MARY OF MAGDALA: CHOSEN WITNESS

When we first meet Mary, she is with Jesus and his disciples as they travel throughout the Galilee region teaching, healing, and debating everywhere they go.

Town of Magdala - A Heritage Site in Israel

Mary’s home is located in the small town of Magdala on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee. This is why you’ll frequently hear her referred to as “Mary Magdalene” or “Mary of Magdala” or just plain “Magdalene.” This nickname is to help the reader distinguish her from two other prominent women in the Gospels with the same name.

In this series, I’ve identified each Mary by her hometown: Mary of Nazareth (Jesus’ mother), Mary of Bethany (Martha’s sister), and today’s woman of valor, Mary of Magdala.

Unfortunately for us, Mary's first face-to-face encounter with Jesus is not detailed in the Gospels; however, Mark and Luke both mention her as a woman out of whom Jesus cast seven demons—this was prior to her becoming a disciple. And it’s because Mary’s shattered life is restored by the healer that she becomes one of his most ardent, brave, and loyal supporters.

🧼 SOAPBOX: About those seven demons. There is a tendency among some Bible interpreters to take every single thing in Scripture literally—virtually eliminating any symbolism and/or deeper meaning from the text. The problem with this is that they sometimes miss the forest for the trees.

Let’s be clear: The inspiration of Scripture absolutely includes hyperbole, metaphor, foreshadowing, repetition, parallelism, and all kinds of symbolism. And why wouldn’t it? God is the quintessential creative of all time.

So, it’s not necessary to take the “seven demons” literally. There’s no need to imagine Jesus standing in front of Mary performing seven exorcisms or his casting the demons out—all at once—with someone at his side counting them.

When you approach a story like this that way, you might as well ask, “What if there were eight and he only cast out seven?” You see, this story is not about the quantity of demons cast out of Mary. Stay with me here...

Since the number seven is used repeatedly throughout Scripture as a symbol of completion, perfection, and wholeness, it’s better to understand this detail as pointing to Mary's total, complete, and utter liberation from demonic oppression. That’s the point: She’s 💯 FREE!

🎬 AND NOW, BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING...

Mary, along with other women of means, travel with Jesus and support his ministry both financially and through acts of service. They stick with him through thick and thin and through the worst day of his life.

Towards the end of his ministry Jesus is arrested, beaten, and nailed to a Roman cross. Almost all of his followers abandon him, but Mary of Magdala does not. She is one of the handful of Jesus' followers—mostly women—who stays to witness the horrific scene.

Mary remains until the bitter end when Jesus exhales his last breath. From a distance, she follows those who remove His body from the cross as they quickly prepare his body for burial. She watches the men place his lifeless body in a borrowed tomb and observes their rolling of a massive stone in front of it to seal it shut.

SHE NEVER LEFT

Appalled at what has happened to this man who changed her life, Mary determines to visit Jesus' tomb—along with a few other female followers and his mother—as soon as the Sabbath ends so they can finish anointing the body since it was done so quickly when he died.

When Mary arrives at the tomb early Sunday morning, she is shocked to see the stone that sealed the tomb has been moved. When she realizes the tomb is empty, she assumes Jesus’ body has been stolen.

The mystery is solved when she and the others are told by an angel that Jesus is not there because he is alive. to "Go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'" (Mark 16:7)

And later, as recorded in John’s Gospel, Mary has a beautiful moment in the garden with Jesus where she doesn’t recognize him until he says her name.

When she returns to the place where his disciples are hiding, she can’t help but proclaim, “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18)

IN CONCLUSION

Jesus' initial deliverance of Mary from a life of demonic oppression serves a critical purpose in the gospel narrative: Mary—a woman—is the first person to deliver the GREAT NEWS of His resurrection!

Entrusting her with this important message completely flips the cultural traditions on their head and ensures that whenever Jesus' story is told, women are honored.

Last at the cross; first at the tomb; first person sent to share the good news of Jesus' resurrection; one of the many filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost—Mary of Magdala is all of this and more. She is His chosen witness.

You can read more about Mary in the Gospels and the first chapters of Acts. 

Additional Resources:

• All the Women of the Bible by Edith Deen (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1955), p. 168.

• “Mary Magdalene and the Risen Jesus” Women’s Bible Commentary, 3rd Edition. Edited by Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, and Jacqueline E. Lapsley. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012), p. 527.

Photo Credits:

Photo by Marcos Luiz Photography on Unsplash

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