Mary’s Discouragement (vv. 11-13)
Overwhelmed with grief
Overcome with frustration
Mary’s Discovery (vv. 14-16)
Blinding sadness
Blessed sight
Mary’s Direction (vv. 17-18)
A new relationship
A new responsibility
More to Consider
When I think of Mary Magdalene lingering alone in the garden, I recall Proverbs 8:17—“I love them that love Me; and those that seek Me early shall find Me.” Mary loved her Lord and came early to the garden to express that love. Peter and John had gone home by the time Mary got back to the tomb, so they did not convey to her what conclusion they had reached from the evidence they had examined. Mary still thought that Jesus was dead. Another verse comes to mind—Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Warren W. Wiresbe
Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about. N.T. Wright
Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot, the passersby sneer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage because of the King who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Saviour on the cross. It is bound hand and foot; all who are in Christ trample it as they pass, and as witnesses to Him (King Jesus) deride it, scoffing and saying, “O Death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation
The devil, darkness, and death may swagger and boast, the pangs of life will sting for a while longer, but don't worry; the forces of evil are breathing their last. Not to worry...He's risen! Chuck Swindol