John 20:11-18
15 He asked her, “Woman, 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.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
I got to tell you it's a lot of begats in general. I drift a little. I'm trying here. I listen on the train and at night. I had AI make me a nice audio playlist with images for each book from Doré. They're kind of crabbed and gray on the iPhone, though. Everything is just a robed shape.
Anyway I don't know why exactly I keep reading the Bible. I think I'm just going back to infrastructure in general, since the world makes so little sense—watching an entire society commit suicide is hard and baffling. It draws one toward poems and proverbs and foundational narratives.
On a whim I tried Obadiah. Can't remember a single thing that happens. But I've also been plowing through the New Testament and I got to this part in John and man. I mean John nailed it. What a moment. Can't get it out of my head.
At first I thought it was his mother who saw him. That would have been something. It's a risk of listening to the audiobook Bible instead of going to church. Often right before bed. You get Marys mixed up.
For example I've been trying to get through Acts and for a long time I couldn't figure out who exploded (it turns out it was Judas). I always thought he hanged himself. Turns out it was both. But not at once. That would have been even more memorable.
It really surprised me, that Judas explodes.
Anyway it's Mary Magdalen. My friend Mark put me straight there. She doesn't recognize Jesus. She just wants the body. When she sees him she cries out “teacher.”
Fifty million ideas at once in there. Two thousand years of unpacking it, easy. You get a story locked down like this and you can build societies—regardless of oceans.
Some guy comes to town. He gets off a boat. He's get a big beard and extremely bright eyes. Glow-in-the-dark eyes.
This happened! I'm telling you. It really happened! What are you going to do about it?
That guy said it happened! Let's give him a little soup and hear him out. He might know something.
For so much of the world, looking up from an empty plate or from a hard pew in a cold room, they think of mothers, and sons, and friends, and students, and teachers, and it sings.