So, Now What?

Yesterday, I mentioned one of my favorite people in the Bible, because she is such an enigma, Miriam, aka Mary of Magdalene.  The Roman Catholics have created quite a tradition around her, none of it Scriptural, but don't let that spoil a good story!  But, it is the Biblical Mary that interests me, not the fables of man.....

Now our setting for today's thoughts:

• Jesus has been crucified
• He is plopped in freshly cut cave so as to not ruin the Sabbath
• There is an earthquake
• Jesus rises
• The women arrive to anoint the body
• Mary Magdalene runs to tell the Disciples
• Others yak with an angel
• Peter and John race to the cemetery to see for themselves
• Peter and John leave to tell the others
• Mary Magdalene returns

And Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, a women, and as such, without any ability to testify about what she has seen.  She faces a risen Jesus.

John 20:11-18

"You are loved"
Mary Magdalene was amongst the last at the cross.
She was amongst the first at the grave the next day.
She was the first witness to a risen Jesus!
And think about Jesus' first words to her!  Wow!  She knew before His death, what His role was, she alone realized whom He was.  She bore a faith completely lacking in the rest of the Disciples.

She had HOPE.
In the presence of death, in the face of death staring at her, she had an eternal hope!
Because of Jesus' conquest of death all followers have the knowledge we can avoid eternal death.
And we know that death brings no comfort.
We know that there is no return from death.
Yet Jesus came back!  So Mary was given the understanding that there is still hope, even in death!

Faith is personal.

• Evidence + Understanding = Changed Life
• Evidence + No Understanding = "You must be the gardener"
• Evidence + verse 16's understanding = "Teacher!"

She had to let go.
"Don't cling to me", perhaps she had grabbed him as if to never let Him go, or to stay close but he had to leave.
Could she have wanted him as an idol?  Perhaps to remember the event by? To remember the past?
Whatever the reason, she had to let go in order to embrace the future.

She became part of Jesus' mission.
She ran to tell the disciples.
And her tale fades away in real history.....

So, what lessons are there to be found in her encounter with Jesus?
Well, certainly, He is calling.
Jesus wants you to respond.
Mary chose to serve Him in life and one must suspect she did as well in His death.  She was certainly very special to him, because she was the one He appeared to first.
In like manner, our service is to Him in His death and resurrection.

Your changed life is what points others to Him.  That is actually all you have, so when you are caught up in the Western Church and its experiential approach to Christianity, you are serving yourself and not Him.  For each of us, whom would call ourselves mature, we must constantly be evaluating where we stand, why we stand and how we stand in faith before God.  If it is for or about us, our friends, or the Church, then welcome to the Western Church, because that is not Christianity.

Mary understood He had given her a gift far greater than she could ever repay.  I imagine she went on to become quite a witness for him.....  And the questioning mind would ask, "What ever became of Mary?"

One tradition has her ending up living France with Jesus' child. (Give me a break!)
One tradition has her living out her life in a cave.  (Forgetting that the Romans sacked all of ancient Israel.)
Another I do wonder about:

Now John was given charge of Mary, the mother of Jesus, by Jesus while he hung on the cross.  Mary and Mary were well acquainted, at least enough that the two of them (and others) went to the pre-dawn grave to wrap spices over Jesus' corpse.  So, what if John had married Mary?  There are several traditional tales of this.  And we do know that John was married when he was in Ephesus and that Mary lived outside of Ephesus.  So, was Mary of Magdalene still a part of the group or even John's wife?  History is silent.....  But, then I am  a romantic.