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.
It seemed that even over and above the other disciples and followers of Jesus that Mary Magdalene had come to love and to depend on him, and to desire his presence so strongly that he himself could not remain far from her. She was like the woman from Song of Songs who said "Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves" (see Song of Songs 3:3-4). She who had received much grace, who had been so transformed, now loved much as a consequence, and Jesus himself responded to that love. She was given the task of being the apostle to the apostles, the first to announce 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.
What Mary Magdalene met when she attempted to announce the Easter tidings was a group too distraught and demoralized to listen. The companions of Jesus supposed they had rational reasons to disbelieve this one whom they imagined to be merely a hysterical woman. But it was rather they themselves that were caught in the throes of emotion while Mary Magdalene was joyful but in her right mind. Why would Jesus choose her to be his first witness when he might well have appeared to others who were more trustworthy in the eyes of the world? Why not to Peter first, or one of the others? It must have been a lesson for them that the credentials needed to be a witness where not based on worldly categories. One did not need to be, for example, male, well educated, and well to do, in order to be trustworthy with the resurrection message. One needed only to encounter Jesus himself.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (see First Corinthians 1:27-29).
The other aspect of the lesson we can learn from Mary Magdalene is that, even if it is Jesus himself who sets us to the task, we may not be successful. Surely Jesus knew that Mary Magdalene would not be believed when she told her story. Yet he told her to tell it nonetheless. Her testimony could not substitute for an encounter with the risen Lord. Yet it was no less valuable for that. In encountering the risen Lord the disciples were forced to reckon with their hardness of heart that had made them disbelieve his witnesses. It isn't hard to imagine how this experience might dispose them afterward to treat others differently, to recognize better the messengers of Jesus, and to learn to see and avoid the ways in which merely human sorrow made them susceptible to doubt and disbelief. The mission to the nations was going to need all of the resources chosen by Jesus, not only those who seemed best in the eyes of the world. And his mission would often meet rejection before success. He himself foreknew all of this and built the core of his early Church on experiences that would prevent his disciples from striving for worldly success and stature.
Observing the boldness of Peter and John
and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men,
the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed,
and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.
Now the tables were turned, as it were, and it was Peter and John who were disbelieved because they did not seem trustworthy in the eyes of the leaders, elders, and scribes. They were uneducated and ordinary men. But they did not keep silent on this account. Nor did they remain silent even in the face of apparent failure and orders to stop speaking the name of Jesus. No doubt they still remembered how they themselves had responded to Mary Magdalene's Easter tidings, but how those tidings had prepared the way for Jesus himself. Peter and John now knew enough to hope beyond their own ability to proclaim, beyond the ability of their hearers to receive. Only Jesus himself knew how planted seeds would be watered and grow. And for some of these seeds we ourselves may never know. But for us, we receive at least the example of fearless witnesses who would not be cowed into silence by the abuse of authority. We can learn that the urgency of the Easter tidings is so great that no mere law of man can ever take precedence.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just.
No comments:
Post a Comment