June 18, 2006 * Festival of St. Mary Magdalene * Pastor Pagels

In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:

If asked you could probably come up with a list of the major festivals the Christian church observes on an annual basis. For example on December 25^th we celebrate the Festival of the Nativity, or Christmas. And on the first Sunday on or after the first full moon on or after the first day of spring we celebrate the Festival of the Resurrection of our Lord, also known as Easter.

The majority of people (whether they are Christians or not) recognize these high and holy days on the Christian calendar, but did you know that our church observes over thirty minor festivals throughout the year? Most of them go by unnoticed unless they fall on a Sunday, and even then it is somewhat rare for us to hold a special service to mark the occasion.

Today we are going to do something about that. This morning we embark on our summer sermon series in an attempt to give some of these lesser known festivals their due. And so for the next twelve weeks we will be “Majoring In the Minors.”

The fist minor festival we observe honors St. Mary Magdalene, a woman whose relationship with Jesus has recently become a topic of major discussion. Unless you have been living in a cave, you have probably heard of a little book (and recently released movie) that made some controversial claims about her.

Although the ideas expressed in The Da Vinci Code are not new, the novel has brought Mary Magdalene into the secular spotlight. She has become the subject of countless articles and television specials, and not all of the information out there is reliable.

The devil is an opportunist, and he has capitalized on this Mary Magdalene mania to lead people, even some Christians, to ask questions, questions like: Was Jesus married? Is Jesus really true God, or was he just a great man?

The devil may be alive and well, but so is our God. And in his Word he gives us exactly what we need to extinguish Satan’s flaming arrows and answer this important question...

WHO IS MARY MAGDALENE?

I. She was a disciple of Jesus

II. She was an apostle to the apostles

Before we can talk about who Mary Magdalene was, we need to understand what she was not. Mary Magdalene was not the wife of Jesus. Let me say that again. Mary Magdalene was not the wife of Jesus. There is not one shred of evidence in the Bible that even suggests the possibility.

But what about those “secret” gospels people have been talking about so much lately? What about the books that didn’t make it into the Bible? In spite of what we have been led to believe, none of these uninspired books makes the claim that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married either.

And in case you were wondering, this isn’t just the position of conservative Christians. When asked whether or not he believed that Jesus was married, the well-known liberal Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan replied: “There is an ancient and venerable principle of biblical exegesis [interpretation] which states that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a camel in disguise.” You have to cut through the thick sarcasm to get to Crossan’s point (which is): Overwhelming evidence proves that Jesus was never married, and it is simply absurd to suggest otherwise.

Another commonly held misconception is that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. The best explanation for this myth is that it was probably an honest mistake. At the end of Luke 7 a sinful woman anointed Jesus’ feet and washed them with her hair. In the opening verses of the next chapter Mary Magdalene is introduced as a disciple of Jesus. If Mary Magdalene had been the sinful woman from the previous chapter, it stands to reason that Luke would have made the connection (which he didn’t).

To add to the confusion there is a different account in John 12 where another woman named Mary (not Mary Magdalene) anointed Jesus’ feet. Mix together two separate accounts with two Marys and two anointings and some poor sermon preparation, and a mistake becomes a widely accepted untruth.

If Mary Magdalene wasn’t a prostitute, and if she wasn’t the wife of Jesus, then who was she? First and foremost, Mary was a disciple of Jesus. We don’t know where or when or how it happened, but perhaps Luke 8 gives us some clues.

Luke reports that Mary was from Magdala, a town about five miles from Capernaum on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Since Capernaum was the home base of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, it is likely that he passed through this nearby village many times. And perhaps it was on one of these trips that Mary Magdalene approached the miracle worker and asked him to drive out her seven demons.

While the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly how Mary became a disciple of Jesus, it does tell us what kind of disciple she was. She was one of a group of women who traveled with Jesus and supported him out of their own means. They didn’t get paid for their service. In fact, they were willing to pay out of their own pockets for the privilege of serving.

The work they did probably wasn’t very glamorous (maybe they did the cooking and cleaning), but it was extremely important. Mary Magdalene and others took care of Jesus’ physical needs so that he could devote his full attention to the world’s spiritual needs.

As devoted as Mary Magdalene was during Jesus’ life, she was just as faithful at the time of his death. When Jesus made his slow death march up Mount Calvary, Mary was there. When the Roman soldiers nailed Jesus to his cross, Mary was there. When the other disciples ran away in fear, Mary Magdalene was there. And it must have given the suffering Savior great comfort to look out and see that she stood by his side even to the end.

Could the Lord say the same about us? By our words and actions do we show ourselves to be Jesus’ faithful disciples? When we observe that God’s name is being misused and abused, are we quick to come to our Lord’s defense? Or does God have to wonder to himself where his disciples have gone?

When we see a friend in need, do we set our own needs aside and rush to his/her aid? Or does God have to wonder to himself where his disciples have gone?

When our allegiance to Jesus makes us unpopular or maybe even unwelcome, do we stand our ground trusting in God’s promise to preserve and protect us? Or does Jesus have to sometimes shake his head and ask: “Where have my disciples gone?”

The Lord never had to ask that question about Mary Magdalene because she was a faithful disciple of Jesus. And on Easter morning the risen Lord honored her by making her an apostle to the apostles.

The word, “apostle,” literally means one who is sent out. And in the Bible the term can be used in a couple of different ways. There were what I will call “capital ‘A’ apostles.” These were men who had seen the resurrected Jesus and had been personally commissioned by Jesus to spread the gospel after his ascension.

But there were also “small ‘a’ apostles,” people who were sent out to tell others what they had seen and heard. According to this broad definition every Christian is an apostle. We are apostles. And God has commissioned us to “let our lights shine” (Matthew 5:16), to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15), to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have” (I Peter 3:15).

Mary Magdalene was commissioned by Jesus in a very special way. And of all places her commissioning took place in a cemetery. Mary was the first one to hear the angels’ report: “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said” (Matthew 28:6). Mary was the first person to see her living Lord on Easter morning. And when she latched onto him in joy and amazement, Jesus said to her: “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17).

With those words Jesus made Mary Magdalene an apostle to the apostles. He sent her to tell the disciples the good news that he was alive, and they in turn carried that good news to Jerusalem, and to all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Maybe you will never get to the ends of the earth. Maybe you will never leave the country. Maybe you will never leave the county. But no matter where you are or where you go, the Lord has commissioned you to be an apostle, and he has given you an amazing message to proclaim: “Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again” (CW 406)!

Because of the controversial claims made about Mary Magdalene in the The Da Vinci Code, it is a worthwhile use of our time to open up our Bibles and take a closer look at her life. But it is also important for us to understand that the real controversy isn’t about Mary Magdalene.

Some Bible critics claim that if it can be proven that Jesus was married the foundations of our faith will be shaken. And the same critics argue that if it can be proven that Jesus was a human husband and father the walls of the Christian church will come crashing down. And so as important as it is for us to know who Mary Magdalene was, the more important question is: Who is Jesus?

We believe that Jesus is true man because the Bible tells us that he is. He was born to a woman named Mary (Luke 2). He wept with another woman named Mary when her brother died (John 11). Jesus even called himself the Son of Man. And if Jesus would have decided to take a wife (which he didn’t), that would have been just one more proof of his humanity.

But what makes Jesus different, what makes Jesus unique, is that he is true man AND true God. He is our brother (Hebrews 2:11), and he is our Savior. He did many of the everyday things that you and I do, and he did the one thing that only God could do.

As true man Jesus died. As true God Jesus died for the sins of the world. And to prove that he is more than a mere mortal, he rose. Jesus rose from the dead to guarantee our resurrection. And we have Mary Magdalene to thank for being the first person to share this good news.

It is somewhat ironic that we are observing the Festival of St. Mary Magdalene today. On a day when we give thanks for the gift of God-fearing fathers, we reject the idea that Jesus ever became a human father.

But we also know that Jesus had a Father, a Father who gave up his Son to take away our sins, a Father who is now our Father by faith, a loving Father who has made us disciples and apostles in the pattern of our sainted sister, Mary Magdalene. Amen.