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