By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé
Michael and I have written, in a previous blog, the famous advice that Ernest Hemingway gave all who embark on this adventure we call writing. This bears repeating with regard to its relevance in this week’s blog. Hemingway’s wise counsel to writers was this:
“Write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
When contemplating Jesus’ view of women and the importance of this today, perhaps the truest sentence would be the following:
“Jesus, who honored and depended on women in his public ministry, must be surprised that the Church has struggled so with giving responsibility and leadership to them.”
While modern women have received increasingly important roles in the Church, as stated in Blog # 32, this fact has been perceived as a radical development and entirely without Biblical precedent. This is remarkable considering the prominent parts women played in, as Michael states, “the play Jesus was writing.” With Jesus as our model, how would the Church best find obedience in positioning women in Kingdom work and goals? Perhaps, the first step in this direction is to review exactly, as the common saying goes, “What would Jesus do?” What Jesus DID do was empower women while living in a society and culture that treated them as second-class citizens. Jesus placed them in positions of tremendous trust, a trust that furthered the Gospel in significant ways.
In focusing on this, we will comprehensively look at Mary Magdalene as well as other women who were disciples of Jesus, consider their worldviews and their assignments in the ministry of Jesus. We will briefly discuss Mary, the Mother of Jesus here, but will devote the better part of our Christmas blog to her.
As we have found, Mary Magdalene was a chaste and financially secure woman – a person of means in a world in which this was uncommon. Cured by Jesus of seven demons, we can reliably infer that she saw the miracle that had taken place in her own life as illustrative of a miracle-working Messiah in whom she believed with all her heart. That fervent belief manifested itself in a personal loyalty, further revealing her financial support of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Along with other women’s giving, they greatly impacted the advance of Jesus’ Gospel. This role was exclusive in that there is no Biblical evidence that the Twelve played any role, whatsoever, in the financial sponsorship of Jesus.
However, we would very much misinterpret the influence of Mary Magdalene and the other women who supported Jesus and his followers through their wealth, were we to stop at this. As previously stated in Luke 8:1, Mary Magdalene and the other women traveled with Jesus, just as the Twelve and other male disciples did. These women were with him in the day by day, hour by hour events of his life. They saw, first hand, the miracles, heard the sermons and, no doubt, were vulnerable to the dangers of following this controversial Messiah. As women, they must have been tremendously criticized, if not held up to infamy, to travel with this cadre of men. Who were they? In short, they were last at the cross and first at the tomb and resurrection. They were heroic figures who possessed a quite singular loyalty to their Lord and Savior, Jesus.
Proverbs 18:24, NIV, in relevant part, speaks of “a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” No better application of this truth has ever been evidenced than in the allegiance of Mary Magdalene to Jesus. When it really counted, she was there for him, and, at the cross was when it really counted. While Scripture records only one of the Twelve, John, the “one whom Jesus loved,” at the cross, it is replete with references to Mary Magdalene and women, generally:
“Many women were there…”
(Matthew 25:55) NIV
In the beginning of the crucifixion, they were described as “watching from a distance.” (Mark 15:40) NIV. Later, as Jesus’ suffering intensified, some women were moving “Near the cross of Jesus..,” (John 19:25) NIV. These are “his Mother, his Mother’s sister, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. ( John 19:25) NIV. At each of the scenes we will view in this blog, there were different women seen as having been there, but only one who was in every setting – Mary Magdalene.
What must it have been like to be present and to have heard each of the words of Jesus spoken from the cross? They also witnessed the jeering and the chaos of the cruel crowd along with the darkening of the sky. (Matthew 27:45) NIV. Michael depicts it so well:
“Like the women, the sky itself must have wept.”
Mary Magdalene and the women with her, showed consummate devotion to Jesus as they were right next to the cross, fearlessly identifying themselves as his followers – a dangerous business on many occasions and particularly so on that day.
After seeing Jesus’ agony, Mary Magdalene and some of the women who had been at the cross, next went to the tomb – but not all of them. How we can visualize the numbers of women dwindling as Jesus breathed his last breaths, women who perhaps believed that what they were observing was the end of all of their hopes and dreams – that Jesus was dead, never to live again. As stated, we know from the Biblical record that “Many women” had been there at the cross but that only a few went on to the tomb:
“As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. MARY MAGDALENE AND THE OTHER MARY WERE SITTING THERE OPPOSITE THE TOMB. (emphasis added).
(Matthew 27:57-61) NIV
Another passage of Scripture, Mark 15:17, asserts that,
“Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.”
(Mark 15:47) NIV
Mary was a very common name at that time, so we cannot identify the “other Mary” with complete certainty. From the cross, Jesus had given his apostle, John, the care of his Mother, Mary, so it is difficult to imagine that she was anywhere but with John. (John 19:25-27) NIV. Also, she knew that Jesus was most assuredly the Messiah. She knew, best of all, of his supernatural conception. She knew most clearly that he would rise again. Why would she have been as concerned as the others about his tomb!
What we can be sure of is that the number of people who had continued to remain in physical proximity to Jesus’ body had diminished.
The next day was the Sabbath and, on that day, there were no followers of Jesus at the tomb. Only guards sent by Pilate, at the request of the Chief Priests, were present. (Matthew 27:62-28:15) NIV. (The women “rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the Commandment.”) (Luke 23:56) NIV. This absence of disciples at the tomb was about to change, however. The Gospel of John records a conversation that took place there between Jesus and Mary Magdalene alone. First, we look at the context that led up to this:
“Early, on the first day of the week, WHILE IT WAS STILL DARK, (emphasis added), Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance…”
(John 20:1) NIV
At this point, she summoned the disciples.
“Peter and the other disciple,” ( John 20:3) NIV, raced to the tomb to find burial strips of linen. After seeing these, they returned to the house where they had been staying. (John 20:3-10) NIV. Mary Magdalene, however, stayed there in the dark:
“Now, Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, (as Michael said, what she had also done at the cross), she bent down to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been…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. (Remember, it was dark).
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.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ (How sweetly he must have said this.)
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.”
(John 20:11-18) NIV
Another account of Jesus’ first appearance after the resurrection is found in Matthew 28: 1-10. Here, Mary Magdalene is also present, along with the other Mary. This takes place later, at dawn.
In both passages, the stunning development of Jesus appearing first to women takes place. Why is this so surprising? Grace Communion International writes:
“ It’s ironic that in a time when women could not be legal witnesses, Jesus Christ chose women as the first witnesses of his resurrection.”
How like Jesus to honor women and entrust to them such responsibility! What a precedent this sets for the Church and the role of women in it today!
Mary Magdalene models the loyalty and commitment required to follow Jesus closely and effectively in our age. How did she do it when society was such an adversary against her Kingdom work? Michael answers this so well:
“Something is going to pull at your heartstrings and you’re going to make music.”
Jesus pulled at her heartstrings and she made a special music in her life, the harmony of which still echoes down the ages. We can find her where there was financial need, suffering and a need for strong witness for the Gospel. Sometimes, so tenderly, we see her where tears were the only statement she could make. There, also, lament so fully portrayed her heroic place, her enduring role, in the everlasting play Jesus was writing and is still writing today.