Chapter 10–Mary Magdalene: Delivered From Darkness
Laurie’s thoughts here: http://maybeillblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/twelve-extraordinary-women-mary.html
Laurie and I have been busy with our homes and families so it’s been a while since we’ve delved into the book. But here we are with Mary Magdalene.
Much speculation has existed in the church as to whether or not Mary Magdalene is also one of the unnamed women in scripture. It’s the opinion of John MacArthur that she is not and he gives good argument to that end.
Since we know two background items about Mary Magdalene, I think we can speculate enough on our own without needing to add to what she may have been like before she came to Christ:
1. Mary Magdalene was once inhabited by seven demons.
2. Mary Magdalene stayed with Jesus and helped provide for His ministry.
So, when we meet Mary, she is already a follower of Christ and is providing for His daily needs–and also the other disciples.
We know that Peter was married and had a house and took care of his mother-in-law since we see the mother-in-law healed one day when Jesus came to visit. But there is no indication anywhere in scripture, that I know of, that any of the other apostles were married at any time in their lives. Which is not to say that they weren’t–just that we have no indication of them being married. So, we can figure that the women who followed Jesus and provided for his ministry, did a lot of the domestic work for the group of 13 men. They probably mended, cooked, gave money, bought supplies. They may have cut their hair for them, washed their clothes, carried the water jugs.
These may have been widows or orphaned women with no homes or they may have traded off days or they may have just taken the food to them or taken the laundry or the mending home and then returned it. These were purely platonic acts of domesticity that provided for the mens’ needs and gave Jesus more time to teach and the apostles more time to listen and learn. The women may have all been there at one time or they may have lived in various cities along the ministry route and been available when Jesus was in their area. There is no particular reason to believe that the women followed Jesus everywhere He went–or that they didn’t for that matter.
Mary Magdalene was from the village of Magdala and since she had a very common first name, she was known by her village of origin. Up until the last 600 or so years, everyone was known by their occupation, parentage or place of origin.
In Ireland and Scotland, it was common practice for a son of a man whose first name was Brian to use the surname MacBrian or MacBriant or McBryan or any of the various combinations (mac meaning ”son”) while a daughter would use the surname O’Brian or it’s various spellings (o’ meaning “of”). In a family of many children, various surname spellings were common as there was no standardized spelling and a man or woman could spell their name however they preferred.
In England, it was common practice to name someone for their place of origin or occupation so that a family named Bradley generally lived in a large or wide meadow (Brad being short for “broad” and ley from leigh meaning meadow) and the Kirkland family would be living and probably tennant farming the land of the church (kirk being the Scottish word for church and land being, well, land). A family named Kirk probably lived at or next to the church and the Baker family baked and sold bread in the village.
So, we find Mary Magdalene using her village of origin to give her distinction from the other Mary’s listed in scripture. She may or may not have had a father in her life or a husband at some or any point. We simply don’t know. What we do know is that she was from Magdala. That was her defining point. It probably developed natually enough just as in my home we have different designations for the various Mike’s, Jerry’s, Linda’s and Michelle’s we know and they are almost never their last names.
We know that at some point in time, Mary was afflicted with demon possession. This chapter is a study in what exactly demon possession was and how it differs from modern illnesses such as epilepsy, blindness and bi-polarism. There is no doubt that many times demon possession in the Bible mimicks these illnesses but there is a difference between demon possession and epilepsy as a medical disorder. Not all, in fact, probably very few if any modern epileptics are demon possessed. Which is not to say that demon possession doesn’t occur today–but there are distinct differences between the two.
MacArthur suggests that at one time, Mary may have tried to rid herself of her demon possession and “straighten up her life” on her own rather than relying on God and that was why she had seven demons rather than only one. We don’t know this for certain but MacArthur makes a good case for that argument.
What we do know about Mary is that, she came from Magdala, she had formerly been possessed, she was devoted to Jesus, even to the point of staying by His side from the moment of His crucifixion until the stone was rolled across the face of His tomb. There is good evidence that she never left the cross–except perhaps for a physical necessity or two. She followed Nicodemus and Joseph when they took Jesus’ body to bury it. She used her own means to buy more spices and planned to finish the burial process that the men started but did hastily and sloppily. She took other women with her on the first day of the week so she was not a social outcast by any means–at least among the other followers of Jesus.
This act is nothing to be considered lightly either when we consider the general state of a dead body after three days in a hot climate. Having lived on a farm all my life, I have seen and smelled many bodies at about three days dead. These women should be commended for the devotion to not just say “good enough” to what the men had done. By three days, if Jesus had been an ordinary man, the body would have swollen and begun to smell. We know that based upon Mary’s reluctance to open Lazarus’ tomb after four days. She knew there would be a bad smell. The smell, for those who don’t know, would have come with the rupture of the skin. For at least the day or two before that, the body would have swollen up to force the rupture of the skin. So, Mary and the other women were taking the chance of washing a body that was badly swollen and possibly starting to seep blodily fluids.
Perhaps they thought with the lashings and piercings, it would have been less–on the other hand, they were probably realizing as they walked that flies can get into just about anywhere and all the bloody tissues would have stuck to the wrappings the men used, making a messy job ahead of them. The body would have to be unwound, washed, re-wrapped, and the original wrappings burned. There has been much speculation as to why the women went early–they were probably looking at a lengthy job and wanted an early start not only for time but also to beat the flies and the smell as much as possible.
Of course, we know that they found nothing that they expected–no stone to have moved, seal to have broken, or body to wash and prepare. Instead they found angels telling them that Jesus had risen and to go and tell the disciples–which none of them did right away, actually.
Mary’s devotion to Jesus was strong. While the other women went home to contemplate the missing body–I wonder if they didn’t think they would be accused to stealing it and that was why they fled and said nothing at first to the disciples–Mary stayed and sobbed. In fact, her eyes were so filled with tears that she didn’t recognize Jesus until He called her by name. Then she latched onto Him with relief and desperation.
For Mary, as it should be for us, Jesus was the whole world. She wanted and needed nothing but her savior. Which is not to say that she didn’t work and spread the news–she did so better than most in fact. But her focus was on Jesus–where He was, what He was doing, what He wanted of her.
Mary moved from the darkness of demon possession to the deliverance of a savior that she clung to as her whole world.
We would do well to do the same.
