As the Pastor introduced his children’s sermon on Easter, he asked the little ones, “Do you see anything different about our church today?” Little Heather quickly figured out the difference and blurted out, “It’s full!” `
I cannot even imagine what kind of morning it must have been. Was it a morning like this? It started out just like any other day, except the world had just lost a leader, really a servant. And there was Mary Magdalene. Her world was instantly turned upside down, and she was devastated. This man Jesus had literally saved her life, and now she was completely without hope after watching His life here on earth come to a bitter end.
For Easter is really about hope.
Our text of this morning’s message is from the Gospel according to John, chapter 20 verses 1 through 18. Listen to verses 1 through 13:
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
So Peter and John started for the tomb. Both were running, but John outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally John, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."
Mary Magdalene is one of the best-known and least-understood names in Scripture. Scripture deliberately draws a curtain of silence over much of her life and personal background, but she still emerges as one of the prominent women of the New Testament. She is mentioned by name in all four of the Gospels, mostly in connection with the events of Jesus’ crucifixion. And she holds an amazing, eternal distinction over any one else mentioned in the Bible.
Mary Magdalene certainly had a dark past. Not much is known about her, except that she was indeed a woman who Christ had liberated from demonic bondage. Both Luke and Mark identified her as a women who was possessed not by one, but by seven demons.
Actually, “Magdalene” is not a surname in the modern sense. She wasn’t from a family that went by that name; she was from the small village of Magdala. She was called “Magdalene” to distinguish her from the other women named Mary in the New Testament, including Mary of Bethany and Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
The tiny village of Magdala is located on the west side of the Sea of Galilee, just north of Tiberius and south of Capernaum. It is nearby where Jesus gave His sermon on the mount. It is a beautiful little village, and Jesus spent a lot of His time ministering in and around this region.
When Jesus first met Mary, she was a broken woman. Demon possession is an affliction like none other. There was nothing any mere man or woman could do for her. She most likely was depressed, filled with anxiety and unhappiness – she was lonely without friends, self loathing, filled with shame, fear and a host of other similar miseries. In all probability, she suffered even worse torments too. Whatever her condition, she would have been in perpetual agony.
But Jesus Christ delivered her from all of her afflictions. Scripture does not go into detail, but through Christ she was set free. Only through Jesus Christ! And the same holds true for us today.
Mary Magdalene joined the close circle of disciples who traveled with Jesus on His long journeys. She never forgot the One who saved and changed her life, and she devoted her life to sharing His message with others.
And it was most apparent at the end of Jesus’ life on earth. Matthew, Mark and John all record that Mary Magdalene was present at the crucifixion. Combining all three accounts, it is clear that she stood right there with Mary, the Mother of Jesus and two other women. According to the Gospel of John, they stood right by the cross, close enough to hear Jesus’ words when He committed His Mother to John’s care. But Matthew and Mark, describing the end of the ordeal, said that the women were “looking on from afar.” As the crucifixion wore on, crowds gathered and pushed them further away. Or perhaps they stood further away because they could not bear to watch. But they remained until the bitter end. There was Mary Magdalene, watching the One who delivered her from bondage, delivering the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind. And Mary remained longer than any disciple at the cross. And then she was first to reach His tomb at daybreak on the first day of the week. Her devotion was never more plain than in her response to His death, and that devotion was about to be rewarded in an unimaginably, triumphant way.
What would have Mary been thinking? She knew where Joseph and Nicodemus had laid Jesus’ body in the garden tomb; because she secretly watched them hastily prepare His body for burial just before Sabbath on that late Friday afternoon. And she was first on the scene on Sunday morning to give Jesus the kind of burial He deserved, a burial worthy of Someone so profoundly loved. According to Scripture, she wasn’t even thinking about resurrection, she was more concerned about His death.
But what she saw, and what she experienced I’m sure changed her life forever.
As she stood outside that garden tomb, listen to John’s words, verses 14 through 18:
After the Angel’s asked why Mary was crying, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher)? Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that He had said these things to her. All He had to say was her name, and she instantly recognized Him. “He calls His own sheep by name….and they know His voice” written in John’s Gospel chapter 10, verses 3 & 4.
“Rabboni!” Mary’s grief instantly turned to inexpressible joy and she must have tried to hold Him as if she would never let Him go.
His words, “Do not cling to Me” testified in a unique way to the extraordinary character of Mary Magdalene. Most of us are too much like the Apostle Thomas – hesitant, pessimistic. Jesus urged Thomas to touch Him, in order to verify Jesus’ identity. It is remarkable that then and now, we constantly need to be coaxed nearer to Him, but Mary, by contrast, did not want to let Him go.
What an honor that was for Mary. One who had been broken and Demon possessed. One who was lonely, friendless, without any hope at all. One who was freed from her afflictions, by the only One who can. The One who chose to appear to Mary first, before anyone else according to the Gospel of Mark. Others had already heard and believed the glad news from the mouth of an Angel. But Mary got to hear it first from the mouth of Jesus Himself.
Jesus could have appeared first to John or Peter, Joseph of Arimathea, or any of His other Disciples. He could have appeared before Pilate, or Herod, or the members of the Sanhedrin all who sentenced Him to death. There were many important people He could have chosen. But instead He appeared first to a simple woman. A woman with a broken past. A woman who loved Him more than anything, because He saved her life. And He still saves lives today. That was her extraordinary legacy. No one can ever share that honor or take it from her. But we can, and should, seek to imitate her deep love for Christ.
That is what Easter is. It is about love and it is about hope. What an amazing morning that must have been.
