The First Witness - John 20:1-10

Mary Magdalene was accompanied by other women to the tomb that first Easter. They had returned to finish the preparations of the body for burial. Thus, the question as to who would roll the stone away? Certainly, the women constituted a burial party and not seekers of a resurrected Lord.

Finding the stone rolled away, Mary Magdalene ran to tell Simon Peter and John. The three of them returned to the tomb to investigate. Still baffled and confused, the men returned to their hiding place.

Only Mary Magdalene remained at the open tomb. As she wept uncontrollably, Jesus appeared to Mary. She became, in the words of the hymn, "the first one." Mary Magdalene was the first witness to the risen Lord. The gospel writers never hesitated in their identification and proclamation of Mary as the first. All four gospels name Mary at the first witness to the resurrection.