Why Didn’t Mary Recognize the Resurrected Jesus?
If Jesus Really Did Rise From the Dead, Why Didn’t Mary Recognize Him?

 
Why Did She Hesitate?

Many people have questions about the eyewitness accounts of the resurrected Christ. It seems that the Bible records that Jesus is not recognized initially for who He is after the resurrection! In particular, there is an account where he is seen first by Mary who thinks he is a GARDENER (in John 20:1-16)!!! The scripture does actually say in John 20:13-14 that Mary looked right at Jesus and thought he was the GARDENER!!! How could that happen? Was it just someone posing as Jesus? Why wouldn’t Mary recognize the very man who meant so much to her? Well let’s take a quick look at the passage in all four Gospels and see what we can learn.

Now, some would say that these four Gospels are contradictory because they are not exactly the same. Remember that a DIFFERENCE is not a CONTRADICTION. My one son may say I’m young, while the other will say I have grey hair. The truth is that they are both right!!! I’m (relatively) young (no laughing), but I have grey hair. No contradiction here, just a difference in description! I’m telling you as someone who works with witnesses all the time, the Gospel accounts sound EXACTLY like four eyewitness testimonies, each telling the story from a slightly different perspective and from the native ability of each witness. I always get suspicious when the stories of witnesses are exactly the same, not when they vary. Keep in mind that if there had been an effort to LIE here and create a concise legend of some sort, the Gospels would simply have been reworked to agree completely. Also, remember that each story simply adds or subtracts information; it does NOT tell a contradictory story line! So, let’s read all four eyewitness accounts and glean the total story from the details:

John 20:1-16
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

Mark 16:2-11
Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?" But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'"

Luke 24:1-8
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'" Then they remembered his words. Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

Matt 28:1-10
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you." So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

 
OK, from a careful reading of these passages, this is what I would understand as an investigator:

 
The women came to the tomb very early, before it was light outside. They first viewed Jesus in this darkness.

 
The women were looking NOT for a resurrected man, but for a DEAD man. They did not think it possible that someone standing behind them could be Jesus.

 
They were afraid and scared, bewildered and wondering. Why? Because they had just experienced an EARTHQUAKE!! This is their state of mind as Jesus approaches.

 

Mary is CRYING; I mean SOBBING. This is clear from the account we have, and her sobbing has clearly effected her ability to see.

 
Mary was standing outside the tomb in the garden when she first viewed Jesus. In this setting, she would expect to see a gardener rather than Jesus.

 
Mary turned away from Jesus. She must have turned away quickly and stayed turned from Him for most of the contact and conversation, because the Scripture tells us that she turns BACK toward Him when He mentions her name.

 
So What Would We Expect?

OK, Mary is standing in the garden. She looks at Jesus for only an instant, in poor lighting, through her tears, thinking all along that Jesus should be dead, and terrified and bewildered from the earthquake! Do you think it is reasonable that she first took him for a gardener (after all she is in a garden)? I think it is, and this is certainly not something that worries me as a believer. I actually love the honesty of the Gospels, each one simply telling it like it is! But I think you’ll have to agree that we need to do our homework once in a while to understand what truly must have happened! When we read through all the perspectives and assemble the details, it’s really not hard to see why Mary didn’t recognize Jesus immediately.