Easter Sunday sermon: The scriptures are embedded in the text, but I would also like to share that I am sharing some of the music from Jesus Christ Superstar during the service, also. Please listen to Mary Magdalene’s song, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and the final song, “Jesus Christ Superstar” at its inclusion. I was fortunate to see the Broadway production in 1972 with my high school classmates on our senior trip. The fact that it is going to be a live performance this Easter Sunday on NBC will be a dramatic ending to this Easter Sunday.
Let me introduce you to Mary of Magdala. Her image is the final one in the Church of the Resurrection’s stained glass window. She is sitting on a stone, weeping and alone—at least the artist has her pictured this way in the window.
The trial and the crucifixion is over and the very same people who were standing along the road cheering as Jesus arrived on a donkey one week earlier are now in hiding. Mary of Magdala is not.
Mary stayed beside Jesus as he hung on the cross and died. Joseph of Arimathea takes the body and places it in his personal tomb late Friday just before Sabbath began. The first opportunity Mary and a few other women have to complete the burial practice was Sunday morning:
It was customary to wash the body and anoint it with perfumes and spices, not ever for embalming but always to control the odors. . . . The hands and feet were wrapped with linen clothes (grave-bands), and the face and head were covered with a small cloth and bound. It was loving friends and relatives, mostly women, who prepared the body. The Jews did not use coffins and did not embalm. [Accessed on 3-29-18 at http://www.bible-history.com/backd2/burial.html.]
Who is Mary Magdalene?
Why did this woman stay beside Jesus through the crucifixion?
Why did Jesus speak to her that Sunday morning?
Mary of Magdala is first introduced by Luke earlier in the story of Jesus’ ministry found in Luke 8:1-3:
Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, 2 along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; 3 Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.
This introduction immediately follows the story of the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet while at a dinner with the Pharisees.
But who is this Mary and why did she stay beside Jesus only to be the one who witnessed and recognized his resurrection first?
Research shares insight into the character Mary Magdalene, but the reality of this woman cannot be definitively identified with factual details. The possibility of her relationship with Jesus being more than a disciple is the subject of movies. The research cannot refute it, but the fact does not change the importance of Luke’s and John’s reporting of her presence at the resurrection. And, if the possibility of the intimate relationship with Jesus is true, the morning of the Resurrection may actually be more believable.
The Gospel of John reports the morning’s events to the earliest Christians:
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— 9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then they went home.
11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in.12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
Who is Mary Magdalene?
Why did this woman stay beside Jesus through the crucifixion?
Why did Jesus speak to her that Sunday morning?
Mary came from the city of Magdala, a trade center, and probably was a successful businesswoman in the textile industry. She was afflicted with seven demons according to the scripture. The story does not explain, but you know the demons that can cause one to lose focus. Maybe she was mentally struggling with manic depression. Maybe one demon was physical pain from something like endometriosis or rheumatoid arthritis. Maybe she had a strawberry birthmark that caused her embarrassment.
The demon does not matter, but what the story tells us is that Jesus loved her unconditionally and healed her from the demons. Such unconditional love is the message that Jesus delivered. Mary chose to accept that unconditional love and responded in a manner that she became a disciple—maybe even one of Jesus’ inner circle, an apostle.
Put yourself in Mary’s place on that Sunday morning. Would you have been sitting on that rock weeping? Or would you have been one who had gone into hiding?
Mary’s story continues as she arrives at the tomb early Sunday morning. Her sorrow keeps her steps slow and heavy. Her head remains downward. She carries the supplies she needs to complete the burial ritual. There is no joy in her heart, in her step, nor in her expression. Her eyes are red from the tears shed over the past several days. Her hair is a mess. She has no reason to fix herself up. She is raw.
And as she reaches the tomb, she looks up. The stone is rolled away from the opening! The exhaustion she feels turns into agitated confusion. Why is the tomb open? Why is the tomb empty? New tears begin flowing now from confusion and uncertainty and even fear.
Then she turns and sees a figure. Out of context. Out of a mind.
And the figure speaks to her. Only when he addresses her in that familiar tone she knows so well, “Mary”, does Mary of Magdala recognize Jesus. In John, the story continues:
16 “Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).
17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
Tears turn to joy!
Mary carried the news to the other disciples. She knew where they were. She knew the importance of reporting what she saw—who she spoke to. The story of Jesus’ ministry must continue and she who may have been the most emotionally connected to Jesus now had to take a new role—deliver the message of his resurrection. He still had work to do and even though she wanted to hold him, she couldn’t. Her faith caused her to move into action.
In a male-dominated culture, where Jesus treated the women equally, Mary Magdalene recognizes the truth of the resurrection. Jesus is alive and all the disciples now must carry the story forward. They must live as Jesus taught them. You, too, even 2,000 years later are to join in the task of telling the good news, living the Christian lifestyle, and loving one another as you want to be loved.
Why did Jesus speak to Mary that Sunday morning?
Because he lives. [Conclude with the music, Because He Lives.]
Closing prayer
Dear ever-loving Lord,
May we experience the joy
Mary of Magdala did
As Jesus called out her name.
May we hear God call our names
As Mary Magdalene did
Knowing we, too, are with you
Now and forever.
Guide us to understanding.
Guide us to commitment.
Guide us to serve
One another in love,
Unconditional love.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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