stretches out as if time had stopped. Then she cries out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”
Application: At the right time, Jesus comes to us and calls us. That does not mean that we do not go through dark times. Instead, like Mary, it means that we can face those dark times knowing that Jesus is always with us.
Food for Thought: What does it mean that in this moment of reunion Mary calls Jesus “Teacher” instead of by his name or something else?
It is hard to say what exactly this meant to Mary at that time. But it was a term of endearment. It also shows a close relationship and identifies Him as her teacher. She is a follower of Jesus and loves Jesus.