And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, will all your mind, and will all your strength.' This is the first commandment.
Mark 12:30
What would you give to have one more moment with someone you have
lost? It has been 9 years since my best friend went to be with Jesus, and I
still wish I could call her up and tell her about my day and hear about hers.
It is important to have those shared experiences with the people closest to us.
Those little moments when you both get the joke, or you can make fun of each
other, or share private thoughts with just a glance. Even if you could get that
closeness with someone, there would always be things left unsaid when death
enters the picture. But if you could have that time to say something to them,
just once more, could you find the words? What if that person gave His life for
you? That is the subject of this week’s encounter with Jesus. We will look at
the first person to encounter the risen Lord—Mary of Magdalene.
What do we know about this woman? We can take what has been said
about her through the Hollywood renditions, but that would be just a twist of
the truth. If we look to the gospels we can find a few things that we can glean
about her. First, we know that she was healed by Jesus of seven demons. We do
not know what sort of demons they were, but we know that it had caused her
infirmities (Luke 8) and because of this healing that she received from Him she
provided for him from her own resources, which means that she had some wealth
from which to draw these provisions considering the women she is named among.
We can also assume she was not a young woman, as many would have us believe,
because she is not named as the daughter of, or even the wife of, but as Mary
of Magdalene, or simply Mary Magdalene, meaning she held some prominence in her
own right, and probably not for being the young wife of someone or he would be
mentioned. Instead what we know of her is that she had no ties that held her
any longer to the town she was known for.
Magdala was a textile manufacturing town near Peter’s hometown. It
was known for dye works. She may have made her money doing that kind of work.
Whatever it was she had become a very tortured woman, which could have led down
lurid paths, until Jesus freed her from her possession. She did love Jesus
enough to give everything she could for him. He became her family, her beloved
Lord, and the reason she rose every morning to see to the neededs of His
ministry. She was healed and had a purpose, until she saw him die. She had
followed Him to the cross, and then to the tomb, despite what danger it could
have cost her. Returning to Magdala didn’t make sense to her. What could she
do?
On that morning after that tragic Passover she awoke and knowing
nothing else that would make sense, she sought to see to His needs, at least
this one last time.
Now
very early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary
Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been moved away from the
entrance. John 20:1
Mary arrived at the tomb with a few other women to complete the
wrapping of the body which had been done in haste before the Passover. They had
been at the crucifixion and knew where the body was laid, and they knew the men
who had laid Jesus in the tomb. In the gospel of Mark, chapter 16, we see they
were actually discussing how they were supposed to get to the body because they
knew they could not get the stone rolled away. Yet, we can also assume having
funds they probably assumed they could hire help. When they get to the tomb the
stone is already removed from the entrance. The women have different reactions.
Mary assumes the worse, that someone has come to do harm to the body, that even
after the beating her Teacher took, being killed in such a horribly demeaning
way, His enemies still haven’t had enough to make an example of Jesus. It
sickens her, frightens her, and probably angers her. It sets her nerves on fire
and rents her soul into pieces. Imagine what you would do to think of the body
of someone you love so much desecrated.
So she went running to
Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and told them, “They have
taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” Then
Peter and the other disciple set out to go to the tomb. The two were
running together, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and reached the
tomb first. He
bent down and saw the strips of linen cloth lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who had
been following him, arrived and went right into the tomb. He saw the strips of
linen cloth lying there, and the face cloth, which had been around Jesus’
head, not lying with the strips of linen cloth but rolled up in a place by
itself. Then
the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, came in, and he saw and
believed. (For
they did not yet understand the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead.) So the disciples went back
to their homes. John 20:2-10
Mary went to get the men that she had been traveling with. She
wanted something done about it, but what were they to do about it. They arrive
and the grave clothes are there, but no body. They can’t make sense of it.
There is no mention of anything being said, and we don’t know if anything was
actually said. We only know what the scene looked like, that the strips of
cloth were there, the face cloth rolled up and placed to the side, but no sign
of struggle, no sign that they’d taken Jesus to bury him anywhere else, and it
wasn’t adding up. For the other disciple, it started to make sense that maybe
Jesus just got up and walked away; was it possible? If it was he didn’t share
his thought. He just--hoped.
For Mary, standing outside the tomb, watching them walk away,
scratching their heads, and heading home, she was left her with nothing but the
deepest pain imaginable. She had nothing! She had no home to go back to, and no
one to care for. She was as lost as a person can get. We all need a reason to
get up in the morning, and that morning she had lost everything, and those who
were supposed to help her find a cause had just walked away.
But
Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she bent down and looked into
the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’ body had
been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman,
why are you weeping?” Mary replied, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not
know where they have put him!” John 20:11-13
She saw two people sitting in the tomb where Jesus had been, and
yet, she was so overwrought with emotion she could not fathom the absurdity of
the situation of these two in white sitting where a dead man had been lying. I
can get into the implications of the symbolism of this in detail, but that
could be another teaching given by theologians much more qualified than me. I
see it simply beautiful that a woman, who we know for a fact was a sinner, had
been delivered by Christ from the tormentor, gets to see the mercy seat of God
immediately after it’s sacrifice has been lifted up, to gaze upon it in its fullness,
and is spoken to by those messengers of God who ask why she’s weeping. I don’t
know about you, but I’m going to be weeping, weeping tears of joy, of
amazement, and of gratitude when I get to see that seat! That she could even
speak the words that followed is what amazes me. She just wants her Lord. What
great sentiment! What depth of love!
When
she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did
not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Who are you looking for?” Because she thought he was the gardener, she said to
him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I
will take him.” John 20:14-15
She saw Jesus, and she didn’t recognize Him. Of course, the last time
she saw him he was beaten beyond recognition and to see him standing and
walking and talking was not to be expected. He must have looked a little
different through all those tears she was crying too. Have you ever cried so
hard you couldn’t see straight? She says that if He will tell her where the
body is she’ll take it. This woman is going to carry away the body of a dead
man? She’s so grieved she’s not even thinking things through. She just wants to
hold the body once more, a body that has been decaying for days. This is one
terribly grieved woman. She just wants to bury her dead, properly, to know
where He lies. That is what she’s asking for, and she is probably hoping this
gardener will have pity on her and help her.
Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni” (which means Teacher).
It is beautiful to me that it was when He called
her name that she recognized Him and all that was between her and her Lord was
gone. The veil fell from her eyes. She jumps at him! Arms and legs fly at him,
and she forgets herself completely. No, decorum holds her back. She has Him
back! And all it took was to hear her name! Since the fall of man back in the
garden God has been calling. “Then the LORD God
called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So
he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was
naked; and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:9-10 This woman heard her name called and answered, “Teacher”,
a term of affection and deep respect and submission between them. We know that
she was holding on to Him because of Jesus words to her.
Jesus replied, “Do not touch
me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. Go to my brothers and tell them,
‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” John
20:17
In Jesus’ instruction to Mary, He gave her more than just a commission
for that day. He gave her a powerful message for all time. First, he gave her a
prophetic word. He told her He was going to ascend to His Father. In doing that
He was letting her know His work was not yet completed, so hers was not yet
done either. It meant there was still a reason for her to get up and keep
moving. She had not been healed just for the time she had served with Him,
there was more to do. Secondly, He was commissioning her to go be and
evangelist, beginning with those men who had left scratching their heads.
Finally, He was anointing her with the promise of being with Him always. He was
telling her she was His eternal sister and she had been welcomed into the
Kingdom. Mary of Magdalene is an example to all of us, when He calls our name
and we answer Him. He saw her faith, that she loved at all cost. What more
could He ask of her? She had given all. She deserved a first.
Mary Magdalene came and informed the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what Jesus had said to her.
I too have seen the Lord in my life, in mighty ways. I have seen Him
show His love to me in countless ways. I’ve seen Him answer me when I called
out. I’ve seen Him show up when I least expected it, and I’ve seen Him tell me
to sit still and be quiet, just so He can hold me close. I’ve known Him to be
my defender, and to be my discipliner. I prefer the former to the latter, but I
tend to need them both equally. I love Him but at times I just need to tune
everyone and everything out so I can hear Him. It’s like shouting, “Shut up, I’m
listening to Jesus!” Lately I’ve had to do that to the extreme. I wonder what
Mary of Magdalene would encourage me to do. She was willing it to give it all,
and in return she got to be the first to see Him after he resurrected. She got
to hear Him say her name, when she thought she’d never get to talk to Him again,
to actually hear Him call her name. I want that. Don’t you?
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, Nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39
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