Happy Easter to you, your family and your friends! Our Lord is risen!
Rabbouni!: ‘Whom are you looking for?’
Reading John 20: 11-18
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the
tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “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, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” 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, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Reflection
The discovery of the empty tomb before sunrise on that first Easter morning leaves Mary of
Magdala distraught. Her immediate assumption was that someone had stolen the body of
Jesus. She alerts the others who race back ahead of her to investigate.
If you were robbing a grave what would possess you to unwrap the grave cloths from the
corpse and take the trouble to fold them neatly where the body had lain? That was the
conundrum that faced the disciples that first Easter morning. Mystified the menfolk return
home but Mary Magdalene lingered behind watching and weeping for her loss. What was
it that transformed this negative experience of inconsolable grief to a heightened level of
inexpressible joy?
We are entering now into the realm of the paschal mystery. A mystery that turns our
thinking – and the thoughts of the first disciples – upside down. The account of what then
happens begins with a voice asking: ‘Whom are you looking for?’. All Mary wants at this
moment is to lay Jesus’ body to rest, to be able to honour his life, to mourn his death and
to properly say goodbye. Through her tears she presses the stranger, whom she has
mistaken for the gardener, to help her recover the body. Then comes that one word – a
word that strikes an unmistakable chord in her heart. “Mary”. At once she knows who it is
addressing her. There can be no other! “Rabbouni!” Teacher! She says and from this
moment of incredulity the Easter story unfolds.
To think about
We shall always struggle to find ways to adequately speak about Easter and what it means
for us to live Christ’s risen life. We shall always feel out of our depth. But what is it that the
risen Lord encourages his friends to do as he calls to them from the sea shore? Simply to
“push out into the deep”.
And that’s where this Holy Week journey leads us. Back to the font where our Christian
journey began. Back to reaffirm our baptismal faith renewed in the light of the Easter Story,
steadying ourselves before pushing out into the deep.
What is this journey for? Why is it important? How should I respond? These are questions
to dwell upon further as we go forward in faith and hope and love.
Prayer
I bind this day to me for ever,
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river;
His death on cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spiced tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself this day.
(Verse 2 St Patrick’s Breastplate, New English Hymnal)
Written by Revd Canon Dr Robert Bull.