Easter 2013: My Name is Mary Magdalene

Natalie Bowerman

Easter, 2013 Sermon

 

                My name is Mary Magdalene. And I’m a follower of Jesus. I love Jesus. And I want to tell you an amazing story about my Lord.

                I’ve been following Jesus for a long time. Ever since he healed me. See, I was afflicted by demons, and Jesus cast them out from me. Ever since that day, I’ve been a new woman. And since Jesus gave me life, I decided then and there that I would give my life to him.

                Other people didn’t recognize me as one of Jesus’ disciples. Really, who could blame them? How could I be a disciple? I wasn’t among that elite group, the twelve that Jesus picked to minister alongside him. And I’m a woman. I mean, a woman following Jesus? I must be crazy, right? You combine that with my past—I mean, you know what they say, that if you’re possessed by demons, it’s because you did something horrible to deserve it. So you combine my past, my reputation, and the fact that I’m a woman, and, wow, it’s a flat-out miracle I didn’t face some serious consequences for daring to be in the presence of this man, this esteemed Rabbi, let alone following him everywhere. Gosh, even I’m surprised I did that.

                But Jesus wasn’t. You see, that’s why I love him so much. I mean, I would have expected any man like him who wanted to keep his good name to have nothing at all to do with me. Or, at least, to heal me quietly, and then tell me in no uncertain terms that I was never to come around again.

                But Jesus isn’t a man who cares about his good name, his reputation, at all. Jesus acts purely out of love. Seriously. All the time. He acts out of love. And he loves everyone.

                And, let me tell you, this man does not give in to peer pressure.

                Really, it wasn’t as if Jesus tolerated sinners like me. He welcomed us. With open arms. He came to us first. We were his priority, his beloved. And he defended us.

                And I can’t even begin to tell you how much grief Jesus took for that. For befriending people like me. Women—and we’re untouchable in our own right—sinners, the sick, even people who have that awful leprosy. I mean it, Jesus even welcomed those people. And he wasn’t afraid to let them touch him, either. I mean, surely a devout Jewish man like himself wouldn’t let us ritually impure people touch him, would he?

                But Jesus doesn’t care about things like purity laws. Like I told you, Jesus acts out of love. Love. All the time. Even when no one will support him. Even with people everyone else really hates. Like tax collectors. Seriously. Tax collectors.

                And he doesn’t look down on us. He doesn’t judge us. He doesn’t treat us like we’re different from anyone else. He even treats the women who follow him—like me—like we’re equal to the men.

                And let me tell you, there have been serious consequences for Jesus’ actions. And I thought it was bad in the beginning, when the Pharisees and Scribes used to get on his case all the time. Constantly. And they even started looking for ways to trick him. To take him down a notch. To get him to start following the rules like everybody else.

But Jesus never let them get him down. My teacher, my beloved teacher, he never stopped reaching out. And a lot of the time, when the Pharisees and Scribes tried to stop him, he would just use their actions as an opportunity to do more teaching. Like this one time, when Jesus was eating lunch with sinners and tax collectors, and he heard the Pharisees gossiping about him off in the distance, Jesus actually got up—true story—and in front of everyone he told this parable about this father who forgave his son for sinning against him.

                I’ve never met anyone more brave. Or wise. I meant it when I said it, Jesus is my teacher. He has taught me so much about how to live like God wants me to, how to live so that the world will be the kind of place God wants it to be. I take Jesus’ teachings to heart, and I follow them in every aspect of my life.

                I love Jesus. But loving Jesus all this time hasn’t just been these good times I’ve been telling you about.

                Something really horrible happened last Friday. And I think Jesus tried to prepare us all for it, he tried to warn us. I think he knew. I just didn’t understand.

                I saw Jesus arrested. I saw Jesus tried, like a criminal. I saw Jesus abused by the Romans. And last Friday, they crucified him.

                I was there. I was there to the very end with Jesus. I was there at the foot of the cross, crying for my Lord. Me, Jesus’ mother, his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and the disciple that Jesus loved. We were there with him the whole time. We wouldn’t leave him.

                That was the darkest day, the day my Jesus died.

                But I’ve devoted my life to Jesus, and even after his death I vowed I wouldn’t leave him.

                But then the most amazing thing happened. I just have to tell you about it. I can’t keep this in.

                You see, this morning, I went to his tomb. I knew exactly where it is, it’s in the garden near where they crucified him. I went there to be with my Lord. But when I got there, the stone, the giant stone that had been sealing his tomb shut, was rolled away. The tomb was open.

                I ran for help right away. Who could have opened his tomb? No one’s strong enough to push a stone that big. I was so afraid of what someone might have done to my Lord’s tomb, of what someone might have done to my Lord.

                So I found two of Jesus’ disciples, Simon Peter, and the one who was at the cross with me last Friday, the one Jesus loved.

                And I told them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him!”

                And Peter, and the disciple that Jesus loved, they came running. But when they got to the tomb, they just saw what I saw—an empty tomb. And the linen wrappings that Jesus was buried with, just sitting there, neatly folded.

                And these two men, they didn’t know what to think either, so they just left.

                But I stayed. And I cried there at the tomb. Wasn’t it horrible enough to lose my Lord last Friday on the cross? Couldn’t they have at least left his tomb untouched, so I could visit? I felt so helpless and lost, I didn’t even know where Jesus was. And I was all alone.

                But then I looked into the tomb again. And sitting there, where Jesus had been, were these two angels. And they asked me, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

                And I told them, I was weeping because my Lord was gone, he was taken away, and I didn’t know where they had laid him.

                Then I turned around. And this man was standing behind me.

                But I didn’t recognize him. I was so distraught with grief that I just assumed he was the gardener, and I started pleading with him, Please, if you moved my Lord, tell me where he is, I’ll bury him myself!

                As long as I live, I will never forget what happened next.

                He called me by my name, “Mary!”

                And I recognized him. My Lord! I responded, “Rabbouni!” My teacher! My teacher. My Lord, my Jesus, who three days ago was dead. My Jesus. Have you ever known such joy?

                He told me not to hold on to him, not to hold on to his tomb, because tombs are for the dead. And this whole weekend I thought Jesus would be there forever, in that tomb.

                But he’s not dead. He’s alive. And he doesn’t dwell among the dead, he’s going to heaven soon to be with God. But he trusted me—of all the people in the world, me, me, a sinner, me, a woman, ME—he trusted me to go tell his disciples what I’m now telling you.

                Jesus is risen. Jesus is alive. Jesus is not dead. Jesus has defeated death. There is no such thing as death anymore.

                Life wins. Love wins. Love has overcome death. And love saves. Jesus has saved us, and he saved me. He saved me from my sin, over and over again. And in the place of my sin, there is now nothing but his love.

                And I’m telling you this so you can tell everyone you know, tell everyone, so the whole world will know, that Jesus, my Jesus, our Jesus, has overcome death. Jesus is risen today! And he lives forever. And by his amazing live, through the saving power of his love, we live forever, too.

                Amen.