When the first Easter morning dawned, there was no sudden triumph or cause for joy. When the women came to the tomb, they were there to mourn, the Sabbath having prevented them from immediately performing the rituals of burial. Jesus, the one they loved, had been humiliated and executed by the state amid the sneering and jeering of hate-filled crowds.

Now, adding insult to injury, the stone was rolled away and the tomb empty. The despair the women felt, especially Mary Magdalene, is difficult to imagine but must be seen. We know– though she didn’t then– that that was not the end of the story.

She ran to get the disciples, Peter and John, who observed the linens and cloth left behind, then returned to their homes, defeated.

Mary was alone, then, weeping at the empty tomb. 

This Easter Sunday coincides with the Transgender Day of Visibility, a day designed to shift our focus from the overwhelming majority of stories about transgender people, which center on the hate and violence the community faces. Instead, TDoV calls us to celebrate the lives and contributions of trans people, and their flourishing after revelation of their true selves.

It was breaking through the violence, indignity, and deep despair that Jesus was resurrected, and as the sun rose, became fully visible to Mary and the disciples as the risen savior. At first, she mistook Jesus for the gardener, but when she saw him for who he was, everything changed.