This Easter Sunday I will be speaking on John 20, where Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene after he has been raised from the dead. To help me prepare for this, and to be up-to-date with the latest blockbuster, I went to see the film Mary Magdalene last night with Leanne.
So what did we make of the film? In our opinion it was terrible. As a film it was slow, boring, contained little/no interesting dialogue, very little storyline and lots and lots and LOTS of gazing into Mary’s eyes. And as a retelling of Mary/Jesus’ story it deviates far from the biblical text, particularly in the resurrection scene which is where we learn the most about Mary, from John 20.
If you want to read a scathing review that Leanne and I could have written I suggest you read this one by my friend Matt Hosier. Were there any positives or things we took away from the film? Leanne and I listed six as we came out of the cinema…
- Hearing the disciples argue and misunderstand Jesus – that made sense to me from the biblical text and I could imagine Jesus coming back to the group (in the film it was Mary who reported it to Jesus) to find them completely missing the point.
- The harshness of life as Jewish peasant under Roman rule – this gave me a sense of (a) how strong, powerful and harsh the Romans were and (b) how powerless and hopeless the average first century Jew was. And how a first century Jew would have longed for liberation and the kingdom of God.
- The scenery – was stunning (I understand it was filmed in Italy).
- The different sites – it was interesting to see Jesus and the disciples moving from Magdala to Cana and to other small villages and then to Jerusalem, and get a sense of the movement of Jesus’ life (and how it was all on foot!).
- Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple – Leanne and I were both struck by the busyness and size of Jerusalem. It gave us a sense of ‘festival fever’ that might have happened at the passover. And whilst much of the temple scene annoyed us, certainly the grandeur, hustle and business of the temple was a helpful visual aid for how it might have been.
- It wasn’t sexual – the film didn’t make up any story about Mary and Jesus falling in love, or have any romance. There was one part where Jesus’ mother says “you love him don’t you?” but there were no aggressive romantic overtones to that.
So those were the positives we took away from what was otherwise more of an endurance test for both of us (particularly Leanne…I was doing okay until the post-resurrection scenes!!).
Could the real Mary Magdalene please stand up?
So what do we know about Mary Magdalene, as so much of the film is speculation. Here are the facts that we do know about her from the biblical records (Luke 8:1-3, John 19:25-27, Matthew 25:55-61, Matthew 28:1 and John 20:1-18 being the key passages)
- She was a follower of Jesus
- She was part of a group of women who cared for Jesus’ needs
- She had been cured of evil spirits and diseases*
- She was amongst those who watched Jesus die on a cross
- She was one of group who went to the tomb to bury Jesus
- She was the first one to meet the risen Christ
- She was the first one to be commissioned by Jesus to share the good news of his resurrection
- She was the first one to tell the disciples that Jesus had been raised
*As the New Bible Dictionary says “We should resist the identification between Mary Magdalene and the ‘sinful women’ of Luke 7. If Luke had know that Mary of chapter 8 was the same person as the sinner in chapter 7, would he not probably have made the connection explicit?”
What does John 20 teach us?
On Sunday I will be preaching (with gusto!) from John 20 and Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, so I thought I’d drop down a few learnings from that passage to give you a taster.
(1) A woman witness
As I explained a few years ago when looking at the evidence from the resurrection, if the disciples wanted to make up a story (to comfort themselves!) that Jesus had been raised from the dead, then they would not have inserted that the first witness to the resurrection was a woman, nor detail such an elaborate account of that appearance as we have in John 20. Women didn’t have any standing in a court of law in those days, so their testimony would not have counted. And myths are not written like John 20!
(2) A woman in a garden
The story of the Bible starts with a man and a woman in a garden, when the world was perfect and there was no fear, guilt, hiding, striving or shame. John’s description of Jesus’ encounter in the garden brings us back to Eden. John is wanting us to see that, once again, God is here, as a gardener…and what is the resurrection about? It’s about a new creation:
- Creating order out of chaos.
- Creating light out of darkness.
- Creating life from the dust.
- Creating a beautiful new world.
In Jesus’ resurrection God is wanting to restore us to himself and to life without fear, guilt, hiding, striving or shame.
(3) A woman in a man’s world
Galatians 3:28 says:
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
The resurrection appearance to Mary tells us all that Jesus views men and women equal. Equal in value, equal in worth and equal in dignity. The kingdom turns the world upside-d0wn!
(4) A woman with a task
There is another garden in the Bible that this story looks back to – it is a garden full of spices, just as this garden was full of spices that were there to anointed Jesus’ body. It is the garden in the Song of Songs which is the context in which two lovers express their love and delight for each other. There was intimacy and trust and joy. Here we see Mary is a woman who finds the one she loves amidst a spice-filled garden and yearns to be with him, to embrace him…she is the first person to know what it is to be with Jesus now that sin has been wiped away.
And yet Jesus says to her…you cannot stay here with me alone, I am giving you a task of sharing this message and telling people of what you have experienced so they can experience it too (John 20:17-18)
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
So we too have been given a task…to go and tell!
I hope you’ll join us this Sunday as we celebrate Jesus being raised from the dead, examine the evidence and consider its significance for us today.