In John 20, right after his resurrection, Mary Magdalene is at the garden tomb, weeping. The past few days have been horrible, with Jesus’ arrest, beating, and crucifixion. Now his body is missing. As we learned in the previous post, Jesus is alive and meets Mary there in the garden, simply saying her name, “Mary.” She looks up, instantly recognizes him, and hugs him.
Then Jesus says that Mary should not hold on to him. Is Jesus being cold to her? If I were Mary, I would be having one of those moments of emotional whiplash where you think you’ve lost someone, then you realize they are found, and you’re thinking, “I am never letting go of you ever again.” Perhaps Mary is feeling that or something like it.
But Jesus isn’t there to stay. He’s alive, yes! But he tells Mary that he will soon ascend to the Father. So don’t hold tightly Mary. Instead, Jesus says, “I have a mission for you. Go tell the disciples what you have seen and heard.” If Mary holds tightly to his body, she will not be able to fulfill this mission. This is why we Christians would do well to make a big deal not only about Easter, but also Ascension Day and Pentecost Day. All three days remind us, as Jesus teachers Mary in this moment, that we are people on a mission. What that means is that now Mary is the proper evangelist. She has good news now. And she tells it, as we read in verse 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.”
The first evangelist has now delivered the first evangelistic message. Jesus wanted Mary to preach good news, and she did it. Notice the gender. The woman preached good news to the men. This is not some minor point. John places it central to the story of the resurrection. That is because resurrection is about new life.
In Jesus’ resurrection he has created a new way of life, and that means he has overturned the old way of life. Jesus could have said, “It’s good to see you Mary, but I need to talk with the men.” He didn’t do that. He affirms Mary’s voice and role, and he gives her a mission.
John himself supports this by including Mary’s story in the narrative. Think about that. John is likely writing this story about 60 years after it happened. The Roman Empire at that time, around 90 AD, is still highly patriarchal. The story of a woman at the center of the most important event in Christianity could be conceived as detrimental to the mission of the Kingdom. We could make the argument that John would have been more missionally expedient if he included only stories of the men.
But that would not be true to the new life of the resurrection. The new way of Jesus includes the voices of women. This is striking because Jesus was creating this new life in a time and place during which the voices of women had mostly been silenced. What Jesus is doing, and what John is pointing out by telling us this, is that the voices of women are equally central to the mission of Jesus.
The voices of women proclaim good news. We need both male and female voices because both males and females are called by God to tell what they see and hear, so that all people might experience the abundant new life of Jesus.
Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 