Mary Magdalene – Delivered From
Darkness
Pastor Mathew Magera – 8/18/19 – Sermon 363
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Have you ever felt like you really knew someone
until something happened that forever changed how you knew them? Of course,
this seems to happen to celebrities all the time but I find that it does
occasionally happen within our own groups of friends or even in our families.
Mary Magdalene is one such character in scripture who tends to fly under the
shadow of a largely popular albeit false understanding of who she really is.
Fortunately, for her, this shadow, as big as it is, does not change the most
important part about her story nor do our shadows, as big as they can get,
change the most important part about ours.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father, from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It was summer of 2008. I was about to start summer
Greek, my first class in seminary. I didn’t have to take it. I had taken Greek
in college and could have easily tested out of it. But, I was told that because
summer Greek is one of the more difficult classes in all of seminary, those who
take this summer intensive class tend to develop very deep and lasting
friendships because they know they are either going to survive together and be
heroes of the Greek language or die together trying. So, I wasn’t taking the
class for the material but instead to find these long-lasting friendships. I
felt almost like I could walk into that first class knowing I could pick my own
friends.
I remember the first day of class too. I remember
scouring the room, looking for people who, like me, had just moved onto campus,
specifically into the married housing where Lane and I were. There were
students from all over the country but I remember one person in the class that
I knew I just wouldn’t mesh with. He had a military crew cut, was sporting
t-shirt featuring the Minneosta Twins first baseman Justin Morneau, and he just
had this appearance of being one of those popular athletic kids in high school,
sitting back in his chair like he was too cool for school. In remembering my
high school years, I recalled this was not the type of person that I would
normally seek out as friends. I felt like I had enough information to count him
out and move on.
We feel like we know enough about Mary Magdalene.
Mary doesn’t always seem to have the best of reputations. Unfortunately, we’ve
been misled. You may remember Dan Brown’s book and later turned big screen
film, The Da Vinci Code, and how it entranced our culture as ancient secrets
revealed a tantalizing relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus, going so
far as to claim that she was the unnamed “beloved disciple” in John’s Gospel.
The problem with this claim is that there is not scriptural evidence to support
it. The Bible as we know it shows us no indication that this relationship
existed.
We often believe Mary Magdalene to be the one who
comes before Jesus weeping, tears falling onto his feet, her hair being used to
dry them. In Luke chapter 7, we are introduced to a sinful woman. Jesus was
having dinner at the house of a pharisee and this woman learned of his
presence, showed up with an alabaster jar of perfume, wept at Jesus’ feet,
drying her tears with her hair, and anointing him with the perfume. This woman
remains nameless and while it may be easy to assume it was Mary Magdalene, Luke
goes on to formally introduce us to her by name in the very next chapter in a
completely different setting. Why would Luke not identify the woman with the
perfume as being Mary Magdalene? Because it wasn’t the same person.
We often believe Mary Magdalene to be the one who
was caught in the act of adultery. In John chapter 8 we are introduced to this
woman. We meet her accusers as they are about to stone her to death. Jesus is
there and becomes caught in the argument. This is where Jesus utters those
famous words, “You who is without sin, cast the first stone.” Everyone drops
their weapons and leaves. Jesus tells her to go and sin no more. This woman is
nameless. John goes on to refer to Mary Magdalene by name later in his Gospel
so why would he not identify this adulterous woman with the same name? Because,
again, it wasn’t the same person.
We, quite often, make assumptions about Mary Magdalene.
These examples have been assumptions since about the sixth century, nearly five
hundred years after the Gospel accounts were written. The assumptions we have
paint her identity but they don’t always paint it in a good light. Scripture
teaches us only three things about Mary Magdalene. She was afflicted by seven
demons. Jesus got rid of those demons. Mary became a follower of Jesus.
Delivered from darkness is her story, but it is shadowed by false assumptions.
It’s dangerous to make assumptions. When we make
assumptions about a person, those assumptions become that person’s identity.
Try as you might, if you make an assumption about someone, that will be their
identity. Someone who breaks into your house will always be a good for nothing
criminal whether you know anything about their life before or after they break
down your front door. That neighbor down the street who causes a ruckus will
from then on only be known by how they affect your enjoyment of a summer evening
on your back porch. We make assumptions about people and it’s not good.
Assumptions can stop us from nurturing or even
initiating relationships. I don’t want to talk to them. Do you know anything
about them? I know enough. When we hear the name Mary Magdalene, it may
automatically bring up assumptions, negative ones. The problem is that we just
take it at face value and we don’t go deeper into scripture to see that oh,
these places we thought we’d find her we find that the woman in question is unnamed.
If we fail to look into scripture deep enough and confront those assumptions we
will not see past them. If we can’t get past the assumptions we have from the
words on the page of a book, how are we going to break down the barriers of
assumptions within our own circle of friends, families, or even our neighbors?
Remember we just heard the words prayed, “Almighty
God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets
are hid.” God knows when we turn down opportunities. God knows when we miss
opportunities. God knows when our assumptions cloud our ability to be and to
make disciples.
What is so fascinating about Mary Magdalene’s story
then is not what she did but what she didn’t. We’ve tarnished her life so much
that it causes us to overlook her true identity as a follower of Jesus. Of
course, she wasn’t perfect. She had seven demons, scripture tells us. But, it
also tells us that Jesus got rid of those demons and that Mary became a
follower of Jesus. Nothing says she was a prostitute, nothing said she was a
sinner making a scene. Her life was darkened by demons but Jesus took care of
that and she followed him. Furthermore, the Easter story in our Gospel reading
this morning contains the most information about her in all of the New
Testament. If there is anything we should know about her it is this interaction
with the resurrected Jesus. We should know her more by her Easter Sunday sermon,
“I have seen the Lord!”
Our lives are darkened when we cast shadows over other
people. Making assumptions is easy. Approaching someone, putting yourself in a
vulnerable position, is challenging. We have to admit that we are the problem.
We have to come before the foot of the cross and admit to God that we are not
worthy to be disciples of Jesus. We have to admit that we blew it. Again. We’ve
made false assumptions about Mary Magdalene. We’ve made false assumptions about
each other. We’ve failed to engage and instead taken the easy way around the
issue.
There’s another part of that prayer for purity that
says, “Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy
Spirit.” This is us realizing we can’t fix ourselves. It’s difficult to believe
that we could perfectly love God and worthily magnify His holy name. On our own,
it is impossible, but of course with God, all things are possible.
Though we may make assumptions about others, there
is still some good news here. Jesus doesn’t make assumptions about us. He
doesn’t assume, oh they’re just going to screw up again, I might as well not
care. Jesus goes straight to the cross and dies for you. Jesus comes straight
to you in your despair much like he did for Mary Magdalene on that Easter
morning and he calls our name, proving to us that he accomplished what he came
to do. God doesn’t make assumptions about you, he engages you, he addresses
your sin and he cleanses you, redeems you, loves you.
What makes Mary Magdalene an extraordinary woman in
the Bible is that Jesus didn’t assume anything about her. He came to her in the
midst of her affliction and he cleansed her of her demons. He came to her in
the midst of her despair and he called her name outside the empty tomb.
Jesus is calling our name outside the empty tomb as
well. We no longer have to be in despair by our shortcomings. We no longer have
to suffer the guilt and shame of getting lost time and time again in our
assumptions of others. Take those feelings and leave them with Jesus. Go, then,
and perfectly love him and worthily magnify his holy name, not by your own
power but through the power of Jesus Christ our Lord who gives you that power.
Making assumptions is very dangerous. It limits our
ability to be and make disciples in the world. In June, I took a vacation over
to Wisconsin Dells to meet up with some of my friends from seminary. Since we
graduated, our core group of friends plans a large gathering every other year
and so we just finished our 4th bi-annual gathering. We’re the ones
that endured summer Greek together. And you know, the very one person that I
made assumptions about on that first day of class? I’m now proud to call him
one of my closest friends. I had made a terrible assumption. I cast a shadow
over him on that first day of class. Fortunately, God stepped in.
We may have made a terrible assumption when it comes
to the life of Mary Magdalene. We may have made terrible assumptions about
other people, even those close to us. Fortunately, God meets us in these
situations, known and unknown, and offers us his forgiveness and mercy. For
Jesus does not know us by assumptions. Jesus knows us by what he has called us
into, a life of believing in him and putting our trust in him. Jesus knows us
as children of God, precious, honored, loved, and redeemed. Delivered from
darkness, into his most glorious light. To God be the glory, now and always.
Amen.