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Mary’s experience at the tomb was different, but it also led to belief. After the two disciples had gone home, she remained behind weeping. She, too, looked into the tomb, but instead of grave cloths she saw two angels sitting where the Lord’s body had lain. When they asked why she wept, she told them about her loss (vv.10-13).
The question was repeated by a man standing behind her who wanted to know why she wept and whom she was seeking. Perhaps her tears kept her from recognizing Jesus; perhaps it was something else (cf. Lk 24:16), but she assumed he was the gardener and asked him to show her where he had put Jesus' body (vv.13-15). If he would tell her, she intended to recover it, and in her grief she probably meant to do so single-handedly.
Jesus merely spoke her name and, in a flash of recognition, her grief turned to joy (v.16; cf. 10:3, 27; 16:20, 22). It would have been natural for her exuberant exclamation to have been accompanied by an embrace of some sort, and we may guess from Jesus' next words that it was. For in effect he said, “Don't cling to me, Mary; I haven't left yet” (v.17). But he soon would leave, and he commissioned her to carry that word to his brothers. By brothers he meant his disciples, now friends and no longer “servants” (cf. 15:14-15).