What We Can Learn from Mary at the Tomb

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb. (John 20:1-11 NASB)

Seeing the empty tomb helped those disciples believe Jesus was the Son of God, but it was not so for Mary. She wept. Jesus had died on the cross three days earlier, and a large rock had been placed in front of the tomb’s entrance (Mark 15:46–47). Mary had witnessed everything. And now her emotions flooded to the surface.

Mary had sat at Jesus’s feet and listened to his teachings. She’d watched him raise her brother Lazarus from the dead (see John 11). Mary knew Jesus well and was loyal to him. She stood at Jesus’s cross until the very end of his life.

I wonder if her arrival so early on that third day was in part because she sought closure about this man she had called the Son of God (John 11:27). Was Mary the type of person who needed to see a body to truly accept that Jesus was dead? Was her sense of duty to finish the burial heightened by the fact that the disciples were hiding, afraid for their own lives?

The unknown is a challenging place to live. For three years Jesus had walked the earth and been a part of Mary’s life, but now he was gone.

Did Mary weep not only because the body was gone, but because she was frustrated? I wonder if she was like me. If so, she would have come to the tomb in part out of personal longing, out of a need to stop living in limbo. Trying to move forward, even if that meant accepting Jesus’s death. But where was he?

She saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” 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, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her. (John 20:12–18 NASB)

Mary may have come to finish Jesus’s burial that day, but he had other plans for that encounter. While Mary was focused on his death, uncertain about the future, the resurrected Jesus was standing in front of her.

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Our lives will be filled with uncertainty many times. It’s unavoidable. Still, in the midst of our own seasons of limbo we have a truth to cling to: Jesus is alive. I have hope in that truth, even when everything else is uncertain.

Do you?

Beth Walker is a football coach’s wife and mom of two energetic boys. She strives to encourage those around her to pursue their best lives in Jesus whether she is near the game field, in church, or at the local coffee shop. As a writer, Beth has been striving to find her voice through seeing Jesus in the ordinary and extraordinary of daily life. She blogs at Lessons from the Sidelines.

Photograph © Pearl, used with permission