The Week of Expectation

I always find that those who are driven with every wind of doctrine are those who are too lazy to study doctrine.

Martyn Lloyd Jones

“They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.  Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned to him and said “Rabboni!” (teacher)…..”I have seen (horaó-experienced) the Lord.” John 20: 13-18

I’ve been reading a lot about Mary Magdalene lately. The Bible doesn’t tell us a lot about her story, but we do know that Jesus drove 7 demons out of her at one point in her life. Most likely before she started following Him. We do know that she traveled with him. She ministered to Him, and she financially supported both Jesus and the disciples. I for one sure didn’t know these things about Mary. I had no idea that Jesus while on His ministry after his Baptism traveled with multiple women that “ministered to him” while He traveled. To me this is interesting for many reasons, especially right now. I’ve been reading and studying a lot into what it means to be a Christian woman. There is confusion around this topic for sure and I will be the first to say that I am still learning, but here is some thoughts about what I have learned recently.

Surprising things I learned about Jesus:

1. He traveled with a group of woman that ministered to him.
2. He was supported financially by woman while on his ministry.
3. Mary Magdalene was the first person he appeared to, a woman that people didn’t believe or think that she belonged in the church. This made Mary a disciple to the disciples.

Some base the idea of the Christian woman entirely on Proverbs 31, pulling the verses from it that make a woman who looks and acts a certain way, godly. Some base it on clothes, how long skirts are, if a woman should cover her head or let it be uncovered, what a woman should do as work, or even if a woman should work. And that’s what I love about Mary Magdalene. We can know from reading the Bible that she most didn’t fit into the mold of what a godly woman would look like. When she is mentioned along with other woman and their husbands are mentioned, Mary’s is not. She is mentioned 13 times in relation to the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. Her life is parallel to the life of Jesus and clearly she plays a role that cannot be overlooked. Her life after healing and experiencing Jesus, looked completely different. No longer enslaved she served Jesus with a freedom that many of us would have looked and wondered at.

I love this passage in John twenty, Mary is alone at the empty tomb of Jesus, the disciples already having left after seeing that the tomb was empty. We don’t know exactly why they left, but the Bible says that they didn’t fully understand the scriptures. Mary waited. Sitting, weeping at the tomb, then a man appears, this man is Jesus and yet Mary doesn’t recognize him. The man that she is weeping for, the man that she watched hang on a cross, breathe his last breathe, be taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb. She doesn’t recognize him. Instead, mistakes him for a gardener. Eyes clouded with tears, maybe she couldn’t quite make him out. He asks, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”, knowing full well that she is seeking Him. She asks if he has taken the body of Jesus and asks for it to be given back to her so she can take it away. Jesus replies with one word, “MARY“. It is then that her eyes are opened and she recognizes her Lord. Isn’t that just like Jesus. He has all these big and amazing things that he could say, and instead in a still small voice, he calls our name. Are we listening?

All of this to say, the idea of what a Christian woman will look like can be very clouded. The life of Mary looked strange to many woman and men alike. She was chasing after a man. Someone who was controversial anyway, let alone without her following him and supporting him financially. I bet that at times Mary saw the stares of the people around her. But she knew Jesus. She understood that following him, doing what was right, and loving him with her whole heart meant giving up things that maybe she wanted. And yet, Jesus appears to her first. It meant looking different. And yet, Jesus comes to her first. It meant serving in ways that at the time were unthought of for a woman. And yet, Jesus asks her to be the one to tell the rest of the world the news that He had risen.

I think that Mary Magdalene leaves a message that all of us can learn from. You don’t have to look, act or sound a certain way in order to be chosen by Christ. The thing that set Mary apart was that she was available. Mary was obedient. She understood what it meant to forgiven and healed. She knew that earthly things will pass, and only Jesus will remain. People will try and tell us as not only woman, but Christians in general, that we should look, act, talk, ect. in a specific way. This “way” most likely changing with the tide of wherever we are at the time. Jesus says, be available. Be watchful. Be faithful. Be love. Be diligent to what we know is true because Jesus already told us through his life and Word.

I don’t want this to sound like a “every person has their own truths post”. The only truth to be found is in the Bible. I guess for me, reading and learning about Mary was encouraging in the sense of understanding that God uses those of us who seem the least unusable. He didn’t ask Mary to change who she was to follow him, and yet she was a woman that Jesus loved deeply. In my life, the story of Mary is a reminder for me to follow Jesus. To pursue him. To be challenged by him. To seek what he would have to say about who I am.

So, with this knowledge, this week I am expectant to be the woman that Jesus is calling me to be. Someone who doesn’t look away from the hard things of life, and isn’t caught up on things that don’t matter now, and won’t matter in the long run. I want to be present now, be faithful now, be available now. I’ll leave you with that, the jumbled ramblings of a mind still learning. I don’t claim to know what I am talking about, instead I can only poorly try and put into words the lessons Christ continues to reveal. Maybe this will make sense to someone. I encourage you to read and study the life of Mary. See for yourself what Jesus will say to you through her faithfulness. Don’t just take my word for it.