“Woman, why are you weeping?” Can you imagine? Really… imagine for a minute that you are Mary in our reading from the Gospel of John this morning. You are heartbroken with grief. You know your beloved friend and teacher has not gone through certain burial rituals prescribed by his Jewish faith, and seeking to do something- anything to distract yourself from your sadness you go first thing in the morning, as soon as the Sabbath that prohibited work is over, to tend to your friend’s body. Not only do you see that the tomb is open and apparently empty, but when you get others to confirm, they also find nothing! Then they leave, and you are now thinking “All I wanted to do was this one simple thing and now I can’t do that My friend’s body is missing and I am SAD and do not WANT to solve a mystery right now!!” And then, as you stand there weeping in front of where your friend’s body is supposed to be, suddenly there are two people there who weren’t there before who are asking why you’re crying. Which feels absurd, but the whole thing feels absurd, so you blurt out an answer and then hear someone ELSE you didn’t know was there come up behind you all, “Woman why are you weeping” yet again. (Honestly, I think in a similar situation I would have kicked this guy in the shins!")

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