They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
Their question to her is a legitimate one: why is she weeping? Lenski comments “Indeed, why does she weep? – when we should all have had cause to weep to all eternity if what she wept for had been given her, the dead body of her Lord?” In this concern their question is a rebuke for her lack of faith in what Jesus had foretold would happen to Him (Matt 16:21, 17:22-23). Mary was crying when she should have been rejoicing!
Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Matthew 17:22-23 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.
Often our faith is at the same level as Mary’s. We see the dark circumstances within which we find ourselves and complain about them and try to find a way out of them without realizing that they are instead the means by which Christ will accomplish great things in us and for us.
Their question is also one of concern and sympathy, for Mary is grieving and they are trying to comfort her. The depth of her grief is probably due to the emphasis the Jews placed upon a proper burial. They would be appalled at any disrespect paid to a corpse. Mary had no idea what had happened to the body of Jesus and it was distressing her greatly. The angels had something to say to her that would change her grief into joy (Isa 51:11). Sometimes the grief of our brother or sister is as misplaced as Mary’s and yet our responsibility is to comfort them and help them through their time of need.
Isaiah 51:11 The ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Her response to their question is a lot like her words to the disciples in (20:2), although now she uses the singular “I” instead of “we”. There are no other women with her at this point and her weeping and the question of the angels is about her personal grief and she responds accordingly.
John 20:2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
Another thing which we may find in this verse is the love that Mary has for her Lord. Nothing, not even the sight of angels, nor their conversation with her, moves her from her one desire: to find the body of Jesus and give it the proper burial He deserves.