Barnes
Mary Magdalene alone was chosen by the Resurrected Christ Jesus to behold Him, first, in His resurrected Person and Presence. Mary Magdalene stayed at the foot of the cross throughout the Crucifixion. Mary Magdalene had been possessed by seven devils before she met Jesus. Mary Magdalene was delivered of her sin, as enormous as it must have been, by Christ, whose lifeless body lay in death. That sacrificed life had been given to establish a New Creation of which Mary was now a part, but as yet unaware; it was a new order of creation, which Christian believers and serious thinkers have struggled rigorously since then to grasp, understand, and express.
I am one of those believers, living in the New Creation in Christ Jesus, amazed by this inexpressible joy of a new order of being, planned before the foundations of the world by Almighty God, and, ” in the fullness of time,” brought to pass by the Father, through the Atonement made for sin by the Son. Can we grasp that amazing Reality? No, we can never grasp comprehensively that Eternal Truth. But as one has clearly said and expressed it, “We can experience it.” That, I know, is true, as well.
That Truth is what Mary Magdalene had experienced. She was a new being! Her forgiven sin held no power over her now! Forgiven by Jesus the Incarnate Christ, Mary was freed of Satan’s bondage, a restored and justified Child of God. Like Jesus Himself, she would now rise up from death to eternal life, in a “glorified body,” as Paul later described it. By Jesus’ redemptive self-sacrifice, she was no longer destined to die in her sin, lost in a dying order of creation and being, forever separated from the Presence of God. In Christ Jesus, her Resurrected Lord, she would live everlastingly with her Savior now, in His Presence. His Resurrection morning appearance to her at the garden tomb had sealed and completed that holy Atonement and transformed her life altogether and forever!
Although the word itself does not appear in the Bible, the meaning and significance, the power and Truth, of the Atonement, sometimes expressed as “atonement,” convey the heart of God’s forgiveness and reconciliation of us to Him, accomplished for our justification, on the cross, by Christ, through the grace of His righteousness.
Gratitude filled Mary Magdalene’s heart and spirit! Gratitude in bounteous, joyous measure! Trust, enduring faith, unshakeable trust, and assurance, filled Mary’s new being in Christ Jesus!
Awake long before dawn on that Resurrection morning, Mary experienced no fear of the darkness outside, no fear of the evil lurking in the darkness, no fear of going alone to Jesus’s tomb. No power of evil and darkness assailing her with threat, or fear, stopped Mary Magdalene, on that morning of blessing and resurrected life. Hallelujah! Glory to God!
Let us read and hear John’s report in John 20 (KJV):
“The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, ‘They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid Him…….But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, ‘Woman, why weepest thou?’ She saith unto them, ‘Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, ‘Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?’
She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, ‘Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.’
Jesus saith unto her, ‘Mary.’
She turned herself, and saith unto Him, ‘Rabboni!’ which is to say, ‘Master!’”
When two of my grandsons were little, about seven and nine years old, I read this Easter scripture aloud to them and prompted them to listen and to notice, at what point it was that Mary recognized Jesus. Breathlessly, or at least still, and quietly, they listened; and when I had finished reading, I gave them a few more clues and then asked, ‘When did Mary recognize Jesus?’. With a bit more prompting from me, their eyes brightened in awareness, and then I launched into a children’s sermonette on how each believer, and we, too, recognize our Lord when we hear Him call our name.
Now grown men, they both, I believe, remember that Mary recognized the tones of her Master’s voice when she heard Him speak her name. And now, they both identify the Eternal Truth contained therein. Praise the Lord!
Thanks be to God.