Because He Lives...He has blessed me!

Because He Lives...He has blessed me!
My first Grand Blessings

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Who was Mary Magdalene?

 Who was Mary Magdalene? There are just some things we are not supposed to know all of the answers too. There are things that God does not reveal all the details about. Mary Magdalene is one of them. There are many opinions of exactly who Mary Magdalene is.
Mary of Magda, Mary of Bethany, The woman at the well, Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus, the woman that washed the feet of Jesus and anointed with oil, at the home of Martha and Lazarus. There are also many non-Biblical opinions about her. I choose not to go there. If it isn’t in God’s word, I find it unimportant.
But does it really matter? What God wants us to see is her gratefulness for being healed, her faith, her dedication, her love.
She is brave, loyal to the bitter end, and an undying friend.
The male disciples have run, scattered, fled. But Mary Madalene was at the foot of the cross. Mary Magdalene stood below the cross where Jesus was nailed. She must have seen his agony. She must have seen Jesus ask forgiveness for the people doing these terrible things to Him. I bet she was not surprised. Mary Magdalene had seen Jesus in action. She knew, first- hand how He took a sinner, a person with seven bad things wrong with her and made her his friend. We don’t know what the seven things were, we just know she was healed of seven demons. She was the first person to the tomb the next morning after the crucifiction. She was there when no one else would be seen as a friend of Jesus.
Some commentaries I read, suggested that Mary Madgalene is Martha and Lazerus’ sister, Mary. If so, then she had fresh in her mind that Jesus had raised her brother out of a tomb. She probably had at least a suspicion that Jesus could, maybe, just do the same. As far as we know Lazarus was the only other person that was resurrected after being dead, wrapped in burial cloths, anointed with burial herbs and oils, and left for dead for several days. AND, Jesus brought him back by calling Lazerus to come forth. She went back to the tomb the next morning after Jesus’ burial while it was still dark. She had probably been up all night, not being able to sleep, grieving. She wanted to get to the tomb early. Perhaps to just sit and talk to Jesus, pray, or maybe, just by a miracle, He was risen…. Jesus must have really cared about Mary Magdelene, even loved her. He chose her to reveal Himself to first, after His resurrection.
He could have appeared in the room where all the male disciples were. He could have shown Himself to Pilate, wouldn’t that have caused Pilate a scare? But, no, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene. At first, she did not know who He was. She thought He was the gardener. We don’t know why she did not recognize Him, but as soon as He spoke her name, she grabbed Him, and said “Rabboni”, Teacher!!! She was so excited to see Him, He had to tell her to let go. He wanted her to see Him as He was. He had changed. She had changed. Everything was different, she did not recognize Him by looking at Him, but in her heart she knew Him by His voice. Same as us. We might not recognize Him by seeing Him on the street, but as soon as He speaks to our heart, we know it is Him.
Jesus told her to go tell the others. She did not have to think about it one second. She never had the thought, “They will think I am crazy, they will think I am possessed again”. She did not care, she had seen Jesus, God’s Son, risen from the dead, just like He said.

1 comment:

  1. Karen, I enjoyed this very much. It blessed my heart. Thank you for this. I hope you have a wonderful & blessed Easter.

    Love,

    Karen Clark

    ReplyDelete