But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been. John 20:11,12

A couple of angels. Maybe they were sent to comfort her? How do you comfort grief-stricken people? You point them to Jesus.

And when she turned around, she saw Jesus standing there, and He spoke to her. “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Supposing He was the gardener, Mary pleaded with Him to tell her what had happened to her Lord. “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” (vv.13-15)

Once again it was loud and clear: Magdalene just wanted to be where He was.
Then it happened. Jesus spoke to her: “Mary.” (v.16)

Joy too wonderful for words replaced her grief. She leaped forward and did the thing she always did with Jesus: she worshiped Him—physically demonstrating her love she grabbed hold of Him in an embrace of joy; thankfulness, and adoration all mixed up into a hug.

We might think it callous of Jesus to ask her to stop clinging to Him. But then, we have no idea how long she had embraced Him before He said that. Clearly she could have stayed there all day. … “after I have returned to the Father” Jesus tells her, this kind of worship will be appropriate.

And after having to lovingly break from her grasp like a father does his young children who don’t want him to leave for work, Jesus gave Magdalene yet another message for His disciples.

Her message was simple: I’ve seen the Lord! Everything He said was true after all. He appeared to me. He’s alive! He’s living! That’s right: I’ve seen my Lord!

Back to the original question: Why did Jesus choose to reveal Himself to Magdalene first and not to Peter and John or someone else? It’s starting to become clear, isn’t it? Did you ever wonder what you would have done in the same situation?

If you or I had been at the tomb with John, Peter and Magdalene, would we have responded like John and Peter or would we have responded like Magdalene?

Would we, like Magdalene, have only wanted to be with Jesus, if only with His corpse? Would our grief have consumed us with the same obsession our worship and adoration had?

Or … not.

Magdalene chose Jesus… and all that He had for her. She had a history of obsession. She didn’t care what the others thought. She clearly had counted the cost and determined that the rest of her life began with the words Jesus spoke to her: “Go in peace. . .Go and sin no more.”

Magdalene was a bit of what we call today ‘a lose cannon’. She was an obsessive worshiper of Jesus. Nothing else really mattered. She was probably considered an extremist. Magdalene was a fanatic.

John and Peter and the rest of the disciples??? They would probably have made better churchmates for most of us. Composed, conventional, consistent. Ok, so Peter was a little impulsive sometimes and John vengeful. But all and all they were just regular, ordinary, steady Christians we could feel comfortable with.

And out of all the people in the Gospels, Jesus appeared first to Magdalene …