Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

John 20:16

For Meditation

Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. A misty morning, the sun cracking through the horizon in the east. The tomb was empty, with the stone rolled away for the disciples’ careful inspection (Jn. 20:4-9). Peter and John shrugged their shoulders and went back to the city. But she stood there, refusing to be comforted. Her heart has been broken twice now – at the foot of the cross and this moment. Is that the end of the story? Couldn’t she even have a final moment with her Master’s dead body? Maybe she could take a final bow and investigate the tomb further. She may have missed it. But the two angels startled her. 

“Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away … and I don’t know where they have put him,” Mary Magdalene said.

What caused her to turn around? And who is this man peering into her face?

“Woman … why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”   

How could she know anything when all she was looking for was a dead body? There was no familiarity then, and the voice did not strike a chord.

“[Please, Mr. Gardner, just] tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

“Mary.”

“Rabboni!”

How could Mary Magdalene miss that voice now? No one ever called her with such affection as her Jesus.

O, the fragrance of life that filled the graveyard where the Resurrection and the Life stood in victory! Do you smell it?

This fragrance is not in the graveyard anymore. It has been poured on you, child of God; so, spread it where you are. As Paul said, “We are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life” (2 Cor. 2:15-16).

But to you who does not know Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, hear His voice that removes the blindness of the world, that you may see Him who alone gives eternal life to all who believe in Him (Jn. 1:12-13). Let this message be to you, the life-giving aroma (16).

Would you come and fall at Jesus’s feet in repentance that you may receive life in Him?