There’s no doubt by any that Jesus was dead.  They buried him in a tomb and sealed the entrance that first Easter Friday.  So, early in the morning, while it’s still dark on that Sunday, there’s a sense in which nothing’s changed.  We glimpse the personal grief of Mary Magdalene. 

Mary Magdalene, the prostitute Jesus forgave of her sins knew the freedom God’s love brings when we know his forgiveness.  For Mary, the death of Jesus made her heart heavy as we read in John 20:1-2:

1 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. 2 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!"

It’s dark.  All Mary can see is an open tomb where the stone should have been laid across – it’s gone.  So she goes to tell the disciples the tomb’s empty.  Peter and John, sharing Mary’s alarm head for the tomb.  After the disciples have come and gone, Mary stays to weep.  To her mind, the loss of Jesus’ body was the last straw.  It would have taken great courage but finally she looks into the tomb one last time - and it all changes.

Uncanny isn’t it, how God changes life in an instant?  She goes in, and sees two figures:  two angels sitting where his head and feet had been.  They ask her a question,

13…"Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."

Here from the perspective of heaven before that empty tomb, if ever there was one place where tears of sadness were the least appropriate thing, it was that morning.  Before these messengers of God in the tomb where death and sin had been defeated, Jesus had risen again.

Before Mary’s even had a chance to take it all in, she senses someone is behind her so she turns around to see who it is.  Only to be confronted by a man she should know but fails to recognize.  Again, she’s hit by the same questions:

14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.15 "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."

Mary sees Jesus and she can’t recognise Him.  Who was Mary looking for?  She’s challenged again by the same words:  “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

How true is that question for us – who are you looking for today?  God stands before us, and in life we can go on searching for the very thing standing in front of us all the time. You are looking for life because you’re feeling dead – you looking for forgiveness – you are looking for Jesus.