“Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
John 20:11-13 NLT
Our first thoughts are probably about which Mary this was, but further down in John 20 we find that it was Mary Magdalene. Different people grieve in different ways and Mary was at the tomb, returning there after she had told Peter and John about the rolled-away stone. She was breaking her heart because of her loss, probably wondering how Jesus could have been taken from His friends so quickly and so barbarically. Trying to get her mind around a future without Jesus. Feeling pain inside her, but through all her tears she took a peep inside the tomb and found two angels there, sitting either side of where Jesus’ body had been placed. They asked her why she was crying and clearly and succinctly she said, “Because they have taken away my Lord, … and I don’t know where they have put him.”
People often need a grave to visit after the death of a loved one. Walk around any graveyard and you will find bunches of flowers, freshly laid, or, occasionally, single people or families just standing there by the gravestone, silently reflecting or praying. There is something special with the thought of being near the remains of a loved one, ever though the life that was once enjoyed has gone. In my early years, there was a family tradition to go to my grandfather’s grave several times during the year to tend it, cut the grass and reflect. Today, more and more people are being cremated and the place of memories replaced by a favourite garden, somewhere at sea, where the ashes are scattered, and a gravestone replaced by a plaque on a park bench.
But how did Mary, or John who wrote the account, know that the two figures in the tomb were angels? Many people today do not believe that angels exist, consigning them to the domain of fairies and the like. But there was something about the two men in the tomb that convinced Mary that they were indeed angels. It could have been their attire. Or the fact that they had never been seen in that area before. Perhaps their features and clothes were glowing. We don’t know, but Mary was convinced about what she saw, and John as well, because he wrote it down.
We pilgrims will inevitably experience the death of a loved one. It may be expected, after or during an illness. It may be, as in the case of my father, due to old age, when he just slipped away in his sleep. A friend of mine has just lost his 103-year-old father-in-law after a chest infection. The saddest occasions are when a young person or baby dies, unexpectedly and tragically. Families are left in turmoil, whatever the cause of their loss, and the grieving process starts, the tears fall, an emptiness remains. But there is something about the death of a believer, because the believers left behind know where they have gone. Their bodies may end up in a tomb but their spirits live on in the presence of the Lord, and there is always the prospect of a reunion one day. Because of this, we pilgrims must make every attempt to evangelise our families. While the person is still alive they can make a choice of their ultimate destination, their new spiritual home. Those who fail to believe will still live on through their spirits, but in a place where they find they don’t want to be.
Mary was weeping because she didn’t have a tomb where she could grieve the loss of Jesus. But as a preacher once said, “It may be Friday, but Sunday’s a-coming”. Mary was about to find something better than an empty tomb – the risen Jesus Himself.
Dear God. Jesus could never stay in a grave and we thank You that He is alive today. We worship You. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 