Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene.

(John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9-11; Mat. 28:9-10).

After Apostles Peter and John had left the tomb, Mary Magdalene, who perhaps arrived there with them or close behind them, was left on her own. Her soul was in upheaval and she was crying, thinking that the Lord’s Body had been stolen. Crying, she leaned toward the opening of the tomb, and saw inside two Angels, sitting on the bier upon which the bodies of the dead were placed, inside the burial cave. Her grief was so great that it drowned out all other feelings. That’s why Magdalene is not very shaken by the sight of these Angels, and to their consoling question: “Woman, why are you weeping?” she simply — as though speaking to earthly beings — expresses her grief in the same words as she did before to Apostles Peter and John: “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” Having said this, maybe by chance, through a sense of lost feelings, and then again perhaps, moved by an instinctive inner feeling, she turned around and saw Jesus, but did not recognize Him. Apparently, she didn’t recognize Him, because He appeared “in another form,” like an Emmaus traveler, in a “humble and ordinary” appearance (Saint Chrysostom). That’s why she took Him to be a gardener. Maybe she didn’t recognize Him, because her eyes were full of tears, as she was crushed with grief and didn’t expect to see the Lord alive. She didn’t even recognize His voice when He asked her: “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking?” Taking Him to be a gardener (which is quite natural, because who else would be in the garden so early other than a gardener), she says to Him: “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away,” not even considering as to whether she, being a weak woman, would be able to lift Him. The Lord then revealed Himself by calling her with a special and long-familiar intonation: “Mary!” — this shows that after her words to the seeming gardener, she turned her gaze toward the tomb, — “and said to Him, ‘Rabboni!’” and with a visible but indescribable joy, fell at His feet wishing to cling to them, perhaps to convince herself that she is seeing a real live Jesus and not some apparition. The Lord forbad her to do this, saying: “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’” It is as though the Lord is saying: “Believe My word and not your grasp.” Another meaning to this forbiddance is that the Lord wanted to convey to Mary: “Leave Me, as you cannot remain with Me permanently. Don’t detain Me, but go and proclaim My resurrection. It is incumbent of Me not to remain with you but ascend to the Heavenly Father.” A good explanation of this forbiddance in touching the Lord can be found in the morning hymn of the eighth tone: “….”

“Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her” — collating these words with that of Saint Matthew, we have to assume that along the way, Mary Magdalene encountered the “other Mary,” and the Lord again appeared to both of them (second appearance), “saying: rejoice!” They prostrated themselves before His feet. He repeated anew His behest that they go to His disciples (having called them “His” Brothers), and announce His resurrection to them, repeating that which the Angel stated prior to this: “Tell My brethren to go to Galilee.” The resurrected Lord, already the glorified Messiah ready to go to His Father, very touchingly calls His disciples “brethren.” He wasn’t ashamed to call them as such — as Apostle Paul later emphasizes this in his Epistle to the Hebrews 2:11-12.

Saint Mark states that the women myrrhbearers were so overcome with palpitations and terror (of course reverential), that they “said nothing to anyone.” This has to be understood in the sense that, when they were running along the way, they did not mention anything to anyone about what they saw and heard. Further on, Evangelist Mark himself (as well as other Evangelists, Luke 24:9) narrates that having reached home, they related everything to the Apostles (Mark 16:8 and 6:10).

According to the Evangelists’ writings, it would seem that the Lord’s first appearance was to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9-10). However, from ancient times, our Church maintains the tradition, that the before Mary Magdalene, the resurrected Lord first appeared to His Blessed Mother — which is quite natural and understandable. To this day within the temple of Resurrection at Jerusalem, there is a declared area where the Lord appeared to His Blessed Mother, not far from the “koovookleeya”? Tradition, blessed by centuries, cannot be but based on actual fact. And if there is no mention of this in the Gospel, it is because in general, there is much that is not recorded, as Saint John testifies (21:25; 20:30-31). It has to be assumed that because of Her humility, it wasn’t agreeable to the All Pure Mother of God Herself for the intimate secrets of Her life to be broadcasted. That’s why there is extremely little said about Her in the Gospel, except for the very essential facts, associated directly with the life of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Evidently, the Evangelists didn’t want to mention the Blessed Mother of God at all as a witness to the genuineness of Christ’s Resurrection, because the testimony of a mother would have been met with skepticism by those that doubted (see the Sinarksis in the Paschal week). The Evangelists say, that the accounts by the women-myrrhbearers of what they saw and heard at the tomb about the appearance of the resurrected Lord Himself, were not believed (Luke 24:11). If the Apostles didn’t believe them, would strangers believe the witness of a Mother?