MARY MAGDALENE
By Dr. David Jeremiah
Selected Scriptures from the four Gospels
In this lesson we meet the personification of gratitude and faithfulness.
People who receive a gift respond in different ways. Some act as if they deserved it, while others live in awe from then on that they were gracedd with such a treasure. The Christian's estimate of the value of the gift of salvation is measuredd by the level of gratitude in the response.
In this lesson, we meet another woman in our look at some of the people who met Jesus. Her life was dramatically changed by her encounter with the One who would become her Lord. Her name is Mary Magdalene. There is no central portion of Scripture that records a primary meeting with Jesus; rather, we see her appearing at various places throughout His ministry, mentioned often but never dominating any particular scene. Her name is familiar to most Bible students, and she has sometimes been misunderstood and presented in an unfair light. But when we view her clarity and accuracy we find a person whose life was totally transformed by, and who became a faithful servant of, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We begin our discovery of Mary Magdalene with a snapshot of her life before she met Jesus.
MARY'S SITUATION BEFORE SHE MET JESUS (LUKE 8:2-3)
We are first introduced to Mary in Luke as "Mary called Magdalene." This designation is applied to her by the gospel writers to distinguish her from other women of the same name associated with Jesus.
Her Identity
Several "Marys" occur in the gospel accounts. There is Mary the mother of Jesus (Matthew 1) , and Mary the mother of John Mark (Acts 12:1-16). There is Mary the sister of Lazarus and Martha (John 11:1) and Mary the mother of James and Joses (Matthew 27:56). Another Mary is mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:6.
Mary was probably originally Mary of Magdala, referring to her hometown on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. She then would have become known as Mary the Magdalene, shortened then to Mary Magdalene. She is mentioned 11 times in the Gospels, and in each one of these references there is a little bit of truth we can learn about her. At the outset, she was simply a woman from Magdala who came to know Jesus. There has been significant conjecture about her by Bible students, but my suspicions are that her life was not as complex and clouded by sin as many have supposed.
Her Immorality?
One of the reasons for speculation about Mary Magdalene is that she is mentioned in Luke 8:2 immediately following Luke's account of the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with perfume and her tears and dried them with her hair (Luke 7:36-50). She was "a sinner" (Luke 7:39), perhaps meaning a prostitute, or at least a woman with a poor reputation, and the Pharisees took great offense at Jesus allowing her to touch Him as she did. By immediately moving from that story to the mention of Mary Magdalene in Luke 8:2, some have suggested that Mary was the woman described in Luke 7. As a result, Mary Magdalene has been cast as a sinful woman who came to know Jesus.
Unfortunately, there is no way to connect the two women based on Scripture. Their proximity to one another in the two separate accounts is not enough for a positive identification. We do know, however, that Mary had a serious problem from which Jesus delivered her, but it was a question of demon possession, not immorality (though the latter could have been true).
Her Infirmity
Three women are mentioned by Luke in the opening verses of Luke 8: Mary Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household, and Susanna. All three seemed to have two things in common: They were wealthy and had all been ministered to by Christ in some way. Mary's ministry from Jesus had been in the form of deliverance from seven demon spirits.
Whether Mary's demon possession had led her into a life of immorality or not, we do not know. But we do know that she was a woman lost in all the agony of her soul. She didn't know who she was or what her life was all about. She had no control over what was happening. The demons just took up their residence in her body and lived out their evil intentions within her. She could very probably have been an immoral woman, but that was the least of her problems. Her problem was that Satan had taken up his residency in her life and she was seven-fold possessed with the demons of hell.
We need only look at the tragedy wrought by those involved with Satanism in our day to have some sense of the destructiveness Mary must have lived with daily. We have a picture in Mark, chapter five, of a person possessed by many demons. He is referred to as the Gadarene demoniac, and the description given of him in Mark's gospel is frightening. We don't know whether the demons in Mary's life afflicted her in the same dramatic and debilitating way or not, but whatever their effect, she needed and wanted to be free of them. And Jesus delivered her from their dominion over her. This undoubtedlv was the beginning of her new life and her relationship with Jesus.
MARY'S SALVATION WHEN SHE MET JESUS
Mary's salvation occured when she met Jesus, yet we have no story in the Word of God which gives us the details of her deliverance. We only have the before and after and the simple statement that Jesus had cast the demons out of her. And the evidence of her gratitude throughout the rest of the Gospel accounts. Whatever she was like before she met Jesus, she was totally different after meeting Him. Before her deliverance, she was "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). But she was rescued from her condition andd delivered into the kingdom of God (Colossians 1:13). All of the contrast you can imagine between darkness and light, oppression and freedom, and bondage and liberation is what Mary experienced after meeting Jesus. She was free for the first time in many years, perhaps for the first time as an adult. It is no wonder that we find her supporting the ministry of Jesus from this point on.
MARY'S SERVICE AFTER SHE MET JESUS
But the heart of Mary's story is what she became after her deliverance from demons. Mary is a woman who left no doubt that she was a new person. There was no questioning the reality of her transformation.
After meeting Jesus, becoming a Christian, and being delivered from demons, she began to serve the Lord. Luke tells us that she was one of a group who provided for Jesus' needs out of their own resources (Luke 8:3). Their motive was the motive of gratitude. Each of the three women named by Luke had been touched in some marvelous way by Jesus. They were so filled with gratitude that they began to follow Jesus and provide for His needs out of their own funds. Luke tells us in the next chapter that Jesus had "nowhere to lay His head" (Luke 9:58) and so this group of women were part of a group who contributed food, and perhaps shelter, in support of His itinerant ministry.
When Jesus saves us and delivers us from the destructive life we lived before meeting Him, gratitude for His salvation will become evident in our lives. Gratitude is the primary motivation for service unto the Lord. A person who has no heart to serve the Lord in some way either hasn't understood the value of his salvation or is not saved at all. When you understand who Jesus Christ is and what He did, and what your hope was without Him (which was zero), you want to give your life to Him as these women did. And, minister to the Lord Jesus out of your substance, as Mary did.
Mary Magdalene seems to be among the most grateful, if not the most grateful, person in the Gospels. She never forgot what Jesus had done for her. There was never a day, I am convinced, after the demons were cast out of her and she became whole, that she did not think about and gratefully acknowledge that she was the recipient of the great grace of Almighty God, that she had been set free from an awful life and given life everlasting in Jesus Christ. It is interesting to note that whenever these women are mentioned Mary Magdalene is always mentioned first. She was apparently the leader of the group and the leader in gratitude to the Lord God.
MARY'S SACRIFICE AS SHE REMEMBERED JESUS
The real story of Mary's life is the sacrifice and courage and faithfulness she displayed in the days surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus. She is like a thread running through the narrative of the Lord's final days on earth. While most others had forsaken the Lord, we find Mary Magdalene remaining faithful to the end.
She Was with Him at His Crucifixion
By the time Jesus got to the cross, there were not many who were standing with Him - but Mary was one who was. Matthew 27:55-56 tells us she was with Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the hour of the crucifixion. They stood together at Calvary, watching the horror of Jesus' death unfold before their eyes. When Jesus saw Mary and His mother standing there, He commissioned John the disciple to care for His mother. Perhaps John led her away to comfort her. But no mention is made of Mary Magdalene leaving. She probably was one who would not have left as long as Jesus was suffering. She would not abandon the One who had changed her life and saved her soul.
She Was with Him in His Burial
In one of his most famous paintings, the seventeenth-century Flemish painter Peter Rubens portrays Mary Magdalene helping Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea take the body of Jesus down from the cross and wrap it for burial. We do not know if that actually happened, nor did Rubens. But the fact that he painted it that way gives credence to the fact that the church has long agreed upon the faithfulness toward Jesus manifested by Mary Magdalene. Whether she actually helped to bring Him down from the cross or not, we know that she was there when Nicodemus and Joseph laid Him in the tomb (Mark 15:46-47).
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joses watched as Jesus was sealed inside the tomb, and then they returned to their homes. I believe Mary Magdalene must have suffered more than any of the disciples that day. She had followed Him through the mockery they called a trial, watched as He was beaten and crowned with a circle of thorns, and witnessed His falling under the weight of the cross as He tried to carry it to Golgotha. She had witnessed the spikes being driven into His hands and feet, endured the hours of His suspension between heaven and earth, and soldiers gambling for His clothes at the foot of the cross. She heard His words of anguish and forgiveness, and His words of assurance to the repentant thief at His side. And she heard His final words, "It is finished!" With His death came her sorrow that the One who had done so much for her was now dead. There was nothing to do but go home and wait for the first day of the week to return to the tomb with the fragrances that would be her final offering.
She Was With Him in His Resurrection
Mary was first in many respects regarding the resurrection of Jesus. Her energy and eagerness were indicative of her concern and care for her Lord.
1. She was the first to arrive at the tomb.
We are told in the gospel of Mark (16:1-2) that just after sunrise on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome went to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body. In terms of our modern days of the week, Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and the next day was the Saturday, the Sabbath. After the Sabbath was over (later Saturday afternoon) they bought spices in preparation for visiting the tomb on Sunday, the first day of the week. So Mary Magdalene was one of the first to visit the tomb on the day after the Sabbath.
2. She was the first to see the empty tomb.
John 20:1 tells us, "Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb." She was the first one to witness the open and empty tomb. The concern Mary and the others had on the way to the tomb about who would roll the stone away for them turned out to be unfounded (Mark 16:3). Can you imagine Mary's shock when she entered the tomb and found an angel sitting where Jesus should have been laying? She was told by the angel that Jesus had risen - the first to hear this amazing report.
3. She was the first to announce the empty tomb.
Having received the report from the angel, Mary "ran" (John 20:2) to find Peter and John and tell them the news. We wish we knew more about the geography of Jerusalem at that time. Where were each of these people staying? How far were their homes from the tomb? What was the terrain like? It is amazing to think of Mary Magdalene running through the streets or along the paths of ancient Jerusalem, the light of dawn just streaking across the sky. out of breath, out of answers, her thoughts ricocheting between ecstasy ("Jesus is alive!") and confusion ("What is happening! Will this nightmare never end?"). Her immediate thought was to find Peter and John, two of the three disciples Jesus was closest to.
4. She was the first to see the risen Lord.
Peter and John looked in the empty tomb, but without any explanation for themselves or for Mary, they returned home. Mary remained, weeping outside the tomb. Looking into the tomb again, she saw two angels sitting where Jesus' body had been. And then she is asked, by a man she thought was the gardener, why she was crying. When the man spoke her name - "Mary" - she cried out, "Rabboni" which meant teacher. It was Jesus! Every hope Mary had been clinging to had come true - her Lord was alive. Coming back to the grave for a final act of adoration for the One she worshiped, she discovered that He was no longer dead, but alive. Once He spoke, she knew it was the One she loved and who had saved her life.
5. She was the first to preach the resurrection.
It is only fitting that this faithful one was the first to proclaim the resurrection (John 20:17-18). The crowning moment in Mary's relationship with Jesus must have been the privilege she had of returning to the disciples and telling them that she had seen Jesus alive.
Mary is the model for all believers who have experienced the gracious touch of Jesus in their lives. Grateful and faithful, Mary never stopped following her Lord.
Did you know...?
For many years, it was the modern church's belief that born-again Christians could not be influenced by demons. Part of the problem was a mistranslation of the word "daimonizomai" from the text of the gospels. While this word can signify demon possession in extreme cases such as the Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5:1 ff.), it is better translated "demonized," or "influenced by a demon". That influence could be mild or great, but there is nothing in Scripture to suggest that Christians are immune to attacks of demons. In fact, passages such as Paul's discussion of spiritual armor suggest just the opposite (Ephesians 6:10-18). The Christian's greatest defence against the spiritual attacks of demons is remaining at all times free from sin (Ephesians 4:26-27) and filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).
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