As many of you know, one of our grandsons, Jake, goes to St Saviour’s school. When he was born and his Mum and Dad named their first son Jake, we knew no-one of that name. But when Jake went to nursery, there were 2 Jake’s in his class. To avoid confusion among 3 year olds, and I suspect, teachers, one was called red Jake and the other Jake was called yellow Jake, because of the colour of their coat pegs! When grandson Jake, went to St Saviour’s nursery, we were astonished to find that there were 3 Jakes in his class. For everyone’s sake there needed to be some difference between them. So, there was Jake W, Jake R and Jake S. They are distinguished by the first letter of their surnames.
What has this story got to do with today’s readings and sermon? Well, quite a lot. In the time of Jesus, one out of every four Jewish women who lived in Palestine was named Mary.
In our NT there are several different women are called Mary. So how were the different Marys distinguished? One way was to call the mother after her son, so we have Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary the mother of Clopas. Another way of distinguishing the Marys was to call them after the place they were associated with. So we have Mary of Bethany, who lived in a village just outside Jerusalem. And also the person who’s feast falls today – Mary Magdalene. Mary, who probably came from an otherwise unknown village called Magdala.
Mary Magdalene is mentioned several times in the four gospels. But who was she? Why is she important enough to have a feast day in the church calendar?
It’s in the gospel of Luke that we have one clue about how this Mary met Jesus. Luke writes:
Jesus went through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve disciples were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out . .’
We are not told about Mary’s life before she met Jesus, or how the demons affected her. But we do have other stories of Jesus curing those who were possessed by demons. For example, the man who was expelled from his city and kept chained on a local hillside because he was so violent; the boy who had fits that threatened his life by throwing him into fires. These people had the most dreadful lives. They were unsafe to themselves and to others, they were difficult or impossible to care for. Luke writes that Mary Magdalene had seven demons. In the bible the number 7 often means all, total, so she was completely taken over by this illness; her life must have been a one of terrible suffering for herself and for those around her.
Then she met Jesus. He healed her and turned her life around. She could now be with other people as one of them. She could now build relationships, learn to love, to care and be cared for. Because of her past illness, Mary Magdalene may have had no ties of relationship in the place she came from, so she was free to leave. Its not surprising that she wanted to be with Jesus; she could now join the group that accompanied him and helped look after him. Jesus’ healing of Mary Magdalene enabled her to serve him. She became a constant and faithful friend of Jesus. In one writing that is not in our NT, she is referred to as the companion of Jesus.
Her thankfulness and devotion made her a true follower of Jesus until the end of his life. In 3 of our 4 gospels Mary Magdalene is present at the cross of Jesus as he was crucified. All four gospels record her as being present at the resurrection of Jesus. In 3 of them she is named first in the group of women who hear the announcement of the angel that Jesus is alive. In John’s gospel, the reading we heard just now, she is the only woman at the empty tomb; she is the first to meet Jesus. Why does the writer of John’s gospel tell this story with just Mary Magdalene meeting Jesus at his first resurrection appearance?
One of John’s main purposes is to tell stories that focus on Jesus meeting and talking with individuals. His emphasis is on intimacy; firstly and primarily the intimacy between God the Father and Jesus the Son – I and my Father are one. And reflecting this relationship are the stories of Jesus’ intimate conversations with just one person; for example the woman at the well in John chapter 4; the meeting with Nicodemus in chapter 3. This focus on Jesus plus one other person sharpens the story; it draws us more deeply into what is happening; it highlights details about Jesus, about the person he is encountering; it reveals the interplay between Jesus’ words and the person’s response.
John’s gospel is saturated with the love of God shown in and through God the Son; For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son . . .
In this gospel the writer brings heaven into earth; he reveals the divine within the human. John’s whole drive is to open the eyes of us as readers to the energy and power of the love that God has for each one of us. God longs that we should know and accept his love. And as we receive this love, we grow in our love towards God. We grow in devotion to Jesus, in longing to know him more.
And this is where Mary Magdalene is given such a prominent place in John’s gospel. Because of her devotion to Jesus. Because she suffered much, she was healed of much, so she loved much. John tells of her going to the tomb even before it was light. She wanted to be close to the one she had lost, to mourn, to remember. When she discovered the tomb empty, she was desperate, she wept for her loss. The angels, and then the unrecognised Jesus, ask why she is weeping. Jesus doesn’t resolve Mary’s search with an explanation; he doesn’t challenge her lack of understanding of what he had said before he was crucified.
He speaks her name. One word from her beloved Jesus, and her life is changed again. What a revelation. By naming her Jesus calls to her mind the relationship they knew before he died. How many times he must have addressed her by her name while they were together. Jesus spoke her name. She recognised the one she had come to love so dearly.
Mary’s response is to grasp hold of Jesus. To be with him as they were before. To hold him in case he is taken away again. But Jesus tells her not to hold on to him. He is on his way to be with his Father. The relationship of Lord and disciple is now changed. It isn’t severed, it isn’t discontinued, but it is different. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection Mary, and all other disciples can now call God Father. In Jesus there is a new relationship both with him and with God the Father. A relationship that Mary will learn is enabled by the Holy Spirit, who will help her to grow in her love and devotion to Jesus, who will empower her to continue the work of Jesus in the early church.
I wonder what you made of our first reading today. Just to remind you it is a passage from an OT book called the Song of Songs, or the Song of Solomon. This book is clearly about a woman’s love for a man, and a man for a woman. Its erotic. It’s a conversation we wouldn’t normally expect to hear. The bride and bridegroom rejoice in each other’s physicality. Because it is so explicit, many Jews consider that no young male Jew should read it before the age of 30.
So what is it doing as our lectionary reading for today? What connection is there with the reading for Mary Magdalene? Let me ask another question. How do we describe our relationship with Jesus, with God our Father? What language do we use? How have those saints down the ages whom we admire described their yearning for God? Or let’s try putting it another way. How does God describe his love for us, his yearning to be known and loved by us? He has to use language we as human beings understand. And the language he chooses is the language of love.
The OT is full of references to God’s zealous, powerful love for his people. And one way of expressing this is through the language of the intimacy of husband and wife, of lover and beloved, of faithfulness and adultery. The prophet Hosea writes that God sees the nation of Israel as his bride; his desire is for them to be his pure bride, that they would love him only. But they have turned away. They have taken other lovers, they have prostituted themselves with the gods of other nations. And yet God still yearns, he longs that they would turn back to him; he will still lovingly receive and heal them.
This theme continues in the NT. Jesus refers to himself as bridegroom on two different occasions. We see the same metaphor used in the last book in our bible, the book of Revelation. This book is about the end of time as we know it. It’s about God’s resolution of everything; the full and complete coming of the kingdom of God; the forever destruction of all that is evil. And the writer sees the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, the place which is perfect, where everything is as God wants it to be.
Our new and forever home, where God will dwell with his creation, together in the purity of God’s love. And this place is referred to as the bride. The bride has been made ready for the bridegroom. She has been prepared for the consummation of God’s desire.
In the years of the early church, Mary Magdalene was known and greatly respected for two aspects of her experience. She was given authority because she was the first to meet the risen Jesus; the first person to whom Jesus gave the message that changed everything, that he was alive, that he really was going to return to God his Father who was now also their Father; this was a new era, a new age.
And then Mary Magdalene was revered for her love of Jesus. The love that John wants us to see as she runs in the dark to be with his memory, as she weeps for her loss, as she responds in love to recognising Jesus again. She was seen then, and has been seen down the ages, as an example of devotion to him who loved her, who saved her from the imprisonment of suffering.
Her story has been heavily embellished throughout the church age, and is still being explored and developed today. We cannot possibly know the truth about most of this. But we can take to ourselves the essence of her story. For us she is the example of loving response to Jesus who calls each of us by name; the one who longs for us to know him more intimately; the one for whom the language of passionate love is not too strong to describe his love toward each one of us.
May God who loves us enable us to respond with greater devotion, a stronger passion of love, that we may increase in our desire for him who first loved us. Amen
