There's Something about Mary (Magdalene, that is)

Easter Sunday, early 1980s

As early spring sunlight filtered in through the familiar arched windows, and the heady fragrance of the lilies drifted up to the first row of the balcony where I sat, my ears suddenly perked up, and I listened with new interest to the unfolding Easter Sunday sermon.

As Pastor worked his way through the passage from John that described Mary Magdalene finding Jesus' empty tomb, it sounded to my 14-year-old self (although I don't think Pastor literally said this) like Mary Magdalene was in love with Jesus and that he had some sort of abiding affection for her. For a teenager caught up in the dramas of high school, this ancient drama had a very real impact on me as I began to see the "fully human" piece of Jesus in a whole new light. Intersections of life and faith.

Not long after that, Jesus Christ Superstar, in all its Andrew Lloyd Webber glory, became my favorite musical. I learned how to play Mary Magdalene's ballad, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" on the piano, which further reinforced my romantic notion of her unrequited love.

(And certainly, Jesus did love her, but not in that way.  He just wanted to be friends.  This so fit with high school!)

Yet two decades later, while doing research for one of my books, I was reading back through the Gospels looking for Mary's stories.  As I read and reread, it became pretty clear to me that the Mary I thought I knew was not the real Mary Magdalene.

My Mary Magdalene was a prostitute who Jesus rescued from a life of sin. My Mary Magdalene defied her family, opened a bottle of rare perfume (worth a year's wages), rubbed the fragrant oil on Jesus' feet and wiped it away with her hair as a sign of her devotion.  Yet my other sources revealed that the there was no reference to Mary Magdalene being a woman of ill repute, nor did she appear to be the Mary who wiped Jesus' feet with her hair.  Say what?

This whole image I had of who Mary Magdalene was and what she meant to Jesus just unraveled like a big ball of yarn.  The more I tried to pull the story back together, the further away it rolled.  Disconcerted, I e-mailed my current pastor and asked for his opinion.

Always ready with a resource, Pastor Jul copied some pages for me from the Oxford Companion Study Bible, which noted many people's common misperception of Mary as a prostitute who was in love with Jesus.  It said that Bible scholars have no research to document those interpretations, nor the claim that she is the Mary who wiped Jesus' feet with that precious oil. Mary Magdalene is just one of the many Marys whose stories are woven throughout the Gospels and whose lives intersected with Jesus, making them stop and think about their faith.

Yet there's something about Mary.  Even with my teenage romantic notions dashed, Mary Magdalene is still very much a part of Jesus' story.  It is she who stands with the disciples, watching Jesus die on the cross, powerless to stop it but obligated out of love to suffer with him in spirit.  It is Mary who sits by the tomb as it is sealed.  Again it is Mary who comes on that first Easter Sunday and finds that the stone has been rolled away and the tomb emptied.  And, it is Mary who first speaks to Jesus and is given the instructions to share the Good News:  I have seen the Lord!

Surely, there's something about Mary! May this ancient faith story intersect with your life this Easter and make you stop and think about your relationship with Jesus, today and everyday. Amen. Let it be.

NOTE:  Mary's story can be found in all four Gospels.  My favorite is in John (19:17-41 and 20:1-18).