18 July, 2010

St. Mary of Magdala

Carl J. Knapp, Deacon

St. Mary of Magdala or Mary Magdalene is one of the original followers of Jesus the Christ. She joined Him while He was still in Galilee; and she followed Him on that final trip to Jerusalem. While we know little about her we do know that she was the most eminent among the many women who followed Jesus in his itinerant ministry. Mark writes: [15:40ff]” Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger, and of Joses, and Salome. These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.” Luke writes: [8:2ff] “The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna…and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

What happened to these women and especially what happened to Mary Magdalene? She is not mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. How did she become known as a reformed prostitute?

The presence of women in this group following Jesus is remarkable. Mary and Martha welcomed him. Who fed the Apostles? They were not fishing during those mission trips around Galilee, Sumaria and then in Jerusalem. Women took care of the men ‘out of their resources.’ Women like Mary Magdalene , and only one man, followed Jesus to the cross and it was women who went to the empty tomb. In the first outreaching mission women labored for the Lord. Some traveled city to city. Lydia, ‘a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira was the first convert among the Philippians. Priscilla of Corinth was an early leader; Phoebe, referred to as the Deacon of the church of Cenchreae, and an important financial supporter of the followers, was entrusted to carry a letter from Paul to the Romans.

The theologian Tertullian is ranked second only to Augustine; yet by the time of Tertullian writing between 200 and 220 the place of women in the Church is vastly changed. He wrote: “You give birth, woman, in suffering and anguish. You are under your husband’s spell, and he is your master. And do you not know that you are Eve: She still lives in this world, as God’s judgment on your sex. Live then, for you must, as an accused. The devil is in you. You broke the seal of the Tree. You were the first to abandon God’s law. You were the one who deceived man, whom the devil knew not how to vanquish. It was you who so easily overcame him who was made in the image of God. For your wages you have death, which brought death even to the Son of God. And yet you think of covering yours tunics with ornaments.”

Those are some tough words. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians written about the year 55, just 25 years after the crucifixion and resurrection, we hear: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Jesus Christ.” But that is counterbalanced by the message in Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. “Let a women learn in silence with full submission. I permit no women to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.

In between these two contradictory messages there is a little incident recorded in the 18^th Chapter of Acts. Priscilla and her husband Aquila welcomed Paul on his trip and when Paul went to Ephesus they went with him. It was in Ephesus that Apollos, an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures and a follower of the Way spoke about Jesus in the synagogue. Afterwards, Aquila and Priscilla took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately. That does not sound like being silent or not being allowed to teach a man.

The answer is that the letters to Timothy and Titus were not written by Paul. They may contain fragments of Pauline writings but they come a generation after Paul is gone. In those years the church is trying to distinguish itself from the many cults in the Roman Empire. To distinguish itself from the fertility cults of Dionysus, Astarte , Isis and so many others, Christianity began to become a masculine religion. The leaders removed the importance of the early church females. In some later writings one of the women had her Latin name changed to the masculine ending. She was made a man. After all, how could a woman be the head of a congregation? This denigration of women will become set into the thinking of the church by Augustine. Two hundred years after Tertullian, Augustine will interpret the gathering of the one hundred and fifty-three fish recorded in John’s Gospel Chapter 21 verse11 this way. For every one hundred female virgins that make it into heaven, there will be fifty widows and three married women. There is not much hope for women. About one hundred years later Pope Gregory the Great will complete the cycle by combining, with no evidence, Mary of Magdala with the sinner who sought Jesus out in the home of a Pharisee to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair.

This continued for centuries with women burned at the stake for daring to read the Bible; to speak to others of the teaching of Jesus; to be an active Christian. In the Massachusetts Colony, Anne Hutchinson was forced to walk in mid winter in late pregnancy to the borders of the colony and be banished into that group of heretics living in Rhode Island. She had dared to gather women together in her home to discuss the meaning of passages of the Bible. Years later when Anne was murdered by Indians her death was reported in every church in Massachusetts to great relief – the sinner was dead!

This year, Katherine Jefferts Schori was told not to wear her mitre at the convocation of world wide Bishops in England. In humility, the Presiding Bishop of the United States, accepted this insult. But she did carry that mitre in the procession. Last week, the Anglican Church of England accepted that they will have female bishops by 2014.

Mary Magdalene went to the tomb on early Easter Day. The tomb is empty. She summons Peter and John. But it is Mary who first sees and speaks to the risen Christ. Jesus said to her. “Woman, why are you weeping? ‘…Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene recognizes His voice. Remember the words of Jesus: “I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me” The good shepherd, “calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice.” Mary Magdalene is one of ‘His own’ because Jesus calls her by name and she recognizes his voice.

Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”

Mary of Magda is truly the first Apostle. She is truly the Apostle to the Apostles.