Jesus asked Mary, "Woman, whom are you seeking?" when she found the tomb empty and the body of the crucified Jesus missing (Jn. 20:15).
I have puzzled over this question. Why did Jesus ask this question, and why did John report it to us in his gospel? The (obvious) answer to the question doesn't seem to help unless we ask questions of the text. What was the lesson for Mary, and what's the lesson for us today?
Jesus knew who Mary was seeking, so the question was not framed to give Him an answer to a puzzle, but rather in His regular style, He used a question to help another come to realise a truth.
So why did He ask the question? The simple answer to the question, "Woman, whom are you seeking?" was "Jesus" or even "My Lord" as she had previously told the 2 angels a moment earlier. But these weren't her answers to His question, and she still missed the point.
The other disciples missed the point too:
Before Jesus appeared to Mary, she had run from the empty tomb to the disciples and reported that His body was missing (see John 20:1-9):
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 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!" So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) (NIV)There are some clues in this passage:
(1) the other disciple ("the one Jesus loved") is believed to be John, the author of this gospel. John himself reports in 20:31, "but these" (John's gospel) "have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name." (NASB) He is most likely reporting from his own perspective the lack of understanding by the disciples, himself and Mary that Jesus had to rise from the dead;
(2) the head cloth used in the burial was folded and separate from the other burial cloths. In the same way as a napkin is folded and placed on a table at the end of a meal, this folded headcloth signified that Jesus's work was finished. See also Jn. 19:30
So we have Mary standing at the empty tomb, face to face with the risen Jesus (but she doesn't recognise Him) and He has asked her the question, "Woman, whom are you seeking?"
There's another clue in Hebrews 2:1:
We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. (NIV)So firstly, John had reported all these things so that we may (a) believe and (b) have life and secondly, John is reinforcing the lessons that Jesus taught His disciples that He had to rise from the dead. These truths are drawn out when we consider whom it was Mary was seeking. The final clue is the one from Hebrews 2:1 warning us to pay heed to what we know.
Remember the 4 types of people:
1. Those who know what they know (secure and confident);
2. Those who know what they don't know (learners);
3. Those who don't know what they don't know (unreached);
4. Those who don't know what they know (ignorant).
I trust that you are in the first group, knowing the truth and living it because you know it and recognise it. Considering Jesus's question to Mary, we should also ask the same question so that we remember Who we are seeking (and serving) and not fall away (fall into the 4th group).