July 21, 2025 • 23 mins
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John 20: 1-2, 11-18 - 'Mary, go and find the brothers and tell them.'
Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:
- 640-641 (in 'The Empty Tomb') - Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." The first element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb. In itself it is not a direct proof of Resurrection; the absence of Christ's body from the tomb could be explained otherwise. Nonetheless the empty tomb was still an essential sign for all. Its discovery by the disciples was the first step toward recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection. This was the case, first with the holy women, and then with Peter...Mary Magdalene and the holy women who came to finish anointing the body of Jesus, which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good Friday, were the first to encounter the Risen One. Thus the women were the first messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves (abbreviated).
- 645 (in 'The Condition of Christ's risen humanity) - By means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of his Passion. Yet at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ's humanity can no longer be confined to earth, and belongs henceforth only to the Father's divine realm. For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign freedom of appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar to his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith.
- 443 (in 'The Only Son of God') - He distinguished his sonship from that of his disciples by never saying "our Father", except to command them: "You, then, pray like this: 'Our Father'", and he emphasized this distinction, saying "my Father and your Father" (abbreviated).
- 654 (in 'The Meaning and Saving Significance of the Resurrection') - Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren." We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection (abbreviated).
- 660 (in 'He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father') - The veiled character of the glory of the Risen One during this time is intimated in his mysterious words to Mary Magdalene: "I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. "This indicates a difference in manifestation between the glory of the risen Christ and that of the Christ exalted to the Father's right hand, a transition marked by the historical and transcendent event of the Ascension.
- 2795 (in 'Who art in Heaven') - In Christ, then, heaven and earth are reconciled, for the Son alone "descended from heaven" and causes us to ascend there with him, by his Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension (abbreviated).
Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Hi everyone, welcome back to Logical Bible Study where we
look at the gospel reading for today's maths and we try to do
an exegesis of the text. Today it's the.
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene And so the chosen Gospel reading
focuses on the character of MaryMagdalene and it's taken from
John chapter 20, verses 1 to 2 and then 11 to 18.
(00:34):
Here's the text. It was very.
Early on the first day of the week.
And still. Dark When Mary of Magdala came
to the tomb, she saw that the stone had been moved away from
the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other
disciple. The one whom Jesus loved, They
have taken the Lord out of the tomb, she said.
(00:54):
And we don't know where they have put him.
Meanwhile, Mary stayed outside the tomb, weeping.
Then, still weeping, she stoopedto look inside and saw two
angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one
at the head, the other at the. Feet, they said.
Woman, why are you weeping? They have taken my Lord.
(01:17):
Away, she replied. And I don't know where they have
put him as. She said this.
She turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did
not recognize. Him, Jesus said.
Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?
Supposing him to be the gardener, She said.
Sir, if you have taken him away,tell me where you have put him
(01:40):
and I will go and remove him, Jesus, said Mary.
She knew him then and said to him in Hebrew Rabuni, which
means master. Jesus said to.
Her Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the
Father, But go and find the brothers, and tell them I am
(02:02):
ascending to my father, and yourFather to my God, and your God.
Sir Mary of Magdala went and told the disciples that she had
seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.
So what's the context? Here, well just before this.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus hasdied on the cross and they've
(02:23):
laid him in the tomb. And in fact, Mary of Magdalene
was one of the people who was present for all of that.
And in this reading today we're going to see the 2nd appearance
of Jesus. After his death.
The first appearance is to the women who are on the way to tell
the other disciples about the empty tomb.
And apparently that happens justbefore this one.
It would appear that. Way.
(02:43):
So it's. Verse one the 1st.
Day of the week. So that's.
Sunday. According to the Jewish way of
thinking, the first day of the week is Sunday, and if we have
our dates right, it's almost certainly the date of this would
be Sunday, April 5th, 33AD. Although some scholars do debate
that date. Mary of Magdala appears here, so
(03:04):
we don't know a whole lot about Mary of Magdala.
She appears in the other gospels.
As one of. Jesus closest friends and
followers and. The Gospel of Luke.
Says that seven demons were castout of her.
Although that's about. It we don't know whether she was
a prostitute, the text doesn't tell us anything like that, just
that she. Was apparently possessed.
By some demons and then became afollower.
(03:25):
Of Jesus after that. But we know that she was at the
foot of the cross, and she was particularly close to him.
At the end of his life she came to the tomb, and now we know
from the Gospel of Mark that shedid come there with a few other
women. Who've come to anoint the body
with spices. So the reason they came on this
morning in Mark 16 is to anoint the.
(03:46):
Body with spices. And she saw that the stone had
been moved away from the tomb. Now, according to the Gospel of
Matthew, the women see an Angel descend from heaven and roll the
stone away. And according to the Gospel of
Matthew, at that point Mary Magdalen runs back.
To tell the others. And that's what we see in verse
(04:08):
2 here as well. She came running to Simon, Peter
and the. Other disciple after she sees
that. The stone has been rolled away.
Why does she go to them? Well, she's going to those that
she acknowledges. As the leaders.
Of the Christian community, Simon Peter and the other.
Disciples, So that's. Basically Peter and John.
(04:29):
It would appear when we last sawPeter he denied Jesus, so this
is going to be a significant. Moment for Peter as well.
Now says here. The other disciple.
The one whom Jesus loved. And in our discussions about on
this podcast about the Gospel ofJohn, we talk.
About how this beloved disciple appears to be.
The Apostle John himself and thereason he's not identified in
(04:52):
this. Gospel is because.
John doesn't want to identify himself by name.
Now what does she say to them? She says they have taken the
Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put
him. Notice the way.
Here. So John's.
Gospel agrees with the other. Gospels that Mary.
Is here with. Other women, at least for some
of this. Other women were there at the
(05:13):
start, but now Mary Magdalene has run back by herself.
It would seem now she has not yet seen Jesus.
All that she knows is that the tomb is empty.
She doesn't. She hasn't made the logical
connection that maybe it's resurrection.
She just knows that the tomb is empty.
So who does she think took the body?
Well, it's not clear because shejust says they.
(05:33):
So maybe she thinks robbers. Maybe she thinks robbers have
taken the body, or possibly she thinks perhaps a caretaker, A
gardener might have moved the body, and that's the conclusion
she jumps to later. When she sees Jesus, she thinks
he's the gardener. But obviously in Mary's mind
here someone has stolen the body.
Or if not stolen, then move for some other reason.
(05:56):
Now today's reading. Skips over verses. 3:00 to 9:00.
Because those verses. Are about Peter and John.
That's when they run to to look at the tune.
And today's is the feast day of Mary Magdalene, so it just
focuses on the verses about her.And so the reading now skips
through to verse 11. But if you want to hear those
intervening verses, verses 3:00 to 9:00, that's actually read on
(06:18):
Easter Sunday of every year on Easter morning as.
Well as the. Feast of St.
John. So verse 11, Mary stayed outside
near the tomb weeping so. Again, we need to try and break
free of this. The videos we sometimes see of
this scene. At this stage, Mary's not in the
(06:39):
tomb. In fact, she doesn't appear to
go into the tomb at all here. She's outside the tomb nearby.
Peter and John have left by now.So apparently she's alone and
she's weeping. And she's weeping because as we
find out, she does not know where the robbers have put the
body. She thinks that his body has
been stolen. Even though she's probably seen
(06:59):
the Angel descend from heaven, she just doesn't understand
where is the body? She thinks a robber has stolen
it. Now this weeping might recall
something that was said earlier by Jesus in John chapter 16.
John says to his disciples, you will weep and mourn while the
world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief
(07:21):
will become joy. So there's an interesting link
there. So now she Stoops to look
inside. So she looks inside the tomb.
Verse 12. She saw two angels in white
sitting where the body of Jesus had been.
One at the. Head and the other at the feet.
Now, these angels weren't there before when Peter and John
(07:42):
looked in the tomb, which was shortly before this.
So apparently these angels have appeared just for Mary.
They're they're on a mission to help Mary in this situation.
They know that she doesn't believe Jesus has risen and
they're there to help her believe that he has.
So they say to her, why are you weeping?
So they want Mary to realize that there is no reason to weep.
(08:06):
Interestingly, Mary doesn't appear to be afraid of the
angels, although usually in the Bible people are afraid of
angels. Or maybe she doesn't realize who
they are. She's so distraught.
So she says to them, they have taken my Lord away and I don't
know where they have put him. So notice the language of my
Lord shows the intimate personalrelationship which she has with
(08:26):
Jesus. Before this she talks about we
don't know where they have put him.
Now it's where have you put my Lord?
I don't know where he has gone. So she considers Jesus to be not
just her friend, but her personal Lord and master.
She's deeply destroyed here. Verse 14 as she turned around so
get the picture. She now turns and looks back
(08:48):
outside the tomb. She saw Jesus standing there,
though she did not recognize him.
So apparently Jesus has teleported here from his first
appearance in Jerusalem. Apparently he hasn't walked
because otherwise he would have run into people.
So he's somehow invisibly moved from Jerusalem to the tomb, and
(09:11):
that's because Jesus only wants to appear to particular people
for the next 40 days. He doesn't want to appear to.
Other others, only the certain ones that he picks.
Now, interestingly, why doesn't she recognize Jesus?
There's a lot of discussion about this.
I think there's three main theories about why Mary doesn't
(09:32):
initially recognize Jesus. One is that her vision is
blurred by the tears and she's just distraught and not thinking
properly or something like that.Second option is that Jesus
himself is taking on a differentappearance than what he had
before. And that would fit in with some
of the other appearances later in the Gospels, such as On the
(09:53):
Road to Emmaus. The two people are walking with
him the entire way to Emmaus, but they don't recognize him.
And it's also the explanation that the Catechism prefers it
tends to lean in this direction.So on this theory, Jesus looks
different in his glorified body,and in fact, maybe he can choose
to appear in different forms. That's the theory that I think
(10:14):
is most likely to be correct. And there's a third theory,
which is that God has imposed some sort of supernatural
blindness on Mary of Magdalene. Here it's a supernatural thing
and when she recognized him it'slike the scales fall from her
eyes kind of thing. And to support that we have Luke
2416 which is on the road to amass.
(10:35):
It says the disciples eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
So it depends how we take that. As I said, I think the best way
to interpret this is that Jesus is actually appearing in a
different form, although that's not the only explanation.
Now, there might be some parallels here to what happened
to Peter and John, or Peter and the beloved disciple just before
(10:55):
this. Remember, they arrived at the
tomb, but they see the cloths, but they do not know exactly
what it means, similar to Mary Magdalene here.
In both cases, neither party hasthe gift of faith in the risen
Jesus they see, but they don't understand.
Verse 15, Jesus says to Mary Magdalene woman.
(11:18):
Now, that's not a demeaning term, it sounds like that to us
in the 21st century. But in that culture it was
pretty common to refer to women,just as woman Jesus uses it
several times in the Gospel of John when he wants to redefine
relationships with those he addresses.
So at the wedding of Cana, Jesuscalls his mother woman, and it's
(11:39):
not an insult, it's just kind of.
Title and we'll talk more about that when we look at the wedding
of Cana. So Jesus is not insulting Mary
Magdalene by calling her woman, he says, why are you weeping?
Who are you looking for? So Jesus here doesn't
immediately come right out and say I'm Jesus.
He wants Mary to be the one to engage in the conversation
(12:01):
before he says anything like that.
Now when he says here what or who are you looking for, Some
scholars think. John includes this statement
deliberately to call back to something that Jesus says right
at the start of the Gospel of John.
When Jesus first speaks to the disciples, he says, what are you
looking for? That's in chapter one, verse 38.
(12:24):
So now Jesus here says to Mary Magdalen, who are you looking
for? So perhaps it's signaling a new
era for Jesus disciples where he's redefining his relationship
with them. After the resurrection, she
supposes him to be the Gardener.So apparently Jesus tomb was in
some sort of garden field and wesee that in chapter 19 and there
(12:46):
would be a gardener that would work in this area, cleaning up
the field and keeping watch overthe tomb.
So she says, Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where
you have put him and I will go and remove him.
So Mary here thinks that the gardener might have removed him
because maybe the gardener didn't want anyone to be in this
tomb and he's just cleaning up the area.
(13:06):
So Mary offers to remove him herself.
She says, Just tell me where he is, please, and I'll move him.
At this point, Jesus says Mary now.
It's something about the way he says it makes Mary recognize
him. Maybe it's his voice.
Maybe it's the gentle way he says it.
And this recalls Jesus own teaching about the Good
(13:28):
Shepherd. Remember, Jesus says I'm the
Good Shepherd and I call my sheep by their names.
So there's an interesting link there.
And then in fact, this is John chapter 10 about the Good
Shepherd, verse four of John chapter 10 says Mary, well, my
sheep recognized my voice. And here Mary recognizes his
voice. She says to him in Hebrew
(13:51):
Rabuni, which means master. So John clarifies what this
Hebrew word means because his audience is not Jewish and he
wants them to understand the full force of what Mary says
here. It's a term of deep reverence
for one's personal teacher, Raboun I.
Now, many people suppose it at this point because of what Jesus
(14:11):
says next. They think that maybe Mary
Magdalene worships him and clings on to him, but not
necessarily. Verse 17 Jesus here says.
And this is where the confusion sometimes lies.
Do not cling to me because I have not yet ascended to the
Father. Now this is a good passage to do
(14:32):
an exegesis on. A lot of people interpret this
to mean that Mary is physically clinging onto his legs and Jesus
here is saying something like. Don't touch me.
Or don't worship me because my body is unclean or something
like that. I don't think that's the right
interpretation. When he's talking about
clinging, he's not talking aboutphysical clinging.
There's two possibilities of what this could mean.
(14:56):
It could mean something like this.
Jesus is meaning I'm still here with you for a little while
longer. There's no need to cling to me.
I'm yet to leave you to go to the Father.
So it's kind of a reassuring I'mgoing to be here with you for a
bit longer. There's no need to cling to me.
Second option would be do not hold on to the old version of me
and old version of discipleship.There's now a new state of
(15:19):
affairs. I'm not going to associate with
you in the same way anymore. So Jesus is drawing her
attention to the fact that there's now a new era and she
needs to think about things differently.
Either interpretation could be right there.
Now this is a really important verse though.
Just think about what he says. Do not cling to me because I
(15:40):
have not yet ascended to the Father.
This tells us that Jesus journeyis not yet finished.
Even after his death, even afterhis resurrection, there's still
things that he needs to do. He hasn't yet gone to heaven and
returned to the Father's side, and that's going to happen later
at the Ascension. There's a lot of significance to
why Jesus has to ascend. There's a whole lot you could
(16:03):
say about it because this is when Jesus glorified human body
gets reunited with God's own inner life, which of course
opens the way for all men to be united to God in that same way.
Remember that Jesus said earlierat the Last Supper he said where
I'm going you cannot follow unless I go there 1st.
And so that's the same kind of idea with the Ascension, he
(16:27):
says, But go and tell the brothers which is the disciples.
And we've talked about why Jesususes the term brothers in the
last few podcasts. Go and find the brothers and
tell them I am ascending to my father and your father to my God
and your God. So Jesus wants Mary Magdalene to
go and tell the apostles that Jesus story is not yet over.
(16:49):
He still has work to do. And in particular, she wants her
to tell them, I'm going to my father and your father to my God
and your God. Why does he use language like
that? It could be a couple of things.
He could be that Jesus wants to emphasize that he's going to be
with God, as in the God that youJews believe in.
(17:11):
That's where I'm going. And so he wants.
Them to realize how serious thisis, I am literally going to God.
It could be, and this is probably more likely that by
Jesus death and resurrection he has radically changed the
relationship between God and man.
So whereas previously Jesus mostly just referred to God as
his own father, now because of his death and resurrection he's
(17:35):
saying that you disciples can call him your father as well.
So that's another way of lookingat it.
They're children of God. And that's why they're Jesus.
Brothers because. Of what Jesus did through his
saving work on the cross. We finished with verse 18.
Sir Mary of Magdale went and told the disciples that she had
(17:56):
seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
So she relays the message. The next thing that occurs on
this day, a lot happens on this Easter Sunday is later in the
day. Jesus appears to the apostles,
and we'll look at that. In a later episode of the
podcast. So let's have a look at how the
(18:23):
Catholic Church, what the Catholic Church tells us about
this passage and how it informs our understanding of Church
teaching. There's quite a few references
to this particular passage because of the interesting
things that Jesus says about himself here.
So firstly in paragraph 640 and 641.
In the section about the empty tomb, we have a discussion about
(18:44):
Mary Magdalene's role in that. And we've read.
That out in the last couple of episodes, so I'll include that
in the show notes for you to read.
Paragraph 645 has a discussion about the condition of Christ's
risen humanity, and here the Church tells us why it is that
Jesus appears to look different after, or at least why people
(19:05):
don't recognize him after his resurrection, Paragraph 645
says. By means of touch in the sharing
of a meal, the risen Christ establishes direct contact with
His disciples. He invites them in this way to
recognize that he is not a ghost, and above all, to verify
that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body
(19:27):
that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears
the traces of his passion. Yet at the same time, this
authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious
body. Not limited by space and time,
but able to be present how and when he wills.
For Christ's humanity can no longer be confined to earth, and
(19:48):
belongs henceforth only to the Father's divine realm.
For this reason, to the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign
freedom of appearing as he wishes in the guise of a
gardener, or in other forms familiar to his disciples,
precisely to awaken their faith.So here you'll hear in that last
(20:08):
bit the Church understands that Jesus is appearing in a
different form. Here, which Mary sees as the
gardener. Paragraph 443 is a discussion
about the term Your Father and my thought, my Father from this
passage it says he distinguishedhis sonship from that of his
disciples by never saying Our Father, except to command them.
(20:30):
You then pray like this, Our Father.
And he emphasized this distinction by saying My Father
and your Father. So the Church actually takes
that to mean that when Jesus says my Father and your Father,
there's a distinction between the closeness that Jesus has
with his Father and the closeness that the apostles have
(20:51):
with the Father. Paragraph 654 is a discussion
about the significance of the resurrection, and it says.
Jesus himself called his disciples after his
resurrection. Go and tell my brethren.
We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace,
because that adoptive affiliation gains us a real
(21:14):
share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in
his resurrection. And then in paragraph 660 we
have a really interesting discussion of why Jesus says
these words about do not cling to me and what it means.
About the time period between his resurrection and his
ascension. So paragraph 660 says the veiled
(21:37):
character of the glory of the Rhysm One during this time is
intimated in his mysterious words to Miriam Magdalene.
I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren
and say to them, I am ascending to my Father, and your Father,
to my God and your God. This indicates the difference in
manifestation between the glory of the risen Christ.
(21:59):
And that of the Christ exalted to the Father's right hand, a
transition marked by the historical and transcendent
event of the Ascension. So we don't often talk about the
Ascension and what it means theologically, but the Catechism
takes it quite seriously, as does the whole Catholic faith.
And this particular verse from John chapter 20 is used as a key
(22:22):
verse in understanding the significance of the Ascension.
And then in paragraph 2795, which is in the discussion about
the line who art in heaven from the Our Father, there's it's a
similar point is made about whatit means to say that God is in
heaven and that Jesus ascended there.
So I'll put that paragraph in the show notes as well.
(22:42):
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(23:06):
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tomorrow.
Hi everyone, welcome back to Logical Bible Study where we
look at the gospel reading for today's maths and we try to do
an exegesis of the text. Today it's the.
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene And so the chosen Gospel reading
focuses on the character of MaryMagdalene and it's taken from
John chapter 20, verses 1 to 2 and then 11 to 18.
(00:34):
Here's the text. It was very.
Early on the first day of the week.
And still. Dark When Mary of Magdala came
to the tomb, she saw that the stone had been moved away from
the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other
disciple. The one whom Jesus loved, They
have taken the Lord out of the tomb, she said.
(00:54):
And we don't know where they have put him.
Meanwhile, Mary stayed outside the tomb, weeping.
Then, still weeping, she stoopedto look inside and saw two
angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one
at the head, the other at the. Feet, they said.
Woman, why are you weeping? They have taken my Lord.
(01:17):
Away, she replied. And I don't know where they have
put him as. She said this.
She turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did
not recognize. Him, Jesus said.
Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?
Supposing him to be the gardener, She said.
Sir, if you have taken him away,tell me where you have put him
(01:40):
and I will go and remove him, Jesus, said Mary.
She knew him then and said to him in Hebrew Rabuni, which
means master. Jesus said to.
Her Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the
Father, But go and find the brothers, and tell them I am
(02:02):
ascending to my father, and yourFather to my God, and your God.
Sir Mary of Magdala went and told the disciples that she had
seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.
So what's the context? Here, well just before this.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus hasdied on the cross and they've
(02:23):
laid him in the tomb. And in fact, Mary of Magdalene
was one of the people who was present for all of that.
And in this reading today we're going to see the 2nd appearance
of Jesus. After his death.
The first appearance is to the women who are on the way to tell
the other disciples about the empty tomb.
And apparently that happens justbefore this one.
It would appear that. Way.
(02:43):
So it's. Verse one the 1st.
Day of the week. So that's.
Sunday. According to the Jewish way of
thinking, the first day of the week is Sunday, and if we have
our dates right, it's almost certainly the date of this would
be Sunday, April 5th, 33AD. Although some scholars do debate
that date. Mary of Magdala appears here, so
(03:04):
we don't know a whole lot about Mary of Magdala.
She appears in the other gospels.
As one of. Jesus closest friends and
followers and. The Gospel of Luke.
Says that seven demons were castout of her.
Although that's about. It we don't know whether she was
a prostitute, the text doesn't tell us anything like that, just
that she. Was apparently possessed.
By some demons and then became afollower.
(03:25):
Of Jesus after that. But we know that she was at the
foot of the cross, and she was particularly close to him.
At the end of his life she came to the tomb, and now we know
from the Gospel of Mark that shedid come there with a few other
women. Who've come to anoint the body
with spices. So the reason they came on this
morning in Mark 16 is to anoint the.
(03:46):
Body with spices. And she saw that the stone had
been moved away from the tomb. Now, according to the Gospel of
Matthew, the women see an Angel descend from heaven and roll the
stone away. And according to the Gospel of
Matthew, at that point Mary Magdalen runs back.
To tell the others. And that's what we see in verse
(04:08):
2 here as well. She came running to Simon, Peter
and the. Other disciple after she sees
that. The stone has been rolled away.
Why does she go to them? Well, she's going to those that
she acknowledges. As the leaders.
Of the Christian community, Simon Peter and the other.
Disciples, So that's. Basically Peter and John.
(04:29):
It would appear when we last sawPeter he denied Jesus, so this
is going to be a significant. Moment for Peter as well.
Now says here. The other disciple.
The one whom Jesus loved. And in our discussions about on
this podcast about the Gospel ofJohn, we talk.
About how this beloved disciple appears to be.
The Apostle John himself and thereason he's not identified in
(04:52):
this. Gospel is because.
John doesn't want to identify himself by name.
Now what does she say to them? She says they have taken the
Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put
him. Notice the way.
Here. So John's.
Gospel agrees with the other. Gospels that Mary.
Is here with. Other women, at least for some
of this. Other women were there at the
(05:13):
start, but now Mary Magdalene has run back by herself.
It would seem now she has not yet seen Jesus.
All that she knows is that the tomb is empty.
She doesn't. She hasn't made the logical
connection that maybe it's resurrection.
She just knows that the tomb is empty.
So who does she think took the body?
Well, it's not clear because shejust says they.
(05:33):
So maybe she thinks robbers. Maybe she thinks robbers have
taken the body, or possibly she thinks perhaps a caretaker, A
gardener might have moved the body, and that's the conclusion
she jumps to later. When she sees Jesus, she thinks
he's the gardener. But obviously in Mary's mind
here someone has stolen the body.
Or if not stolen, then move for some other reason.
(05:56):
Now today's reading. Skips over verses. 3:00 to 9:00.
Because those verses. Are about Peter and John.
That's when they run to to look at the tune.
And today's is the feast day of Mary Magdalene, so it just
focuses on the verses about her.And so the reading now skips
through to verse 11. But if you want to hear those
intervening verses, verses 3:00 to 9:00, that's actually read on
(06:18):
Easter Sunday of every year on Easter morning as.
Well as the. Feast of St.
John. So verse 11, Mary stayed outside
near the tomb weeping so. Again, we need to try and break
free of this. The videos we sometimes see of
this scene. At this stage, Mary's not in the
(06:39):
tomb. In fact, she doesn't appear to
go into the tomb at all here. She's outside the tomb nearby.
Peter and John have left by now.So apparently she's alone and
she's weeping. And she's weeping because as we
find out, she does not know where the robbers have put the
body. She thinks that his body has
been stolen. Even though she's probably seen
(06:59):
the Angel descend from heaven, she just doesn't understand
where is the body? She thinks a robber has stolen
it. Now this weeping might recall
something that was said earlier by Jesus in John chapter 16.
John says to his disciples, you will weep and mourn while the
world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief
(07:21):
will become joy. So there's an interesting link
there. So now she Stoops to look
inside. So she looks inside the tomb.
Verse 12. She saw two angels in white
sitting where the body of Jesus had been.
One at the. Head and the other at the feet.
Now, these angels weren't there before when Peter and John
(07:42):
looked in the tomb, which was shortly before this.
So apparently these angels have appeared just for Mary.
They're they're on a mission to help Mary in this situation.
They know that she doesn't believe Jesus has risen and
they're there to help her believe that he has.
So they say to her, why are you weeping?
So they want Mary to realize that there is no reason to weep.
(08:06):
Interestingly, Mary doesn't appear to be afraid of the
angels, although usually in the Bible people are afraid of
angels. Or maybe she doesn't realize who
they are. She's so distraught.
So she says to them, they have taken my Lord away and I don't
know where they have put him. So notice the language of my
Lord shows the intimate personalrelationship which she has with
(08:26):
Jesus. Before this she talks about we
don't know where they have put him.
Now it's where have you put my Lord?
I don't know where he has gone. So she considers Jesus to be not
just her friend, but her personal Lord and master.
She's deeply destroyed here. Verse 14 as she turned around so
get the picture. She now turns and looks back
(08:48):
outside the tomb. She saw Jesus standing there,
though she did not recognize him.
So apparently Jesus has teleported here from his first
appearance in Jerusalem. Apparently he hasn't walked
because otherwise he would have run into people.
So he's somehow invisibly moved from Jerusalem to the tomb, and
(09:11):
that's because Jesus only wants to appear to particular people
for the next 40 days. He doesn't want to appear to.
Other others, only the certain ones that he picks.
Now, interestingly, why doesn't she recognize Jesus?
There's a lot of discussion about this.
I think there's three main theories about why Mary doesn't
(09:32):
initially recognize Jesus. One is that her vision is
blurred by the tears and she's just distraught and not thinking
properly or something like that.Second option is that Jesus
himself is taking on a differentappearance than what he had
before. And that would fit in with some
of the other appearances later in the Gospels, such as On the
(09:53):
Road to Emmaus. The two people are walking with
him the entire way to Emmaus, but they don't recognize him.
And it's also the explanation that the Catechism prefers it
tends to lean in this direction.So on this theory, Jesus looks
different in his glorified body,and in fact, maybe he can choose
to appear in different forms. That's the theory that I think
(10:14):
is most likely to be correct. And there's a third theory,
which is that God has imposed some sort of supernatural
blindness on Mary of Magdalene. Here it's a supernatural thing
and when she recognized him it'slike the scales fall from her
eyes kind of thing. And to support that we have Luke
2416 which is on the road to amass.
(10:35):
It says the disciples eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
So it depends how we take that. As I said, I think the best way
to interpret this is that Jesus is actually appearing in a
different form, although that's not the only explanation.
Now, there might be some parallels here to what happened
to Peter and John, or Peter and the beloved disciple just before
(10:55):
this. Remember, they arrived at the
tomb, but they see the cloths, but they do not know exactly
what it means, similar to Mary Magdalene here.
In both cases, neither party hasthe gift of faith in the risen
Jesus they see, but they don't understand.
Verse 15, Jesus says to Mary Magdalene woman.
(11:18):
Now, that's not a demeaning term, it sounds like that to us
in the 21st century. But in that culture it was
pretty common to refer to women,just as woman Jesus uses it
several times in the Gospel of John when he wants to redefine
relationships with those he addresses.
So at the wedding of Cana, Jesuscalls his mother woman, and it's
(11:39):
not an insult, it's just kind of.
Title and we'll talk more about that when we look at the wedding
of Cana. So Jesus is not insulting Mary
Magdalene by calling her woman, he says, why are you weeping?
Who are you looking for? So Jesus here doesn't
immediately come right out and say I'm Jesus.
He wants Mary to be the one to engage in the conversation
(12:01):
before he says anything like that.
Now when he says here what or who are you looking for, Some
scholars think. John includes this statement
deliberately to call back to something that Jesus says right
at the start of the Gospel of John.
When Jesus first speaks to the disciples, he says, what are you
looking for? That's in chapter one, verse 38.
(12:24):
So now Jesus here says to Mary Magdalen, who are you looking
for? So perhaps it's signaling a new
era for Jesus disciples where he's redefining his relationship
with them. After the resurrection, she
supposes him to be the Gardener.So apparently Jesus tomb was in
some sort of garden field and wesee that in chapter 19 and there
(12:46):
would be a gardener that would work in this area, cleaning up
the field and keeping watch overthe tomb.
So she says, Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where
you have put him and I will go and remove him.
So Mary here thinks that the gardener might have removed him
because maybe the gardener didn't want anyone to be in this
tomb and he's just cleaning up the area.
(13:06):
So Mary offers to remove him herself.
She says, Just tell me where he is, please, and I'll move him.
At this point, Jesus says Mary now.
It's something about the way he says it makes Mary recognize
him. Maybe it's his voice.
Maybe it's the gentle way he says it.
And this recalls Jesus own teaching about the Good
(13:28):
Shepherd. Remember, Jesus says I'm the
Good Shepherd and I call my sheep by their names.
So there's an interesting link there.
And then in fact, this is John chapter 10 about the Good
Shepherd, verse four of John chapter 10 says Mary, well, my
sheep recognized my voice. And here Mary recognizes his
voice. She says to him in Hebrew
(13:51):
Rabuni, which means master. So John clarifies what this
Hebrew word means because his audience is not Jewish and he
wants them to understand the full force of what Mary says
here. It's a term of deep reverence
for one's personal teacher, Raboun I.
Now, many people suppose it at this point because of what Jesus
(14:11):
says next. They think that maybe Mary
Magdalene worships him and clings on to him, but not
necessarily. Verse 17 Jesus here says.
And this is where the confusion sometimes lies.
Do not cling to me because I have not yet ascended to the
Father. Now this is a good passage to do
(14:32):
an exegesis on. A lot of people interpret this
to mean that Mary is physically clinging onto his legs and Jesus
here is saying something like. Don't touch me.
Or don't worship me because my body is unclean or something
like that. I don't think that's the right
interpretation. When he's talking about
clinging, he's not talking aboutphysical clinging.
There's two possibilities of what this could mean.
(14:56):
It could mean something like this.
Jesus is meaning I'm still here with you for a little while
longer. There's no need to cling to me.
I'm yet to leave you to go to the Father.
So it's kind of a reassuring I'mgoing to be here with you for a
bit longer. There's no need to cling to me.
Second option would be do not hold on to the old version of me
and old version of discipleship.There's now a new state of
(15:19):
affairs. I'm not going to associate with
you in the same way anymore. So Jesus is drawing her
attention to the fact that there's now a new era and she
needs to think about things differently.
Either interpretation could be right there.
Now this is a really important verse though.
Just think about what he says. Do not cling to me because I
(15:40):
have not yet ascended to the Father.
This tells us that Jesus journeyis not yet finished.
Even after his death, even afterhis resurrection, there's still
things that he needs to do. He hasn't yet gone to heaven and
returned to the Father's side, and that's going to happen later
at the Ascension. There's a lot of significance to
why Jesus has to ascend. There's a whole lot you could
(16:03):
say about it because this is when Jesus glorified human body
gets reunited with God's own inner life, which of course
opens the way for all men to be united to God in that same way.
Remember that Jesus said earlierat the Last Supper he said where
I'm going you cannot follow unless I go there 1st.
And so that's the same kind of idea with the Ascension, he
(16:27):
says, But go and tell the brothers which is the disciples.
And we've talked about why Jesususes the term brothers in the
last few podcasts. Go and find the brothers and
tell them I am ascending to my father and your father to my God
and your God. So Jesus wants Mary Magdalene to
go and tell the apostles that Jesus story is not yet over.
(16:49):
He still has work to do. And in particular, she wants her
to tell them, I'm going to my father and your father to my God
and your God. Why does he use language like
that? It could be a couple of things.
He could be that Jesus wants to emphasize that he's going to be
with God, as in the God that youJews believe in.
(17:11):
That's where I'm going. And so he wants.
Them to realize how serious thisis, I am literally going to God.
It could be, and this is probably more likely that by
Jesus death and resurrection he has radically changed the
relationship between God and man.
So whereas previously Jesus mostly just referred to God as
his own father, now because of his death and resurrection he's
(17:35):
saying that you disciples can call him your father as well.
So that's another way of lookingat it.
They're children of God. And that's why they're Jesus.
Brothers because. Of what Jesus did through his
saving work on the cross. We finished with verse 18.
Sir Mary of Magdale went and told the disciples that she had
(17:56):
seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
So she relays the message. The next thing that occurs on
this day, a lot happens on this Easter Sunday is later in the
day. Jesus appears to the apostles,
and we'll look at that. In a later episode of the
podcast. So let's have a look at how the
(18:23):
Catholic Church, what the Catholic Church tells us about
this passage and how it informs our understanding of Church
teaching. There's quite a few references
to this particular passage because of the interesting
things that Jesus says about himself here.
So firstly in paragraph 640 and 641.
In the section about the empty tomb, we have a discussion about
(18:44):
Mary Magdalene's role in that. And we've read.
That out in the last couple of episodes, so I'll include that
in the show notes for you to read.
Paragraph 645 has a discussion about the condition of Christ's
risen humanity, and here the Church tells us why it is that
Jesus appears to look different after, or at least why people
(19:05):
don't recognize him after his resurrection, Paragraph 645
says. By means of touch in the sharing
of a meal, the risen Christ establishes direct contact with
His disciples. He invites them in this way to
recognize that he is not a ghost, and above all, to verify
that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body
(19:27):
that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears
the traces of his passion. Yet at the same time, this
authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious
body. Not limited by space and time,
but able to be present how and when he wills.
For Christ's humanity can no longer be confined to earth, and
(19:48):
belongs henceforth only to the Father's divine realm.
For this reason, to the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign
freedom of appearing as he wishes in the guise of a
gardener, or in other forms familiar to his disciples,
precisely to awaken their faith.So here you'll hear in that last
(20:08):
bit the Church understands that Jesus is appearing in a
different form. Here, which Mary sees as the
gardener. Paragraph 443 is a discussion
about the term Your Father and my thought, my Father from this
passage it says he distinguishedhis sonship from that of his
disciples by never saying Our Father, except to command them.
(20:30):
You then pray like this, Our Father.
And he emphasized this distinction by saying My Father
and your Father. So the Church actually takes
that to mean that when Jesus says my Father and your Father,
there's a distinction between the closeness that Jesus has
with his Father and the closeness that the apostles have
(20:51):
with the Father. Paragraph 654 is a discussion
about the significance of the resurrection, and it says.
Jesus himself called his disciples after his
resurrection. Go and tell my brethren.
We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace,
because that adoptive affiliation gains us a real
(21:14):
share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in
his resurrection. And then in paragraph 660 we
have a really interesting discussion of why Jesus says
these words about do not cling to me and what it means.
About the time period between his resurrection and his
ascension. So paragraph 660 says the veiled
(21:37):
character of the glory of the Rhysm One during this time is
intimated in his mysterious words to Miriam Magdalene.
I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren
and say to them, I am ascending to my Father, and your Father,
to my God and your God. This indicates the difference in
manifestation between the glory of the risen Christ.
(21:59):
And that of the Christ exalted to the Father's right hand, a
transition marked by the historical and transcendent
event of the Ascension. So we don't often talk about the
Ascension and what it means theologically, but the Catechism
takes it quite seriously, as does the whole Catholic faith.
And this particular verse from John chapter 20 is used as a key
(22:22):
verse in understanding the significance of the Ascension.
And then in paragraph 2795, which is in the discussion about
the line who art in heaven from the Our Father, there's it's a
similar point is made about whatit means to say that God is in
heaven and that Jesus ascended there.
So I'll put that paragraph in the show notes as well.
(22:42):
Thank you for listening and for supporting this podcast.
Please consider becoming a patron of the podcast.
There's some exclusive bonuses available to you.
The first of the episodes, whichare kind of the Secret or Hidden
Gospel exegesis episodes. They're now available for those
of you who decide to become patrons, and there's a whole lot
of other awesome stuff there. Please keep this ministry in
(23:06):
your prayers, share it around, and we'll see you again
tomorrow.
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