I’ve always liked Mary Magdalene. Maybe it’s her bad girl persona, or because she is one of the few who stuck with Jesus throughout his Passion. These days, I appreciate Mary because it’s reported that Jesus cast out seven demons that she’d had, prior to her joining his group. I’ve always been a supporter for the underdog, and it seems that Mary is portrayed or at least memorialized as one.
But Mary stuck with Jesus at the Cross. Mary was the first to see the risen Jesus, and I cannot believe that was just chance. First Jesus healed Mary, Jesus invited her into community, and trusted Mary, and eventually Jesus appeared to Mary, comforted Mary, called Mary’s name. Any woman who’s had demons, and hangs with a bunch of male-centric men, is quite a badass in my book.
I’m imagining that she was tenacious, faithful, humble, and in love with Jesus. I’m not going to get into the argument about whether she was romantically involved with Jesus. I don’t care. But as a woman, Mary’s love and devotion towards Jesus can provide me a model of how I should be thinking and behaving about Jesus.
In these days after Easter, we are called to continue to live in the glorious season of Easter, complete with Easter hymns, and greetings. As a woman, I want to be like Mary, undeterred in her devotion to Jesus – especially since she was devoted during that time between his death and her awareness of his rising. She was devoted when it was most difficult. Around people who’d given up. I want to be that person.
This morning, I’m thinking about how to eek out a little of the faith of Mary Magdalene, in all her brokenness. If Mary can go to the tomb out of love, if Mary can see the risen Christ from her faith, and if Mary can follow the directions from Jesus and go tell the others, only to have them not believe her (which I suspect she knew already), I want to be like Mary Magdalene.
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