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Mary-Magdalena and the resurrection  
John 20, 11-18  
   
Although there are variations in the description of the resurrection, the four Gospels agree that it was the women who disclosed first the resurrection. John in his Gospel particularly insisted on the personal experience of Mary of Magdalena, usually named Mary-Magdalena, on Easter morning. Why? Perhaps simply because she was, with the other women, one of the first to come to the tomb when the Shabbat was finished to proceed to embalming the body that could not have been done the evening of Jesus’ death. Perhaps also because the experience of Mary-Magdalena about Jesus being resurrected was such a good example for John that he wanted to share with the first Christian communities and also to dispel some misunderstandings about the resurrection.  
   
tombeau vide Mary was weeping in front of the empty tomb. Not only Jesus was dead but also his body had been taken away making it impossible for her to express a last sign of love like the embalming of his body. Although Jesus had spoken many times about his resurrection, nobody understood what he meant and it is only when his resurrection happened that the disciples remembered that Jesus had announced it. Mary-Magdalena also was not expecting the resurrection, something she did not know what it really meant.
 
   
The man who was standing behind her and asking why she was weeping is identified by Mary as the gardener, the most evident person to be there. He was most likely the gardener of Joseph of Arimathaea, the owner of the land where the tomb was. He should be qualified to tell her where the body of Jesus was: “ If you took it away, tell me where you put it and I will bring it back”. It is only when this man called her by her name “Mary” in a way that only Jesus used to do with her that she recognized him and quickly came close to take him into her arms. But Jesus stopped her. “Don’t hold me back, don’t touch me, I am not ascended to the Father yet” .  
   
We are having there some elements to understand better the event of the resurrection and they correspond to the other apparitions of Jesus after his death. First he is not recognized immediately. Mark the evangelist wrote: “ He appeared in many ways”. Then Jesus took different faces. He was recognized by some signs, by the way he was known to personally behave and then the recognition is full but mixed with respect for this new being “Rabboni” said Mary-Magdalena, a more formal way than to call him “Master”. Who is this man in between two worlds? Our world and the one of his Father, with a transformed body. He did not simply come back to a life to die again but he was benefiting of a new kind of life. Our scientific knowledge cannot explain this phenomenon, it is outside of the normal world in which we are living. Our rational thinking cannot grasp this unlikely event. Shall we refuse the event because it does not fit our present understanding of the space and time of our world? Sure we do not observe the resurrection but it can be credible.
The signs that Jesus gave for his identity are sufficient to recognize him as being the same than before but in another way. This recognition is followed by an invitation: “Go and see my brothers and say to them…” This request has its importance because in those times the testimony of a woman had no legal value. This invitation gave confidence to Mary-Magdalena, she received the responsibility of the good news: following Jesus’ request she run immediately to tell to the Apostles. She did not linger to stay with Jesus, the emergency was elsewhere.
 
   
It is this last piece of information that gives some credibility to this mysterious event, because it is the only one of which historicity is demonstrated. Like Mary-Magdalena, the apostles and disciples went all around to talk about these exceptional meetings they did have with Jesus after his death: it is the reason why their testimony has come to us till now. All what Jesus did, his teaching, took all their meaning after these events. The faces of Jesus are many, even if we are not always able to recognize them. Some time a sign authenticates his presence and we are overcome by a joy that we cannot explain to the others.
événement mystérieux de résurrection