Witnesses To The Light: Mary of Magdala -- I Have Seen The Lord!
Drama
The Bee Attitudes
And 5 More Extraordinary Plays for Ordinary Days
Object:
Characters
Angels
Fantastic
Marvelous
Wonderful
Gabriel
Mary Of Magdala
Joanna (wife of Chuza)
Props
Script
Angel costumes
Note
This drama is based on Luke 8:1-3 and John 20:1-19.
Fantastic: Two minutes to airtime!
Marvelous: Hello! Hello, everybody! Has anyone seen Gabriel?
Fantastic: And you are?
Marvelous: Marvelous.
Fantastic: I'm sure you are.
Marvelous: No, I mean my name is Marvelous.
Fantastic: Fantastic.
Marvelous: Well, I like my name, too.
Fantastic: No, I mean, my name is Fantastic. And you're looking for?
Marvelous: Gabriel! Gabriel's supposed to be here.
Fantastic: Gabriel?
Marvelous: Gabriel's an angel.
Fantastic: Maybe you haven't noticed, but this place is crawling with angels. I'm an angel. You're an angel. We're all angels around here, except for the saints. This is heaven, after all.
Marvelous: It was heaven, until certain angels started throwing their weight around.
Fantastic: Pardon me?
Marvelous: Okay, you're forgiven. (slight pause) Now have you seen Gabriel? He's a big angel. An archangel.
Wonderful: (drags in Gabriel, who's ruffling through his script) Look who I found!
Marvelous: (recognizes the Angel Wonderful) Wonderful!
Fantastic: How do we know an angel's wonderful until we've actually heard the angel?
Wonderful: No, that's my name. Wonderful.
Marvelous: Where have you been?
Fantastic: One minute to airtime!
Gabriel: I was busy keeping the planet Mars in its orbit. Seems it was just starting to wobble a bit.
Marvelous: Well, let the other angels handle it. We need you to introduce our witnesses.
Gabriel: (ruffles through the pages) Yes, there was something about this in the script. I have to confess I haven't really looked it over too closely. Witnesses to what?
Wonderful: Witnesses to the light!
Marvelous: Witnesses to the light of Christ!
Fantastic: Thirty seconds!
Wonderful: You're to introduce each week's "Witness to the Light," throughout the season of Lent. Each witness will tell her or his story.
Gabriel: I like it.
Wonderful: Good thing, because you're on.
Gabriel: (looks down) On what?
Fantastic: Right on cue. Five. Four. Three. (signals silently with fingers first two, then one)
Gabriel: Good day. My name is Gabriel, and I'll be your host for this edition of -- The Witness Zone....
Picture this, if you will. A woman of means, desperate for help, sick at heart, sick in her soul, tormented by her inner demons, reaches out in faith to the one physician with the cure. Transformed not only physically but spiritually, she makes it her ministry to support the mission of this one who has come to establish God's kingdom on earth.
When this man, whom she knows as Jesus of Nazareth, is murdered in a judicial travesty, she keeps the faith even in the face of death, and is rewarded by becoming the first person to meet the risen Christ! When she tells others, she becomes the first apostle remembered in all four gospels as the one who proclaims Jesus is risen!
Over the centuries, whenever people tell the story of Jesus to those who know it well as well as those who have never heard the glorious story, they will mention this woman. She is inextricably a part of the gospel story. Her fame is assured.
But here is the irony --
Wonderful: What's an irony?
Marvelous: I think that's what they put in the socket when you're having a knee replacement.
Wonderful: What?
Marvelous: You know. An iron knee.
Fantastic: That's not it at all. An irony is --
Gabriel: Ahem. (pauses) Thank you, but here is the irony: A few centuries after this woman shuffled off her mortal coil, a well-meaning Christian wrote a pious fiction about Paul and a woman he called Thecla, a prostitute who was converted by Paul and became an evangelist like him. It was an instant hit, an ancient best seller. People loved it.
And people confused the story of Thecla with the story of a woman named Mary, from the village of Magdala, who came to be known as --
Fantastic: Mary Magdalene! I get it. You're talking about Mary Magdalene. The prostitute who was --
Gabriel: (thwacks the manuscript) Mary of Magdala was not a prostitute. She was a rich woman who had a mental illness who was cured by --
Fantastic: Are you sure?
Marvelous: Of course, he's sure!
Wonderful: He's an archangel, remember?
Fantastic: Frankly, I've known a lot of archangels and if you want my humble opinion you can take the whole lot of them and -- (notices Gabriel is watching) -- ah, give them all a raise.
Gabriel: If you're all quite through. (pauses) Thank you. So that is the picture we present to you this evening. The story of a woman dedicated to spreading the gospel, whose image has been confused with a fictional character who emerged centuries later. But this is no fiction itself, but the true story, a story we find -- in the "Witness Zone."
(Mary Of Magdala enters)
Fantastic: Is that the real Mary of Magdala?
Marvelous: Of course.
Fantastic: And we can afford her?
Wonderful: Might I remind you that this is heaven?
Fantastic: Shhh!
Mary Of Magdala: My name is Mary of Magdala. Magdala, otherwise known as Migdol, is the village from which I hail. Mary, or Miriam really, was a very common name in my day. Still is, I'm told. The original Miriam was the sister of Moses, known for singing that little song after Pharaoh and all of his charioteers took a bath in the Red Sea.
Wonderful: I remember that story. I just read it in, just read it in, uh ...
Marvelous: the Bible. Remember? Gabriel told us to read the Bible, and that's in Exodus. How did that song go?
Wonderful: Like this, "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."
Marvelous: That's right!
Wonderful, Marvelous, and Fantastic: (chanting) "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."
"Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."
Gabriel: Hey! This is supposed to be a biblical monologue. The definition of a monologue is one speaker.
Marvelous: Whoops.
Wonderful: Sorry.
Mary Of Magdala: Thank you. As I was saying, I am Mary of Magdala, Miriam really, named after one of the most famous characters in biblical hist -- well, let's skip all that. Since my name was so very common, the Bible finds different ways of distinguishing us, one from the other. There's Mary, the mother of Jesus; Mary, the mother of gospel writer, John Mark; Mary, the wife of Clopas; Mary, the sister of Martha; Mary, the mother of James and of Joses; as well as the other Mary; and that's not counting the Mary whom Paul wrote to in Romans. That's a lot of Marys.
Each of us has something to set us apart, and I am set apart by the name of my village. That alone should have told people that I was a person of some renown, some fame, some, how shall I say it, well, money. I was born into a rich family and I married into a rich family. And a woman of wealth is unlikely to become, well, a woman of the profession that was later attached to my name. So that's the last I want to hear about my being a --
Fantastic: She's a little touchy, isn't she?
Gabriel: Shhh!
Mary Of Magdala: In our society it was very normal and natural for those of us with great wealth to live apart from others, but we were nevertheless expected to perform deeds for the public welfare, such as supporting the arts or paying the way for philosophers and poets. We helped provide what entertainment was available through our patronage.
This was a duty I took seriously, but as the years went by it became harder and harder for me to take care of these responsibilities. I was, to put it bluntly, very, very ill. Possessed by seven demons, I lived in a world of darkness. I rose late if at all, went to bed, struggled with my appetite and my interests, ignored my obligations, and lived, if you can call it living, without hope.
Always, always, I felt listless, without any sense of purpose or drive. People told me to snap out of it, to put on a happy face, to shake off this darkness, and come out into the light, but more and more I found myself seeking the coldest, the darkest room in the house, and shutting the doors against everyone. I drove family, friends, even servants, away from me.
All around me the great pageant of life was proceeding. There were births in town for every death, there were weddings and banquets, feasts, religious holidays, visitors, comings and goings. The crops were planted and harvested, the nets were brought in full into the boats. Life was going on, and it meant nothing to me. I was possessed. I needed help. I could not cure myself alone.
When I could summon the strength I tried to find a cure. I hired physicians of all sorts, some good, some quite honestly fakes, but nothing they tried worked.
Nothing, that is, until Jesus.
One of the gospel writers has told you that Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered that light. One dark day, I heard a tapping on the window shutters. I muttered, telling the people to go away. Go away! But even though I had driven all my family away, there was still one friend who cared about me, and told me something very important. She said something I didn't want to hear, but I needed to receive.
She told me --
Joanna: Mary, you need Jesus in your life.
Marvelous: Who is that?
Gabriel: You'll see.
Mary Of Magdala: -- that I needed Jesus in my life.
I had heard about this Jesus, this man who went from town to town, doing more than just curing -- he healed people as well. He restored them back into the community of faith.
But you know, I had heard that kind of thing before about other wonder workers, and I knew, they come and they go. There's always a new one.
Still, my friend would not give up.
Joanna: Mary! I know you're in there. Come out. Come out into the light!
Mary Of Magdala: Her name was Joanna, the wife of Chuza, who was Herod's steward. I remembered hearing her case was like mine, very dark and gloomy, possessed by demons, unable to care for herself and others. Now rumors were reaching me that she was doing better, that she had been restored to her family, that all things were becoming as new for her.
Joanna: Mary!
Mary Of Magdala: Go away! I didn't believe her. However, that was her voice at my window. I rose, feeling all the while that the demons were trying to pull me back. And that scared me. If I were truly possessed, if my case were as hopeless as I believed, what had they to worry about? For the first time I had the faintest glimmer of hope.
I went to the door and before I could reach it Joanna threw it open. The light was bright, nearly threw me back, but she caught me, and held me, and dragged me by the hand, ignoring my protests, right into the middle of the town square.
Joanna: Mary, come into the light!
Mary Of Magdala: "Please," I begged her, not wanting to be around so many people, but she pushed her way through, and brought me into the presence of --
Jesus of Nazareth, king of the world.
I will never forget his eyes. Old as the ages, young as the first days of spring, deep as Jacob's well, bright as the pools that collect by the road after a sudden squall is driven away by the bright rays of a ravenous sun.
"Mary," he said, and I never even thought to ask how he knew my name, "your sins are forgiven you."
At first I didn't know what to make of those words, but suddenly I felt lighter than air, as if I were about to float off on the breeze. I threw my arms around Joanna, begging her to hold me before I flew away. Something was gone, driven away, forced out of my life. The darkness, the demons, were no more. It was brighter than ever, but suddenly my eyes were no longer assaulted by the light. Instead, I felt as if I had been made for this world that surrounded me, as if this good earth had been created out of nothing for me, and not for me only, but all of God's good people who hemmed me in on every side.
I looked around. Here were the same people I'd always known from the village of Magdala, the widow with the two young children, the old baker, the teacher of the Bible, and the woman who was always to be found outside the synagogue, praying aloud. Here were the children whose noises I had always hated, and the old people who I feared because I thought of how I, myself, would become old as well. The tanner, who many felt was unclean because he worked with the skins of animals, and the round, fat butcher who gave him the hides of the creatures he killed.
They were all transformed. The children didn't make noise. They sang! The tanner didn't smell from his trade. He glowed with death turned into life. The older people now seemed to me to be pillars of wisdom and truth, every line on their face telling a grand story that is also God's glory.
And Jesus. Always Jesus, at the center of it all. That's when I knew. Jesus is Lord!
Joanna: After that we saw the old Mary we used to know so well.
Mary Of Magdala: Only changed.
Joanna: Well, I should hope so.
Mary Of Magdala: I said earlier that it was the place of rich women --
Joanna: -- like us --
Mary Of Magdala: -- to support philosophers, entertainers, teachers. Now we had someone really worth supporting. Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord of life.
Joanna: Do you know how much food it takes to feed a hundred Galileans? There are some hefty appetites there, Peter, James, John, those who fished for a living, those who worked with their hands.
Mary Of Magdala: Even Matthew, the tax collector, the one without the calluses on his hands, he had a pretty good appetite, too. I used to kid him about it, but we were glad to do it. Everyone had to eat, didn't they? Besides, it was only money. A few of us had a lot and most had none, but Jesus taught us that we all belonged to each other. I had never been happier.
Joanna: You could see it. She had never been happier.
Mary Of Magdala: That's why I stuck with Jesus -- all the way to the cross. (pauses) It all came to an end so fast, you know. One moment we were on top of the world, coming into Jerusalem like we did, with the crowd tossing about their hosannas like palm branches.
Joanna: They tossed palm branches, too.
Mary Of Magdala: No one was silent!
Joanna: And remember when he cleared the temple?
Mary Of Magdala: Those who took advantage of the pilgrims, who were selling and changing money on the temple grounds, he sent them packing. We made a lot of enemies that day. Powerful enemies.
There were those who challenged Jesus that week, challenged him with words. He was more than equal to the challenge. "Shall we pay the tax?" they asked. Jesus asked these religious leaders to produce a coin. Instead of so-called pure money, coins with the temple stamped on the front, coins that pilgrims had to exchange their own money for at an exorbitant exchange rate, all they could produce was the money they considered polluted, featuring the face of the emperor. They had intended to trap Jesus, to force him to choose between the religious zealots and those who collaborated with the Romans. Instead, they were trapped.
Joanna: And then it was over.
Mary Of Magdala: I felt the darkness return. I felt the demons crouch at the door. They dragged Jesus away in the darkness, set up a sham of a trial, kept me away from Pilate, where I -- and my money -- might have had some influence, and nailed him to a cross.
But just when I thought the darkness would overwhelm me, just when I was tempted to go back to my rooms, to hide in the dark, I did the only thing that I felt could save me. I clung to the cross. Here was an instrument of shame, of torture. Here hung the end of the dreams we had shared. But I resolved to live by the words and example of Jesus no matter what happened, no matter what the cost. Others ran. I do not blame them, but we women stayed by the cross.
Even at the end.
Joanna: The next day was the worst.
Mary Of Magdala: The day someone dies is terrible, the wound is wide open and you're in shock. The next day, the first day that dawns with that person absent, forever, is the beginning of the new way, the terrible way of life. That day after they took Jesus down from the cross and laid him in the tomb, was the longest day, the emptiest day. But it was also a day of faithfulness.
Joanna: Then came the third day.
Mary Of Magdala: There we were, in the garden. A new day. A new dawn. An empty tomb. And a message -- why do you seek the living among the dead?
We scattered, we women, who had come after the day of rest to prepare the body for permanent burial. We found an empty tomb and a creature of light who told us something we could scarcely believe.
I ran and ran until I found Simon Peter and that disciple whom Jesus loved. I told them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
Off they went, the disciples, but I was tired, exhausted, and I waited weeping beside the tomb. That's when I saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet.
They said to me, "Woman, why are you weeping?" I said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."
When I try to tell you what happened next, it sounds like something in a dream. I turned and saw Jesus standing there, but I didn't know it was him.
He said to me, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" I thought he was the gardener.
"Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
Then he said my name, "Mary!"
"Teacher," I replied. And it wasn't long before I became the first apostle, the first ambassador for Jesus, shouting in the midst of all the disciples, "I have seen the Lord!"
There's not much more to tell you. I think you know the rest. But there is this -- my question -- which took me a long time to answer. Why would Jesus pick me? Why would Jesus pick me to be the first one to proclaim the resurrection, the new life?
Think about it. I am a woman. Women were not allowed to be witnesses in court. We were not considered reliable. And my background, the darkness, the demons, made me even less likely a witness.
Shouldn't Jesus have shown himself to the temple authorities, to Pilate, maybe even to Caesar, so that no one would be able to impeach the report?
I know Jesus came to support the weak, the outcast. It was as if God was saying, not by your rules of evidence. Here are my witnesses. Eternal life, real life, is at stake.
It's still at stake. I am Mary of Magdala. I have seen the Lord. You can, too. Just remember, no matter what demons you struggle with, what darkness hems you in, what enemies are arrayed against you, what burden you bear, cling to the cross, that lonely cross, and despite your despair you will know the light, you will know the love, you will see the Lord. Jesus is risen, Jesus is risen indeed!
(Angels all clap)
Gabriel: Say, she was good. Very good.
Marvelous: Thank you.
Wonderful: What a great choice.
Gabriel: But any chance of getting that Jabez fellow? I've been hearing a lot about him lately.
Fantastic: Are you kidding? He's on a book tour. Jabez is out of our price range.
Gabriel: You're on a budget?
Wonderful: This is heaven, not Chase Manhattan. What do you think, that money grows on trees?
Gabriel: But the streets of heaven are lined with gold!
Marvelous: Which means they're about as valuable as regular bricks.
Joanna: You guys want Jabez? Take my advice. Talk to someone with some real cash.
Fantastic: That's a great idea. Mary! Mary of Magdala!
Mary Of Magdala: What?
Fantastic: We were hoping to book Jabez and but none of us seem to have the cash ...
Marvelous: So we were just wondering ...
Mary Of Magdala: I'll think about it. I'll think about it.
Angels
Fantastic
Marvelous
Wonderful
Gabriel
Mary Of Magdala
Joanna (wife of Chuza)
Props
Script
Angel costumes
Note
This drama is based on Luke 8:1-3 and John 20:1-19.
Fantastic: Two minutes to airtime!
Marvelous: Hello! Hello, everybody! Has anyone seen Gabriel?
Fantastic: And you are?
Marvelous: Marvelous.
Fantastic: I'm sure you are.
Marvelous: No, I mean my name is Marvelous.
Fantastic: Fantastic.
Marvelous: Well, I like my name, too.
Fantastic: No, I mean, my name is Fantastic. And you're looking for?
Marvelous: Gabriel! Gabriel's supposed to be here.
Fantastic: Gabriel?
Marvelous: Gabriel's an angel.
Fantastic: Maybe you haven't noticed, but this place is crawling with angels. I'm an angel. You're an angel. We're all angels around here, except for the saints. This is heaven, after all.
Marvelous: It was heaven, until certain angels started throwing their weight around.
Fantastic: Pardon me?
Marvelous: Okay, you're forgiven. (slight pause) Now have you seen Gabriel? He's a big angel. An archangel.
Wonderful: (drags in Gabriel, who's ruffling through his script) Look who I found!
Marvelous: (recognizes the Angel Wonderful) Wonderful!
Fantastic: How do we know an angel's wonderful until we've actually heard the angel?
Wonderful: No, that's my name. Wonderful.
Marvelous: Where have you been?
Fantastic: One minute to airtime!
Gabriel: I was busy keeping the planet Mars in its orbit. Seems it was just starting to wobble a bit.
Marvelous: Well, let the other angels handle it. We need you to introduce our witnesses.
Gabriel: (ruffles through the pages) Yes, there was something about this in the script. I have to confess I haven't really looked it over too closely. Witnesses to what?
Wonderful: Witnesses to the light!
Marvelous: Witnesses to the light of Christ!
Fantastic: Thirty seconds!
Wonderful: You're to introduce each week's "Witness to the Light," throughout the season of Lent. Each witness will tell her or his story.
Gabriel: I like it.
Wonderful: Good thing, because you're on.
Gabriel: (looks down) On what?
Fantastic: Right on cue. Five. Four. Three. (signals silently with fingers first two, then one)
Gabriel: Good day. My name is Gabriel, and I'll be your host for this edition of -- The Witness Zone....
Picture this, if you will. A woman of means, desperate for help, sick at heart, sick in her soul, tormented by her inner demons, reaches out in faith to the one physician with the cure. Transformed not only physically but spiritually, she makes it her ministry to support the mission of this one who has come to establish God's kingdom on earth.
When this man, whom she knows as Jesus of Nazareth, is murdered in a judicial travesty, she keeps the faith even in the face of death, and is rewarded by becoming the first person to meet the risen Christ! When she tells others, she becomes the first apostle remembered in all four gospels as the one who proclaims Jesus is risen!
Over the centuries, whenever people tell the story of Jesus to those who know it well as well as those who have never heard the glorious story, they will mention this woman. She is inextricably a part of the gospel story. Her fame is assured.
But here is the irony --
Wonderful: What's an irony?
Marvelous: I think that's what they put in the socket when you're having a knee replacement.
Wonderful: What?
Marvelous: You know. An iron knee.
Fantastic: That's not it at all. An irony is --
Gabriel: Ahem. (pauses) Thank you, but here is the irony: A few centuries after this woman shuffled off her mortal coil, a well-meaning Christian wrote a pious fiction about Paul and a woman he called Thecla, a prostitute who was converted by Paul and became an evangelist like him. It was an instant hit, an ancient best seller. People loved it.
And people confused the story of Thecla with the story of a woman named Mary, from the village of Magdala, who came to be known as --
Fantastic: Mary Magdalene! I get it. You're talking about Mary Magdalene. The prostitute who was --
Gabriel: (thwacks the manuscript) Mary of Magdala was not a prostitute. She was a rich woman who had a mental illness who was cured by --
Fantastic: Are you sure?
Marvelous: Of course, he's sure!
Wonderful: He's an archangel, remember?
Fantastic: Frankly, I've known a lot of archangels and if you want my humble opinion you can take the whole lot of them and -- (notices Gabriel is watching) -- ah, give them all a raise.
Gabriel: If you're all quite through. (pauses) Thank you. So that is the picture we present to you this evening. The story of a woman dedicated to spreading the gospel, whose image has been confused with a fictional character who emerged centuries later. But this is no fiction itself, but the true story, a story we find -- in the "Witness Zone."
(Mary Of Magdala enters)
Fantastic: Is that the real Mary of Magdala?
Marvelous: Of course.
Fantastic: And we can afford her?
Wonderful: Might I remind you that this is heaven?
Fantastic: Shhh!
Mary Of Magdala: My name is Mary of Magdala. Magdala, otherwise known as Migdol, is the village from which I hail. Mary, or Miriam really, was a very common name in my day. Still is, I'm told. The original Miriam was the sister of Moses, known for singing that little song after Pharaoh and all of his charioteers took a bath in the Red Sea.
Wonderful: I remember that story. I just read it in, just read it in, uh ...
Marvelous: the Bible. Remember? Gabriel told us to read the Bible, and that's in Exodus. How did that song go?
Wonderful: Like this, "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."
Marvelous: That's right!
Wonderful, Marvelous, and Fantastic: (chanting) "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."
"Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."
Gabriel: Hey! This is supposed to be a biblical monologue. The definition of a monologue is one speaker.
Marvelous: Whoops.
Wonderful: Sorry.
Mary Of Magdala: Thank you. As I was saying, I am Mary of Magdala, Miriam really, named after one of the most famous characters in biblical hist -- well, let's skip all that. Since my name was so very common, the Bible finds different ways of distinguishing us, one from the other. There's Mary, the mother of Jesus; Mary, the mother of gospel writer, John Mark; Mary, the wife of Clopas; Mary, the sister of Martha; Mary, the mother of James and of Joses; as well as the other Mary; and that's not counting the Mary whom Paul wrote to in Romans. That's a lot of Marys.
Each of us has something to set us apart, and I am set apart by the name of my village. That alone should have told people that I was a person of some renown, some fame, some, how shall I say it, well, money. I was born into a rich family and I married into a rich family. And a woman of wealth is unlikely to become, well, a woman of the profession that was later attached to my name. So that's the last I want to hear about my being a --
Fantastic: She's a little touchy, isn't she?
Gabriel: Shhh!
Mary Of Magdala: In our society it was very normal and natural for those of us with great wealth to live apart from others, but we were nevertheless expected to perform deeds for the public welfare, such as supporting the arts or paying the way for philosophers and poets. We helped provide what entertainment was available through our patronage.
This was a duty I took seriously, but as the years went by it became harder and harder for me to take care of these responsibilities. I was, to put it bluntly, very, very ill. Possessed by seven demons, I lived in a world of darkness. I rose late if at all, went to bed, struggled with my appetite and my interests, ignored my obligations, and lived, if you can call it living, without hope.
Always, always, I felt listless, without any sense of purpose or drive. People told me to snap out of it, to put on a happy face, to shake off this darkness, and come out into the light, but more and more I found myself seeking the coldest, the darkest room in the house, and shutting the doors against everyone. I drove family, friends, even servants, away from me.
All around me the great pageant of life was proceeding. There were births in town for every death, there were weddings and banquets, feasts, religious holidays, visitors, comings and goings. The crops were planted and harvested, the nets were brought in full into the boats. Life was going on, and it meant nothing to me. I was possessed. I needed help. I could not cure myself alone.
When I could summon the strength I tried to find a cure. I hired physicians of all sorts, some good, some quite honestly fakes, but nothing they tried worked.
Nothing, that is, until Jesus.
One of the gospel writers has told you that Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered that light. One dark day, I heard a tapping on the window shutters. I muttered, telling the people to go away. Go away! But even though I had driven all my family away, there was still one friend who cared about me, and told me something very important. She said something I didn't want to hear, but I needed to receive.
She told me --
Joanna: Mary, you need Jesus in your life.
Marvelous: Who is that?
Gabriel: You'll see.
Mary Of Magdala: -- that I needed Jesus in my life.
I had heard about this Jesus, this man who went from town to town, doing more than just curing -- he healed people as well. He restored them back into the community of faith.
But you know, I had heard that kind of thing before about other wonder workers, and I knew, they come and they go. There's always a new one.
Still, my friend would not give up.
Joanna: Mary! I know you're in there. Come out. Come out into the light!
Mary Of Magdala: Her name was Joanna, the wife of Chuza, who was Herod's steward. I remembered hearing her case was like mine, very dark and gloomy, possessed by demons, unable to care for herself and others. Now rumors were reaching me that she was doing better, that she had been restored to her family, that all things were becoming as new for her.
Joanna: Mary!
Mary Of Magdala: Go away! I didn't believe her. However, that was her voice at my window. I rose, feeling all the while that the demons were trying to pull me back. And that scared me. If I were truly possessed, if my case were as hopeless as I believed, what had they to worry about? For the first time I had the faintest glimmer of hope.
I went to the door and before I could reach it Joanna threw it open. The light was bright, nearly threw me back, but she caught me, and held me, and dragged me by the hand, ignoring my protests, right into the middle of the town square.
Joanna: Mary, come into the light!
Mary Of Magdala: "Please," I begged her, not wanting to be around so many people, but she pushed her way through, and brought me into the presence of --
Jesus of Nazareth, king of the world.
I will never forget his eyes. Old as the ages, young as the first days of spring, deep as Jacob's well, bright as the pools that collect by the road after a sudden squall is driven away by the bright rays of a ravenous sun.
"Mary," he said, and I never even thought to ask how he knew my name, "your sins are forgiven you."
At first I didn't know what to make of those words, but suddenly I felt lighter than air, as if I were about to float off on the breeze. I threw my arms around Joanna, begging her to hold me before I flew away. Something was gone, driven away, forced out of my life. The darkness, the demons, were no more. It was brighter than ever, but suddenly my eyes were no longer assaulted by the light. Instead, I felt as if I had been made for this world that surrounded me, as if this good earth had been created out of nothing for me, and not for me only, but all of God's good people who hemmed me in on every side.
I looked around. Here were the same people I'd always known from the village of Magdala, the widow with the two young children, the old baker, the teacher of the Bible, and the woman who was always to be found outside the synagogue, praying aloud. Here were the children whose noises I had always hated, and the old people who I feared because I thought of how I, myself, would become old as well. The tanner, who many felt was unclean because he worked with the skins of animals, and the round, fat butcher who gave him the hides of the creatures he killed.
They were all transformed. The children didn't make noise. They sang! The tanner didn't smell from his trade. He glowed with death turned into life. The older people now seemed to me to be pillars of wisdom and truth, every line on their face telling a grand story that is also God's glory.
And Jesus. Always Jesus, at the center of it all. That's when I knew. Jesus is Lord!
Joanna: After that we saw the old Mary we used to know so well.
Mary Of Magdala: Only changed.
Joanna: Well, I should hope so.
Mary Of Magdala: I said earlier that it was the place of rich women --
Joanna: -- like us --
Mary Of Magdala: -- to support philosophers, entertainers, teachers. Now we had someone really worth supporting. Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord of life.
Joanna: Do you know how much food it takes to feed a hundred Galileans? There are some hefty appetites there, Peter, James, John, those who fished for a living, those who worked with their hands.
Mary Of Magdala: Even Matthew, the tax collector, the one without the calluses on his hands, he had a pretty good appetite, too. I used to kid him about it, but we were glad to do it. Everyone had to eat, didn't they? Besides, it was only money. A few of us had a lot and most had none, but Jesus taught us that we all belonged to each other. I had never been happier.
Joanna: You could see it. She had never been happier.
Mary Of Magdala: That's why I stuck with Jesus -- all the way to the cross. (pauses) It all came to an end so fast, you know. One moment we were on top of the world, coming into Jerusalem like we did, with the crowd tossing about their hosannas like palm branches.
Joanna: They tossed palm branches, too.
Mary Of Magdala: No one was silent!
Joanna: And remember when he cleared the temple?
Mary Of Magdala: Those who took advantage of the pilgrims, who were selling and changing money on the temple grounds, he sent them packing. We made a lot of enemies that day. Powerful enemies.
There were those who challenged Jesus that week, challenged him with words. He was more than equal to the challenge. "Shall we pay the tax?" they asked. Jesus asked these religious leaders to produce a coin. Instead of so-called pure money, coins with the temple stamped on the front, coins that pilgrims had to exchange their own money for at an exorbitant exchange rate, all they could produce was the money they considered polluted, featuring the face of the emperor. They had intended to trap Jesus, to force him to choose between the religious zealots and those who collaborated with the Romans. Instead, they were trapped.
Joanna: And then it was over.
Mary Of Magdala: I felt the darkness return. I felt the demons crouch at the door. They dragged Jesus away in the darkness, set up a sham of a trial, kept me away from Pilate, where I -- and my money -- might have had some influence, and nailed him to a cross.
But just when I thought the darkness would overwhelm me, just when I was tempted to go back to my rooms, to hide in the dark, I did the only thing that I felt could save me. I clung to the cross. Here was an instrument of shame, of torture. Here hung the end of the dreams we had shared. But I resolved to live by the words and example of Jesus no matter what happened, no matter what the cost. Others ran. I do not blame them, but we women stayed by the cross.
Even at the end.
Joanna: The next day was the worst.
Mary Of Magdala: The day someone dies is terrible, the wound is wide open and you're in shock. The next day, the first day that dawns with that person absent, forever, is the beginning of the new way, the terrible way of life. That day after they took Jesus down from the cross and laid him in the tomb, was the longest day, the emptiest day. But it was also a day of faithfulness.
Joanna: Then came the third day.
Mary Of Magdala: There we were, in the garden. A new day. A new dawn. An empty tomb. And a message -- why do you seek the living among the dead?
We scattered, we women, who had come after the day of rest to prepare the body for permanent burial. We found an empty tomb and a creature of light who told us something we could scarcely believe.
I ran and ran until I found Simon Peter and that disciple whom Jesus loved. I told them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
Off they went, the disciples, but I was tired, exhausted, and I waited weeping beside the tomb. That's when I saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet.
They said to me, "Woman, why are you weeping?" I said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."
When I try to tell you what happened next, it sounds like something in a dream. I turned and saw Jesus standing there, but I didn't know it was him.
He said to me, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" I thought he was the gardener.
"Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
Then he said my name, "Mary!"
"Teacher," I replied. And it wasn't long before I became the first apostle, the first ambassador for Jesus, shouting in the midst of all the disciples, "I have seen the Lord!"
There's not much more to tell you. I think you know the rest. But there is this -- my question -- which took me a long time to answer. Why would Jesus pick me? Why would Jesus pick me to be the first one to proclaim the resurrection, the new life?
Think about it. I am a woman. Women were not allowed to be witnesses in court. We were not considered reliable. And my background, the darkness, the demons, made me even less likely a witness.
Shouldn't Jesus have shown himself to the temple authorities, to Pilate, maybe even to Caesar, so that no one would be able to impeach the report?
I know Jesus came to support the weak, the outcast. It was as if God was saying, not by your rules of evidence. Here are my witnesses. Eternal life, real life, is at stake.
It's still at stake. I am Mary of Magdala. I have seen the Lord. You can, too. Just remember, no matter what demons you struggle with, what darkness hems you in, what enemies are arrayed against you, what burden you bear, cling to the cross, that lonely cross, and despite your despair you will know the light, you will know the love, you will see the Lord. Jesus is risen, Jesus is risen indeed!
(Angels all clap)
Gabriel: Say, she was good. Very good.
Marvelous: Thank you.
Wonderful: What a great choice.
Gabriel: But any chance of getting that Jabez fellow? I've been hearing a lot about him lately.
Fantastic: Are you kidding? He's on a book tour. Jabez is out of our price range.
Gabriel: You're on a budget?
Wonderful: This is heaven, not Chase Manhattan. What do you think, that money grows on trees?
Gabriel: But the streets of heaven are lined with gold!
Marvelous: Which means they're about as valuable as regular bricks.
Joanna: You guys want Jabez? Take my advice. Talk to someone with some real cash.
Fantastic: That's a great idea. Mary! Mary of Magdala!
Mary Of Magdala: What?
Fantastic: We were hoping to book Jabez and but none of us seem to have the cash ...
Marvelous: So we were just wondering ...
Mary Of Magdala: I'll think about it. I'll think about it.
