"20 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going towards the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her."
John 20:1-18
We look now at one or two points of detail in the passage. In 1 we are told that Mary saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre (note the 'we' in 1 - she was not alone, but had at least one companion with her). Matthew tells us explicitly that it was an angel that rolled the stone away. But the stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out of the tomb, but rather to show the world that He was already risen. It is God the Son Who was raised from the dead, and it would not exercise Him to pass out of the tomb without having the stone removed, any more than it exercised Him to appear in the midst of the disciples, the doors being shut and locked, for fear of the Jews. This is also the significance of the grave clothes lying folded in the empty tomb, with the head napkin lying separately. They were not taken off Him by human or angelic hands. He passed through them miraculously, leaving them unruffled, untouched. This is the point that is being made. And it is meant to convey something quite specific to us: on the one hand, the gospel writers are at pains to assert to us that it was their beloved Master that was come back from the dead, in bodily resurrection. On the other hand, however, they are equally definite in their insistence that their Jesus was now different, imperceptibly, incontrovertibly different. For He no longer appeared to be conditioned by the laws of nature in the way He had been before His crucifixion. It was undoubtedly their beloved Jesus, but He was different. It is this that, as we have already seen, is suggested in His words to Mary, 'Touch me not...' - 'It is not going to be quite the same as before, Mary; a new kind of relationship, more wonderful by far, is about to begin.' And Mary herself appears to have borne witness to this in the way she addressed Jesus: 'Rabboni, Master.' The scholars tell us this word is used in the context of Hebrew worship, and used almost exclusively in address to God. For Mary therefore to have called Jesus 'Rabboni' means that she was confessing Him as God. In other words she - along with Thomas and John - recognised that all He had been claiming in His teaching was the simple truth. He was God, and they saw, and believed, and worshipped.