We might imagine that the visions of angels announcing Jesus’ resurrection from the dead would be so dramatic that the women who had seen them could never come to doubt them. And yet, precisely because their experience was so singular and outside of the normal course of events, that is exactly what they did. For like the remembrance of a dream that vanishes into a mist upon waking, so did the visions give way to the “reality” that Jesus’ body was gone from the tomb, and the only rational thing that could have happened to it was that someone had removed it. And even if by some miracle He had been raised, because they could only conceive of it in terms of Lazarus’ resuscitation and there was a Roman guard at the tomb when they arrived, how could He possibly have escaped falling back into the hands of His enemies? And so, standing outside of the tomb, Mary Magdalene wept, pained all the more after Jesus’ brutal crucifixion, wondering what had become of His corpse. She and Mary the mother of James and Joseph had remained there to keep watch for any clues, for it was safer for them as women to do so than for Peter and John who left after seeing for themselves the empty tomb. Now, after having another vision of angels sitting in the tomb at either end of where His body had been—who probed her heart as if to determine if she was ready to meet the risen Savior—Mary turned to be the first to see the resurrected Jesus—but didn’t recognize Him (!), either in appearance or by His voice; Joh 20:14. Who did she suppose that He was? See Joh 20:15. What would a gardener look like, compared to a stately king or royal official that most at that time would have imagined Christ in His resurrection glory to look like, and the way many Christians today imagine He will be when He appears? Cf. Mat 17:2. What does His appearance as a gardener remind us about the true glory of God’s original intention for man that Jesus, as the second Adam into whom we can be born again, came to restore? See Gen 2:7,8,15, 1Co 15:45; cf. Isa 5:1-2, Mat 13:3-8,24-25,31, Luk 20:9-10, Joh 15:1-2.
As Jesus prepared to reveal Himself to Mary He repeated the angels’ question about why she was weeping. What other question did He ask to reveal her heart, if she was really desirous to see Him as He was? See Joh 20:15. As it isn’t always clear from outward appearances if one’s sorrow and weeping is of a worldly or godly nature, are not the motives for which one seeks Jesus also often unclear? Cf. Joh 1:38, 6:26, 18:4,7. How does this question help clarify our motives, whether we seek Jesus as we imagine He should be, or as He actually is, a simple gardener, crucified and dead to the world to tend the garden planted by His Father? Cf. Phil 3:10-11. What did Mary reply to the Gardener, and how did that make clear that she was seeking Jesus as He was, not as she may have otherwise hoped Him to be? See Joh 20:15. Do we seek Him similarly? Will we own Him as Lord (Joh 20:13) and take Him however He is, even though crucified and removed from this world?[1]
How does John say that Mary finally came to recognize that it was Jesus to whom she was speaking? See Joh 20:16. Who else does Scripture record that God called by name in order to reveal Himself to them? Cf. Gen 22:1, Exo 3:4, 31:2, 33:17, 1Sa 3:10, Isa 43:1, 45:1-4, Act 9:4, 10:3. What is the great significance that it was only when Jesus called her by name that Mary recognized Him for who He was? See Joh 10:3,14,27, Phil 4:3, 2Ti 2:19; cf. Isa 40:26. Although the Lord may speak to us and even call us by name, is it a given that we will hear Him and recognize His voice? Cf. 1Sa 3:6-7, Joh 12:28-29. Like Mary, do we have a godly sorrow for the sufferings of our Lord and do we seek Him in truth with all our heart so that when He does call us we will hear His voice and recognize Him for who He is and follow Him?
What is the significance that John says Mary turned when Jesus called her by name? Notice from the context of the previous verse that she was speaking directly to Him and wasn’t turned away. See Mat 18:3 and Joh 12:40 where the same word is translated as converted, indicating that her turning was not physical as when she turned to see the gardener after peering into the tomb, but spiritual, as her heart was turned to recognize that it was Him, though His appearance to her wasn’t at all what she was expecting. Is our conversion of a similar nature, recognizing Jesus not as we imagine He must be, but as He really is? Is our heart turned within us to realize that perhaps Jesus isn’t whom we at one time imagined Him to be, a worldly king who winks at our own sin and takes our side to exact vengeance on our enemies, but the righteous Lamb of God who reigns through self-sacrifice to establish God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven by reconciling us not only to God, but to one another through that same spirit of forgiveness and self-sacrifice?
After Jesus called Mary by name so that she recognized Him for who He was, how did she respond? See Joh 20:16, and note that Rabboni means not just teacher, but is more personal, meaning my teacher. Is Jesus the same to us, not just a teacher, but our teacher, because we follow Him not from a distance, but more personally as His close disciples who love Him and do the things that are pleasing to Him, as He does for the Father?
[1] Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee; E’en though it be a cross That raiseth me. Sarah Adams.