8th April 2026

Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). John 20: 15-16, NRSV.

The gospels give varying accounts of the resurrection of Jesus but one common theme is that those meeting the risen Jesus did not recognise him at first. In the account we used on Sunday, from John’s gospel, Mary Magdalene thinks she is talking to the gardener until she hears the stranger speak.

We can certainly have sympathy with this reaction; she had seen Jesus crucified and dead people do not get up and walk around.

Shortly after we returned to Bristol I had a similar (but definitely less dramatic!) experience. I went to a service at St Paul’s church, probably in holy week. There were not many of us there but the congregation included a tall, rather bedraggled looking man who I certainly did not recognise. During the service he got up to read the lesson. As soon as he began to speak I instantly recognised him as a former colleague that I had not seen for over thirty years. Now that I could hear his voice I could mentally slim him down, dress him smartly for work and restore his neatly cut dark hair. It was lovely to catch up with him after the service.

From then on, I became more alert for the possibility that the stranger I was meeting could possibly be an old friend and it was surprising how often they turned up.

As Jesus would have said, “stay alert”! You just do not know who you are going to meet.

Nick Parsons