February 13
Mark 16: Something About Mary
Genesis 46; Mark 16; Job 12; Romans 16
Throughout the Gospel accounts, Jesus is continually misunderstood, especially by his own ethnic countrymen and even by those closest to him. When Jesus told his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and die and be raised, it was his closest follower who poo-pooed that kind of talk.
This is why Mary Magdalene’s story is so worth paying attention to. I wonder if C.S. Lewis fashioned Lucy Pevensie’s character after her. Probably not - after all, Lucy was never a demon-infested prostitute. Yet at every point Lucy is the one who sees and believes in Aslan, just as at every point in the narrative, it’s Mary Magdalene of all people who seems to understand the most about what Jesus is there to do.
Freed by Jesus from demons; released from her guilt of being a high-priced call girl; following Jesus and providing for him and his disciples out of her wealth; sitting at his feet and listening to him teach (see February 11); anointing him for his crucifixion and burial; loyally staying near at his death . . . And now, here she comes with burial spices.
Of course, the burial spices are a mistake; Jesus is risen. If Mary had anointed Jesus twice (earlier in Luke) that too might have been a mistake in judging Jesus’ timeline. Here she is alarmed; this too is a mistake. Yet these are all exquisitely beautiful mistakes, borne out of a grateful loyalty to her King. And for that reason, in God’s economy, they just don’t matter. God does not require theological precision as much as he desires a childlike following of Christ. He will take care of the rest.
So it is - I’m convinced - no coincidence of history that the resurrection is announced to Mary first and that she is its first proclaimer. This is not - as so many modern feminists claim - an affirmation of womanhood but an affirmation of childlike faith in Jesus. It matters not what we have done: you can even be a demon-possessed prostitute for the Jeffrey Epstein’s of your generation, and God’s grace is greater.
So I invite you, for this season of Lent (which, at the time I write this, starts today) to go back through the gospels and watch this woman. Watch her faith and watch where her faith takes her. Then emulate her.
For Peter would need to do this. The angel’s phrasing is intentional (7):
“But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.”
Peter is mentioned separately from the others because he betrayed his Lord and needs to be restored. And that will happen, by faith like Mary’s.