Church Fathers Commentary John 20:10-18

"So the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary was standing without at the tomb weeping: so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she beholdeth two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. When she had thus said, she turned herself back, and beholdeth Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turneth herself, and saith unto him in Hebrew, Rabboni; which is to say, Teacher. Jesus saith to her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father: but go unto my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God. Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth the disciples, I have seen the Lord; and [that] he had said these things unto her." — John 20:10-18 (ASV)

St. Gregory the Great: Mary Magdalene, who had been a sinner in the city and had washed away the stains of her sins with her tears, did not leave the tomb when the others did, for her soul burned with love: Then the disciples went away again to their own home.

St. Augustine of Hippo: That is, to the place where they were lodging, and from which they had run to the tomb. But though the men returned, the woman's stronger love kept her there. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping.

That is, outside the stone tomb itself, but still within the garden.

St. John Chrysostom: Do not be astonished that Mary wept for love at the tomb while Peter did not, for the female sex is naturally tender and inclined to weep.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The eyes that had sought our Lord and had not found Him now wept continuously. She grieved more that our Lord had been taken away than for His death on the cross, for now even any reminder of Him was gone.

She then saw, with the other women, the angel sitting on the right side, on the stone that had been rolled away from the tomb. It was at his words that she looked into the tomb.

St. John Chrysostom: The sight of the tomb itself was some consolation. Indeed, to console herself even more, see how she stoops down to look at the very place where the body lay: And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb.

St. Gregory the Great: For love, looking just once is not enough. Love makes one desire to look again and again.

St. Augustine of Hippo: In her overwhelming grief, she could believe neither her own eyes nor the disciples. Or was it a divine impulse that caused her to look inside?

St. Gregory the Great: She sought the body and did not find it; she persevered in seeking, and so it happened that she found Him. Her longing grew stronger the more it was disappointed, until at last it found and took hold of its object.

For holy longings always gain strength from delay; if they did not, they would not be longings. Mary loved so much that, not content with seeing the tomb, she stooped down and looked inside. Let us see the fruit that came from this persevering love: And she sees two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

St. John Chrysostom: Since her understanding was not yet elevated enough to infer the resurrection from the linen cloths, she was given the sight of angels in bright clothing, who soothed her sorrow.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But why did one sit at the head and the other at the feet? To signify that the good news of Christ’s Gospel was to be proclaimed from head to foot, from the beginning to the end. The Greek word for "angel" means "one who delivers news."

St. Gregory the Great: The angel sits at the head when the Apostles preach that in the beginning was the Word; he sits, so to speak, at the feet when it is said, The Word was made flesh. By the two angels we may also understand the two testaments, both of which proclaim the incarnation, death, and resurrection of our Lord. The Old Testament seems to sit at the head, the New at the feet.

St. John Chrysostom: The angels who appear say nothing about the resurrection, but the subject is introduced gradually. First, they address her with compassion to prevent her from being overwhelmed by such an extraordinarily bright sight: And they say to her, “Woman, why do you weep?” The angels forbade her tears and announced, so to speak, the joy that was near. "Why do you weep?" is as if to say, "Do not weep."

St. Gregory the Great: The very declarations of Scripture that stir our tears of love also wipe them away by promising that we will see our Redeemer again.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But she, thinking they wanted to know the reason for her weeping, tells them: She says to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord.” She calls the lifeless body of her Lord "my Lord," using a part to represent the whole, just as we confess that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was buried, when in fact only His flesh was buried. “And I do not know where they have placed Him.” Her grief was even greater because she did not know where to go to find comfort.

St. John Chrysostom: She still knew nothing of the resurrection but thought the body had been taken away.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Here the angels must be understood to have risen, for Luke describes them as standing.

The hour the angels had announced had now come, when sorrow would be replaced by joy: And when she had said this, she turned around.

St. John Chrysostom: But why does she turn back while talking to the angels, before she has heard anything from them? It seems to me that while she was speaking, Christ appeared behind her. The angels, by their posture, gaze, and movement, showed that they saw the Lord, and this is why she turned around.

St. Gregory the Great: We must observe that Mary, who still doubted our Lord’s resurrection, turned back to see Jesus. In her doubt, she turned her back, so to speak, on the Lord. Yet, because she loved, she saw Him. She loved and doubted; she saw and did not recognize Him: And she saw Jesus standing, and did not know that it was Jesus.

St. John Chrysostom: To the angels He appeared as their Lord, but not so to the woman, for the sight, coming upon her all at once, would have stunned her. She was to be lifted to higher things not suddenly, but gradually.

St. Gregory the Great: Jesus says to her, “Woman, why do you weep?” He asks the reason for her grief to intensify her longing, for merely mentioning the name of the one she sought would ignite her love for Him.

St. John Chrysostom: Because He appeared as an ordinary person, she thought He was the gardener: She, supposing Him to be the gardener, says to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away from here, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” That is, "If you have taken Him away for fear of the Jews, tell me, and I will take Him back."

Theophylact of Ohrid: She was afraid that the Jews might vent their rage even on the lifeless body and therefore wished to move it to a secret place.

St. Gregory the Great: Perhaps, however, the woman was right to believe Jesus was the gardener. Was He not the spiritual Gardener, who by the power of His love had sown strong seeds of virtue in her heart? But how is it that as soon as she sees the man she supposes to be the gardener, she says, without first telling him whom she was seeking, “Sir, if you have carried Him away from here?” This comes from her love; when one loves a person, one never imagines that anyone else could be unaware of him.

Our Lord, after calling her by the common name for her gender and not being recognized, calls her by her own name: Jesus says to her, “Mary.” It is as if to say, “Recognize Him who recognizes you.” Mary, being called by name, recognizes Him. She recognizes that it was He whom she was seeking externally, and He who was teaching her internally to seek. She turned herself and says to Him, “Rabboni,” which is to say, “Master.”

St. John Chrysostom: This is just as He was sometimes in the midst of the Jews, and they did not know Him until He chose to make Himself known. But why does she turn, when she had already turned before? It seems to me that when she said, “Where have you laid Him?” she turned to the angels to ask why they were astonished. Then Christ, by calling to her, revealed Himself by His voice and made her turn back to Him.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, she first turned her body but mistook Him for someone He was not; now she was turned in her heart and knew who He was. Let no one, however, blame her for calling the gardener "Sir" and Jesus "Master." The first was a title of courtesy to a person from whom she was asking a favor; the second was a title of respect for a Teacher from whom she was accustomed to learn how to distinguish the divine from the human. The word "Lord" is used in different senses when she says, “They have taken away my Lord,” and when she says, “Sir, if you have carried Him away.”

St. Gregory the Great: The Evangelist does not add what she did upon recognizing Him, but we know from what our Lord said to her: Jesus says to her, “Touch Me not.” Mary, then, had tried to embrace His feet but was not allowed. Why not? The reason follows: “For I have not yet ascended to My Father.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: But if He cannot be touched while standing on the earth, how can He be touched while sitting in heaven? And did He not, before His ascension, offer Himself to be touched by the disciples: “Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones.” Who can be so absurd as to suppose that He was willing for the disciples to touch Him before He ascended to His Father, but unwilling for women to do so until after? Indeed, we read of women touching Him after the resurrection and before He ascended to His Father—one of whom was Mary Magdalene herself, according to Matthew.

Either Mary here is a type of the Gentile Church, which did not believe in Christ until after His ascension, or the meaning is that Jesus is to be believed in—that is, spiritually touched—in no other way than as being one with the Father. He ascends to the Father mystically, so to speak, in the mind of one who has advanced so far as to acknowledge that He is equal to the Father. But how could Mary believe in Him in any way other than carnally, when she was weeping for Him as a man?

Touch is, in a sense, the culmination of knowledge, and He was unwilling for a soul focused on Him to reach its end by thinking of Him as only what He appeared to be.

St. John Chrysostom: Mary wished to be as familiar with Christ now as she was before His Passion, forgetting in her joy that His body had been made much more holy by its resurrection. So, He says, “Touch Me not,” to remind her of this and to make her feel awe in speaking with Him. For this reason, too, He no longer keeps company with His disciples, namely, so that they might look upon Him with greater awe. Again, by saying, “I have not yet ascended,” He shows that He is hastening there. And He who was about to depart and live no more among men ought not to be regarded with the same sentiment as before: “But go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Heretics, among their other impieties, misinterpret these words of our Lord, saying that if His Father is their Father and His God is their God, then He cannot be God Himself. But though He remained in the form of God, He took upon Himself the form of a servant, and Christ says this to men in the form of a servant. We cannot doubt that, insofar as He is man, the Father is His Father in the same sense that He is the Father of other men, and God is His God in the same way. Indeed, He begins by saying, “Go to My brothers.” But God can only have brothers according to the flesh; the only-begotten God, being only-begotten, is without brothers.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He does not say, "Our Father," but, “My Father and your Father.” It is "Mine" and "yours," therefore, in different senses: Mine by nature, yours by grace. Nor does He say, "Our God," but, “My God”—under whom I am man—“and your God”; between you and Him, I am the Mediator.

She then went away from the tomb—that is, from that part of the garden in front of the hollowed-out rock—and the other women were with her. But these women, according to Mark, were seized with trembling and amazement and said nothing to anyone. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken these things to her.

St. Gregory the Great: Thus, the sin of mankind is buried in the very place from which it came forth. For whereas in Paradise the woman gave the man the deadly fruit, a woman from the tomb announced life to men. A woman delivers the message of Him who raises us from the dead, just as a woman had delivered the words of the serpent who killed us.

St. Augustine of Hippo: While she was going with the other women, according to Matthew, Jesus met them, saying, “All hail.” So we gather that there were two visions of angels, and that our Lord was also seen twice: once when Mary mistook Him for the gardener, and again when He met them on the way. By repeating His presence in this way, He confirmed their faith. And so Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples, not alone, but with the other women whom Luke mentions.

The Venerable Bede: Mystically, Mary—a name that signifies mistress, enlightened one, enlightener, or star of the sea—stands for the Church. The Church is also Magdalene, that is, "towered" (since Magdalene is related to the word for tower), as we read in the Psalms: “You have been a strong tower for me.” In that she announced Christ’s resurrection to the disciples, all people—especially those to whom the office of preaching is committed—are admonished to be zealous in proclaiming to others whatever is revealed from above.