The United States had its championship college basketball game last week, No doubt, students on the winning team’s campus are still basking in the glory of that final basketball game. Players are still being patted on the back and congratulated for winning the tournament. Everyone in Connecticut is trying to hold on tightly to that good feeling that followed their victory a week ago.
As much as they want to hold on to that special moment, however, the good felling fades away quickly. In fact, the coaches are already thinking about next season—recruiting players, making plans and the rest.
Today we read about a person who wanted to hold on to Jesus and never let him get away from her (John 20:11-18)
“Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping…she turned around and saw Jesus there but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?’ She thought it was the gardener and said to him, ‘Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.’”
It makes us wonder why Mary did not recognize Jesus. After all she had spent much time with him. Though she has a conversation with the “gardener,” it doesn’t occur to her that he is Jesus. Why didn’t he look the same as he did prior to his death?
“Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabboni,’ which means Teacher.”
It was the voice, not the appearance, that awakened Mary to the fact that the gardener was Jesus. Remember when Jesus said that his sheep would recognize his voice. No doubt she had heard Jesus say “Mary” many times before. Magdalene was so overwhelmed that she fell at Jesus’ feet and embraced him. She wanted to hold tightly to him forever and never let him go.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them…’”
We are not sure why Mary was not supposed to hold on to the resurrected body of Jesus until he ascended to the Father. Later we know that he invited Thomas to put his hand into the nail wounds of his body. In any case Jesus cut short that moment of Mary’s embrace and told her to go let the others know that she had met Jesus in person. Earlier it seems she ran to them to say the stone had been removed from the tomb and the body of Jesus was gone. Now her message went deeper.
As much as Mary wanted to hold on to Jesus, she was told to leave him and carry out her mission. “Go and tell” was her assignment.
The disciples did not have the luxury of “basking in the victory” of the resurrection. They had a job to do. The quiet of the tomb gave way to the noise that was stirred up by the missing body of Jesus and the news that Magdalene as well as others had seen him in person.
Easter Sunday announces to us not only that Jesus is risen but they we also have a job to do. This is not “easy chair” time to sit around and theologize on the meaning of the resurrection. We live in a world that is starving for Jesus, though they don’t know it. It is for us to “go and tell” that he is still alive and available for people to come to him.
