John 20:1-18 “Magdalena”

I really love the responses I get back from the participants of the Bible Study groups. On Tuesday afternoon I asked the question that I am sure is on everybody’s mind about the scene we have displayed for us by John about the first Easter Morning. We see Mary of Magdala at the tomb of Jesus. She notes that the tomb is open and the body is gone. She RUNS to where the Disciples are hiding out. John and Peter then RUN to the tomb. We actually see a footrace going on that John wins, but then he allows Peter to go into the tomb first. Soooo, what is all this racing back and forth going on on Easter morning? It is like the running we see when the kids are let loose to go find Easter eggs in the garden! Why is everyone running?

Aida answered, while looking up from her cellphone, “They are running because they did not have cell phones back then.” As funny as that sounds, it is absolutely the case. The fastest communication back then was in fact a courier running at full speed. That is where we get the idea of the Marathon runner we have today. One man runs from Marathon, Greece, to Athens. This is how news travels in Jesus’ day–by foot!

If Easter were to happen today, what would it look like? The security cameras catch angels rolling the stone away. Mary of Magdala gets an alert on her phone. She switches on the video camera on the phone and posts Jesus instantly on Social Media. The entire world gets the news of the resurrection to eternal life in the time it takes to upload the 4k video.

But wait, within a minute the Sadducees and Roman Guard also post that the video is a deep fake generated by AI. Magdalena’s account is then suspended for uploading the content, and all will be once more as if Jesus was never resurrected at all. The hope of Easter will be turned to the doubt of our online internet fantasy world.

We continue this morning with the women of the Bible series with Mary Magdalena. As I noted to you all last week about Mary of Bethany is that we have an awful lot of “Marys” in the Bible. Here is another one. The question is “Who is this Mary?” Down throughout history she has been painted with many different colours. Way back in 591 AD the Pope conflated two stories of the bible; that is the story of Mary who has seven demons cast out of her by Jesus, who is Magdalena with the woman who is about to be stoned as an adulterous. See Luke 8 and compare with John 8 for homework. The bible does not offer any kind of connection between these two very different stories. So, the Pope was wrong. Mary was never named as an adulterous women or a prostitute in the Bible.

Today we have a popular novelist by the name of Dan Brown who has written that Mary of Magdala was the secret wife of Jesus. His source for making this assertion seems to be a pair of gnostic gospels written hundreds of years after Jesus lived–really in the early Medieval period of literature. The gospels were rejected at the Council of Nicea, which canonized the Bible as we know it today.

Really, we have the two best clues as to who Magdalena was right here in the Easter text! John and Peter have gone back into hiding after seeing the empty tomb. Well, how did Magdalena know where they were hiding? She was a trusted member of Jesus’ and the disciples inner circle. The fact that she is able to just run right to the other disciples to tell them of the tomb being opened is significant.

The other indicator of her relationship to Christ comes when Jesus calls out her name: “Mary.” Magdalena responds with the title a disciple would call a great teacher in the day “Rabouni.” That means literally “my teacher.” She does not call him “love of my life” or some such. He gets a very respectful “teacher.” That is all.

As many of you are aware, my wife has been away for a few weeks back to Malaysia. I went out on Monday to the airport to pick her up. She was waiting at the curb. She got in the car, and I addressed her as any husband would: “Hey dude, whassup?” No, we actually kissed hello, but I do not want to mention any of that mushy stuff in church. The point is that if Magdalena and Jesus were “you know” into each other as husband and wife, then surely we would have noted that at the time they meet again after Jesus’ death. It simply is not there. What we see is that Magdalena was a disciple greeting her teacher.

As we see at the dawn of Easter, Mary of Magdala comes alone to the tomb. All of the other disciples are gathered in a room together, yet she is alone. This is very dangerous for a woman in that day—it may be even more dangerous today in fact. We pray for our brothers and sisters in the Levant. The violence never seems to get better, even after two thousand years.

Almost as if it were against some heavenly law to be alone, God sends two angels to be with her though. They comfort her. They see that she is weeping. They console her right away. She is now in heavenly fellowship with God. I love this! I see in this the notion that even in our darkest moments on this planet, we will not be alone. God will send God’s angels to be with us.

Now, I know we have a point of contention about how many women were there at the tomb in regards to the telling of this story in the other Gospels. John in his telling, I believe, is trying to make the very important point that angels and Jesus will come to you personally. As much as we would love to think that everybody comes to meet Jesus here in the church, the truth of the matter is that Jesus chooses the place and time. Jesus chose to reveal himself to Magdalena privately on Easter Morning. Jesus could have gone to where the other disciples were hiding out. He did not. He came to Magdalena in a personal and private setting and at an early hour. To be sure, if Jesus chooses to meet you here in this moment, then Jesus will. If Jesus chooses to use my words to get you to see him alive this morning in your life, then Jesus will! We bring ourselves to the tomb this morning, looking for our Lord. But then, as is right, the Lord seeks us out, too. He calls out our name!

“Mary” Jesus says to her. Magdalena’s mind is also racing in that moment. “How could the gardener know my name? This cannot be the gardener then, who is it?” Honestly, it has happened enough times here at the church that I have been mistaken for the gardener. This is usually because I am dressed with my work clothes on. I will probably have some tools in my hand. If I am not the gardener, then I am mistaken for the plumber, electrician, or who knows whom!

It is perfectly okay that you get confused about who the pastor of the church is. Just do not mess up when Jesus calls your name! How can I know that Jesus will know my name? And, in Matthew 7:21-23 we can read about how it may come to be that Jesus would not ever come to know me: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then, I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, go away from me, you evildoers.’”

So, if we did see a video of Jesus on social media what would we do? Would we not want to go touch him and see if he is real? Mary tries to reach out for Jesus on Easter morning. She wants to make sure he is real. Jesus tells her, “Not yet.” John’s point is that Jesus leaves us with faith–not physical evidence. I have gone to many religious sites around Europe, churches and museums. In most I have seen a “splinter of the True Cross of Christ.” Here is evidence that Jesus was crucified, right? The fact of the matter is that if I were to gather up all the splinters, Jesus’ Cross would be the size of the Empire State building.

No, what we are left with is Magdalena’s word. We are left with the faith of this female disciple of Jesus. And, we are left with a sincere question as to why or how Jesus’ resurrection is now different than Lazarus coming back from the dead, which we heard last week when Jesus went to visit Lazarus’ house where Mary and Martha of Behtnay resided.

Unlike Lazarus who was brought back to life to live here on earth, and then one day die again, Magdalena sees Jesus who is right in front of her but who belongs up in heaven with the Father. Hence, Magdalena is the first person on the entire planet ever to see the true afterlife right there in front of her. Lazarus was the previous life given back to him, and Jesus is the incarnation of the eternal life with the Father in heaven.

I think about how special a moment this is for humanity. I mean, I would have liked to have been there when the apple fell on Sir Isaac Newton’s head, thus establishing the laws of physics in regards to gravity. I would have liked to have been traveling on that same train with Albert Einstein when he looked over at a train passing in the opposite direction and noticed the people in that train moving slower, thus realizing that relativity of time in space. I would have gotten a charge out of flying a kite in a lightning storm with Ben Franklin. I might have even wanted to be there when Colonel Sanders discovered his chicken recipe. But, most of all, I would have liked to have been with Magdalena when she first saw Jesus in his resurrection! The hope of all humankind was standing there right in front of her. God incarnate about to ascend! That would be more exciting than the left Twix and the Right Twix coming together in one package. Earth and heaven were in that same space and time. Then, Magdalena understood what we so fully grasp today that we will be with God again.

Happy Easter, Amen