John’s account of Jesus’ resurrection appearance begins with tears: “Mary stood outside the tomb crying” (John 20:11). The greatest day of all time, the root of our joy as Christians, begins with grief. The tears of Good Friday and Holy Saturday were still wet on the faces of Jesus’ friends when he returned to them. They’d barely had a chance to process the agony of the worst day of their lives, in which their savior and friend had been killed, taking with him their hopes for the future, before everything changed again.
For Mary to discover an empty tomb must have been a gut punch; she would have presumed that Jesus’ body had been stolen, and by extension, her opportunity to care for his body and grieve him properly. It is a situation with which many of us are all too familiar. John’s Gospel (20:11–18) records the tears that fell from Mary’s eyes three times. Perhaps John is emphasizing how strange and unexpected it was that Jesus chose to present himself in the way he did through sadness and loss. Mary, a woman who suffered greatly and worshiped faithfully, who was entrusted to share the news of Jesus’ resurrection, perhaps with her eyes still brimming with tears.
The first sign of life we give as tiny babies is our cry; it’s the sound that parents wait for, their own breath baited until their newborn at last announces its entrance into the world. The initial rush of relief and joy is often accompanied by a release of tears. Perhaps it is not so strange after all that the resurrected Jesus appeared first through tears. Our tears are our sign of life. In the Easter story, they are a sign of the new life Jesus offers; the new hope he embodies [a reminder that ] one day every tear will be wiped away (Revelation 21:4).
This is how the hope of God shows up time and again, in scripture and today, through the vicissitudes of life. It shows up in our brokenness, tears and scars. It reminds us that the kingdom of God is now and not yet; it has arrived and yet we also ache as we watch the pictures on our TV screens, of wars, famines and disasters, and wait for its fulfilment. Even though Mary’s reunion with the risen Lord was perhaps not how she might have imagined it, she proclaimed: “I have seen the Lord” and, in doing so, became a bearer of good news.
The first appearance of Jesus after his resurrection are not what we expect. They demonstrate gentleness and loving kindness rather than a blaze of glory, and they can’t fail to bring us comfort. We might be living through uncertain times…but this story has a truth that we can hold onto tightly. So, as we re-tell the Easter story this year, I encourage you not to rush but to pause and remember how our King came to minister to us, not through power and might but through scars and tears.
~ By Rachael Newham, March 28, 2022, premierchristianity.com