“Bad Boys (and Girls!) of the Bible: Mary Magdalene”
Luke 8:2
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Dressed in a long black robe with her head bowed and her face covered, a mysterious “woman in black” never spoke a word as she strolled along the streets of America. The solitary figure would only say she was heading to Virginia as she trekked eight hundred and fifty miles across the southern states.
Many people tried to ask her questions. They wanted to know who she was and why she walked. Still she refused to divulge the reason for her pilgrimage and even turned down offers of food and shelter from those she passed by. At one point, police even released a statement asking everyone to “respect her privacy.”
Finally, after someone posted “woman in black” on Twitter and nearly 80,000 people joined a Facebook page, the mystery was solved.
Her name was Elizabeth Poles. She was a fifty-six year-old woman who used to live in Georgia. A mother of two, she first lost her husband in 2008 and then her father in 2009. Then she began to walk, for months at a time. Finally, after walking across Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, she reached her goal. The police took her into protective care.
In the book of Luke chapter 8, the Bible tells us of another mysterious woman, a woman with a trying and troubled past. Her name was Mary Magdalene.
Throughout the pages of the Bible, we meet a lot of bad boys and girls. In fact, there are so many, author Liz Curtis Higgs has, so far, written three books—Bad Girls of the Bible, Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible and even Really Bad Girls of the Bible.
You think some boys in the Bible were bad? Well, they’re nothing compared to some of these women. Eve took the fruit from the tree in the center of the Garden, Jezebel worshiped idols, Potiphar’s wife falsely accused her servant Joseph, Lot’s wife looked back and Delilah cut off Samson’s hair.
Now here, in the book of Luke, we meet yet another bad girl of the Bible, a woman whose name was Mary, Mary of Magdala, Mary Magdalene. In the words of one author: “Mary Magdalene is probably the most well-known woman, but also the least-understood character in all the Bible.”
Listen to the words of Luke chapter 8: “Soon afterward, Jesus went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.”
So who was she and what can we learn from her?
Let me tell you, first of all, who she wasn’t. She wasn’t, as far as we know, a prostitute. Jesus never called her that, nor did anyone else. Neither was she the one caught in the act of adultery, nor the one who wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair.
Instead, the Bible said she was “Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out.”
Seven demons. Can you imagine what it’s like to be possessed by seven demons?
Think of the words of Jesus in Matthew 12: “When an impure spirit comes out of someone, it goes through arid places seeking rest, but does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it…brings seven more spirits more wicked than itself. And the last state is worse than the first.”
And think of those whom the Bible says were demon possessed. In the book of Mark, one screamed and said, “I know who You are, the Holy One of God. Have You come to destroy us before our time?” In the book of Luke, one broke his chains and lived among the tombs. Others fell into fire and water, while some tore their clothes and pulled out their hair.
In the book of Matthew chapter 15, a woman came to Jesus to say, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me, for my daughter is suffering terribly because of a demon.”
And Mary was possessed not by one demon or by two, but by seven demons!
What were those demons? Were they pride, envy, greed, gluttony? Did she worship idols? Did she howl and scream? Was her temper out of control? We may never know.
But whatever it was that possessed her, whatever actions or attitudes were beyond her control, her situation was hopeless. There was nothing anyone could do. No doctor, no priest, and no counselor could do anything to help her. She was miserable, sad and lonely. She was outcast, broken and ruined.
But the day, the moment, she met Jesus, her life was never the same. For it was then that He healed her and made her whole again.
Then what? The Bible says that she, with many others, followed Jesus, listened to Jesus, believed in Jesus, and provided for Him from her means.
Think about it. She was there when Jesus told the story about a sower and his seed, when He fed the five thousand and when He calmed a storm on the sea. When someone asked to follow Him wherever He went, He said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” And she heard Him say, “Don’t rejoice that the spirits are subject to you. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
And as she walked with Him throughout His three years of ministry, she was there at the foot of the cross.
Remember? She heard the people cry for His blood. She saw the scourge tear His skin. She winced as thorns pierced His brow. She was there.
In the Louvre, there’s a painting of Christ on the cross. The stars are dim and the scene is shrouded in darkness. And in the shadows, there’s a woman kneeling at the foot of the cross. She’s holding her hands and lips against the bleeding feet of Christ. It’s Mary Magdalene.
We don’t know if she did that, but we do know she surely could have, for she was there. She was there to be with Jesus and to hold the hands of Mary His mother. And when a soldier thrust a spear into His side and blood and water flowed, and when men came to take Him down from the cross, she was there to wash His wounds and close His eyes.
So it’s not surprising that, on Sunday morning, she would be there once again.
Early in the morning, even before the sun came up, she got up from her bed, took her spices and perfumes, and left her house. She rushed past the city gate and up the hillside.
Her task would be grim. His body would be stiff, cold and swollen. His face, ashen white. Death’s odor would be strong.
And as she walked up the narrow trail, out to the garden tomb, she gasped. The rock had been lifted up and rolled away. The words, “Someone has stolen His body!” raced across her mind.
So she ran to tell Peter and John, who rushed in to see for themselves. And when they came out of the tomb, running to tell the others, she stood there weeping.
But something told her she wasn’t alone. Did she hear a noise? Was someone there? So she dared to look one more time.
And as she stooped down to look inside, she heard a voice. It said, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“Why am I crying? Because they’ve taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they’ve laid Him.”
Did you hear that? She didn’t simply say, “Lord.” She said, “My Lord.”
Then in the calm quietness of that very first Easter morning, Jesus Himself, the One she loved, the One she buried, now stood risen from the dead.
“Mary,” He said.
And as she went, at His sending, she, of all people, became the very first one of anyone to see Jesus risen from the dead. And as she ran, she spoke the shortest, sweetest and most powerful Easter message ever spoken: “I have seen the Lord.”
Is it any surprise that Jesus would call a woman possessed by seven demons to follow Him? It shouldn’t be.
When men called Him a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, He replied, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” When a woman knelt, crying at His feet, they said, “If this Man were really a prophet, He would know what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner.” When Zacchaeus, a tax collector, climbed a tree just so he could see Him, He said, “I’m going to your house today.” And even as He died, He said to a thief hanging at His side, “Today, you’ll be with Me in paradise.”
He wasn’t a friend of sinners because He overlooked sin or ignored sin. He was a friend of sinners because He came to save them and heal them.
If we will live as Jesus lived and walk as Jesus walked, then we must do the same. Somewhere, there’s a woman you know who goes from one man to another and to another, because she never had a father who cared. There’s a man who constantly criticizes and complains, because he feels jealous and inferior. And there’s a girl who has no friends, who never smiles, but just wants someone to sit with her at lunch.
How many Mary’s are there in our community, who are waiting for someone to help them of their dark place? And how many of us can help show them the way?
As a hymnwriter once put it so well: “Oh, how blest it is to know, were as scarlet my transgression, it shall be as white as snow by Your blood and bitter passion, for these words I do believe—Jesus sinners does receive.”
We thank You, dear Father, for the story of Mary Magdalene and all she means for us. Help us to live as Jesus lived and to walk as Jesus walked, sharing the good news that He has come to save us. This we ask in His name. Amen