Mary Magdalene

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
 
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”  Jesus said to her, “Mary.”  She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).  John 20:15-16

Mary Magdalene is not the woman most people think she is. 

Did you realize that?

She is not the adulterous woman.  She is the one who was healed of seven demons.  She is the sister of Lazarus, the one who anointed Jesus' feet with alabaster oil, using her hair to wipe them.  She is the woman who held fast at the foot of the cross, never fleeing or turning away from the carnage that was before her. 

She is a unique witness to three events:  Jesus' crucifixion, his burial and his resurrection.

Pope Gregory the Great in 591 signified Mary as a prostitute, although she is not portrayed that way in the gospels.  And writers, artists and believers have propagated that myth for centuries, despite its obvious glaring inconsistencies. 

My first reaction was, how sad that she has been wrongly been considered, basically, a whore.  But really, what difference does it make?  Does it matter if she was a prostitute or possessed?  Does it matter what kind of sinner she was?  Why?

You know, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  We're all the same at the foot of the cross. 

So it doesn't matter who she was.  It matters who she became.

By the 10th century, she was widely known as the "Apostle to the Apostles."  It makes sense.  The word "apostle" has a different meaning than the word "disciple."  A disciple is one who follows.  An apostle is one who was sent by Jesus to spread the good news.  John 20:17 says, "Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

We are also considered apostles, because we take to heart Christ's commission in the Matthew 28:19-20:   "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I say all this because we can easily consider Mary Magdalene as the very first apostle.  Not a prostitute.  Not a sin-filled woman.  Not lesser than a man.  Instead, she was the very first person that Jesus sent with a message.  

And what a message it was!  What an honor and a privilege she was given! 

(By the way, her role as the first apostle, showcases just how valuable Christ saw women.  But that's a discussion for another time and place.)

I wonder if there was a part of Mary that always believed Christ would not stay dead.  After all, if anyone could believe that this man, the Son of God, had power over death, wouldn't it be the sister of Lazarus?  Did a part of Mary go to the tomb to see what was there?  

I can't wait to find out, can you?

The point of Mary's life is that she didn't let anything hold her back.  Not her past, whatever it was.  Not her gender.  Not her helplessness at the cross.  She followed.  She stayed.  She returned.  

As should we.