Magdalene

Mary Magdalene, by AlexGilBle

  

Propers: The Fifth Sunday in Lent, AD 2025 C

Homily:

Lord, we pray for the preacher, for You know his sins are great.

Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

You can’t have Easter without Mary Magdalene.

Mary is a wealthy and influential woman; this much is made clear in the text. One can safely do away with the unfortunate tradition that she was a lady of the night. Her social position is simply too high. Mary lives with her sister Martha and brother Lazarus in Bethany, a town two miles east of Jerusalem. I’d be tempted to call it a suburb, if that weren’t anachronistic.

And this family proves important to our story for a number of reasons, the first being that their house appears to be Jesus’ preferred residence whenever He travels to Jerusalem. He would do so several times a year as an observant Jewish man, for Passover, Pentecost, Sukkot, and even Hanukkah. Bethany is very convenient; two miles is but a brisk walk.

In Luke’s Gospel, Mary sits at Jesus’ feet with His disciples, while her sister Martha scolds her; in part, I’m sure, because women were rarely given opportunity to engage in the study of Scripture, let alone in formal rabbinical training. But what does Jesus say? “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her.” That’s scandalous stuff for the first century. Indeed, Jesus’ emphasis on the importance of women in His community gave the Church a bad rap early on.

Now, you may have noticed that there are a lot of Marys in the New Testament, some half-dozen or so amongst Jesus’ family and friends. And there’s a good reason for that: the reason is politics. Rome appointed Herod puppet-king of all Judea. You remember him from Christmas. But the people didn’t consider him a Jew, let alone a legitimate monarch.

So to shore up his claim, Herod married the last princess of the Hasmonian dynasty, the heroes of Hanukkah. You can read about them in the Books of Maccabees. Once married to her, Herod killed her mother, killed her brother, and eventually killed her too. But by all accounts, he was really broken up about it. He kept her body preserved in a vat of honey, over which he would weep at night. And her name, mind you, was Miriam, after Moses’ sister.

Thus anyone dissatisfied by the Roman regime chose to stick it to the man by naming all their daughters Mary, so that Herod could never forget; passive-aggressive, perhaps, but effective nonetheless. Norwegians did something similar under Danish rule, naming their sons Olav after Norway’s patron saint.

Jesus, however, had a habit of renaming His disciples, or at least nicknaming them. Simon He called “the Rock,” drawing from the prophecies of Daniel. Rock in Aramaic is Cephas; or in Latin Petrus; hence, St Peter. James and John became “Sons of Rage,” or “Thunder,” while Thomas for whatever reason we know as “the Twin.” Mary He called Magdalene; not, as was long assumed, because she came from Magdala; but because Magdalene means “the Tower.” Peter then is the Rock, while Mary is the Tower.

St Peter we call Prince of the Apostles, but Mary has a greater title yet. She is the Apostle to the Apostles. It is Mary who remains with Jesus at His Crucifixion, whilst all the men but John appear to have run away. It is Mary who first sets out for the Tomb early on Easter morning, before the sun has risen, in a day and age when women did not go out after dark. Mary is the first to witness the Risen Christ; He goes to her before He goes to anyone.

Thus Mary is the first to proclaim the Resurrection. Don’t tell me that women can’t preach; the Apostles heard the Gospel first from her. There is no Easter without Mary Magdalene.

She is even, like as not, the reason we have Easter eggs. Early depictions of Mary in Christian art portray her red-eyed and weeping before the open Tomb, holding an egg in her hand. Why an egg? Seem a little odd? Well, the short version is that it’s a symbol of mourning. Regardless, as time went on, those red eyes became her defining artistic feature, such that soon her clothes were red, her hair was red, and, yes, the egg was red. The more you know.

Our Gospel reading this morning sets us up for Holy Week. Jesus has recently worked a miracle that soon will cause His death: He raised Lazarus up from the dead. Mary’s brother had been in his tomb, in the punishing Near Eastern climate, for four days; long enough for the soul to depart; long enough to stink. Half of Jerusalem had come out for the funeral, up and over the Mount of Olives, walking those precious two miles. The City of David showed up to mourn with Mary’s family.

And when Jesus arrives, the sisters say that He could’ve saved Lazarus’ life. If only He had been there! Hadn’t they seen Him cure the sick? Hadn’t they seen Him raise the dead? And so Jesus wept. Then He calls out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And the dead man gets back up! The stone is rolled away, the linen wrappings undone, and the resurrected man steps forth for all the world to see. And the crowd goes wild!

This was no quiet, private, upper-room resuscitation. This was the power of Christ displayed for all the world to see. He caused such an uproar that for a time He had to flee, out into the boonies, away from the frenzied mob. But He had to come back for the Passover. He had to come back for the Cross. Jesus spends the night in Bethany, for one is not to travel on the sabbath; spends the night in the house of a man whom He has raised up from the dead. What conversations those must’ve been.

It’s all coming to head now. Three and a half years of ministry and miracles have all led up to this. Come Sunday morning, Jesus is going to get up and go to Jerusalem, where blood will surely flow; either His or the city’s. Jesus’ presence may incite a riot, and everybody knows it. Whatever happens next, it will be big.

And so at this juncture, on the eve of Palm Sunday, Mary Magdalene—Mary of Bethany, Mary the Tower—brings out a pound of pure nard worth 300 denarii—a year’s wages for a working man—and anoints Jesus’ body, christening the Christ, weeping and wiping His feet with her hair. It is a shocking act of humility and grief and ridiculous abundance. Judas then clutches his pearls: What scandalous waste is this? What shameless theatricality?

But again, Jesus says, “Leave her alone. She bought this for My burial.” Mary understands what Judas will not: that Christ has come to Jerusalem to die. Judas, like Peter before him, does not want a dying God. He doesn’t want a Christ who is stuck upon a Cross. Judas wants a warrior-messiah, a winner, not a loser. He wants what he thinks he was promised: a priestly king from heaven who will wipe the wicked out, cast off the shackles of Rome, and return Judea to freedom and independence as the militant Kingdom of God. Here the man entrusted with the purse cannot conceive the value of Christ’s death.

That’s why he betrays Him, understand. Judas betrays Jesus in order to make Him fight. And when it doesn't go the way he planned, Judas is so undone by his grief that he despairs and dies. If only he had endured, as Peter did, to hear the Risen Jesus’ absolution. Jesus tried to show him. At the Last Supper, at Christ’s Passover from death to life, He knelt down and washed Judas’ feet, as Mary had washed His. He paid it forward, as it were. He shared the love that she had shared with Him. And Judas in response walks away.

Mary Magdalene, then, is not only the first preacher of the Resurrection. She is also for John the first preacher of the Crucifixion! Her faith, her love, in Jesus Christ have opened her red eyes. And so she sees, as yet the Apostles have not, what He has come to do. Mary is the Tower. She can see farther than most.

Judas rejects the Cross, rejects the Christ who dies. Mary accepts Him with tears in her eyes, and has faith that He will rise: anointing Him with her riches, drying His feet with her hair, standing by His Cross while we all torture Him to death, weeping at His Tomb; and proclaiming at last to all the world that Jesus is alive.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pertinent Links

RDG Stout

Blog: https://rdgstout.blogspot.com/

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsqiJiPAwfNS-nVhYeXkfOA

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St Peter’s Lutheran

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Website: https://www.stpetersnymills.org/

Donation: https://secure.myvanco.com/L-Z9EG/home

Nidaros Lutheran

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nidaroschurch6026