Mary Magdalene – Part Two

This Mary is remarkably important among the women of the gospels She ministered to the Lord of her substance, was the first to see the risen Lord on that glorious day of resurrection and was first to announce his resurrection to the apostles She is mentioned 14 times in the gospels, five times alone and eight at the head of a list Yet this faithful woman is widely misrepresented as having been a prostitute before her conversion.

Harlot idea not biblical

The theory that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute did not originate in the Bible nor is it found m the Christian writings of the first through fifth centuries It is not found until the sixth century when Pope Gregory linked Mary with the unnamed harlot of Luke 7 whose sins were forgiven by Jesus In many Bible commentaries and, unfortunately, among the brotherhood, this same misrepresentation is still expounded.

During the period of the su­premacy of the Catholic Church m Europe, artists often painted or sculpted Mary Magdalene as a beauti­ful, penitent harlot kneeling before Jesus In a contemporary musical, suggestive lyrics were penned about her relationship with Jesus As Bible students, we must not have our un­derstanding controlled by such sug­gestions.

Bible identification

In Luke 7 36-50, we read of the prostitute who came to Simon the Pharisee’s house to wash and anoint Jesus’ feet Her love and penitence were so great that she washed his feet with her tears and wiped them dry with her hair Though her sins were many, Jesus forgave them and told her to “go in peace”

In Luke 8 2 we meet Mary Magdalene as one of the women who “ministered unto him of their substance” (v 3) Along with Mary were Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s servant, Susanna and many others These faithful women gave gener­ously of their time and wealth to sup­port Jesus and the apostles We are told that many of these women had received healing from the Lord as they had “been healed of evil spirits and infirmities” (Lk 8 2) Mary had been particularly blessed for out of her “went seven devils” While this de­tail of her background is given, no attempt is made to link her with the just reported incident of the harlot who had been forgiven much (but not healed of seven devils).

What did healing of seven devils mean? Records from the period indicate people who were thought to have “devils” were those afflicted with dis­eases of unknown origin such as mental illness, epilepsy and some forms of paralysis, blindness and loss of speech Perhaps Mary Magdalene had a combination of physical and mental problems, a seven-fold condi­tion, or perhaps her affliction had occurred seven times Whatever she had would have made her life a liv­ing agony It is no wonder she loved Jesus so much and became a true and faithful follower of him all the way to Calvary and beyond.

At the cross

It is not surprising we find her following Jesus to the point of the cross (Matt 2755-56, Mk 15 40, John 19 25) At first Mary, with the other women, “were beholding afar off,” no doubt out of respect for the shame imposed on the Lord, nailed unclothed on the cross Yet when darkness fell over the land from noon to 3 p m , she drew near along with Jesus’ mother and his aunt (John 19 25).

After witnessing Jesus’ death, Mary Magdalene must have followed the procession of soldiers who took Jesus’ body from the cross and delivered it to Joseph of Arimathaea. In John 19 38-42 we read the sequence of events Nicodemus and Joseph hurriedly prepared the body for burial so they could prepare for the Passover How ironic The true Passover lamb has just been killed and they were anointing his body with an hundred pound weight of myrrh and aloe and wrapping him m linen clothes.

When Jesus’ body was placed m the new tomb owned by Joseph (Matt 27:60), a huge boulder was rolled in front of the cave Evidently the women did not know Jesus’ body had been anointed with spices and oil al­though they had seen the place of his burial.

At the empty tomb

Sometime between Jesus’ death and the morning following the Sabbath, when he rose from the dead, the cadre of women who had so faithfully followed him prepared spices to take to his grave for anointing These women did not sleep late, they were up at the sun’s rising on the first day of the week In fact, there had prob­ably been little sleep and much mourning.

The women were concerned they would not have enough strength to roll the massive stone from the cave Much to their surprise, the gave was open and the angel told them Jesus had risen The women were then in­structed to take the message of Jesus’ resurrection to the disciples.

Considering all four accounts, it would appear Mary Magdalene was so overcome by events that she lingered behind After the other women left, Jesus appeared alone to Mary of Magdala (Mk 16 9, John 20 11-18) What an honor as she was the very first person to see him after his resur­rection She must have fallen at his feet ready to reach out to touch him when he told her not to do so “I am not yet ascended to my Father” In Matthew’s account (Matt 28 9), the women held him by the feet, worship­ping him Evidently, after his appear­ance to Mary Magdalene and before appearing to these women, Jesus had been immortalized.

Upon seeing Jesus, Mary took the exciting news to the apostles that she was the first to see him after his res­urrection

Summary

It is unfortunate that the idea of prostitute was ever linked with Mary Magdalene What the biblical record shows is a woman whose entire life was changed by the healing grace of Jesus She was a woman whose life then flowed m service to her Master as she drank deeply of the truths Jesus taught She mourned at his crucifix­ion, following his body to the grave, even when others had forsaken the Lord and fled She is the first to whom the risen Lord appeared, be-mg given this supreme honor by the one she loved so deeply.

This is the Mary Magdalene of the Bible.

Addendum

It has been suggested (Studies in the Gospels, Harry Whittaker) that the penitent sinner of Luke 7, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus) are the same person. This would mean that Mary of Bethany had been a prosti­tute. Again it would appear that a thorough examination of the evidence does not support such a conclusion.

There are similarities between the woman of Luke 7 and Mary of Bethany. These are:

• both women brought oil to use on Jesus. The woman of Luke’s account brought an unspecified oil while Mary brought very costly spikenard.
• They both anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with their hair.

Apart from this similarity there are many differences:

• Luke 7 is set in Galilee, not Judea where Mary lived in Bethany.
• Luke 7:37 tells us the woman was of “that city” where the incident occurred. Mary’s home was some 60 miles south.
• Mary of Bethany’s family was prosperous. (They hired many mourners for Lazarus’ burial; fed Jesus and those with him; afforded spikenard.) Mary would be under no financial pressure to turn to harlotry.
• The Luke account occurred to­ward the middle of the ministry and the Bethany account only six days before his death.
• In Luke, Jesus makes no men­tion of his death while in John 12:7 he says Mary has done this “against the day of my burying.”
• In Luke, the woman had her many sins forgiven while no mention is made of this regarding Mary of Bethany.
• Since Galilee and Judea were separated not only by distance but also by culture and customs, it is unlikely someone like Mary of Bethany would have gone into that area as an harlot.