Surprise, surprise!

A year before I was born, the sculptor David Wynne produced this interpretation of the moment in the garden where Mary Magdalene meets the risen Jesus.
'Surprise! Surprise!' it seems to sing. For Jesus looks as surprised as Mary. 'I'm risen!' Jesus seems to be saying with his holey-handed gesture. 'It IS you!' signals Mary, her very feminine body stretched by the experience of this out-of-body resurrection experience. 

Here are some photos from different angles, which emphasize the angular nature of the figures in the south transept of Ely Cathedral. What I notice is how important the hands and arms are to this piece. Hands are just so expressive. 

What do you think is happening here? Is Jesus about to clap? Is Mary about to faint? - remember this was created in 1963; was the artist rather informed by a less than liberated understanding of a woman's response that would not involve a swoon? I am simply making the observation. However, there is something strong and powerful about his Mary which perhaps belies that interpretation. She is portrayed not as some meek or mild woman but as one who has presence and a lithe power. 

She is not weak, she is strong. She is standing on the same piece of ground. What is interesting is trying to work out the moment that the artist is seeking to capture. In the account (John 20.11-18) Mary has just turned away from the angels who had asked her why she is weeping (vs 13). Then, as she turns away from the empty tomb she sees a man she thinks is the gardener (vs 14). He asks the same question the angels have just asked her: 'Woman, why are you weeping?' Thinking him to be just a gardener, she asks him where he has put Jesus' body. It seems that without waiting for an answer she has turned away from him. Because the next thing we discover in the text is that he then calls her by her name: 'Mary' (vs 16). At that point, interestingly, the text says she turns back to him and says 'Rabbouni!' (vs 17). This might explain why in this instant, captured by the artist, she is standing at this side angle to Christ. Surprise, surprise!

So thin are they, that they remind me of new-born foals or deer, all legs and arms, just getting strong enough to take on the world. Perhaps she is choosing to give him the space he needs in his newly alive resurrection body. Perhaps it is like the moment when the earth was formed - just incredible energy.

For there is also a tremendous sense of energy in the piece. Resurrection energy! This is life, in all its fullness (John 10.10). This is not a whimper, nothing tentative here. It is almost an explosion of joy. It could be that Jesus is caught in mid-movement, he has clapped his hands in front of his face to wake himself (or Mary) up and is about to continue that contra-circular movement. Perhaps it is a dance we have here, caught in mid-expression. A resurrection dance.

When was the last time you had an unexpected and good surprise which took your breath away? Did you doubt you heard the news right? Did you ask for it to be repeated? Did it suck the breath out of you? What did your hands want to do in response? What did your body teach you? The good news of the resurrection is a bodily experience. We believe also in the resurrection of the body and life eternal. Here in Lent, on this wiggly path to the cross, it is good to remember the destination beyond it - life in all its fullness, resurrection life, which begins here and now.