how mucli of Christ's teaching was apparently thrown away on His disciples, and clean forgotten ! Ministers who complain of the ignorance of their hearers, should learn patience, when they mark the imperfect knowledge of Christ's own followers.
The Greek word rendered " Sir," in this verse, might have been equally correctly rendered " Lord." But it is rendered " Sir," in like manner, in the conversation between our Lord and the Samaritan woman, in the fourth chapter of this Gospel. In both cases it is a term of respect, such as a Jewish woman would address to a man.
It is noteworthy that Mary does not name her Master to the supposed gardener. She simply says " Him," — " if thou hast borne Him hence, 1 will take Him away." It is the language of one so absorbed in the thought of our Lord, that she thinks it needless to name Him ; and assumes, as a matter of course, that the gardener will understand whom she means.
It is noteworthy that Mary talks of " taking Him away.'* How one weak woman like her could suppose that she was able to lift and carry away the dead body of a man, we cannot of course understand. It is clear that she either meant {a) that she would soon find friends who would remove the body, or else ip) that she spoke hurriedly, fervently, impulsively, and passionately, without reflecting on what she was saying. I in- cline to think the latter view is the correct one.
Luther, quoted by Besser, remarks on this verse, " Mary's heart was so filled up with Christ and thoughts about Christ, that besides Him she neither hears nor sees anything. She is not frightened at the sight of angels. She addresses Christ abruptly, supposing Him to be the gardener; and if he has taken Him away, she is ready to carry Him back to the sepul- chre."
Andrews observes, " Him is enough with love. Who knows not who it is, though we never tell His name, nor say a word more ? "
16. — [Jesus saitJi unto her, Mary, etc.'] We are here told how our Lord at last revealed Himself to this faithful disciple, after her patience, love, and boldness had been fully proved. Little as she had shown herself able to understand the great truth of her Saviour's resurrection, she had at any rate shown that none loved Him more, or clung to Him more tenaciously, than she did. And she had her reward. One single word was enough to open her eyes, to let the whole truth shine in upon her mind, and to reveal the great fact that her Saviour was not dead but alive, and that He had won a victory over the grave. — Speaking in His usual well-known voice, our Lord addressed her by her name, — the name by which, no doubt, He had often addressed her before. That single word touched a spring, as it were, and opened her eyes in a moment. Need we doubt that at once the