Mary Proclaims the Resurrection

Jesus said to Mary, 'Go to my brethren.’ I have another work for you to do, ‘Touch me not.’ You clasp about me as if you had nothing to do. There is another work to do that pleases me better: to comfort them that are in distress, my poor brethren and disciples. And therefore 'Go to my brethren ...' Those poor souls are mourning and disconsolate for me, as if I were clean taken away; go to them and prevent their further sorrow. God has a wonderful respect of others. So, a work of charity and love is preferred before a duty and compliment to himself. Let us show our love to God by our love to man. Observe the circumstances, it is worth your consideration.
(1) Who is sent? A woman. A woman to be the apostle of apostles, to be the teacher of the great teachers in the world. Mary Magdalene was sent to instruct the apostles in the great articles of Christ's resurrection and ascension to heaven. She stood out when the rest went away (John 19:25). She was constant and broke through all difficulties; and then God honoured her to be the first preacher of his resurrection.
(2) To whom must she go? 'Go, tell my brethren,’ the apostles. Go to the apostles, who are disconsolate men, now orphans, deprived of their Master and Lord. Disconsolate men, and not in vain, not without cause; for they had reason to be discomforted, not only for their want of Christ, but for their own ill carriage towards Christ. One of them denied him, and the rest forsook him; and yet 'my brethren,’ ‘go tell my brethren.’
(3) When did he speak this? After his resurrection, in the state of glory; in the beginning of it, and when he is ascending to heaven; and yet he owns them as brethren, though such brethren as had dealt most unbrotherly with him.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
A Heavenly Conference, pp. 32-34
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