Mary Magdalene: Love and Questions

One of the first things to notice in this account is that Mary came to the sepulchre “early,” before the sun had come up (see John 20:1). John does not say why Mary was there. Mark’s and Luke’s accounts indicate that Mary and a few other women wanted to anoint Jesus’s body but had to wait until after the Sabbath (see Mark 16:1; Luke 23:55–56; 24:1). Matthew simply states that they went “to see the sepulchre” (Matthew 28:1).

Whatever the reason, it seems that Mary and her companions wanted to get there as soon as possible. Watching her beloved Lord suffer and die on the cross, just days earlier, must have been painful. The future probably seemed uncertain, dark, and frightening. But Mary didn’t stay in her darkness. She knew Jesus to be her source of light—He had saved her from darkness before (see Luke 8:2)—so she went eagerly to the only earthly thing she had left of Him: His tomb. And, figuratively speaking, she didn’t wait for the darkness to leave and light to shine on her path. She took steps of faith in the darkness.

At first, coming to the tomb did not give Mary perfect understanding. In fact, what she saw there raised more questions, more confusion. How had the stone been taken away? Why wasn’t Jesus’s body in the tomb? Where was He?

To us, now, the answers are clear and glorious. But to Mary they weren’t—not yet. In an attempt to make sense of what she was seeing, Mary concluded, “They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him” (John 20:2). She then ran to Peter and John to report the theft.

With that troubling thought still in her mind, Mary returned to the tomb. There she saw two angels sitting where Jesus had lain—clear evidence that something heavenly was going on. Yet Mary continued to express her incorrect assumption that Jesus’s body had been stolen. (See John 20:11–13.)

Impressively, however, Mary didn’t leave the tomb. Even in her confusion, even with all her unanswered questions, she stayed—weeping, looking, continuing to ask questions (see John 20:10–11). She stayed, not because she understood everything but because she loved her Lord. Despite her uncertainty, it remained a fact that Mary loved the Savior. It was love, not knowledge, that brought her to the tomb, and love kept her there.

And because she stayed, she was in the right place at the right time to receive the answers she needed when they finally came.

Understanding came gradually. Mary saw the resurrected Savior standing in the garden; she spoke to Him, and He spoke to her. But she didn’t recognize Him at first. It wasn’t until Jesus said Mary’s name that she realized who He was. (See John 20:14–16.) Why was that? What was it about the Savior calling Mary by name that, apparently, was a more powerful witness to her than what her eyes saw and what her ears heard? Mary knew what Jesus looked like. She knew the sound of His voice. But her relationship with the Savior was much deeper than that. She knew Him. She had built a personal connection with Him over the years—following Him, hearing Him, being healed by His power. That, it seems, is why she finally recognized Him.

Maybe we should all be more like Mary. We all need the courage to take steps of faith when “it [is] yet dark.” When we experience troubling things, when questions just lead to more questions, when our earthly assumptions leave us spiritually blinded, we can cling to our love for Jesus Christ, as Mary did. We can build a relationship with Him that is so strong that we trust Him even more than we trust our physical senses. Maybe then our love for the Savior can keep us close to Him, no matter what—until the sun finally does rise and our eyes, like Mary’s, are opened.