When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week,
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom he had driven seven demons.
Mary Magdalene was one who had been forgiven much and therefore loved much. She had been set free from seven demons and demonstrated the love that resulted by being among the last to remain with Jesus at the cross, and even after by her vigil at the tomb. Her love for Jesus made Mary Magdalene a model for contemplatives throughout the ages. It transformed her into an icon of the woman from the Song of Songs.
I will search for the one my heart loves.
So I looked for him but did not find him.
The watchmen found me
as they made their rounds in the city.
“Have you seen the one my heart loves?” (see Song of Songs 3:2b-3)
It was this genuine seeking, this way in which Christ had absolute priority in her heart, regardless of the darkness of the circumstances, that disposed her to receive the grace of the revelation of the resurrection.
Scarcely had I passed them
when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go (see Song of Songs 3:4).
From Mary Magdalene we can learn that witnesses are not primarily those who have studied the case for Christianity that can be made from history, though it is solid. It is not necessarily those who have mastered CS Lewis's trilemma or who can state point for point NT Wright's assertions in "The Resurrection of the Son of God" even though such mastery and expertise is indeed valuable and answering objections. It is lovers who become true witnesses, and it is love alone that can open the heart to not only know facts about but to experience the reality of the resurrection.
She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.
When they heard that he was alive
and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
Apart from sufficient love, that is ready to believe all things (see First Corinthians 13:7) our habits of thought are not often sufficiently objective to receive the truth. Even when there are people worthy of trust telling us that something is true we may remain trapped in old ways of thinking defined by the limited possibilities with which we ourselves have been familiar by experience. Such stinking thinking causes us to mistrust witnesses who speak of hope. We are compelled to believe the worst and imagine that the story of the resurrection, and the hope that it implies, is merely an "idle tale" (see Luke 24:11).
After this he appeared in another form
to two of them walking along on their way to the country.
They returned and told the others;
but they did not believe them either.
The good news for us is that even if we have not been as devoted as Mary Magdalene Jesus nevertheless does not abandon us to our hopeless assumptions. He desires to reveal himself to us much more than even Mary Magdalene desired to see him again. As proof of this he provided the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread as a lasting reality where he could open hearts and reveal himself, just as he did for the two on the road to Emmaus.
But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them
and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart
because they had not believed those
who saw him after he had been raised.
Why did Jesus permit his first witnesses to be ineffective? Perhaps it was so that those who finally did realize that those witnesses had spoken truly would be sympathetic with future generations who were slow to faith and hard of heart. Just as Jesus did not give up on the Eleven so in turn must we not surrender hope for those whose unbelief and hardness of heart has prevented them from yet accepting our own testimony. Our witness is valuable, even necessary, but it is not sufficient. It must coincide with the movement of Spirit, who is not beholden to our timelines. We must be ready to be disbelieved, to speak of a hope that seems too good to be true, so that hearts may be prepared to receive that revelation of hope when Jesus himself is pleased to grant it.
He said to them, “Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”
Jesus demonstrated his presence among the people through the sign of healing worked by Peter. Even the Sanhedrin were unable to deny the facts. But their hearts were not yet disposed to receive the reality implied by those facts to the degree that they even sought to suppress a truth that was not to their liking. Had Peter and John thought that the truth depended on their effective argumentation they might have been inclined to give in when they could not persuade, to yield to threats rather than to insist on what they knew. But they had grown beyond such limited thinking. They had experienced the risen Lord in their midst, acting, making himself known, and bringing thousands to belief. The power of the resurrection of which Peter and John were now witnesses was the reason that they themselves were now fearless, even in the face of opposition.
“Whether it is right in the sight of God
for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges.
It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”
We too need boldness to proclaim the Gospel, boldness on an order that can only be the result of the power of the resurrection revealed to us. Facts and arguments are great, useful, and worthwhile. But they often run into the brick walls of human hearts. For our part, we know, or need to learn, that walls and locked doors have never been able to keep the risen Lord from entering.
Open to me the gates of justice;
I will enter them and give thanks to the LORD.
This is the gate of the LORD;
the just shall enter it.
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