Mary Magdalene's Jesus

Sermon by Sandra M. Thomas
March 9, 2008, Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill

Isaiah 54:4-8
Luke 8:1-3; 24:10-12

"In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer."

The question that comes immediately to mind is "What is Mary Magdalene doing in this sermon series?" [Matthew, Mark, Luke, John .Mary Magdalene .Paul] She did not write a canonized gospel describing the actions and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. She did not march across the countryside starting churches and supporting them with sermons on the nature of Christ. She followed in the shadows, stood in the background, listening, without enough sense to run away with the others when the crowds took to crucifying. Who does Mary Magdalene say that Jesus is? He is the one who looked and saw in her something different than all others saw.

Others looked at her and saw either a celibate nun or a prostitute; a drifter or a mystic, a disciple or a temptress, a helper or one obsessed. Jesus was the one who looked at her and saw passion, loyalty, and leadership. He saw, not the person she had been but the person she was becoming. That's who Jesus was - one who saw -- not where people had been but where they were going - not the bonds that had damaged them but the freedom they were destined to inherit - not the seven demons that had once crushed her but the God who had created and still claimed her. Mary Magdalene's Jesus was the one who broke down barriers that few others even noticed.

We don't know where she came from or who invited her into the inner circle of "friends of Jesus" but all of a sudden, in Luke 8:1, there she is and the confusion begins. Seven demons - symbolizing a woman torn and troubled - the type of person we cross the street to avoid. Jesus crossed the street to meet her and both of them were changed. He saw in her something others did not see and set her free. From that moment on she followed and later she would lead.

No where in scripture is there any hint that Jesus saw Mary Magdalene through the eyes of the Old Masters who painted her topless..or in the standard prostitute image...or as the seductive woman and mother of Jesus' child portrayed in the DaVinci Code, or even as a kind hearted hippie girl belting out "I don't know how to love him." We have Pope Gregory the Great to thank for the unfair mix up of Mary Magdalene with the sinful woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears. In a sermon preached in 591 A.D. Gregory seemed to feel the women were taking up too much space in the gospel narrative and condensed all the images of sinful women who approached Jesus into one and named the merged version "Mary Magdalene." He did not see through the eyes of Jesus.

Jesus saw in Mary Magdalene a loyal supporter, an Apostle in her own right, an evangelist of the resurrection and perhaps a role model for the inclusion of women in ministry. But the question before us today is: "What did Mary Magdalene see in Jesus?" Certainly she saw in him a man like no other: a man who did not send her away; a man who made no plans to exploit her; a man who welcome her as a sister. His life would have been simpler without a gaggle of grateful women tagging along, raising eyebrows, generating stares and whispers. Jesus was someone who reached out to her when there was no obvious gain.

As she traveled dusty roads Mary Magdalene witnessed over and over again Jesus teaching and healing - saying "love your enemy..share with the poor...judge not." Choosing to heal those who were middle class or poor not wealthy; those who were not famous; those whom no one else would touch; those ill beyond all hope. She watched as he sat at the dining room table with cheats and scoundrels, invited the children to come near, and was turned away from villages along the way. She listened as he told stories that puzzled those who heard, as he choose followers and told them to leave their possessions behind. She was there when he was criticized, when he grew tired, when his followers fought like children, and when Herod threatened.

You might say she developed a passion for this man - even an Eros type passion, but not the cheap stuff found in local bars or portrayed in movies..not the passion sold in check-out counter magazines but an emotional attachment that cannot be created, willed or repressed. She had been won over by the man Jesus who came and stood in our world with nothing more to offer than himself...she had been firmly glued, heart, mind and soul, to the one from Galilee who taught her (and others) who they truly were.

Henri Nouwen, a Roman Catholic theologian who died only a few years ago. He spent most of his career teaching seminarians at the University of Notre Dame, Harvard and Yale, wrote hundreds of books, took center-stage in large lecture halls more often than anyone could count, and found himself intensely weary part way through his career. So he left it all to join the Daybreak community, feeling God's call to live as priest, brother, friend and care-giver to a group of mentally handicapped adult men. One morning he rose from the breakfast table and began to pack a bag to take on a seldom accepted lecture tour, when the men at the home challenged him - will you be back by dinner time? we need you here! the rules say that no one travels away from home alone .. who is going with you? And Nouwen said he realized for the first time that he was valued simply for the person that he was, and not for all the credentials and education that he had. Here he was one of the group of mentally handicapped men who relied upon each other to get safely from breakfast to dinner and then into bed for the night. Here he was simply - a child of God. So, he became submissive to the rules of the community and selected one of the handicapped men of the house named Bill, to travel with him..to help him navigate the larger world. Bill took his responsibility of caring for Nouwen very seriously. Together they boarded the plane, checked into the hotel and made their way to the lecture hall. Bill accompanied him right up onto the platform in front of hundreds of learned theologians who had gathered for the lecture. Several times during the lecture Bill interjected "Yes, that's true. I've heard Henri say that before." and at the end of the lecture Bill said into his microphone "Is it my turn to speak now?" This was truly a risk. There was no way to predict what Bill might say or how much he might say but - Henri Nouwen decided that human decency required that he turn the podium over to his traveling companion from the Daybreak Community - who in turn simply said "Thanks for listening to my brother. We love him and everyone will be happy when we return home to dinner tomorrow." Through Bill, Henri Nouwen says, he learned who he truly was - a man, just another child of God, whose presence was most precious, not in the lecture hall, but at the dinner table.

Why would Jesus take such a risk as to allow Mary Magdalene to join his inner circle? Because Jesus was one who took such risks all the time - when the outcast, the poor, the ugly, the disabled asked "Is there anybody who really cares? Jesus said Yes ..When the children ask "Is there anybody who wants to stay home for me?" Jesus said Yes. When the sick ask: is there anyone who wants to be with me when I'm not in control and I feel like crying, Jesus said Yes. Mary Magdalene's gospel reminds us of this side of Jesus.

Without Mary Magdalene's understanding we would easily be consumed with an agenda seeking historical accuracy or theological comprehension or symbolic beauty. She stands like a beacon reminding us that the source documents about Jesus are his encounters with people. We so live in a world that needs to hear her witness. We live in a world of great isolation, division and loneliness, prejudice and hatred, emptiness and depression. We live in a world where efficiency overrides all human sanity - when we "do whatever works" rather than "whatever is right, just and good" - when actions such as waterboarding are condoned by one self-proclaimed Christian in order to hear the words he wants to hear and hear them quickly, rather than look in the eye of a brother or sister created and loved by the living God.

Mary Magdalene holds before us the source document -- the daily life of Jesus - who said to the sick - "your sins are forgiven" and to the sinner "stand up" and to the outcast "come front and center." Her life witnesses to the truth that Jesus does not base his call on genetic factors, gender, or the preferences of the majority. She speaks to faithful gay and lesbian Presbyterians about the true requirements of leadership in the church - call from God, skill, ability, faithful living, and call from a local community. Without her testimony to who Jesus is, we would forget where we came from.

She learned from Jesus that the Samaritans and the Gentiles were people whom he loved and welcomed. Her passion for Jesus as a man who breaks down barriers would be ignited by the words in the documents of our founding fathers and those on the Statue of Liberty, lest we would forget where we came from: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed, to me; I lift my torch beside the golden door."Mary Magdalene is our witness today because she is a founding document. She stands in witness to the true life story of our savior, the foundation upon which our faith stands - because she was there.

Mary Magdalene knew from the experience of her passion - by and observing Jesus' passion that there was at least one who cared courageously, sacrificially, without condition or limit. In all the gospels what we have is not history but memory - memory shaped by time, by the impulse to emphasize a point, memory that selects in order to teach. Part of her legacy was the message that later scrolls titled "The Gospel according to Mary Magdalene" emphasize - we can follow Jesus without fear, because he is with us; we can love others because he first loved us; we can stretch to encompass strangers because he reached for us." These later writings, probably not truly Mary Magdalene's, but echoes of her teaching record a woman changed by Jesus.

She had come to this life with nothing more to lose - so she could risk being passionate. She could risk some wasted time standing beneath the cross - she could risk some time alone in a garden - she could risk the potential ridicule and unbelief of those with whom she shared the incredible story of resurrection. Because Jesus got it right when he looked at her - he got it right when he saw that she would be there when all others had turned away - he got it right when he spoke to her first calling her by name - he got it right when he entrusted her with the message on which we all depend today.

I'm wondering this morning if we truly understand what it means to be sought and known by the one Mary called Lord. Our experience can be the same as hers - known - not for what we are to others but by what we are to him - not for what we have been but for what we will become - not for what we're failed to do and be - but for who we are. Can we affirm what few in this world know? That our place at the dinner table, the center of our most common humanity, where eyes meet and ears listen - is our true place on earth and our true identity when seen through the eyes of divine love.

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