Why didn't Mary Magdalene recognize Jesus at the resurrection?
Mary Magdalene did not recognize Jesus because it was pre-dawn darkness and because her last memory of Him was His horrific crucifixion disfigurement. The beatings, lashes, and sin-bearing had made Him more disfigured than any person, and His healed resurrected appearance seemed normal, though the nail prints remained. She could not reconcile the change.
Les explains that Mary Magdalene’s failure to recognize Jesus was not because He was a ghost or spirit, even though the disciples thought that at first. She could not recognize Him because He was in the pre-dawn darkness, and all she could remember was the horrible disfiguration He experienced on the cross. Blood had been streaming down, He had been whipped with the 39 lashes, and the load of sin had been laid upon Him. Isaiah says He was more disfigured than any human being in history. That was the last picture Mary had of Jesus. On resurrection morning she thought He was the gardener. He had simply been healed of all that abuse and now looked more or less normal, though He still had the nail prints. Mary just could not put it all together. It was the same Christ crucified and buried, now in a resurrected body.