Recovered In Christ

Mary Magdalene: An Apostle To The Apostles

All four Gospels agree that the first person to receive the glorious news of Christ’s resurrection is Mary Magdalene. The church proclaimed this startling fact no less than three times in the first four days of Easter. Mary Magdalene is truly one of the most remarkable women in the Bible.

She is named a total of 14 times in the Gospels, more than any of the apostles. Instead of being identified by who she belongs to (so-and-so’s mother or sister or wife) she is identified by the town she comes from: Magdala. This fact gives the impression that she was an independent woman who, along with Joanna and Susanna, “provided for (Jesus and the disciples) out of their means” (Lk 8:2-3).

Her significance in the early church earned her the title “Apostle to the apostles,” an honour bestowed by St. Augustine of Hippo back in the fourth century. Hippolytus, an early bishop of Rome in the third century, affirmed female apostleship as follows: “Christ himself came to women so that they would be apostles of Christ.” Many medieval theologians followed St. Augustine in granting Mary Magdalene this exalted title. The Apostle Paul, himself not one of the Twelve, but the greatest missionary the Christian church has ever had, defined apostleship as any person who had seen the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 9:1-2). This was the basis upon which he argued his own right to claim the title of apostle. Mary Magdalene can claim no less.

However, despite this encouraging beginning, throughout most of church history Mary Magdalene has had a bad rap. The non-biblical image of Magdalene as a repentant prostitute became widespread in the sixth century, thanks to a powerful sermon preached by Pope Gregory in the early 600s in which he conflated into one person an unnamed woman with Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of Luke. In chapter 7:37-38, Luke tells of a woman, “a sinner” who goes into a dinner party and anoints Jesus’ feet.

The following chapter immediately introduces “Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out. . . .”

The early church subsequently misinterpreted this, linking Mary Magdalene with the sinner from the chapter before. And it’s that image that has persisted ever since through countless Christian sermons, paintings and movies. The misreading of Mary Magdalene is further facilitated by the fact that there are up to five different Marys in the Gospels and seven in the New Testament as a whole! Interestingly enough, the Eastern Orthodox Church never made this mistake; Magdalene the prostitute was never part of the Eastern tradition. On the contrary, the Eastern Church has her preaching in Rome, even before the emperor himself.

It took two millennia for the Catholic Church to dispel the long-standing myth that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. In 1969 the church indirectly removed the stain of her alleged sins by assigning new scriptural readings for her feast day on July 22. Passages from the erotic Song of Songs are no longer read, and the passage from Luke 7:37-38 about “a woman from the city, who was a sinner” was also deleted. Now, on the feast of Mary Magdalene, they read the passage that features so prominently at Easter from John’s Gospel in which Mary is the first to see and talk with the risen Christ. Along with Paul, Mary became a preacher and missionary. Thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in a cave in the 1950s, we now know that there was a Gospel named after her, The Gospel of Mary.

We now know that women played significant roles in those early years of the Christian church. Single women travelled and preached with Paul as equals. Priscilla, who was later martyred and canonized, led a church in her home. John Mark’s mother hosted some of the earliest Christian worship in her home.

For most of church history Mary Magdalene suffered from mistaken identity because she got mixed up with Mary of Bethany (John 12:1) and an unknown woman “who was a sinner” (Luke 7:37-38). Both these women took oil and bathed Jesus’ feet with their hair. In Luke, Jesus points out that this generous gesture by the woman is evidence that her sins, which were many, were forgiven. In John, Mary of Bethany’s generous outpouring is interpreted by Jesus as a preparation for his burial. And in Matthew’s version of the same story, Jesus is quoted as having said: “What she has done will be told in remembrance of me.”

Now in the ancient world, anointing for burial was a significant job done by women. And so it is no surprise that, early on Easter morning, Mary Magdalene rushed to the tomb, carrying oil and herbs for the preparation of Jesus’ body.

But instead of Jesus’ dead body, Mary finds something of much greater significance at the tomb.

“Go and tell my brothers . . .” says the risen Jesus to Mary. Go and tell — key terms for defining an apostle as one sent on a mission by Jesus himself. In these words of the risen Jesus, Mary received her call as apostolic messenger and witness. And Mary responded — she went and told, all right.

This in itself is an amazing thing: In the ancient world, testimonies by women were considered untrustworthy. “Never believe a woman” was the common conviction. In fact, Mark’s Gospel states it rather bluntly: “Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it” (16:19-22).

The Twelve, to whom Jesus had entrusted the entire enterprise, would not believe a woman. Were they jealous that the Lord didn’t choose them to appear to first? The risen Lord chose to appear first, not to any of the Twelve, but to the women, and Mary Magdalene in particular. This is the one fact all four Gospels agree upon.

But why should that surprise us still? Do we not know by now that in Jesus the entire world order has been turned upside-down? God’s upside-down message came through clearly in everything Jesus said and did in his earthly life: Those who lose their life will gain it. Blessed are the persecuted. Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Eat with outcasts and sinners, heal/touch the untouchables, have compassion on the lowly.

Then, in Jesus’ last days, the one without sin felt total abandonment and suffered an innocent death. The God who surprised us in Bethlehem again surprised us at the cross. Everything seemed an utter failure, yet everything has been transformed forever.

Consistent with this pattern, then, entrusting to a woman — the unbelievable witness — the most important message of Jesus’ entire mission is not surprising at all. The same risen Lord who appeared to Paul, and made him an apostle to the gentiles, appeared to Mary with the same startling news, the news that gave birth to the first Christian communities.

At last, Mary Magdalene is being restored to her rightful place of honour, thanks to sound biblical scholarship and new archeological findings. This first witness to the resurrection is once again being honoured appropriately as the Apostle to the Apostles. And her voice still echoes throughout history — I have seen the Lord, he is risen!

Are we as church in the 21st century prepared to recognize and bless all women who are thus called by the risen Jesus to follow in her apostolic footsteps?

by: M. T.G

“Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.” John 20:18

“When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.  It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.  But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.  Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.” Luke 24:9-12

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APRIL 27TH, 1873.

An Excerpt From a Sermon On The Beatitudes

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” — Matthew 5:8.

“It was a peculiarity of the great Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, that his teaching was continually aimed at the hearts of men. Other teachers had been content with outward moral reformation, but he sought the source of all the evil, that he might cleanse the spring from which all sinful thoughts, and words, and actions come. He insisted over and over again that, until the heart was pure, the life would never be clean. The memorable Sermon upon the mount, from which our text is taken, begins with the benediction, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” for Christ was dealing with men’s spirits, with their inner and spiritual nature. He did this more or less in all the Beatitudes, and this one strikes the very center of the target as he says, not “Blessed are the pure in language, or the pure in action,” much less “Blessed are the pure in ceremonies, or in raiment, or in food;” but “Blessed are the pure in heart.”

O beloved, whatever so-called “religion” may recognize as its adherent a man whose heart is impure, the religion of Jesus Christ will not do so. His message, to all men still is, “Ye must be born again;” that is to say, the inner nature must be divinely renewed, or else you cannot enter or even see that kingdom of God which Christ came to set up in this world. If your actions should appear to be pure, yet, if the motive at the back of those actions should be impure, that will nullify them all. If your language should be chaste, yet, if your heart is reveling in fowl imaginations, you stand before God not according to your words, but according to your desires; according to the set of the current of your affections, your real inward likes and dislikes, you shall be judged by him. External purity is all that man has at our hands, “for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart;” and the promises and blessings of the covenant of grace belong to those who are made pure in heart, and to none besides.

In speaking upon our text, I want to show you, first, that impurity of heart is the cause of spiritual blindness; and, secondly, that the purification of the heart admits us to a most glorious sight: “the pure in heart, shall see God.” Then I shall have to show you, in the third place, that the purification of the heart is a divine operation, which cannot be performed by ourselves, or by any human agency; but must be wrought by him who is the thrice-holy Lord God of Sabbath.

I. First, then, I have to remark that, IMPURITY OF HEART IS THE CAUSE OF SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS, – the cause of a very large part if not, of all of it. A man who is intoxicated cannot see clearly, his vision is often distorted or doubled; and there are other cups, besides those which intoxicate, which prevent the mental eye from having clear sight, and he who has once drunk deeply of those, cups will become spiritually blind, and others, in proportion as they imbibe the noxious draughts, will be unable, to see afar off. There are moral beauties and immoral horrors which certain men cannot see because they are impure in heart. Take, for instance, the covetous man, and you will soon see that there is no other dust that blinds so completely as gold dust. There is a trade which many regard as bad from top to bottom; but if it pays the man who is engaged in it, and he is of a grasping disposition, it will be almost impossible to convince him that it is an evil trade. You will usually find that the covetous men see no charm in generosity.

He thinks that the liberal man, if he is not actually a fool, is so near akin to one that he might very easily be mistaken for one. He himself admires that which can be most easily grasped; and the more of it that he can secure, the better is he pleased. The skinning of flints and the oppression of the poor are occupations in which he takes delight. If he has performed a dirty trick in which he has sacrificed every principle of honor, yet, if it has turned out to his own advantage, he says to himself, “That was a clever stroke;” and if he should meet with another man of his own kind, he and his fellow would chuckle over the transaction, and say how beautifully they had done it. It would be useless for me to attempt to reason with an avaricious man, to show him the beauty of liberality; and, on the other hand, I should not think of wasting my time in trying to get from him a fair opinion as to the justice of anything which he knew to be remunerative.

You know that, some years ago, there was a great fight in the United States over the question of slavery. Who were the gentlemen in England who took the side of the slave-owners? Why, mostly Liverpool men, who, did so because slavery paid them. If it had not done so, they would have, condemned it, and I daresay that those of us who condemned it, did so the more readily because it did not pay us. Men can see very clearly where there, is nothing to be lost either way; but if it comes to the a matter of gain, the heart being impure, the eyes cannot see straight. There are innumerable things that a man cannot see if he holds a sovereign over each of his eyes; he cannot even see the sun then; and if he keeps the gold over his eyes, he will become blind. The pure in heart can see; but when covetousness gets into the heart, it, makes the eye dim or blind.”

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