John 20:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"And having said this, she turned around." What sequence is this? Mary enters into conversation with the angels and, before hearing anything from them, turns back.

It seems to me that while she was speaking, Christ by His sudden appearance behind her amazed the angels. Seeing the Master, they at once showed by their appearance, gaze, and movement that they had seen the Lord.

This compelled the woman to look around and turn back. Thus Christ appeared to the angels. But He did not appear to Mary in this way, lest He strike her with amazement at the first glance.

He appeared in a humbler and more ordinary form. This is already clear from the fact that she took Him for the gardener.

Why did Mary turn back? What moved her to turn back while she was speaking with the Angels? Probably, while she was speaking with the Angels, Jesus suddenly appeared behind her and filled them with awe. When they saw the Master, their appearance, movement, and gaze at once revealed that they had seen the Lord. This woman, Mary, noticed it and turned back. Perhaps He appeared to the Angels in an astonishing form, but to Mary not so, rather in a humble and ordinary form. Therefore she took Him for the gardener, namely of the garden in which the tomb stood.

But since she did not cease calling Christ Lord, by this too she showed her love for Him. For this she rightly receives the very vision of what she desired.

She sees Jesus, although she does not yet understand that it is He. For what reason?

Either she is ignorant because our Savior Christ was still hiding Himself by divine power and did not allow Himself to be recognized by the eyes of those looking at Him.

Or, since it was still very early morning, she could not clearly distinguish things. Night in some way still prevented this, scarcely allowing her to see the outline of Him who stood near.

For this reason our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in the Song of Songs, mentions His walking at this very time of night and the moisture of the morning dew.

He says: "For My head is filled with dew, and My locks with the drops of the night" (Song 5:2).

Let no one think ill of the woman who called the Lord a gardener and Jesus a teacher. The first was a sign of respect toward a man whose favor she sought.

The second was a sign of due reverence toward the Teacher from whom she had learned to distinguish the divine and the human.

She called "sir" the one whose servant she was not, so that through him she might come to the Lord to whom she belonged.

Thus "lord" is used in different senses: "They have taken away my Lord" (Jn 20:13), and "Sir, if you have carried Him away."

Let no one accuse the woman because she called the gardener dominus, and Jesus Teacher. For there she was asking, but here she was already answering.

Was He one person when He was not recognized and another when He was recognized? Certainly He was the same. Therefore they knew Him, but their sight did not recognize Him.

The matter lay in the eyes, not in Him whom they were looking at. Yet it also lay in Him, for He held their eyes so that they would not recognize Him.

Finally, so that you may know that the impediment preventing them from seeing was not connected with the Lord's body but with the incapacity of their eyes, it is said: "Then their eyes were opened, and they knew Him" (Lk 24:31).

Therefore Mary Magdalene also, while she did not recognize Jesus and sought the Living among the dead, took Him for the gardener. But she recognizes Him and then calls Him Lord.

“And when she had said this, she turned back and saw Jesus standing.” But why did Mary, before learning anything from the Angels who questioned her, immediately turn back? Because as soon as Jesus Christ suddenly appeared behind her, the Angels saw their Master and at once stood up in fear. They looked at Him as befits servants. Therefore Mary turned around to see who had appeared to them. “And she did not know that it was Jesus,” because He appeared in another form, though humble and ordinary, so as not to overwhelm her.

It should be noted that Mary, who still doubted the Lord’s Resurrection, turned back in order to see the Lord. Through that very doubt she stood, as it were, with her back to the Lord’s face, not believing that He had risen. But because she loved and doubted, she saw and did not recognize Him. As love pointed Him out to her, so doubt concealed Him.

The All-seeing One saw Mary Magdalene overcome by weeping and exhausted by anguish. Then He had compassion and appeared, saying to the maiden, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek in the tomb?” Then Mary turned and said, “I weep because they have taken my Lord from the tomb, and I do not know where they have laid Him. Surely this is your doing, for, if I am not mistaken, You are the gardener. Yet if You have taken the body, tell me, and I will take my Redeemer, who is my Teacher and my Lord, He who grants resurrection to the fallen.”

What compelled Mary suddenly to turn back? Undoubtedly it was the servile reverence and attention of the angels toward the Master who had appeared.

For she calls Him only her Lord, saying, "They have taken away my Lord." She supposes a theft and the removal of the body.

By this she indeed reveals a heartfelt disposition toward Him, yet she does not think of Him as it is fitting to think of God.

But the angels show by their action that He is Lord even of the angels of God. Before He appeared, they were sitting by the tomb.

When the Master Himself immediately appeared, they at once rose. With reverence and astonishment, as befitted their manner, they attended intently to Him.

Mary turned around to see what vision had shaken the angels. She sees Jesus standing, although she does not understand that Jesus is before her.

She considered the Resurrection unheard of and hardly possible.

To the angel's question, "Woman, why are you weeping?" she answered with sobbing and despair: "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him!"

This cry of a tormented heart intensified her sobbing. Tears began to choke her. She turned away from the entrance of the cave, involuntarily looked back, and saw Jesus standing before her, but did not recognize Him.

Jesus says to her: "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Just as the apostles, even the chosen among the apostles, did not understand that Jesus had to die and rise again, so Mary did not understand.

But then she hears footsteps approaching behind her. She quickly turns her tearful gaze in that direction and sees a man before her. Who else could he be but the gardener? This supposed gardener addresses her with the question, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” But Mary did not at once understand the whole loving force of these words. Occupied with her sorrowful thoughts, she saw in this address an idle question, if not even an offensive one. She answered simply, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him.”

She turned back. Perhaps this happened accidentally, without any special impulse or purpose, in confusion of feeling. Perhaps it was involuntary, as her eyes sought the beloved object she had lost.

Perhaps she sensed the presence of another near her by a rustle or the like. She saw Jesus, but did not recognize Him.

She did not recognize Him probably because He appeared in another form, as He later appeared to the travelers to Emmaus (Mk 16:12), "humble and ordinary," as Chrysostom says.

For this reason she took Him for the gardener. Perhaps her troubled spirit and tears hindered her from looking more intently at the Lord.