Mary Magdalene

MARY MAGDALENE

 

She was such a promiscuous woman, or as some would say a whore. She had no morals at all and really wasn’t seeking anything different. She was making a living and she knew how to separate a man from his money. She would have been a target of ridicule from the family oriented community. She had to make her money now before her allurements faded. She was a real disgusting loser.

But by some act of divine providence her path had crossed with His. At first she just felt something that she never felt before. What was it? Something churned on the inside and it just wouldn’t quit. She really never cared about such things and she was an outcast and not even welcome anywhere near the synagogue. Could He really be the Messiah? And then there came a time where curiosity became real interest which became obsession which became true and loving faith. Yes, He was now her Lord.

So this sinful and dirty whore was now His child. She couldn’t even remember how many men she had been with much less confess all her many sins. But she was now in a special kind of sacred love to which she gladly surrendered. She had been dead and now she was alive.

But here she was in front of some rich guy’s tomb where they had buried Him. It was all so confusing but she still was driven by her love and a divine sense of something she could not explain.

Now I want you to think about what is going to happen. Jesus, the Lord of all Glory has risen from the dead and conquered sin and death and hell. And the first name that proceeds from the lips of the Son of the Living God is “Mary”. Are you serious?? This is not a man or a leader in the church. This is a used and abused woman whose past is so sordid that she had been inhabited by seven devils. And now she and Mary, the mother of Jesus who was so pure she was chosen as the divine vessel for the Incarnation, are now friends and companions and fellow followers of Jesus? And this sinful woman is now who sees the resurrected Christ first and actually hears her name come from His lips?

So go ahead you moral Pharisees of today. Go ahead and think so highly of yourself and tell yourself that Jesus saved you because you were at least trying to live right. And you would be lying to yourself. Jesus chooses a demon possessed woman whose body was an illicit source of income to be the first to see Him after His resurrection and He says “Mary”. Please do not even attempt to communicate to me anything but the grace of God. Away with all these moral phylacteries and the modern Sanhedrin. Away with any hint of self promotion or castigating those who are immoral in the extreme. Away with it all because I would much rather break bread with that former whore and I would consider it a privilege to serve her and beg her to tell me her story.

Were we not all just whores and pimps trying to act religious? And in the midst of this wicked and treacherous generation only one thing stands out. The grace of God. Nothing but the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.