Did Jesus appear to Mary His Mother after the Resurrection? I don’t see it mentioned anywhere in the Bible, so that makes me wonder whether or not He did, since Jesus comforted her during the walk to Calvary. One would assume that the Lord would give even greater comfort to His mother after His resurrection, but this is never mentioned.
Any ideas?
I have many ideas, here are a few:
There are four cases of cases of men returning to life in the OT, all support Jesus’ resurrection and two support Mary being there.
The first two of the four resurrections stories in the OT, one to a Zarephath widow, the second to a Shunammite soon to be a widow, who each, lost their only child, a son, who was raised to life out of sight, in an upper room, on a great prophet’s bed, by a great prophet, with the mother keeping watch outside, in one case at harvest time. (1Ki 17:8-24; 2Ki 4:8-37) So Mary is the mother outside while a great prophet raised a widow’s only son.
Jesus’ tomb was on (and in) a hill and twenty meters higher than the Temple mount so a room on a hill which is an “upper room”. Mary kept watch outside the upper room, while her Son lay on a bed, with a great prophet at harvest time, and He too was raised.
The third resurrection was the body of a man thrown on the bones of the prophet Elisha in his tomb coming to life (2Ki 13:20-21). The fourth was the prophet Jonah returning to life after being consumed by a great fish (his tomb) after three days and three nights. Matt 12:40-41
The resurrection of the man thrown on Elisha bones is similar except it is in a tomb again matching Jesus. Jesus represents both the dead prophet and the dead man.
The resurrection of Jonah is similar in that it occurred on the third day which would mean corruption, but Jonah was in the belly of the ship for a day and Jesus was imprisoned below ground for one day by the chief priests and Pilate.
It is also interesting that the two prophets who raised someone were Elijah and Elisha if you take the last parts of their names and combine them you get Joshua Jesus’ name in Hebrew.
Second insight
Abraham believed that God was able to raise Isaac even from the dead (and since he was to be offered up as a holocaust that implies that Abraham believed that God would restore his only beloved son even if all that remained of him was the spreading smoke of his remains (Heb 11:19). If Abraham believed and this event prefigures Jesus, who is it that believed that Jesus would be restored to life? This is necessary because an Old Testament type cannot be greater than the New Testament antitype that it points to. Jesus’ “words indicate what is intrinsic to all typology, namely that the antitype resembles the types that foreshadow them, yet they also surpass them because they are something greater than the original.” Hahn Dictionary Typology p. 930. It is clear from the gospels that none of the apostles expected Jesus to be raised from the dead, nor did any of the women who came to the tomb on the morning of the resurrection. All expected that Jesus’ body would remain dead. Since it was Abraham’s only beloved son then there is only one person living on earth at the time who could call Jesus an only beloved son and that was His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Therefore one can safely recognize from typology that Mary believed that God would raise Jesus from the dead. If she believed He would return then she was the one virgin bride waiting for the return of her Lord with lit lamp and the one faithful servant watching at the door for her master’s return. The gospels do not give complete details, but enough details to gain many insights.
Grace and peace,
Bruce
It has also been speculated that Mary would have been sitting shiva for Jesus’ death and so not allowed by custom to go to the tomb. The other women would have gone for her to apply ointments, which is why she wasn’t there on the morning of the Resurrection. I happen to believe that somehow Mary knew Jesus had risen from the dead, either by faith or by his appearing to her in the small hours of the morning, before sunrise when the women came to the tomb. We really don’t know, but I can’t imagine Mary and Jesus not being in spiritual communion with each other except perhaps for the hours his spirit was among the dead. Just my thoughts on it. :twocents:
Personally, I believe he appeared to the Magdalene first, but I don’t think it really matters. I think what is more important is that the first appearance is ascribed to a woman or women. Women had no legal standing in ancient Palestine. Some say the apostles were “making up” the Resurrection of Our Lord. Had they been, they would have made a credible man the first to witness the Risen Lord, not women.