February 18, 2018. This Sunday we focused on Mary of Magdala, who was one of the women who witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ.
Mary Magdalena is a figure who appears in traditions, novels and films with a character of much greater detail than that given in the Scriptures, but a character probably more fictious than real. But she is no fictious figure. She is mentioned in all four gospels, in such a way, and in association with such people, that there is no doubt that she was fairly well known in the early church.
If we stick to the biblical narrative we meet her first in Luke's story, in the beginning of the eighth chapter:
Here she is presented as one of many women who supported Jesus and his twelve disciples. But of the many, she is the only one here whose personal experience of the healing work of Jesus is described. He had cast out seven demons from her.
Demons come in "many shapes and sizes." In those days, and still today in many parts of the world demons are recognised as evil spirits, quite distinct from diseases, even if their presence may cause or appear as disease. In other parts of the world there is an idea that the word 'demon' is an old fashioned description of mental disease. And in the English language 'demon' does not even have to be linked to a psychiatric disease - just some issue, some "internal demon" that we have to deal with, something that over a period of time plagues our minds and disturbs our disposition.
Whatever the view one might have of what demons, or how many different kinds there may be, they share some common characteristics:
Think how she must have felt when Jesus freed her from this enslavement, this subjugation, this humiliation! Suddenly she feels hope, she has a future again - a bright future. The inner darkness is gone! she feels light - her burdens are gone, and now she feels as if she move as she wishes. Now she doesn't have to be embarrassed around other people, nor do they look at her wondering what crazy thing she's going to do next. Wow!
It's not really all that surprising that she is overwhelmed by the one who accomplished this. Most people would be. There were many other people we read about in the 4 gospels who were released from their demons. Not all of them followed Jesus in the way that Mary of Magdala did. The interesting thing is that this passage seems to suggest that she devoted herself to travelling with Jesus and his 12 disciples (and along with other women) to serve them - even to the extent of financial support. This time her service is not given under duress and against her will, it is not given in self-destructive or hurtful ways, but it is a service of loving thanksgiving, a voluntary service. And it continues. She also seems to have found a whole new company of associates - no longer 7 demons screaming inside her head, but a group of men and women who shared a similar interest, who were convinced by the words and behaviour of the same teacher - a man who showed a whole new kind of respect for women, as well as all his other good qualities.
The next place we find Mary of Magdala is at the cross of Jesus. Matthew, Mark and John all affirm that Mary was at the crucifixion, and saw what was done to Jesus. John put it this way:
Matthew gives a bigger and longer context (not all included below) in his account (ch 27):
Then came the darkness. No doubt the horror of her own memories of the dark times came back to her. This was no normal darkness. This was REAL palpable darkness in the middle of the day on the date of a full moon - no eclipse this! For the old-time Mary this must have filled her with dread and brought back all her memories of the terror of her demons and their own kinds of darkness. Did this cruel death of her Rabboni mean that they would return? He had given her hope and a light in her life, would that now be snatched away leaving her where she had been before, surrounded and possessed by dark demons?
As long as Jesus is hanging there alive, there is hope. Oh, how Mary and the others must have hoped that Jesus would use his power to break free, come down from that cross, and show those Romans and Jewish rulers who was really the King!
But he didn't. He died, feeling forsaken by God in the darkness.
And when the light returned after 15.00 he continued to hang there, very, very dead, a fact confirmed by a battle-hardened centurion who had seen many dead men.
Joseph of Arimathea and a couple other men got permission to take down the body and bury it before the Sabbath started at about 18.00. No time for proper preparation, no burial perfumes, no decent cleaning and washing of the body, a quick wrapping in cloth and laying in a nearby tomb, to satisfy the requirements of the ritual law. But we read:
Luke says:
The next couple of days must have been horrendous for her, as for all of Jesus' followers. Their whole world had collapsed. Their future had been wiped out. Their leader gone. They had lost their direction, their hope, and so much more. And Mary of course knew from personal experience just how dark the darkness could be, how terrible it would be to face demons again without the Lord Jesus. It must have been a truly desolate time for her.
The story has a wonderful twist to its ending, as we know of course. She is the first to meet Jesus on his resurrection, though at first she doesn't recognise him. But there are some other key points in her witness that are important to think about.
She really really really thought he was dead and gone forever. She was totally distraught when she came early that morning, first wondering how she and the other Mary would roll away the stone (point 1), then the relief followed by shock of finding the stone rolled away but the tomb empty (point 2), she was totally bewildered - where was the body? Even the thought that he could be alive did not enter her mind. After getting Peter and John to come and see, and watching them go back in some kind of exhalted excitement, she stayed behind to weep. She looks inside the tomb, see two strangers, asks them where he is and gets the reply "he's not here" - which doesn't really answer her question. She turns looking for someone else to guide her (point 3) - she so desperately wants to finish the annointing task she came to do, she just MUST find that body. So she asks the man she assumes to be the gardener - doesn't recognise him (of course not, she's looking for a corpse, possibly wrapped up and looking like a mummy!). "Where is he?" she asks again
and he simply says her name "Mary." I can almost hear the tone of it: soft and gentle, yet firm and ever so slightly disappointedly "Mary." ('Did you really think I'd let you down? Did you also forget what I said so many times, that I would return? Do you think I would leave you in the darkness?). It is not possible really to describe the summersaults of joy and surprise in her heart when the truth sank in. Gone was the dismay and the terror of the past many hours, the sleepless nights, the fear and dread for the future. All gone, to be replaced by immeasurable wonder and light-hearted excited joy! Speechless. Overwhelmed again!
Mary's witness is important for many reasons. Jesus showed her in very real ways what it meant "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Her life had been revolutionized by his freeing her of her demons. She was clearly a practical, down to earth person. She served in practical things - to the very extent of being at the centre of preparing Jesus dead body for permanent burial. She had to face many practical issues on a daily basis, and the nature of her approach to "getting the job done" that morning is a testament to the fact that the group were really convinced Jesus was dead, and they intended to give him a proper burial; that his resurrection was a total and overwhelming surprise.
Mary's witness is also important for its demonstration of the staying power of genuine love through what must have been for her an incredibly traumatic experience.
Jesus' resurrection was and is no hoax. It was the real thing.
Thank you Mary of Magdala for your witness.
Mary Magdalena is a figure who appears in traditions, novels and films with a character of much greater detail than that given in the Scriptures, but a character probably more fictious than real. But she is no fictious figure. She is mentioned in all four gospels, in such a way, and in association with such people, that there is no doubt that she was fairly well known in the early church.
If we stick to the biblical narrative we meet her first in Luke's story, in the beginning of the eighth chapter:
Soon afterward Jesus went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Mag′dalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
Here she is presented as one of many women who supported Jesus and his twelve disciples. But of the many, she is the only one here whose personal experience of the healing work of Jesus is described. He had cast out seven demons from her.
Demons come in "many shapes and sizes." In those days, and still today in many parts of the world demons are recognised as evil spirits, quite distinct from diseases, even if their presence may cause or appear as disease. In other parts of the world there is an idea that the word 'demon' is an old fashioned description of mental disease. And in the English language 'demon' does not even have to be linked to a psychiatric disease - just some issue, some "internal demon" that we have to deal with, something that over a period of time plagues our minds and disturbs our disposition.
Whatever the view one might have of what demons, or how many different kinds there may be, they share some common characteristics:
- they take significant or total control over a person, especially the mind and perception of reality; they bind and will not let go, if there is a period of rest, it is always on a "leash" that can quickly be jerked back as a reminder of one's lack of self-control
- they engage in desctructive inner processes, some sudden and dramatic, others constantly and less obvious; often these desctructive process affect others close by;
- they always tend to break down, wear out the person; never build up or heal;
- they tend to take the sufferer deeper and deeper into an inner darkness;
- they tend to cause others to shy away, to avoid, to become estranged, to exclude the sufferer from social circles, to become the objects of gossip and horror stories;
- they tend to lead to a greater sense of hopelessnes, helplessness, self-hatred, and toward self-destruction.
Think how she must have felt when Jesus freed her from this enslavement, this subjugation, this humiliation! Suddenly she feels hope, she has a future again - a bright future. The inner darkness is gone! she feels light - her burdens are gone, and now she feels as if she move as she wishes. Now she doesn't have to be embarrassed around other people, nor do they look at her wondering what crazy thing she's going to do next. Wow!
It's not really all that surprising that she is overwhelmed by the one who accomplished this. Most people would be. There were many other people we read about in the 4 gospels who were released from their demons. Not all of them followed Jesus in the way that Mary of Magdala did. The interesting thing is that this passage seems to suggest that she devoted herself to travelling with Jesus and his 12 disciples (and along with other women) to serve them - even to the extent of financial support. This time her service is not given under duress and against her will, it is not given in self-destructive or hurtful ways, but it is a service of loving thanksgiving, a voluntary service. And it continues. She also seems to have found a whole new company of associates - no longer 7 demons screaming inside her head, but a group of men and women who shared a similar interest, who were convinced by the words and behaviour of the same teacher - a man who showed a whole new kind of respect for women, as well as all his other good qualities.
The next place we find Mary of Magdala is at the cross of Jesus. Matthew, Mark and John all affirm that Mary was at the crucifixion, and saw what was done to Jesus. John put it this way:
But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
Matthew gives a bigger and longer context (not all included below) in his account (ch 27):
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, la′ma sabach-tha′ni?” that is, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” ... And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit...
When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
There were also many women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zeb′edee.
It cannot have been easy for Mary to watch the proceedings that day. She would not have had a front row seat in the crowd, but she would have heard about the beatings, the mocking, the humiliation, and once hung up on the cross she would have seen the pain being experienced by the man who had healed her.When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
There were also many women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zeb′edee.
Then came the darkness. No doubt the horror of her own memories of the dark times came back to her. This was no normal darkness. This was REAL palpable darkness in the middle of the day on the date of a full moon - no eclipse this! For the old-time Mary this must have filled her with dread and brought back all her memories of the terror of her demons and their own kinds of darkness. Did this cruel death of her Rabboni mean that they would return? He had given her hope and a light in her life, would that now be snatched away leaving her where she had been before, surrounded and possessed by dark demons?
As long as Jesus is hanging there alive, there is hope. Oh, how Mary and the others must have hoped that Jesus would use his power to break free, come down from that cross, and show those Romans and Jewish rulers who was really the King!
But he didn't. He died, feeling forsaken by God in the darkness.
And when the light returned after 15.00 he continued to hang there, very, very dead, a fact confirmed by a battle-hardened centurion who had seen many dead men.
Joseph of Arimathea and a couple other men got permission to take down the body and bury it before the Sabbath started at about 18.00. No time for proper preparation, no burial perfumes, no decent cleaning and washing of the body, a quick wrapping in cloth and laying in a nearby tomb, to satisfy the requirements of the ritual law. But we read:
And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulchre.
Luke says:
Then he (Joseph) took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud, and laid him (Jesus) in a rock-hewn tomb, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and saw the tomb, and how his body was laid; then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments.
Mary of Magdala stayed to the end. Her dedication held through all the dismay and horror of the day, the crushed hopes, the disappointments, the fears for the future. She wanted to see where he was buried because she would be one to return the first day after the Sabbath to do the cleansing and perfuming rites.
The next couple of days must have been horrendous for her, as for all of Jesus' followers. Their whole world had collapsed. Their future had been wiped out. Their leader gone. They had lost their direction, their hope, and so much more. And Mary of course knew from personal experience just how dark the darkness could be, how terrible it would be to face demons again without the Lord Jesus. It must have been a truly desolate time for her.
The story has a wonderful twist to its ending, as we know of course. She is the first to meet Jesus on his resurrection, though at first she doesn't recognise him. But there are some other key points in her witness that are important to think about.
She really really really thought he was dead and gone forever. She was totally distraught when she came early that morning, first wondering how she and the other Mary would roll away the stone (point 1), then the relief followed by shock of finding the stone rolled away but the tomb empty (point 2), she was totally bewildered - where was the body? Even the thought that he could be alive did not enter her mind. After getting Peter and John to come and see, and watching them go back in some kind of exhalted excitement, she stayed behind to weep. She looks inside the tomb, see two strangers, asks them where he is and gets the reply "he's not here" - which doesn't really answer her question. She turns looking for someone else to guide her (point 3) - she so desperately wants to finish the annointing task she came to do, she just MUST find that body. So she asks the man she assumes to be the gardener - doesn't recognise him (of course not, she's looking for a corpse, possibly wrapped up and looking like a mummy!). "Where is he?" she asks again
and he simply says her name "Mary." I can almost hear the tone of it: soft and gentle, yet firm and ever so slightly disappointedly "Mary." ('Did you really think I'd let you down? Did you also forget what I said so many times, that I would return? Do you think I would leave you in the darkness?). It is not possible really to describe the summersaults of joy and surprise in her heart when the truth sank in. Gone was the dismay and the terror of the past many hours, the sleepless nights, the fear and dread for the future. All gone, to be replaced by immeasurable wonder and light-hearted excited joy! Speechless. Overwhelmed again!
Mary's witness is important for many reasons. Jesus showed her in very real ways what it meant "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Her life had been revolutionized by his freeing her of her demons. She was clearly a practical, down to earth person. She served in practical things - to the very extent of being at the centre of preparing Jesus dead body for permanent burial. She had to face many practical issues on a daily basis, and the nature of her approach to "getting the job done" that morning is a testament to the fact that the group were really convinced Jesus was dead, and they intended to give him a proper burial; that his resurrection was a total and overwhelming surprise.
Mary's witness is also important for its demonstration of the staying power of genuine love through what must have been for her an incredibly traumatic experience.
Jesus' resurrection was and is no hoax. It was the real thing.
Thank you Mary of Magdala for your witness.
