Easter looking at it through the eyes of Mary Magdalene

Easter 2014   John 20

 

     “ Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, Not with old leaven , neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness;  but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him…  Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” Morning Prayer BCP , 1928

 

    “ The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.  The she runneth…”  Mary was the last to leave the tomb and the first to see Jesus on that Resurrection morning.  Her life was changed from the day Jesus met her according to Luke. 8:2  “ and certain women (were with him along with the 12) who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene out of whom went seven devils…” They “ ministered to him of their substance”. 

 

    Her devotion from the earliest days of the ministry of Jesus was sure.  She did not leave him at the cross except with the mother of James , the other Mary and had “ bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him.” Mark 16  . What I am thinking about is this is an account of a changed person who thought she was nothing and ending up being the witness to the greatest event in human history.  “ Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magadalene”  16:9

 

    In our story too it is about God finding us in whatever state of life we are in , calling us out of that and making us new.  Jesus is alive.  His life is life for us too.  It is daresay a story of release from whatever has held us down in our own lives and made us do things we should have never done.  In Christ we are set free from sin to serve Him and to live a new life in Him and for Him .  But this new life is not a life we had planned.  It is a life of exciting opportunities, challenges and the assurance that God in Christ is with us despite what we think of ourselves .  “ Behold all things are become new” 2 Corinthians 5:17  Dr. Morgan summed it up, “ Thus in looking at Mary of Magdala we are looking at a great soul…her Lord was greater.”

 

    We are not told that Mary did something immoral but she may because of being held by demons had a mental condition of some type.  Perhaps she had struggled even though a woman of wealth with low self esteem or abuse. It reminds me when I was a chaplain in the us army and when I heard these stories from many young women who had come into the army to escape a difficult and shall I say desperate family situation of some kind.  It is great when we have a loving supportive family and so many do have that, but that is not always the case. 

 

    Mark says she was at the cross 15:40 “ and when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, ‘ truly this man was the Son of God.  There were also women looking on  afar off : among whom was Mary Magdalene …” Remember not even all the disciples were there close by. John tells us “ Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene” 19:25  Their devotion was not off and on.  It was there at the cross and at the grave.  These are the Christians we are to be , not off and on, but true followers.

 

    When Joseph of Arimathaea takes the dead body of Jesus and lays him in “ a new sepulcher, wherein was never man yet laid” (Jn 20:41), “ Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses observed where He was laid” Mk 15:47 . Matthews says in 27:61 that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were “ sitting opposite the tomb.” In his book , The Great Physician –the Method of Jesus with Individuals said this : “ Thus we see Mary of Magdala in her deep sorrow standing by the Cross until her Lord was dead, carefully familiarizing herself with the place of the grave, watching as He was buried there, seeing the grave stone rolled to the opening of the sepulcher, and staying there all night.  There were no Roman Soldiers there during that night. There were no disciples there. …Her freedom from demon mastery had been due to Him, and He was dead.  She…felt safer by His dead body than anywhere else. She could not tear herself away.”

 

    But Jesus was not dead.  We have a living Saviour. In John , Mary sees the angels and “ saw Jesus standing there, and did not know it was Jesus.” 20:4 It is Mary Magdalene who is the Apostle of the Resurrection—“ Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord.” 20:18 Not Peter, not John, not James, no none of the others , none of the disciples had stayed. 

 

     What have you and I been freed from to serve Jesus ?  In that freedom devotion springs.  In our devotion to Jesus we have the willingness to see ourselves too in a new light.  Whatever has held us down, or whoever has treated us unfairly, it is done.  WE are now free to be ourselves crucified with Christ in the power of the resurrected Christ. If Jesus can take someone who struggled like Mary Magdalene, He can take us too whatever any one else says.  As the faithful embraced each other they said, “ Surrexit Dominus Vere” ( Christ is truly risen). The answer was “ Deo Gratias”. (Thanks be to God!)