A Life Lesson from the life of Mary Magdalene
Luke 8:1-3
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz
Luke 8:1 Soon afterward, Jesus began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who were contributing to their support out of their private means.
Jesus’ words in the Bible can have such an influence on our lives today. Just to understand how God wants us to live in righteousness is found by reading Jesus’ words and acting the way he would. It always reminds me of the late 1990s and the WW JD movement. For those that don’t know what that means, the letters stand for what would Jesus do. In this message, I want to concentrate on how Jesus’ words will remove sin from us and how he offers forgiveness.
When we look at chapter 8 of Luke’s gospel verses 1 to 3, we discover that there were a lot of women that supported Jesus’ ministry. One of those people was Mary Magdalene. In these three verses, Luke states Mary had been healed of evil spirits. She actually had seven evil spirits or demons in her. Now I got to take a moment to explain that there are a lot of understandings and misunderstandings about demons and Jesus exorcising the demons.
Ancient people believed demons possessed individuals, forcing them to commit evil or sinful acts. Today we would say no, it’s actually your decision on whether to behave good or bad. Be that as it may for Jesus’ day, it was believed that the demons possessed you. Therefore, Jesus exorcised the demons. Bringing that into today’s world and looking at Jesus' words, each of us can exorcise these demons.
How can we do this? It is because the demons are not evil spirits inside of us but inappropriate behaviors that we like to do. So, how do we get rid of these demons, or should I say these inappropriate behaviors, and receive forgiveness for the sins that the evil in us causes? The first is to accept the truth that some of your behaviors are evil or sinful. That’s probably one of the toughest things to do because many of us have had these inappropriate behaviors for some time and there are people that think that their bad behaviors are more than acceptable. The road to forgiveness for sin is to acknowledge that it exists in us. We accept that we have an inappropriate behavior or an evil behavior that we want to get rid of.
One thing we have to add into this discussion is that we accept the behaviors were displaying is evil. Then we have to learn about what we were doing and how were hurting other people. We need to learn about what consequences this inappropriate behavior is causing and why people think it’s evil, especially when you think that this behavior is not evil.
Once we’ve done that, we can look into Jesus' words about forgiveness and how we can get rid of this evil. It’s really not a laborious process to understand. However, it is a unique process to do. Now comes the hard part, and that is repentance. We must repent of these evil ways and these inappropriate behaviors. However, most people don’t understand what repentance is. The word repentance means to change one’s behavior. Therefore, when we repent from inappropriate behavior, we say that God helps us not to do this again. We're asking Jesus to help us change our behavior. This could be a decade-long bad habit someone wants to break, or something they just started a few minutes ago. It doesn’t matter what or how long the behavior has been repenting means to get rid of it permanently.
At that point, our spirits are now clean. We can ask for forgiveness. One thing many Christians forget is that Jesus offers forgiveness for sin if you ask for it. Asking for that redemption is a way of acknowledging that we had an evil or inappropriate behavior, and we really want to get rid of it and we really don’t want to do it again. Look at the stories in the Gospels of people who were healed of wrongdoing. In chapter 8 of Luke’s gospel, we learn about how Mary Magdalene became a supporter of Jesus, and we know from her story she asked him to rid her of her evil ways. And because she wanted to become a good person, Jesus helped her. She repented and became one of his strongest supporters.
One of the difficult things I’ve heard people tell me over the years is that they have trouble accepting forgiveness. I’ve heard people say to me that what they’ve done is so bad they can’t believe that God and Jesus would actually forgive them. Therefore, if you’re going to go through this process, which you really should if you’re sinning, then you have to understand that you need to accept that Jesus will offer this forgiveness because you’ve done these different things and in your heart, you want to become an outstanding person.
And when you accept the forgiveness, and you have changed your ways through repentance then you have become a restored person. That sin is now wiped away not only from you but also from that book of life that we believe God has in heaven. When we come to judgment day God will not see those sins that we have repented for, and Jesus has forgiven us for. Jesus will be there by our side because tradition tells us that Satan will show up and say to God look at all these evil things in sinful things this person did. God will look at us standing with Jesus and will say to Satan, I see no sin in this person because this person has been healed by my son Jesus from all of his sins.
Be healed by the power of Jesus words. Forgiveness of sin is something that we need, and we ask for and we will receive if we follow these simple steps. God so loved the world that he sent his only son Jesus Christ to bring us forgiveness for sin and God’s love because God wants us to spend an eternity with him.
