Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.  

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”  “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”  At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”  Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
  
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). John 20:11-16

Wow.  This is it!  This is the moment!

Remember yesterday, when the disciples believed (something) but didn't understand the resurrection.  Now Mary stands at the tomb, mourning.  She doesn't understand either.  None of them truly believe.  Not until this moment.

Biblegateway.com's commentary says this:

This section contains a series of encounters with Christ that show him overcoming a variety of barriers to faith, including ignorance, grief, fear and doubt (Westcott 1908:2:334, 336-37). Five occasions of faith are mentioned, forming a chiasm.

I had never heard of the word, chiasm, before, so I looked it up.  You're gonna love this:  the cross-shaped connection produced by the crossing over of pairing chromosomes during meiosis (a process of cell division).  
At the crux of this moment is a cross.  The cross is both a real, actual presence in this epic, and a metaphor, a representation of change.  

The disciples, Mary, all the believers are about to see the cross differently then they did a few days ago.  They are being given the opportunity to use the cross to make a new connection, a new belief.  The cross, which three days ago meant death, now means life.  

The cross.  The wonderful cross.

Death to life.
Pain to joy.
Mourning to gladness.

We all have this same choice.  Will we see the bad?  Or cross over to see the good?  Will we focus on the pain?  Or cross over to see the relief?  

The cross.  The wonderful cross.

Three days ago, it wasn't wonderful.  It was a curse - to Jesus, to his friends and family, to everyone who wanted to believe.

Now, it's wonderful.  Even though they clearly don't fully understand the context, that Jesus not only HAD to die but also HAD to rise, they still believe.  

Mary believes.  Because, as the text says, he's standing right there!  Standing.  Right.  In.  Front.  Of.  Her.   

It's amazing to me that Mary is so overcome, so grief-stricken, that she doesn't notice that the men in front of her are angels.  She doesn't notice that the gardener talking to her is Jesus.  He has to say her name before she truly sees him.

Isn't it the same with us?  God is always, ever, all around us.  And we don't notice, we don't see.  Until he speaks our name.  That speaking can happen in many ways.  Sometimes bad ways - Illness.  Pain.  Exhaustion.  Death.  Sometimes good ways - Celebration.  Babies.  Healing.

But we don't notice until it effects us.  Until it - HE - speaks to us.  Then it all comes together.  Then we fall to our knees, we repent, we are grateful, we set aside the world and surrender.

We don't have to fully understand to do those things.  Mary didn't.  Peter and John didn't.  Jesus brought the understanding later.

But the joy came first.