The first person Jesus revealed Himself to as the resurrected Lord wasn’t Peter, and it wasn’t John. It wasn’t his mother, Mary, whom the Catholic church makes a saint and a co-redeemer. It was Mary Magdalene. That teaches us a lot. Jesus is not looking at your status in society. He’s not looking into your bank account, into your success story. All He cares about is your dedication, your love, and how much of a Lord is He in your life. He was everything to Mary.
Magdala was a town, but Mary Magdalene is the story of this town. Today, everybody knows about Magdala or Migdal because of Mary. She was nothing. Nobody loved her. Nobody cared about her. She was an outcast. She was a damaged good. She was rejected. But because of her love and dedication to Jesus, we all know about Magdala today.
She became the reason we want to know more about this town. She became the reason we want to know more about Jesus. How beautiful it is that all that it takes for us to be someone is us making ourself nothing, so we can make Him everything in our life.
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, three days after the most horrific mockery of a trial in human history, one woman found herself at the tomb of the victim of this tragic event, Jesus. The truth was that the size of the crowd that thronged the road on the day He rode into Jerusalem as “the blessed One who comes in the name of the Lord” should have been equalled or even surpassed on this morning.
Matthew 20:17-19 KJV – “And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.”
Luke 18:31-33 KJV – “Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.”
On multiple occasions Jesus made it clear what the future would bring for Him, and, yet, when things happened just as He foretold, there were no crowds, there was no fanfare. There were just three heartbroken women (Mark 16:1) who had come to anoint the body of their beloved friend while it was still early on a dark Sunday morning. The three women were Mary, the mother of James the less, Salome the wife of Zebedee and mother to James and John, and Mary of Magdala, from whom Jesus had cast out seven demons.
Mark 16:9-11 KJV – “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.”
When Mary first found the tomb empty she ran to tell Peter and John, who also came and found the tomb empty. But Jesus didn’t reveal Himself to these two members of His inner circle. He didn’t reveal Himself to the wife of the owner of a successful fishing business; a woman who was also mother to the two men whom Jesus nicknamed “sons of thunder” and who rounded out the trio of Jesus inner circle with Peter. He didn’t reveal Himself to the mother of James the less. He first revealed Himself to Mary of Magdala, whom the disciples did not believe when she said Jesus appeared to her.
To Jesus, her past didn’t determine her value, and her present didn’t dictate her worth. He didn’t reveal Himself first to the Sanhedrin or the Pharisees, nor to Roman authorities. He revealed Himself first to a woman with a past, a woman whose words didn’t seem to mean much to others and, yet, here we are nearly 2000 years later and millions know her name and story.
Luke 19:10 KJV – “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Mary would certainly have qualified as “that which was lost”, and the Lord came and sought her out to save her. No matter what she had done in the past, no matter where she fit in the cultural or social scheme of the day, she needed a Savior. What Jesus did for her freed her and created in her a deep love for Him. So, when she came to the empty tomb and found it empty, she wept thinking someone had taken away the body of her Lord.
The same is true for us. The Lord has separated us from our past. He does not care who we are in this world or where we land in the social strata of the day. He came to seek us out and save us and make us new creations in Him!
The only right response to this great love is to have a great love for Him. When Jesus revealed Himself at the garden tomb to Mary, after Mary thought at first He was the gardener, He said her name. Her eyes were opened to who He was, and she called Him “Rabboni”, which means “teacher.”
Of all the rightful things that He could be called – Savior, Master, Lord, or, as Thomas later proclaimed of Him, “My Lord and my God” – Mary called Him “teacher.” He was the One who taught her what love truly is. He is the One who taught her what freedom feels like. He is also the One who has done these same things for us, so our response to Him should be as hers – a deep and passionate love for Him in light of all He has done for us.
He’s forgiven our past, given us His Spirit to live in the present, promised us an incredible future, and is coming to get us someday to take us to where He is. Bless His holy name!
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus,
