Reflection on John 20:11-18

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Tuesday in the Octave of Easter

14 April, 2020

This Gospel tells us that Mary Magdalene returns to the tomb to weep. She is really overwhelmed by emotion and grief over the death of her Lord, Jesus, and for the fact that his body is missing from the tomb. She is deeply worried that Jesus won’t receive a proper burial. Her love for Jesus both in life and in death is beyond words. As she weeps  profusely, Jesus shows up, but she does not recognize him. He has been transformed by his resurrection. Mary thinks of him as the gardener. Jesus looking like a gardener has a great significance. 

In the book of Genesis, God was the Gardener of the Garden of Eve who walked with his creatures in peaceful friendship. But the friendship was disrupted by sin. Sin ended the peaceful and intimate relationship and association between God and his creatures. But through Jesus, through the history of salvation, through his death on the cross, through the tomb located right in the middle of the garden, God returns as a gardener to reestablish the friendship. In Jesus, God appears again as a gardener, and called the woman at the tomb by her name, “Mary.” Talking about himself as the Good Shepherd, Jesus said that his sheep hears his voice as he calls them by name. Jesus calls Mary by name and she immediately recognizes him because he knows her personally. By extension, Jesus knows you and me by name and he calls you and me by name. Are we going to recognize him? At the tomb, Mary has such laser focus on one thing: finding the body of Jesus and bringing it back to the tomb.. Her love for Jesus in life and in death is amazing. How about us? Do we love Jesus with such intensity that we won’t let anything else get in the way? 

Back to the Gospel. When Mary realizes that the gardener who called her by name is Jesus, she exclaims in Hebrew, “Rabbouni.” Rabbouni is the Hebrew word for rabbi, a teacher. It is also a respectful form of address that means, “my great one,” “my master.” It also conveys affection, “my dear rabbi.” Then she rushes with great joy and holds unto Jesus, but Jesus respectfully says, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them…” Tell them what? That I am risen. That you saw me. Jesus does not want Mary to cling unto him for too long. The sense here is not to hang on to Jesus but to go out and proclaim what he has accomplished. And the content of this proclamation is Jesus is Risen. Jesus has raised our status even higher. At the Last Supper, Jesus tells his disciples, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his mater is doing. I have called you friends (Jn. 15:15). Why? Because they accepted the revelation he brought to the world. So, after his resurrection, he elevates their status to being called brothers. The content of this proclamation is that our level has been raised even higher— we are more than his friends; we are his brothers and sisters; his Father is our Father, and his God is our God as well. This is a great message that everyone in the world should hear and should believe.   

Let me finish this reflection with one more important point. At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus asks two men (John the Baptist’s disciples) who left John to follow him, “What are you you looking for?” (John 1:38) Those are the first words Jesus utters in the Gospel of John. Now, after the completion of his public ministry he asks Mary of Magdala a similar question, “Whom are you looking for?” (John 20:15) The two questions not only set the ministry of Jesus but are questions that every man and woman must ask themselves as they explore the meaning and direction of their lives. 

So, brothers and sisters, I ask you, “What are you looking for?” “Whom are you looking for?”