NOTES for Joh 20:11-18

Standing by the tomb, Mary does not analyze how the enormous stone could have been rolled away; even the sight of angels neither terrifies nor surprises her. All the miraculous and unusual phenomena recede into the background for her: they have no meaning without Christ. Had she become distracted by the surrounding circumstances, she might have failed to notice the Risen One, just as even His closest disciples, who had been there moments before, did not see Him. But because Mary refused to be distracted even by everything miraculous happening that morning, she was able to see Christ standing before her.

Mary recognized the Risen One after He addressed her by name. He had not spoken in vain about the good shepherd who calls his sheep by name and whose voice they know. Yet none of the shepherds on earth, even the best of them, has such unity with those who follow him as Christ does. He asks her not to touch Him, not because He does not want to commune with one of the daughters of humanity, but because the moment has come for Him to go to the Father. Once He has gone to the Father, He will remain in the closest union with His faithful who stay on earth.

Did Jesus' disciples await the Resurrection? Yes, of course they did. All their fellow believers awaited it, so why would they be an exception? And yet the resurrection of their Teacher was an enormous surprise for them. Perhaps an expected one, and yet still a surprise. After all, the Resurrection was not supposed to happen like this, almost routinely. They simply came to the tomb, and the body was not there. The tomb was empty. The Resurrection is not like that; it is different. Everyone knows it is different. It will be majestic, solemn, unrepeatable... and here there is simply an empty tomb. He simply rose. He got up, came out of the tomb, and left. No, that does not happen. It cannot be. Surely someone must have stolen the body after all. The gardener, perhaps he knows... That is how the Encounter happens. And recognition.

But not at once. At first Mary is sure that the gardener is standing before her. It cannot be otherwise; there is nothing else to expect. And then everything depends only on openness. Whether one recognizes Him or not depends on how open a person is. Not simply open to Him, but open in general. How important, or unimportant, are one's expectations, opinions, stereotypes... how convinced one is that there is something that cannot be simply because it can never be. The stronger such certainty is, the fewer chances there are for recognition. Mary had no such certainty.

Perhaps because she did not think all that often about what could happen in her life and what could not happen in principle. Perhaps the feminine mind is generally less categorical than the masculine one. At least when it comes to postulates, schemes, and models. Fewer models mean fewer tests for conformity. And then He can be recognized: by a familiar word heard from Him before, by His voice, by His image... by an image greatly changed, yet still familiar. Familiar because an image is not only outward appearance.

An image is also everything that forms that appearance: its inner form, and not only its outer one. Outwardly, transformed humanity differs from untransformed humanity as heaven differs from earth. But inwardly it is akin to it, akin because from the very beginning God created our human nature so that it could be transformed. So that it could become completely new and at the same time remain itself. And therefore remain recognizable. At least for those for whom form is not only outward. As it was for Mary, who recognized her risen Teacher.

When reading the accounts of the Resurrection, the fact becomes obvious that the apostles, despite everything Jesus had told them during His earthly ministry, were completely unprepared for the meeting with the Risen One. John does not mention the burial garments ("linen wrappings") by chance; they were what first made the apostles think that something unusual was happening (vv. 1-9). Indeed, according to Jewish custom, the body was wrapped in a shroud so tightly that it was practically impossible to unwrap it without damaging the fabric. Meanwhile the apostles saw the shroud in which Jesus' body had been wrapped not only whole, but evidently not even disturbed, so that the head covering with which the head of the deceased was usually bound ("the face cloth," v. 7) remained lying separately, apparently in the place where the Savior's head had been before the resurrection. There was no way to explain what had happened except as a miracle. But the apostles, apparently, still did not understand very well what exactly had happened.

Of course, Mary Magdalene saw the risen Jesus at that same time in the garden and immediately reported this to the apostles (vv. 11-18), but her testimony was probably not enough for them. The real meeting took place that same evening (vv. 19-23), and then the apostles were finally able to be convinced that their Teacher was truly alive. Jesus does not accidentally give them the opportunity to look at His hands, feet, and side (v. 20): the marks of the wounds were meant to convince the apostles that before them was not a ghost, not a shadow that had come out of the tomb, as they might have thought after hearing from Mary Magdalene that the Risen One did not allow her to touch Him (v. 17).

This was extremely important, for the issue was not only the Person of the Risen One, but also the nature of the Kingdom. If it were no different from the world of shadows and spirits, then its influence on the world would be no stronger than the influence exerted on it by shadows and spirits, which can sometimes reveal their presence but are unable to affect the existing order of things seriously, and still less can they change it radically, in the way the world changes when it becomes part of the Kingdom.

But, evidently, for all its objectivity and tangibility, the Kingdom still differs in some essential ways from our world, which is not yet transformed. It is not by chance that the Lord nevertheless places Thomas's desire to feel Jesus' wounds with his own hands below trust in testimony (vv. 24-29). After all, the main thing in the Kingdom is determined by trust - trust in God, trust in Jesus, trust in one another. It is the foundation of everything. Without it there is no Kingdom. And it cannot depend on the possibility of touching with one's hands what one believes in or the one whom one trusts. Not because this is forbidden, but because the main thing in the Kingdom cannot be touched with hands. The main thing in the Kingdom can be touched only with the heart. And everyone who wants to live the life of the Kingdom must be ready for this.