Jn 20:11-18
11Mary [of Magdala] stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. 13And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”
16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. 17Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her.
Go to my brothers and tell them: Next to Peter, the Beloved Disciple, Andrew, and Judas, the figure most frequently mentioned in the Gospel of John is Mary Magdalene (14 times in all). Mary’s first impression of the empty tomb is negative: she thinks that Jesus’ body was carried away (20:2). In her second visit, the impression is still negative: she insists that people have taken away the body of her Lord (20:13). But this serves as a transition to the main positive story where she comes to faith, made possible not by the angels but by Jesus himself.
Even though Jesus stands plainly in sight, Mary does not recognize him. He asks her, “Whom are you looking for?”—a question that probes discipleship (see Jn 1:41 where the early disciples stay with Jesus and find the Messiah). Mary is looking for the dead Jesus; she will find the living one. She is looking for the familiar Jesus; she is before the Glorified One. The tears she has shed for her Master have blurred her vision to the heavenly interventions (the two angels). Jesus overcomes this failure by calling her by name. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who calls his very own by name (see Jn 10:3). Mary proves that she is one of those of whom Jesus said: “I know mine and mine know me” (Jn 10:14).
At the end of the story, Mary Magdalene announces to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.” Mary Magdalene is the first to proclaim the risen Lord. She is “the apostle to the apostles.”