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“Woman, Why Are You Weeping?”
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The women remembered now—He said He would rise again!
What a day is this! Quickly they departed “with fear and great joy;
and did run to bring His disciples word.”
Mary had not heard the good news. She went to Peter and John
with the sorrowful message, “They have taken away the Lord out
of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid Him.” The
disciples hurried to the tomb and saw the shroud and the napkin, but
did not find their Lord. Yet even here was testimony that He had risen.
The graveclothes were not thrown heedlessly aside, but carefully
folded, each in a place by itself. John “saw, and believed.” He now
remembered the Saviour’s words foretelling His resurrection.
Christ Himself placed those graveclothes with such care. As the
mighty angel from heaven rolled away the stone, another entered the
tomb and unbound the wrappings from the body of Jesus. But it was
the Saviour’s hand that folded each, and laid it in its place. In His
sight who guides alike the star and the atom, nothing is unimportant.
Mary had followed John and Peter to the tomb; when they re-
turned to Jerusalem, she remained. Grief filled her heart. Looking
into the empty tomb, she saw the two angels, one at the head and
the other at the foot where Jesus had lain. “Woman, why weepest
thou?” they asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,”
she answered, “and I know not where they have laid Him.”
Then she turned away, thinking that she must find someone who
could tell her what had been done with the body. Another voice
addressed her: “Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?”
[527]
Through tear-dimmed eyes, Mary saw a man, and thinking it was
the gardener, said, “Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where
thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” If this rich man’s
tomb was thought too honorable for Jesus, she herself would provide
a place for Him. There was a grave that Christ’s own voice had made
vacant, the grave where Lazarus had lain.
But now in His own familiar voice, Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
Turning, she saw before her the living Christ! Springing toward Him
as if to embrace His feet, she said, “Rabboni.” But Christ raised His
hand, saying, Detain Me not; “for I have not yet ascended to My
Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My
Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.” Mary went
her way with the joyful message.