Of course Mary was weeping. It wasn’t just that she loved Jesus – we skirt by that idea so quickly that it almost doesn’t really mean anything. Mary knew that Jesus loved her, that her life was better because of Jesus. She had been isolated, possessed by demons, and many think trapped in prostitution. Then Jesus came to Mary, and He loved her. And suddenly, because of Jesus she was cleansed, she had friends and companions, she had good relationships. Jesus loved her. And Jesus is dead. Is this all going to fall apart, is it all going to go back to the way it was? Jesus had held everything together; now is it all going to fall apart?
It looks that way. A scattered panic. Even when she goes to Peter and John for help, they just ditch her, leaving her sobbing by the tomb. When she turns and sees the “gardener” the best Mary thinks she can hope for is to drag a dead body across a garden all by herself.
Then it all shifts for the good. Jesus, her risen Lord and Savior, calls her by name. It is only when she hears Christ Jesus, now raised from the dead, call out, “Mary” that Mary is ripped away from her fear and sorrow. Her Jesus is not gone – He is here. For her.
Jesus is not gone – He is still here and present for you in His Word. In fact, He tied that Word to water and called you by your name at your Baptism, bringing you into the joys of His resurrection, sealing you with a promise that you would always be His, that not even sin or death or anything in this world would be able to separate you from His love. And He promised you a resurrection like His. And we shall see it. Until that day when we see Jesus face to face, we whom He has called by name are still called to gather around His Word, the preaching of the Gospel, and His Supper, where we hear and receive Him again and again. In a world that tries to rip everything asunder, the Risen Christ calls us together by name.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, alleluia!
