Angels at the tomb. John 20:12

Questions Tuesday 2 April later

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb… John 20:11

You’ll remember how low the entrance is, no more than three feet high. John and Peter saw strips of linen. Mary sees a great deal more.

…and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. John 20:12

Two angels this time. Yet Mary isn’t trembling in fear or falling to her knees. She’s too busy weeping. Is it any wonder the word maudlin comes from Magdalene?

The angels address her—not by name but by gender—and speak directly to her sorrow.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” John 20:13

Emotionally, Mary is still at the cross. This brave woman, who left demons in her wake years ago only to find herself conversing with angels, wants nothing more than to prepare his body properly. Even that humble task has been denied her.

Now listen to the cry of her heart. Her words are personal, and her devastation clear.

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” John 20:13

It’s the same message she told Peter and John, with one important difference. My Lord. So intimate, in the best sense. Jesus is not only her Savior; he is also her friend.

Oh, Jesus, that we might see you in the same way. Our dearest companion. Our truest friend.

Crushed in spirit that morning in the garden, Mary stares at the emptiness that looms before her. Can no one help?

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And seeth two angels in white,.... Matthew and Mark speak but of one, but Luke of two, as here; whom he calls men, because they appeared in an human form, and in shining garments, or white apparel; and which appearance is entirely agreeable to the received notion of the Jews, that as evil angels or devils are clothed in black, so good angels, or ministering spirits, , "are clothed in white" (l), expressive of their spotless purity and innocence:

sitting the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain; in what position the body of Christ was laid, whether from west to east, as some, or from north to south, as others, is not certain; since the Jews observed no rule in this matter, as appears from the form of their sepulchres, and the disposition of the graves in them; some lying one way, and some another, in the same vault; See Gill on Luke 24:12.

(l) Gloss. in T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 72. 1.