Mary Magdalene

 This Sunday our church celebrated the Feast of Mary Magdalene, the patron saint of our parish. Four few years ago while on a choral tour of Italy, Pewsterspouse and I visited the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence, and were surprised by the appearance of Donatello's statue of Mary Magdalene which he made in 1440 A.D. or so.

We used to call that "rode hard and put up wet." Perhaps this was Mary just before or just after Jesus chased the seven demons out of her. It is so unlike most renditions of her that I had to stop and give this one more time than I was spending with the rest of the incredible collection of art in the Duomo.

The assigned Gospel reading is John 20:11-18,

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 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.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ 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.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because 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.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

I have heard several explanations as to why Mary did not recognize Jesus. I found a good summary at Cold-Case Christianity, 

The women came to the tomb very early, before it was light outside. They first viewed Jesus in this darkness.

The women were not looking for a resurrected man; they were looking for a dead man. They did not think it possible someone standing behind them could be Jesus.

They were afraid and scared, bewildered and wondering. Why? Because they had just experienced an earthquake. This is their state of mind as Jesus approaches.

Mary is crying; sobbing more likely. This is clear from the account we have, and her sobbing clearly affected her ability to see.

Mary was standing outside the tomb in the garden when she first viewed Jesus. In this setting, she would expect to see a gardener rather than Jesus.

Mary turned away from Jesus. She must have turned away quickly and stayed turned from Him for most of the contact and conversation, because the Scripture tells us she turns back toward Him when He mentions her name.

Mary was standing in the garden. She looked at Jesus for only an instant, in poor lighting, through her tears, thinking all along Jesus should be dead. She was terrified and bewildered from the earthquake. Do you think it is reasonable she first took him for a gardener (considering she was, after all, in a garden)? I think it is, and this is certainly not something that worries me as a believer. I actually love the honesty of the Gospels. Each writer reports the event without concern for apparent contradiction. As investigators, we simply need to do our homework to read through the varied accounts, consider all the perspectives and assemble the details. Once we’ve done this, it’s really not hard to understand why Mary didn’t immediately recognize the resurrected Jesus.