Mary Magdalene Knew Darkness: April 20

Year C, Easter                                      John 20:1-18                                                                                                   Mary Magdalene is probably one of the most misrepresented and misunderstood people in the bible.  Part of the problem is that the name Mary, was the most common female name in the New Testament.  It is understandable that people might confuse her with the Mary of Bethany who is Lazarus’ sister and is the same Mary who poured perfume on Jesus’ feet and wiped it up with her hair.  But it’s not the same Mary. 

A good example of common misperceptions 

Mary Magdalene is commonly described as a prostitute even though there is no evidence to indicate this is true.  It was mostly likely an accusation that was used to discredit her because people didn’t want women leaders in the early church. However, what really sealed her fate was the claim that Pope Gregory the Great made in 591 that she was the same Mary as Mary of Bethany, as well as the unnamed woman who was caught in adultery.  He based this on…absolutely nothing but his own assumptions.

The other common accusation is that she had some sort of romantic relationship with Jesus.  Because obviously a single woman could only be important to Jesus if she was romantically involved with him.  The only slightly negative thing in the actual Biblical text about Mary Magdalene is that she was someone who Jesus released demons from, which could mean any number of things.   

What we know about Mary Magdalene---because it’s in every single Gospel—is that she was at the empty tomb.  In three out of the four gospels, she is also present at the crucifixion, even when every other disciple (except one unnamed disciple who is only mentioned in John) abandoned Jesus to die alone. She witnessed him suffer on the cross, was there to mourn him, and then spread the news of his resurrection. That is the truth of Mary Magdalene. 

It would be hard to be a woman in ministry and not spend some time thinking about Mary Magdalene.  I have studied her over the years, but admit that I forgot she was the same Mary who Jesus banished demons from.  That story wasn’t convenient to the narrative I created for her, so I forgot it.  I wanted to focus on her strength and her role as a leader in the early church. Yet this week, as I considered  her place in the story of the resurrection, I realized that her demon possession made her role in the resurrection that much more profound. 

One of my favorite details of John’s Easter story is that it starts in the dark. “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb….”  My day started in the dark today because of our 5:30am service, but I had electric lights to guide me.  I knew that when I got to the church, there would be people around.  Mary Magdalene walked where there were no street lights, no flashlights.  She was going to a tomb of a man who had been killed by the Romans. It was a dangerous place to be. We know this because in the Gospel of Matthew, there were guards posted at the tomb to ensure no one stole the body.

  In the other gospels, multiple women went to the tomb and they went with a purpose. They went to anoint Jesus. But in the Gospel of John, Jesus was anointed by two of his secret disciples right before he was buried. Mary didn’t seem to be going there to anoint his body. She was going there to grieve, to grieve alone.

The Gospels include many stories of Jesus exorcising demons.  Many biblical scholars have concluded that those who were considered possessed were probably suffering from a mental or physical illness, something that could not easily be described or understood. Mary was described as having 7 demons.  We can’t know exactly what that looked like, but I am willing to bet that this woman had known darkness on many levels.  She knew what it was to be controlled by something, to be alone, to be ostracized. She knew darkness.

 We in the church love to talk about light in the darkness, about light conquering the darkness. That is how the Gospel of John begins. “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” Yet I wonder if in our desperation for light, we have lost the beauty and the wisdom that can come in the darkness.

When Mary went  to the tomb and saw that the stone was rolled away, she did the most logical thing. She went and told the disciples that Jesus’ body was gone.  She assumed someone had taken it. Because really, that was the most logical assumption.  The disciples needed to see it for themselves.  Peter and the beloved disciple (who by the way, we don’t know who it was) ran to the tomb. The text says, “(the beloved disciple) saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” That’s a confusing statement. What did they believe? It would appear, they just believed what Mary told them as they had now confirmed it.  The tomb was empty.  They did not yet know that Jesus had risen from the dead. They returned to their homes, but Mary stayed. She stayed alone outside an empty tomb because she was the kind of person who understood darkness.  She might not have liked it, but she was willing to sit in it for awhile.

            When the other disciples ran to the safety of their homes, she stayed and wept. No one knows how long. The text makes it seem like it was brief, but I imagine her staying for hours. Then she looked in.  When she first came to the tomb, it doesn’t say she looked in. It just said that she saw the stone was rolled away and immediately went to the disciples to let them know.

I think it took her some time to garner the strength to look in that tomb. It’s not easy to look in the place where your dead friend is supposed to be. It is not easy to confront our own grief. Because she took that time and stayed in that dark place, angels appeared.  Angels appeared and asked her why she was crying.  God bless her, she answered them kindly. (More than I would have done.)  She told them she was crying because someone took away her Lord and she didn’t know where he was.  Then another man, who she assumed was a gardener, asked the same inane question.  She accused him of taking the body.  She was bold. For a woman to be alone with men at that time was a risky thing. 

She should have run as soon as random men showed up asking her stupid questions.  But she stayed.  She stayed and spoke up, as she had no doubt done before.  Because of that…Jesus called her by name.  Then she saw him for who he was, not just the man who had freed her from demons, but her Lord and savior who had now defeated death.

            We all come to the tomb in different ways.  Maybe we come like Peter did.  We run as fast as we can, look in and see the emptiness and then run home and wait for a clearer invitation.  Maybe like the beloved disciple we find the courage to investigate but also return to our homes to wait for Jesus to barge in our front door.  Or maybe we have the courage of Mary to approach in darkness, get the wrong idea and then argue with people who try to help…but eventually drop our defenses enough, cry long enough— to hear Jesus’ voice break through the darkness. 

What I hope and pray, is that you will consider what your own approach to the tomb looks like, feels like, and sounds like.  What does holiness and rebirth look like to you? Where in your life do you need resurrection? Maybe it takes you awhile.  That’s ok.  If it does, I hope you will find some peace in the darkness because God comes to us in all kinds of places.  The more comfortable we are in the darkness, the more likely we are to find Jesus while those around us curse the darkness— the more likely we are to believe that there is hope, long before we see the light.  Light and darkness live side by side and as Christians, we find ways to live with them both.

Icons aren't meant to provide an accurate representation, but they do imply that this is someone who deserves respect, which is why I prefer this over most images.