Why did Jesus appear to Mary first after his resurrection?

Answer 1

Women were important to Jesus. Also, women back then took care of the necessities of burial, so they would naturally be there.

Thirdly, all 3 women, all 3 named Mary loved and worshipped Him.

They were Mary, His mother. Mary Magdalene, very probably His wife, and Mary, wife of Caephus (sp?) a dear friend.

Answer 2

A:Jesus only appeared first to Mary Magdalene, alone, in the Gospels of Mark and John. He appeared first to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary together, in Matthew. However, he appeared first to two men on the road to Emmaeus in Luke's Gospel. And he appeared first to Cephas (Peter) in Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (15:3-8). The first thing to note is that there is no consistent theme of the risen Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene alone.

All the gospels have Mary Magdalene, with or without other women, going early to the sepulchre, so it must have seemed natural to the author of Matthew that Jesus would appear first to the women - but not just to Mary Magdalene.

John's Gospel minimises the role of the women in finding the tomb empty, giving this honour to Peter and the beloved disciple. Perhaps, for reasons of balance, it was necessary for Jesus to appear first to Mary Magdalene, but she thought he was the gardener. This is in spite of John's Gospel being, as we now know, loosely based on Luke's Gospel.

Mark's case is the most interesting. This gospel originally ended at verse 16:8 with the young man telling the women that Jesus was risen and they fled in terror, telling no one. Thus, Jesus did not appear to Mary Magdalene or, for that matter, anyone else. The 'Long Ending' (verses16:9-20) was added much later, after the other gospels had been written and begun to circulate widely. It contains enough parallels to each of the other gospels to more or less harmonise with all of them. Just as in John's Gospel Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene alone, so he appeared in the 'Long Ending' to her alone, although we do not know if this was in the garden that features in John's Gospel.

Answer 3

Jesus appeared to Mary first after his resurrection because of her deep love and devotion to him. He wanted to show her honor and appreciation for her faithfulness by revealing himself to her before others. Additionally, Mary played a significant role in spreading the news of his resurrection to the other disciples.