Imagine everything you had hoped for, everything you had dreamed of, everything you had prayed for was brutally humiliated and murdered. Unconsolable in your grief, yet your love for your friend brings you to visit the grave, but something is wrong. They have opened the tomb.
Crying, wailing as only the broken-hearted, those without hope or consoling can weep. In such grief, she doesn’t even fear the angels. She only cries out, “Where have they taken him?” Stealing the body on top of the murder; why!
Overcome with tears, grief, and confusion, she doesn’t even know it’s Jesus and not the gardener who asks, “Whom are you looking for?” Switching to Aramaic, He calls her by name, Mariam. A single word, a name, her name. Staying in Aramaic, the language of home, she answers in full recognition, Rabbouni. Not a tender nickname, not the diminutive of Rabbi, the highest honor in the hierarchy of teaching titles.
Clinging to Jesus, hope restored, she tries to continue what was before, and Jesus tells her, “Stop holding on to me…” (Noli me tangere); things are different now. He tells her to go tell the others, be the apostle to the apostles. Finishing what had started with Eve, Per feminam mors, per feminam vita — “Through woman, death; through woman, life.”, Augustine.
Mariam is still telling me too. Jesus is going to His Father, my Father; His God, my God. I can’t wait to meet her and hear this story firsthand, from the first apostle.
Greg Dyche
As a professor at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business, I teach courses in Management Information Systems, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence. With over 40 years of professional experience and a commitment to helping students discover “the possibilities of technology,” I bring both technical expertise and a heart for service to my work. I am grateful to participate in Creighton’s Online Ministry, sharing in the journey of faith through daily scripture reflections.
