Mary Magdalene (John 20)

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Today’s hero is Mary Magdalene because she shows us the gift of A Lord
Essential Teachers notes:
Mary is a pretty amazing character, she’s mentioned in our scripture much more than many of the apostles, and yet not having been one of ‘the 12’ she is often only studied as a reformed character. Popular teachings about her former life of disgrace are only one way of reading into the text, Mary being a very common name causes much debate here. What we do know for certain is that she was a woman of wealth, a great supporter of Jesus, a very close friend, and a witness to the most important events of the Christian faith.

Main Passage : John 20
Additional passages : Matthew 27+28, Mark 15+16, Luke 8+24, John 19.
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There are lots of important people in the bible, some have long stories told about them, some witness miracles, some are mentioned lots of times while the names of others only appear once in a long list. Today’s hero has her name written 12 times in our bibles, that’s quite a lot. She saw many miracles and was the first to witness the greatest miracle of all.

Her name was Mary. Now that’s very confusing, because Mary is a popular name and there were a lot of people called Mary in the bible, but this Mary is also called Magdalene.

Mary travelled around with Jesus and his friends. Before Mary met Jesus her life was horrible, the bible tells us she had seven daemons, which wouldn’t be a nice thing. What the demons were we don’t know, perhaps they were evil things or nasty illnesses. What we do know is that Jesus told them to go, and they left her alone after that. Mary decided to Join Jesus’ crowd, she couldn’t be an apostle because she was a girl, but she could use her money to support Jesus and his friends.

Mary would call Jesus her teacher, her master, her lord and most importantly her friend. She saw Jesus perform miracles and teach crowds, saw him ride in Jerusalem on a donkey as the crowds cheered, saw him upset the religious leaders, and saw him leave on that Friday night to go pray in the garden. When the disciples returned alone she knew something big had happened.

Nobody noticed Mary as she moved through the crowds, as the people around her shouted crucify. Nobody noticed Mary as she pushed through the people to see Jesus struggle with the heavy cross, and nobody stopped her as she joined Jesus’ Mother and the other women near the cross weeping.

Mary stayed there, holding Jesus’ mother, letting their tears mix. The sky went black, the earth shook, but nothing moved them. When the body was taken down from the cross and they followed it. While the men found a stone to seal the tomb Mary sat on the ground opposite the entrance. Sabbath had come, they would have to return on Sunday to clean and anoint the body. Mary had lost her teacher, her master, her lord and her friend. For the first time in a long, long time, Mary’s life felt horrible again.

The sun was only just visible on Sunday morning when the women bought spices and went back to the tomb. They whispered about the stone, how would they move it? But the stone was moved already, the tomb was empty! The women left to tell the other disciples the news.

Mary stood alone outside crying, as she looked into the tomb again there were two shining men sitting where the body should be laid, “why are you crying” they asked her. “They have taken the body of my lord”, she replied, but the men just smiled back at her so she turned away.

Outside she saw a man moving about. Perhaps he was the gardener? Perhaps he had moved the body? “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” (v15 – NIV) she asked, not even bothering to look at the man’s face.

Then Mary heard something remarkable, something impossible, she heard her own name come from the man’s mouth, but not just her name, the voice, the voice was the voice of Jesus! “Mary.”
“Rabboni!” she cried, which means teacher or master in Mary’s language.

Mary had been given back her teacher, her master, her lord and her friend. She ran to tell the others, Jesus was not dead, Jesus was alive! “I have seen the lord, our lord” she shouted, “I have seen the Lord!”

Today’s hero is Mary Magdalene because she shows us the gift of A Lord