As Mary Magdalene in the Garden

“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. 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’…But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb….Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 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.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni’! (which means Teacher). 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.’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’—and that he said these things to her.” -John 20:12; 11, 14-18. ESV (Read John 20)

As Mary Magdalene in the Garden

Mary Magdalene went early

Before the dawning light

Had spread abroad the sunshine

To give the darkness light.

Sadness filled her heart,

For lo, her Lord was dead.

He who had promised life and hope

Had died with thorn-crowned head.

Frightened was she when she saw

The sepulcher’s stone awry;

Who had taken the Lord’s body?

Was it not enough for Him to die?

To Peter and the other disciples

She ran, in tears, and said:

“They have taken away His body;

Wherever could He be laid?”

Peter and another went to find

That Mary’s word was true.

No longer did the grave hold Him;

Only burial clothes there to view.

The disciples left and went home,

But Mary lingered there;

Weeping in the dark garden,

And mourning for the Lord so fair.

Then a voice said, “Mary!”

And when He spoke she knew

It was her Lord triumphant!

“Rabboni!” she said, “This is you!”

“I have a message for you to bear:

Tell the disciples I now live!

As I told them when I taught,

This message of life you must give!”

Mary in the garden was afraid

When lingering shades of night

Still surrounded the tomb;

But then what a glorious Light!

The very Son of God arose

Victorious over the grave;

And to Mary Magdalene His servant,

The glorious message He gave.

She went telling the disciples:

“I have seen the Lord!”

He lives, He conquered death,

We have this Word

To tell others that death

No longer over us reigns;

But Christ the Lord is risen,

Now my soul forever sings!

As Mary in the garden,

We need not fear shades of night,

Knowing that Life awaits us

In His marvelous, life-changing Light.

-Ethelene Dyer Jones

I wrote this poem March 23, 2005 for Easter, 2005. I brought the poem out of my file and am sharing it again Easter, 2018. May reading it bless you as I was inspired and blessed to write and now to share it. To God be the glory! And deepest gratitude to Jesus Christ, who made our facing death a passage through the “Valley of the Shadow of Death” to our own victorious resurrection. Thank you, God, for our friends, family members who are enjoying this year their “First Resurrection Sunday in Heaven!” May we know on earth a “foretaste” of the glory to come when we, too, join that happy throng in Heaven! Amen and Amen! 04.01.2018.