December 3, 2023
Thoughts That Consume
“ 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.”
John 20:13-14 (NASB)
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone, and referring to another person and suddenly the person is standing behind you? Did it make you hope you hadn’t said anything bad about them? It can be a little embarrassing if so, to say the least if you do. It should immediately bring an apology if so. Otherwise, it might have brought a compliment to the one spoken of. Mary was at a point in her life where her emotions took control of her mouth and she only spoke of what was on her heart the entire time she was looking for Jesus. Where was Jesus?
“And they said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’” Foster says, “The angels broke the silence with a question: ‘Why are you crying?’”[1] She was so absorbed in her grief that she was not surprised by a supernatural occurrence in her midst. Under normal circumstances and in her right mind, she probably would have been terrified. In this case, she spoke as if to another human being asking a simple question, “Where is He?” Foster continues his thoughts; “She could only speak aloud the words she must have been saying over and over in her troubled mind: ‘They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him’ (John 20:13). She was not expecting to see Jesus. The report she made later was not the result of wishful thinking. It was not the product of her imagination. Jesus’ body was gone, and she could think of nothing but the logical conclusion, which later proved false, that someone had carried it away. Did Mary hear a sound behind her? Did she see the angels looking past her to someone beyond? We do not know, but she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. She did not realize, however, that it was Jesus; she did not recognize Him. We need not suppose that His appearance was changed. Her tear-filled eyes, her distraught and stunned condition, and her knowledge that He was dead were enough to keep her from recognizing Him. Certainly it shows that she was not expecting to see Him.”[2] But she did. “When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.” Mary thought Jesus was the gardener (vs. 15). Imagine, as silly as it sounds, asking Jesus where He took His own body. These were the same words she spoke to Peter and John (vs. 2). This permeated her thoughts. What happened to Him? Gardeners in Jesus' time were those who attended to the plants and trees within the garden they were responsible for. We see in John 19:41 that where Jesus was crucified “… there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.” Typically, “Gardens were surrounded by hedges of thorns (Isa. 5:5) or by walls of stone (Prov. 24:31) … they were frequently used as places for secret prayer and communion with God (Gen. 24:63; Matt. 26:30–36; John 1:48; 18:1, 2). The dead were sometimes buried in gardens (Gen. 23:19, 20; 2 Kings 21:18, 26; 1 Sam. 25:1; Mark 15:46; John 19:41).[3]
Today, we decorate cemeteries too. It adds sereness to the site. Workers there normally blend into the fabric of the cemetery. We don’t notice them either, just like Mary did…
[1] Foster, L. (1987). (p. 213). Standard.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Easton, M. G. (1893). In (p. 277). Harper & Brothers.