I find it very appealing that Mary Magdalene is the first person to see the Risen Jesus. It is her love that takes her alone in the dark to the tomb of Jesus. After Peter and the disciple Jesus loved have left she hangs around sad and confused. Resurrection has changed Jesus so much that when she sees him she thinks he might be the gardner, but when he speaks her name, she recognizes the voice of the one she loves.
She has been a devoted disciple and she calls him "My dear Rabbi" and seems to expect to resume the teacher-disciple relationship that she had with him before. But as she reaches for Jesus he says, "Don't cling to me." Not "Don't touch me," but "Don't hold on to me. Don't try to keep me. Don't expect our relationship to be the same."
In fact the relationship will be deeper, more intimate, closer than it could ever have been before resurrection. The Risen Jesus will share his Spirit with her now and so will be able to live within her.
It is this intimate interior relationship with Jesus that for me is the heart of what Easter means. No matter how intimate any relationship is between two people there is always our bodies that keep us separate. But resurrection has so changed Jesus that he can live within us in the most intimate way. We will never be alone again.
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