by Eileen Norman

Created on: July 14, 2009

Mary Magdalene: Witness to Grace in Suffering

I identify with Mary, partly because I am a woman who has suffered from my own demons, but mostly because almost 40 years ago, I heard the Lord call my name and I began to recognize him in my own ordinary life, even in the darkness before dawn. So, I am grateful for a chance to share in Mary's witness to the presence of our risen Lord.

To get a better picture of Mary Magdalene, let's reflect on four scriptural references to her:

In Luke 8:1-3 we read of a group of women who accompany Jesus and his disciples. One is Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out.

John 19:25 describes the crucifixion: ....standing near the cross of Jesus were (Mary)His mother, His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

In John 20:16 Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb in the darkness before dawn to minister to the body of Jesus. She is overwhelmed with grief when she can't find him. She only recognizes Jesus when she hears him call her by name. Then, she is the first to know that Jesus is risen.

In John 20:18 Mary is also the first to proclaim to others the good news that Jesus is risen.

These Scriptures leave us a lot of blanks to fill in and I'm about to take liberties imagining what Mary Magdalene was like and what she was experiencing, so keep in mind that this is the gospel only according to my imagination.

Contrary to all rumors, the Scriptures never actually labeled Mary Magdalene a prostitute. That was just a conjecture that came later. So, if Mary wasn't a prostitute, how did she have the time, money, and cultural freedom to hang out with Jesus and the disciples?

If she is grouped with Jesus' mother and his aunt could that indicate that she was no spring chicken, never the less, a swinger? In fact, couldn't she have been a nice middle class, middle aged widow? Her seven demons weren't necessarily the head spinning kind. Maybe they were the estrogen imbalance kind, like anxiety, forgetfulness, mood swings and erratic sleep! And if she was up before dawn going to the tomb, maybe she, like many of us mature women, tended to wake up at odd predawn hours and want to use that time to do something helpful and loving.

With this picture of her, imagine for a moment what she was experiencing at the foot of the cross. Jesus was her teacher, her healer, her hero, her savior, maybe even her hope for meaning and purpose in the rest of her life. Then she had to stand helplessly watching

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