Author: Elizabeth Bennent
Discalimer: This story half belongs to the authors of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I am not making any money off of this (for details see John 2:12, Jesus in the Temple.) But original characters and situations are mine, so please ask if you would like to use. Thanks.
Dedication: As always, to the Princess Circle. Also, to the cast of Guilford's "Jesus Christ Superstar."
"Mary? Mary...child, did you hear what I said?" asked the Mother.
"No...I am sorry my Mother. What did you say?" Mary asked snapping out of her gloomy reveries. They had eaten in silence the whole meal, both women most likely thinking over recent...and not so recent events.
"Are you finished?" she asked gently.
"Yes," she said.
"You should hurry and check on the tomb before the crowds swallow the streets," said the Mother picking up the plates.
"Mother?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you. For everything, and...please, don't leave us," Mary begged, choking up.
"Of course not. You, the baby, and I will stay together. My Son said you will lead and teach in His place with John," said the Mother embracing her, ""Be wary then of the mob and go peacefully."
Mary fastened her veil and robes, and put on her sandals. She brought a basket of flowers with her.
The streets were very dusty that morning. There were many people in the streets, walking, shopping, and talking, but more people would come in the afternoon to walk.
Mary walked along, once again feeling outside of everything. Some of the people of Jerusalem recognized her as the 'criminal's' wife. She kept her face up, and refused to put it down as if she was ashamed of knowing Christ. She had had enough of hiding in the small room.
After walking through the city, she came to the groves.
The trees were bare and looked sad.
Mary viewed them as she walked
by. In the middle of the grove, a shadow of a man hanging from the
tree startled her.
But as it swung out of the shadows, Mary recognized the man.
"Judas..." she shuddered.
She ran to the tree where he hung, swaying gently from force.
He had been this way for several days, for the air stank and his face was discolored and bloated; all the blood had been cut from it.
Judas will betray me. I am sorry that my death has to be strapped upon his heart, but it is the will of God...
This is what Jesus had warned her of. She remembered the painful look on her Husband's face.
"Oh...Judas..."she sighed.
She felt a twang of anger. Why...why was this the will of God? Why did it seem death was the will of God?
Mary's breathing was not normal. She breathed heavily enough so her chest hurt when she drew a sharp breath. It was her heart; it was disabled with pain. Burning tears flooded the chasms on the sides of her nose and they fell furiously.
"Judas!" she cried ferociously, "Why could you not wait? Why did you not wait a little longer? I am but a young woman. Only thirty-two years of His life had wasted by and now he is dead! Why did you not wait?"
She was on her knees now, sobbing and not able to catch her breath. She cried Judas' name over, and over. "Why?"
He was entombed in a cave. It would have to do Mary thought. She read that in Egypt important men were entombed in great pyramids and temples. Jesus had been important...
The stone covering the cave's opening was gone Mary saw as she rounded the bend, approaching the cavity in the earth.
Mary felt jolts in her legs and shoulders. The tomb was open! The tomb could have been robbed and the robber could be hiding in the surrounding gardens.
Mary felt herself drop her basket and run. She ran back into the city, to their room, and burst through the door. There more of the disciples were. They returned from their morning business. John and Peter rose to their feet at the sight of Mary.
"John! My brother...his tomb is empty! I do not know where my Lord's body has gone!"
Peter sat next to John. He no longer wore a triumphant gleam in his stare, and Mary was no longer reminded of her nightmares of him. She pushed them aside and pleaded for both to come and see the empty tomb.
John was the first to walk into the tomb, and then Peter. Mary stayed outside.
They only stayed inside the tomb for a moment pointing out to each other the folded shrouds and head cloth that had hid Jesus' body.
John had a slight smile that Mary did not understand when he and Peter left the gardens. John hugged her, reassuring her that all was well. But she did not see how this could be. Peter knelt beside her.
"Fear not," he said gently, "My Lady." Mary stared at him with a forgiving look.
"I...denied him," the man said regrettably. He sounded not at all like Satan. He sounded like a Follower. Mary nodded and embraced the man. Peter clung to her while he sobbed. Mary stroked his hair and held him just as hard. John tugged on the sleeve of Peter's robe, and the two men left.
Mary was not quite sure what she was supposed to do. So she cried. She sat on the ground and cried. It was for a long time. His body wasn't even with her anymore.
"Why are you crying?" came a man's voice. Although the voice was gentle Mary was startled.
"Please...sir...my Lord was buried here and his body has been taken from the tomb and my brothers know nothing of it. Please if you have taken his body or if you know who has...tell me!" she sobbed.
"Mary," he said. The voice was the most familiar sound in the world to Mary. It had been used countless times to tell people of God's love for them, and His own love for them.
"Teacher!"
She looked up. Jesus, her Jesus, was kneeling down over her dressed in a white gauze robe, smiling through his beard, dark eyes twinkling down at her. Mary swallowed. He had risen. And she had known. She knew the day he told her he would leave, and she knew the day he had died. She reached to embrace him. His arms were once again warm and inviting.
"You do not have to hold on to me so tightly!" he chuckled, "I have not yet ascended to my Father in Heaven."
To this, she paid no heed. He was here. He was holding her, and that was all that mattered. She took one of his palms. There was placed a hole where the nail had gone through. Mary kissed it. Then she kissed the other one just as gently. Jesus pulled her into another husbandly embrace. He laid his hands on her stomach where their child was safely housed. He kissed her sweetly and let her go. She had been embraced by God.
"Go and tell the others of what you have seen," he said softly, "Tell them the news."
She started off after one more kiss and look from her dear husband. Then she fled from the tomb.
She ran faster with every sound, smell, and brush of air. She did not feel like an outsider as she had been. She once again felt like a rose was blossoming within her. She was changed. She was...free.
She ran and ran to where John stayed once again. Bursting through the door with overwhelming and contagious joy and faith she saw that he had brought all of the Brethren to the small house.
Mary Magdalene, the Deliverer of the Good News, the Apostle of Apostles stood at the door to say, "He has risen!"