The question of our text forms a part of the first recorded conversation of our Lord after His resurrection, and is for that reason alone more than ordinarily interesting.
And when one realizes that our Lord most certainly heard the conversations she had previously had with the disciples and with the two angels in white which she found as she looked into the sepulchre, both were sitting, one at the head, and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus HAD lain. First let us go back to chapter 20 v1. A new week had dawned, the past had made its mark upon the life of Mary Magdalene, and she felt she had sustained a loss that was irretrievable but with her new week what was she to do without him. He had come into her life and all was revolutionized. He had proved His love to her when all around her had proved their hatred. And when all had (to use 20th century phraseology) sent her to Coventry. He had opened His loving arms and received her but now He has gone and there has come a blank into her life which she felt could never be filled and if I rightly read Mary’s heart I think she had spent a sleepless night and risen very early while it was yet dark and goes to the sepulchre where that precious body had been lain but to her great surprise and (I think I can say) grief she found the stone rolled away. Probably it was with weary steps she approached the sepulchre but she came away in great haste, running, and finding Peter and John she bursts upon them somewhat unceremoniously with the words “They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre and we know not where they have laid him. The two disciples went with haste also to verify her statement and having done this they went away to the own home. But Mary stood without, weeping. Her action at this time certainly suggested a good ground for our Lord’s words concerning her to Simon Unto whom much is forgiven the same loves much, and I think we can say, her love was amply rewarded. It was as she wept she looks into the sepulchre and what Luke describes as a vision of angels which said He was alive. Yes. What a vision?!! Visions are often given to tear bedimmed eyes, where dry eyes see nothing. Here are messengers from heaven, and please note, they are intensely sympathetic with earth’s sorrows. One of the Sankey[2] hymns tells us. Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal. Woman, why weepest thou, are words like balm falling upon her troubled ear. Notice her answer, straightforward without dallying. Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid Him. And then she became conscious of a spectator at the scene, and He speaks again sympathetically Woman why weepest thou. Without answering His question, she turns to Him for help. Sir if thou have borne Him hence Tell me where thou hast laid Him and I will take Him away. Now she has something more than a vision of angels. She has a vision of her beloved Lord in resurrection, and she just listens to one word Mary, and in reply she utters one word. Rabboni. Master. Recognition on both sides, and it is enough, Her sorrows are gone. Her beloved Lord is alive and she is satisfied. What remains to be done? Witness! of course she must tell others. Now have we forgotten the words of our text? I hope not Why did she seek Him? There is only one answer to the question. Because she loved Him, and why did He appeared to her? Because He loved her.
Now I want to take you to another scene[3] in the earthly lifetime of our Lord which must have caused our Lord intense suffering.. even as this must have caused Him intense joy. O yes let us never forget our blessed Lord has a capacity for joy and sorrow: even as we have. One day He had a message brought Him by the disciples of John the Baptist concerning his death and they laid the martyr to rest and went and told Jesus. How did he react to it. He departed into a desert place apart. Presumably to be alone with his sorrow. John was His cousin and probably often the playmate of His youth and He experienced bereavement and felt it as intensely as we do: probably more than we do because of His greater love. What happens the people follow Him and He is deprived of His aloneness. Is He irritable. NO never He sees the need. As sheep without a shepherd and meets it. Feeding miraculously 5000 men beside women and children and at the end of a long and tiring day. He withdraws into a mountain to pray, not to sleep, having sent His disciples away by ship. A storm overtakes them and find it (sic) a very difficult passage. So He comes to them in the fourth watch between 3 and 6 o’clock in the morning. And the people still follow Him the next day and take shipping and find Him eventually and ask him When camest thou hither. They knew the disciples went away alone and they could not understand how He reached the other side of the sea which was about six miles across. He did not tell them either when or how. We know He walked the first part and joined them in their ship for the remainder.. but He did not satisfy their curiosity but this is what he said to them: Ye seek me not because of the miracles but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Love prompted Mary to seek Him, even though it was only a lifeless body she expected to find. But these people were self-centered in the extreme, and were out to attempt the impossible. To satisfy the spiritual need with the natural food. Whom seekest thou? I ask you in His Name. Do you see Him because in Him you see the only possible supply for your souls need. A young man I knew professed conversion and after a few years wrote to me to say He had abandoned the Christian life because it had disappointed him and he had failed to get out of it what he expected. My comment upon it was he got little because he gave so little. Selfishness was evident in his whole outlook. That is contrary to the very principle of salvation. May God save me from it.
[1] Providence would seem
to be a place rather than a theme
[2] Ira D Sankey, the American soloist who
accompanied DL Moody on his hugely influential evangelistic missions. His
songbook Sacred Songs and Solos was
very widely used amongst evangelical churches. It combines simple, stirring
tunes with emotional lyrics.
[3] John 6:1-34