Mary (Mary from Magdala) did you know?
Vern Peterman · Apr 1, 2018
Holidays
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926199278111

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning and happy and blessed Easter to all of you. One of the things I want to start off with is to correct a misunderstanding that I had. So I was wrong. For years, I had the understanding that Easter was from some sort of a pagan, you know, name and ritual and all that. Ever heard that? Yeah, it turns out it's not true. As a matter of fact, that rumor comes from two different sources, both of which are Christian sources, but it's still not true. Easter has been celebrated since about the second century, so for many long centuries that's been a tradition.

The idea that it came from some Anglo-Saxon or Teutonic pagan mythology was put forth by a guy whose name is Venerable Bede. And if you don't venerate him, that's fine. But at any rate, he put out this idea and it turns out it was false. And then in the 1800s, a fellow by the name of Alexander Hislop, put forth the idea that Easter came from Esther, which was all Ishtar and all the pagans, and that's false too. So anyway, go ahead and celebrate Easter, go ahead and call it Easter, because what really matters is what it means to us, but it's a false idea that has a connection to those things, and go ahead and say Happy Easter. It's just fine. So that corrects the misunderstanding I had. Now we have some great things to look at. This is regarding Mary Magdalene. We'll be looking at her today, and for good reason. Here are some verses containing the name Mary Magdalene.

And it starts with some in Matthew, goes on in Mark, Luke, and John. And so we see that Mary Magdalene is listed multiple times, at least twice, in each one of the four Gospels. But except for Luke 8-2, all of the verses that mention the name of Mary Magdalene are about her as a witness to Christ's death and burial, and about her seeing the empty tomb and talking to Christ right after he was raised from the dead. So all of those verses about her or regarding that. We have from Luke 8 too talks about her being a witness of these things, but also other information. So what else do we know about Mary Magdalene?

Well, one of the things is Magdalene was not her last name. So if you thought that was her last name, that's another thing to be corrected. And probably I grew up thinking that too, you know. I wonder what her middle name was, right? But no, Mary Magdalene means she was from Magdala. And so as we would typically say, this is an American, or this fellow is British, or something of that sort, this is identifying the city that she was from. And that's what that means.

It was on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. And so location-wise, it's right about there where you see that yellow dot with the red circle around it Magdala from the Hebrew Migdal meaning tower and it had their variations on that name that are found both in the literature of that era as well as in the Bible itself. Here's an overview of Magdala as it looks now and just an amazing place.

I know when we went there just a few years ago, Nancy and Courtney and Ingrid and I, when we looked at it, it was an astounding place. Each of us was impacted by, you know, different things as we took the trip to Israel. This was the one where Nancy was saying, well, where's Vern? And I was off trying to collect myself because I was really deeply impacted by what I saw there. Here is one of the things that first grabbed me.

This is a synagogue. that Jesus almost certainly taught in, and probably multiple times, and it dates from the time of Christ. That also corrects what had been a criticism of the Bible, because the Bible repeatedly talks about synagogues that Jesus was in. And the critics, those who are skeptical of the Bible, said, nah, there never were any synagogues during biblical times.

Well, guess what? When they excavated Magdala, the synagogue there, where Jesus almost certainly taught a number of times, they found coins from Jesus' time in the floor, right? So guess what? It dates from Jesus' time, right? And what the Bible says about synagogues is true.

We're going to leave talking about Magdala because otherwise we'll take the entire rest of the time and we'll skip lunch, right? Okay. Anyway, so what else do we know about Mary Magdalene? Mark 16 9 and Luke 8 2 both say Jesus had cast out seven demons.

So the Bible is consistent on that point. from Mary, apparently fairly early in his ministry. And that was probably 30 AD to the first half of 31 AD, somewhere in that period of time. She had demons cast out of her. She was one of several who supported Christ and the disciples financially.

And so that's something else to look at. I talked earlier about rumors that Easter came from a pagan source. Not true. And another thing to correct here, have you ever heard that Mary was a prostitute? You might have heard that. Bogus. She was not a prostitute. That rumor started about the year 600. And so that's bogus. Another rumor is she was poor. Probably not if she's supporting the disciples. And also because Magdala was a relatively wealthy city. Relatively wealthy. So that's bogus. Another rumor that came up was Jesus' wife. That also started about the year 700 and that's bogus, right? Alright, so enough with that.

About the name Mary. Now as it turns out, there are lots of these bone boxes because in New Testament times the pattern was to put a body the day of the death right away okay into a tomb and then a year later go and take the bones and put them in a bone box which was often somewhere else so they have hundreds if not thousands of these bone boxes in and around Jerusalem and sometimes located in other places as they look at those for the women where they're marked and We get some interesting patterns show up. This is the bone box, for example, of Caiaphas. Not only is the name Caiaphas very carefully written on the box, it's also ornately carved, and it had in it the bones of a 65-year-old man, which matches Caiaphas, and they date from the exact right time. So through the survey of these burial inscriptions in Jerusalem from New Testament times, about one in every five women had the name Mary in some form.

So you call out, Mary, you're likely to get 20% of the ladies respond and say yes. So that would explain why we see so many women named Mary in the four Gospels, and why the four Gospel authors would note which of the many Marys they were talking about.

Sometimes it's as vague as the other Mary, right? But Mary Magdalene is one of them. So here's Mary, and then they would use where she is from. Another one that's found in the Gospels, another pattern. Mary the mother of and then fill in the blank so you'll find those patterns so the Mary's in the New Testament often tied to who they were the mother of who they were married to or where they were from so So we'll go with the Gospel of John as we read this morning. Of course, there are numerous accounts. Mark 6, 9, we read this.

Now, after he had risen early on the first day of the week, he first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. Although Mary Magdalene is mentioned by name in all four of the Gospels. We'll go with the Gospel of John this morning. since there she speaks with Christ after he arose. So it's not just the statement, but she actually has a conversation with him. You have on page four, just for your perusal and later study if you'd like, here is a list of the summary of all the passages, first of the empty tomb, and then all the appearances. You'll see among those appearances, the first one is Mary Magdalene, and Jesus at that point predicts his ascension as well.

So, as we go through this, Mary had seen Christ crucified. Scripture makes that clear. Can you imagine? Here's Christ crucified, and she made sure, as difficult as it was emotionally, she made sure that she saw that. And as we track it through, she's one who's consistently mentioned as seeing Christ crucified, and buried, and then seeing Him raised.

Matthew, Mark, and John all say that Mary Magdalene was there that day when Christ was crucified and he died. She was present. She was a witness. Dr. Luke refers to the women who had accompanied him as being present, and Mary was, of course, among those. Mary and the other woman with her seemed to show more boldness than the apostles quite often, at least many of them. John, among the apostles, seems to have been the one most bold in terms of going there and following the personalities and the events that took place. Mary Magdalene was persistent in tracking where Jesus was from the day of his crucifixion. She went there at each point and was quite certain of the locations of things.

Mary, along with the other women who were with her, went from the place of Christ's death to the place of his birth, excuse me, burial. Many, they're running away, but not Mary and the women who are with them, observing specifically where she was entombed, and there's a purpose for that. It will soon be seen why this detail is very important, both because several of these women noted the location together, so you didn't have what some would suggest, oh, they got the wrong place, wrong tomb, that's why it was empty. No, that doesn't explain it. Several women noted the location together. All these women would come to the tomb later on, to the same tomb, to the right tomb. Mary came with the other women to Jesus' tomb, and so Mary Magdalene with the other women came to Jesus' tomb, having seen exactly where it was located.

Now they were wondering, how are we going to get this open? Because it says in the Bible that the stone was large. That's one thing I want to remark about. Some of the pictures that you'll see, and even one that I'll show, the stone is not large enough probably in the picture compared to the one that was there present. in Jesus' tomb.

So comparing all of these accounts, Mary was one of at least five women who came to the tomb early Sunday morning. A lot of the depictions, like this one, will have three, something like that. When you put all the accounts together, at least five women all observing, you know, here's where it was and coming to the tomb there that day. So John's account focuses mostly on Mary Magdalene and gives the details in the account and focusing on her rather than the other women which is why we're going to select to go into that now.

Now I want to apologize to Buddy Green and Mark Lowry because they wrote a great song about Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary did you know. And it's just a really great song, but there's actually just slight adaptation and you've got another great song, at least I think so.

So we'll see if you think so, right? Mary, did you know your deliverer would give himself for you? Mary, did you know your deliverer would die for others too. Did you know your Rabboni would rise in just three days? Your Lord, who was so battered, you soon again would gaze. Mary, did you know that you'd be the first to see Him resurrected? Mary, did you know the great honor to which you'd be elected. Did you know that you'd die with Him and rise with Him anew? And then in Heaven's throne room, you'll be seated with Him too. Mary, did you know?"

So, in John chapter 20, verses 1 and 2, It reads this way, now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to him, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. So, first of all, this is the first day of the week. The Jews were accustomed to call each day of the week by its number in sequence.

Our own names of the days of the week were all developed from pagan deities. This is another reason why we can say Happy Easter. It's what does it mean to us. None of us is honoring the God of the sun or the God of the moon. We say that today is Sunday. We're not worshiping the deity of the sun. That's not what it means to us. So that's our term. We would call the first day of the week in which Christ was raised from the dead Sunday. were not honoring the Sun God.

Mary Magdalene thought they, interesting, she didn't say who they was, but they had taken the body. So one, she thought there's multiple people who had taken the body, and she was certain it was somebody else, right? So, when Mary had discovered that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, she ran to tell among others, tell Peter and John, who referred to himself, this is John, as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And in some other contexts, he even does it so simply as the other disciple, right? But in this context, that's how he puts it. Mary tells Peter and John they have taken away the Lord's body, but she doesn't know where they have laid the body.

I wonder what she was thinking. Somebody's taken away the body. Imagine her thoughts. It cannot possibly be that our Lord has been resurrected. Can you imagine that? She is saddened and despondent by this. She doesn't believe that he was raised. So you ask the question, did Mary know Christ was going to be raised? No. Did she believe that He was raised? No. What did she believe?

They have taken the body. Here's John 20, verses 3-5, So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. And stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.

So this is a four-legged race. Have you ever been in a three-legged race? Those can be rather awkward. A lot of people try it and end up falling down and that sort of thing. This is a four-legged race. We have no record that they fell down, but they certainly were rather excited and motivated to go see what Mary had reported. They decide to go check it out and see it for themselves. Peter and John both run to the tomb where Jesus had been laid a couple of days before, as we would call it.

By the way, one of the questions that has come up is, well, wait a minute, what about three days and even three days and three nights? It's important to understand the Jewish figures of speech. We have somewhat similar figures of speech in our culture. And so for the Jews they would say three days and even three days and three nights and by that they would mean a portion of a day and even a portion of another and a portion of another still qualified as three days. So this being buried basically from late Friday afternoon until early Sunday morning would have been counted as three days.

To give you examples of how we use somewhat similar figures of speech Let's see, Randy just started this last week a full-time job, a new one, right? Now, I'll be glad to tell you, and Jessica and the kids will be too, that that doesn't mean he's going to be down at his work all the time, 24-7, right? And he actually gets weekends off, right? So that's a good thing, right? So we will say a full-time job, we don't mean 24-7, right?

We don't mean that. If you sign up to take a 14-day tour, let's say you were going to sign up to take a 14-day tour of Israel, for example, the first and the last days are going to consist of what? That you're going to be arriving and getting situated and trying to recover from jet lag and things like that. So the 14-day tour really gets clipped at the ends, and it's more like a 12-day tour, right? And so what you'll find is we also have similar expressions. where we don't mean all the time, 24-7, the full time, you know, that sort of thing.

As they get to the tomb, John arrives first, probably, maybe because he's younger, I don't know, and stops at the open tomb and looks in to see that things are just as Mary had reported. Yep, tomb's empty. Yep, there's some grave clothes there. The stones rolled away. Yep, Here's 20 verses 6 and 7. So Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face cloth which had been on his head not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.

So Peter ran inside. Aha, this is Peter. By the way, this is the Peter who just a couple days before had said, I don't even know this guy. Right? I don't know who he is. Several times. Peter entered boldly. He runs right inside the open tomb. Got to go in here.

As he does, he sees that the grave wrappings are lying there empty with the head wrappings laying separately. Jesus' body was nowhere in the wrappings, and the tomb contained only the wrappings which had the remnants of the myrrh and aloes. By the way, a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes. That was about three times the usual. So Jesus, amazingly, at the expense of Nicodemus, had a king's burial. Three times the usual amount of wrappings. But it was only in them for a couple of days, by our count, right? Three days, as the Jews would count them.

Here's John 20, verses 8 through 10. So the other disciple, who's that? John, right? That's John, how he refers to himself, who had first come to the tomb, then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. If you had seen Jesus' empty tomb, would you have said, hey, that's cool, I'm going home.

I don't know how they did that. But anyway, that's what they did. I don't know how that would enter their minds, this is what I ought to do. You'd think they'd want to at least stay there for a while and talk about it, but no. Hey, let's go home. Wow.

Okay, so John comes in, sees and believes. Peter had entered and had seen what is described. John comes in and observes the exact same things that Peter had seen. I guess John thought, well, if Peter went in, he's okay, I can too. Right? John sees these things and believes, as we can assume Peter did as well.

That does not mean that they both understood. See that? Though it would appear they both came to believe, believe what? Believe what Mary had said, yeah the tomb's empty. That doesn't mean they believed that he was resurrected. See the difference there? They had not seen the Lord and neither had Mary at this point. But we will see that she does in fact do that.

John 20 verses 11 through 13, but Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping. And so as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?

She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. Boy, I'd sure like to have her explain who the they was, right? But she didn't see it, this is of the Lord, this is somebody else has done something with the body. So as far as Mary is concerned, the motivation for running to tell Peter and John wasn't because she believed Christ was resurrected, but because they had taken the body. There was no body in the tomb. That's what she believed, and that's what they believed once they saw it.

It does not appear that Peter and John had spoken to Mary Magdalene after they had seen the empty tomb and the empty grave closed. They didn't go back to Mary and say, yeah, you were right. Oh, what a shock. They said, hey, let's go home. I don't know why they would do that, but that's what they did.

Mary wept as she mourned what? Her Lord's missing body. The body isn't there. I can't show the body honor that the Lord deserves, right? That's what she's disturbed about, so she weeps. Then it says she saw two men, quote, men, unquote. As Mary looked in, she saw two men, as far as she knew. We're told there are two angels who ask why she is weeping. The text says that the angel sat where the body had been lying before, sitting on the place where the body had been. Here's John 20, verses 14 and 15.

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Imagine this. Oh, boy. Finally, somebody to ask about this, right? Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Oh, good questions, right?

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. by somebody, perhaps by the Christians. So there was a garden there, and she was supposing, oh, this guy must be the gardener taking care of this nice garden that's put there. Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.

It does not appear that Mary waited to hear a response from the angels. before the risen Lord Jesus Christ had asked her the very same question the two angels had asked her. So, as the risen Lord Jesus Christ spoke, assuming him to be the gardener, she turned in response to his questions and asked that if he had taken the body away, where, oh, could she just please know where? Where is it? Where did you put it?

Even though he was right there in front of her, she did not recognize him because he looked so different. Have you ever run into somebody that you knew, but they were in a different context and you just didn't expect them? I've had that happen. I've had it happen here. Somebody walks up, wait a minute, I know you, but somehow you're just not expecting them. And it's kind of hard to place them at first because you're not expecting them. Well, this was a really, I'm not expecting. kind of an event. So, she did not believe it could possibly be him alive.

John 20, verses 16 through 18, Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. Actually, it doesn't mean teacher literally, it's a euphemism for teacher. Jesus said to her, Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brethren and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God. And Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, that He said these things to her." So at first, this gardener whom she didn't know, so she thought, He says, Mary, whoa, what a recognition. Where have they put him? Oh, you're the one. You're the gardener. You did it.

Jesus says, Mary, imagine the stunning experience that she's now having, calling out Rabboni, my teacher. Jesus' questions to Mary Magdalene were not because he didn't know the answers. And I think that's one of the things to recognize. In the Bible, you will have God and Jesus asking questions. This happens in Genesis chapter 3. God asks questions, and it's not because he doesn't know the answer, but he asks the question because he wants them to discover the answer, right?

Christ's curious way of speaking of God the Father is because he and Mary have a unique relationship with God the Father. Was it the same God? Was it the same Father? Yes. He has, at this time, a unique relationship with the Father, different from hers.

So that's why he expresses it differently here. Then Mary should not cling to him. So why did Jesus say that Mary should not cling to him? Oh, they've done a special treatment on me, and the stuff that's on me is incompatible with life. No, none of that, right? It's because He didn't want her to be clingy?

There's more than that. Christ's new kind of body would make a difference, a big difference. And before Mary had always been with him as she ought, but now he would soon go to the Father and have a different kind of body. And she did not know then that he must ascend to heaven so she could be seated with him. Isn't that amazing?

You see, what would happen, we don't hear about Mary ever again. As a matter of fact, Mary's mother, as important as you might think she is, she's mentioned once by name in the book of Acts, the first chapter, and then never mentioned again by name in the whole Bible. Here's Mary Magdalene also, who was never mentioned again, as pivotal a witness as she was to both the empty tomb and to Christ's being raised, the first one to see Christ raised.

But it is probably safe to assume that she continued on into the day of Pentecost, which was only the next month, which is going to be less than two months away all totaled. And so that she would continue there on to the day of Pentecost, that she would be identified with Christ in the death that she didn't anticipate, and the burial that she didn't anticipate but watched, and the resurrection that she also didn't anticipate in, but she would be identified with him in those things, and also in his ascension and seeding. So far as we know, she wasn't a witness to the ascension and certainly not to the seating. So back to the disciples again. At first Mary went to tell the disciples because she didn't know or believe that he would rise again. So now she's going back to them.

Hey, guess what? It's not just an empty tomb. I saw him. I saw him, so now I've got to come back to you, and I have different news than I did before. I also have a very different attitude than I did before, right? Before, she was rather sad and desperate and wondering where they put the body, and she reported that to Peter and John. And then, now, she goes back and reports, having seen the Lord and talked with Him personally. This time she went to the disciples to tell them that she had seen Him and spoken with Him. Oh boy, what a difference.

It would be decades before they understood the full meaning of what Christ's resurrection would mean for all of them. Isn't that amazing to ponder? At first, none of the disciples, and not even Mary, believed. Thomas would even wait a week before he would believe. The so-called doubting Thomas.

One of the things that we see as we look at this, just imagine, put yourself in their place, oh no, I want my rabbi to live a long life and I don't want him to die young and under such terrible circumstances. And then as we celebrated just Friday evening, And then to have this event, oh no, how horrible a thing to have happen to the rabbi that I wanted to live a long and happy life.

And I wanted to spend lots of time with him. Only to find themselves taking years to discover all the wonderful things that took place on the day in which Christ was crucified. Wonderful things that took place when he was buried. And wonderful things that took place when we were resurrected with Him. And by the way, I say that, we were, that's true for all who believe, who believe that Christ, the Son of God, died for your sins and mine, was buried and rose again. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that astounding? And now if you'll put up with it, I will actually sing this song one more time.

Mary, did you know your deliverer would give himself for you? Mary, did you know your deliverer would die for others too? Did you know your abonai would rise in just three days? Your Lord who was so battered, you soon again would gaze. Mary, did you know that you'd be the first to see Him resurrected? Mary, did you know the great honor to which you'd be elected? Did you know that you'd die with Him and rise with Him anew? And then in heaven's throne room, you'll be seated with Him too. Mary, did you know?

And then with a different spelling, we have to answer, no, N-O. But she did learn, and so can we. Let's pray. Lord, thank You that though Mary didn't know, What wonderful things she had to learn for days, weeks, months, and even years to come. What wonderful things we have to learn for days and years and decades to come. We just thank you for that marvelous, amazing set of truths in which we not only are saved, but grow in you. We thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.