Review from Part 1:
A Note About Jesus and Women
I have seen the Lord!
So said Mary Magdalene to the disciples after she ran to tell them about the empty tomb. It was resurrection day and Jesus had appeared to Mary. She was the first of all of His followers to see Him. Later that evening Jesus would appear to a gathering of the disciples who would also rejoice that He was alive.
After Jesus suffered, died, and rose again “he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke abut the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Jesus would then tell His followers, men and women, to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit. They would be empowered to go and preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
In Part 1 of our story of Mary of Magdala, we left Mary as she was preparing spices and perfumes to take to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea where she had seen the men lay the body of Jesus. She did not return to the tomb then because it was the Sabbath. She waited until morning of the first day of the week.
Now let’s turn to one of the most beautiful stories in the Scriptures. This story is about the love of Jesus for His children. When Jesus rose from the dead He could have gone into Jerusalem and appeared to the apostles immediately. Instead He remained by the tomb until Mary came. Mary, this woman who had gone from the brink of hell to the heights of rapturous joy of knowing Jesus. Mary went to the tomb but she did not find Jesus. She did not understand where Jesus was.
Turn to John 20:1-3 and witness the love and compassion of the Savior, Jesus.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
Let’s pause here for a moment. We have more details from the other Gospels about who went to the tomb on the first day of the week. From Mark’s and Luke’s Gospels we know that several women including Mary Magdalene went to the tomb very early in the morning. The stone was already rolled away and an angel told them that Jesus was risen. They remembered what Jesus had said and believed. They ran back to tell the disciples, but the disciples “did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” (Luke 24:11) Peter and John went to look, but only found the strips of linen cloth inside the tomb. John says that he “saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.” (John 20:8,9)
Mary, who loved her Savior so much, just couldn’t stay away. She went back to the tomb hoping to find Jesus. Continue in John 20:11-18:
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb
and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
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”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Mary had the privilege of being the very first witness to Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus gave her a very special honor. She was the first person to see Him after He rose from the dead. Others had heard the announcement from angels, but Mary had the special honor to be the first to see and speak to Jesus Himself. “When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he dad driven seven demons.”(Mark 16:9)
Then Jesus commissioned Mary to be the first to proclaim His resurrection. When Mary announced Jesus’ resurrection to the other disciples she became the first preacher of the Good News. It is ironic that in a day when women were not listened to that Jesus chose to appear to them first. Because Mary proclaimed the resurrection first, she has been called the Apostle to the Apostles.
This was a special tribute paid to a faithful disciple. No one can ever share that honor with her or take it away from her. As women, we can and should try to imitate Mary in her deep love and commitment for Christ. Mary’s story assures us that Jesus treated women equally with men. The late Dorothy Sayers put it very well in her essay, “Are Women Human?” when she said:
Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man … A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronized … who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female … Nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything [inferior] about woman’s nature.
Mary may have had a regrettable past, but Jesus gave her a wonderful future. Early church historians inform us that Mary continued her life as a leader among the disciples. This should be an encouragement to all women, and men, today that Jesus loves us and wants us to follow Him with all of our hearts, souls, strength, and minds. We can put the past behind us and like Mary and the apostle Paul, “know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. …..(and) press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. … forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:10-14).
Mary was laid hold of by Christ and gave her all for Him. Mary pressed on for Jesus. What a good example for us as we strive to follow the Lord Jesus.
