Читать книгу Jesus and Those Bodacious Women - Linda H. Hollies - Страница 16

chapter three
MARY MAGDALENE CAN FLY!

John 20:1-18

Mary Hamilton’s book The People Could Fly tells the wonderful story about a great people who had magical powers.¹ They could fly! They didn’t need flying machines or airborne contraptions. But with their songs, their inner strength, and their mental capabilities, their spirits would soar, and often their bodies would join their spirits in sailing above the terrain. The people thought nothing of this ability. They thought everybody was like them. They lived with difficulties, they fought nature to survive, and they had enemies both within and without; but something so strong inside gave them the power to rise above situations and circumstances. With the powerful gift of memory they remembered that once upon a time they had the ability to fly.

This is the call of Easter. This is the call of God’s church. We need to remember that we were divinely designed by God to become bodacious women. Every Ash Wednesday, we are called to remember that we are dust. We were created from dust, and it is to dust that we will return. Remember. The road back to God requires that through a series of scriptures calling us, we rehear, retell, and reflect upon the story of our faith and remember the love of Jesus for us. As we kneel to wash feet and stand to celebrate the first Passover meal, which has become our communion, we are challenged to remember. Every Easter is another call to remember. We are to remember that the people could fly! For we are an Easter people, and rising is our constant theme of praise.

This story is told in three of the Gospels. The crucifixion is over, the funeral has been held, and a period of lamenting by the women has been completed. “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb” (John 20:1). This woman, our sister, had been at the crucifixion. She had stood and watched the Lover of her soul die a cruel and ignominious death. She had been at the funeral, a very small funeral for Jesus attended by three female followers, one male disciple, and two Gentiles. In a day when the world felt that women should be seen and not heard, should be responsible to the authority of some man and remain socially invisible, Mary had defied convention. She had acted out of character for a woman. She had been in places where the brothers had dared not be seen. Mary had been there because she was a bodacious woman.

Mary Magdalene, the Bible records, had a bad reputation. It is reputed that Jesus had driven seven devils out of her. Some say she had been a woman of ill repute, a woman of the night, a woman of disrespect. We have to remember that anyone who was not predictable was labeled “possessed.” Anything people cannot explain, prove, or understand, they want to label. But Jesus had looked beyond Mary’s labels. Jesus had risked his reputation to save her from hers. We don’t know what kind of demons she supposedly had, but, being a woman, I do know the kinds of demons that plague me: the demons of doubt, despair, discouragement, defeat, depression, debilitating weariness, and disbelief. And there are many more I could name. For the demons are real. The demons are on the job. The demons come to stop us from rising and flying. The demons come to make sure that we don’t remember.

But Jesus had loved Mary despite whatever mess she had been in before. Jesus had looked beyond her human faults and had seen her essential need for someone to love her with an extravagant love. So, it is no surprise that Mary was searching for the one who had dared to believe in her goodness, her value, and the imago Dei within her. Jesus knew that a piece of the Divine had been placed in Mary, for when God breathed breath into the first parents, each successive human being was created in that holy image. Mary had found one who loved her tenderly, loved her sweetly, loved her intimately. And she was going to get to him, no matter what it took.

So, early, while it was yet dark, Mary was searching. Not only was it twilight, silent and dismal on the horizon, it was twilight, silent and dismal inside Mary. There was a deep interior emptiness within her. She held inside herself a vast contemplation of longing and one deep abyss of sorrow. There was a hole in her soul. The only one who had accepted her, loved her, and valued her humanness was dead. She wanted to say farewell to love.

I know how the girl felt. There have been many difficult periods in my life. I’ve been hurt, been disappointed, had great sorrow, lost loved ones, cried, lamented, and been disturbed by the actions of so-called friends. I’ve been lied to, talked about, plotted against, and betrayed. And I have looked for the Lover of my soul. Often I have felt, like Mary, that “Jesus must be dead!” Can you identify with her feelings too?

In your midnight experience, what do you do? Most of us give up, turn around, and forget the history that has brought us through. In the dismal periods, we stay home, pull away from community, and remain silent about our pain. In the bad times, we say we don’t want to trouble anybody else with our sorrows. In actuality, we are ashamed and feel like failures, and we don’t want anyone else to see us at less than our best. “When I get it all together, I’ll come back to church.” “When I get up on my feet, I’ll get active again.” “When I get over this hump, then I’ll seek Jesus.”

The lesson Mary teaches us is that it’s when things are worst that we need to seek Jesus. While the grief is fresh and the disappointment is real, you need to get up and get out. Oleta Adams sings to remind us that if you have to come by caravan, by rail, by van, or by bus, get to Jesus any way you can! Don’t wait, don’t delay, don’t put it off; remember to seek Jesus. We need to surround ourselves with every type of high-praise worship experience during the good times, for every good time is a reminder that midnight is coming.

Now, Mary knew that a great stone would block her entrance to the one she sought. But she pressed on anyway. Even four strong people could not have moved that stone, for tombs were hewn out of rocks almost four feet high. Mary knew she would need some additional help. She knew that her resources were limited. She knew that this was not a job for one person to do alone. But she was willing to take the journey and to leave the stone to be dealt with when she got there. God had already moved the stone out of her way!

Who would you be if Christ moved the stone in your life? The Bible doesn’t tell us how the stone got moved, for every “stone” gets moved in a different way. God has a miracle with your name on it when you decide to seek Jesus in earnest. What if the broken hopes and shattered dreams of your life were woven back together and new pieces of beauty began to appear upon your horizon; who would you be? If the pain and unforgivingness over a broken relationship were healed and your heart could feel glimmers of hope, who would you be? Suppose the desire for alcohol and drugs would simply disappear; who would you be? Imagine that the tears, the grief, and the anguish over a loss faded into the background, and new life came in surprising ways; who would you be?

Mary didn’t know who she would be. She knew only who she had been, one who was lost and out of community. She knew what she had become because of the love of Jesus; she had become a woman of hope and possibilities. She knew how something within had changed and how hope had come into her life. She knew that what was had come to an end on the cross, and she had no idea who she would be now. Friend of mine, when Jesus is absent from our lives, there’s no telling who we will be, what we will do, or where we will end up. When Jesus is absent, our lives are dismal and we are on a constant search for meaning, validation, and assurance. When Jesus is absent, we will do anybody and anything, seeking a substitute. There is no friend like Jesus!

Mary the bodacious woman ran and got the two best friends of Jesus, and they came back to the tomb with her. They believed that Jesus’ body had been stolen, for scripture records that “as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (John 20:9). They returned to their homes and left Mary in the graveyard. Wake up, beloveds! You can’t get help from just anyone. You can’t accept the advice of just anyone. You cant expect just anyone to stand by you. Sometimes you simply have to stand alone. When Jesus’ friends went back to the confines of their locked houses, girlfriend stood outside the tomb weeping over the loss of the body of Jesus.

Some of us think that crying will fix a problem. Some of us think that a good cry is the answer. Some of us are good at pitiful crying. But as Mary cried, she continued moving. Your tears of self-pity cannot immobilize you. Your tears of sadness cannot make you paralyzed. Your tears of humiliation, guilt, and shame cannot hinder you so severely that you can’t see the other options available in a given situation. As Mary cried and bent over, she saw the angels that Jesus’ friends had missed. As she cried and knelt, she received words of comfort that the fellows who had run off had not received. In our greatest distress, God dispatches an angel on the run with a message of hope. Our loving God cries with us. Our faithful Creator hurts with us. Our infinite Lover longs to console us. Even as Mary cried, help was already there. And the question the angel asked is for each one of us in our immediate situation: “Woman, why are you weeping?” (John 20:13). She was looking for Jesus among the dead, but he was not there.

Looking for hope in things is not the answer. Looking for joy in people is not the answer. Looking for security in material possessions is not the answer. Looking for self-esteem in accomplishments is not the answer. The only answer is in Jesus Christ, who will not be found in dead things. But he is as close as you need, for Jesus called Mary by name.

The scripture says Mary thought Jesus was the gardener. This means that they were in the Garden of Gethsemane. She had come to the garden alone, while the dew was still on the roses.² And the joy she found was better than what she expected. This second Adam came to overturn “the fall” of women in the first garden experience. In this garden, the curse was lifted from women. In this garden, the wrong was made right. In this garden, a woman was given the power, the authority, and the mandate to go and tell the message of salvation. In this place, because of her tenacity, the curse was reversed. For the second Adam, who had risen from the dead, whispered to Mary, who represented Eve, saying, “Remember! Remember! Mary, remember who you are. Mary, remember what you have become. Mary, remember the potential within you. Mary, remember the message of liberation, freedom, and salvation that I have taught. Go back and remind my brothers to remember!”

The message of Easter is that we always have to be on the alert for the Resurrected One who comes to call us by name. Easter says that in the worst times, there is a message of hope. Easter says that God still moves stones and allows us to enter places we dared not dream. Easter says that the light yet shines and that help is on the way. Easter says that death does not have the final word. Easter says that down is not out and away is not gone. Easter says that Friday, with cross bearing and torture, will come, but Sunday is on the way. Easter says that if I hold on, even with my pain, my hurt, and my tears, a word of comfort will come.

Easter says that Jesus healed the sick to show us his power over helplessness. Jesus walked on water to show us his power over Mother Nature. Jesus calmed the raging sea and told the winds to chill to show us his power over every element. Jesus touched little children to show us his love for the insignificant. Jesus gave messages to women to show his regard for the nonvalued. Jesus saved a dying thief to show us his compassion for the least and the worst. Jesus breathed out forgiveness to show us the power of healing love. Jesus died on a rugged cross to show us his power over death. And Jesus rose again to show us that if we remember, simply remember, then,