Where, she didn’t know where. Mary didn’t know where.

Weeping outside the tomb that morning, tears filled her eyes and blurred her vision.

She said to the two figures inside the tomb—her vision blurred, she couldn’t see that they were angels—she said to them, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Where, she didn’t know where.

Turning around, another, a third figure. Thinking it is the gardener, she ways to him, Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have laid him. She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know where.

Two of John the Baptist’s disciples saw John point and say, Look, here is the Lamb of God! These two, one of whom was Andrew, followed behind the one to whom John had pointed.

He turns and asks them, What are you looking for? And they want to know where, asking him, Where? Rabbi, where are you staying?

The next day, Philip went to get Nathanael, Philip saying to Nathanael, We have found him.

He sees Nathanel coming with Philip and toward him. He says of Nathanael, Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. And now it is Nathanael who wants to know where, asking him, Where? Where did you get to know me?

She pointed out to him that her people, the Samaritans, worship God on Mount Gerizim and that his people, the Jews, worship God on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem.

She wants to know where. She wants to know where, where is God to be worshiped. Where? She wants to know which temple, in which temple, the one on Zion or the one on Gerizim, is the presence of God? Where?

He said to his disciples, Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.

Well, Thomas, for one doesn’t know, doesn’t know where. Not yet remembering how he stood in the temple on Mount Zion and said of his Father’s house, the dwelling place of the presence of God, he said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And not yet realizing that he had just told them the way, that they should love one another even as he loved them—no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends—he says, Thomas says to him, Lord, we do not know where, where you are going. How can we know the way? He doesn’t know. Thomas doesn’t know where.

Lord, we do not know where, where you are going. And where? Is it on Mount Zion or on Mount Gerizim? And where did you get to know me? And where? Rabbi, where are you staying?

Mary, weeping and sobbing, her tears filling her eyes and blurring her vision, turns. A third figure, maybe the gardener. Sir if you have carried him away, tell me where, where you have laid him.

And, Mary, says the third figure. Mary. A familiar voice. Wiping tears, it is him. He is right there. Rabbouni!

Where? What place? No place. There is no place where he is and another place where his is not. Not anymore. Where, Jesus Christ risen from the dead, where is no longer where, but ever. Where becomes ever. Ever. Wherever.

He might as well have said your name. For there. Right there. Jesus Christ is right there. Right there and staying with you. Right there and knowing. Coming to you right there; where he is, there you are. And the presence of God, right there.

Right there. Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and right there.