"I have seen the Lord", says Mary Magdalene, on that first Easter Day. We know why the tomb was empty, but Mary, Peter and John did not.

They were still living with the awful memory of Good Friday. That was the day their world came to a full stop. They were in a state of deep shock, numbed by the loss of their leader. They would never again see his face or hear his voice. If we can in some way enter into their deep gloom and despair then we shall be able to catch something of their sense of utter surprise and bewilderment when they looked into the tomb and found it empty. John in the 20th chapter goes to a lot of trouble to describe the grave clothes, the fact that they were undisturbed and not left in a heap. Just as the birth clothes were a sign he had arrived so now the grave clothes were a sign he had departed. Peter and John looked in and noted the state of the grave clothes and began to see the significance in them.

Mary, on the other hand, was too wrapped up in her grief to think clearly. "They have taken away my Lord" indicates that she thought of Jesus as a dead man. The bottom had fallen out of her life and she was trying very painfully to adjust to the death of her Lord. Now another blow had befallen her, the body she had come to embalm was missing. Standing outside the tomb weeping and wondering what to do, she looked in and was questioned by the two angels. With her eyes swollen from much crying she failed to recognise a third person standing near. It was his voice, rather than his face, that gave him away. Jesus had a very special way of addressing her. So she was reunited and nobody had taken away her Lord. Mary could say "I have seen the Lord"; this was certainly not wishful thinking or hallucination. The truth that he had risen transformed her and the disciples and it can do the same for us. A joyous Eastertide to you all.

This week's thought: Those who hide their heads in the sand won't leave any footprints.