Welcome to the first week of Faithlogue’s 2023 Fall Series: “The Women of the Resurrection.” Please subscribe to receive each week’s post in your email inbox.
Listen to this post:
The New Testament includes four Gospel accounts: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These books are called Gospels because they testify to the history-changing, good news events of Jesus Christ’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection.
The details of Jesus’s day to day life and ministry vary among the Gospels based on each author’s sources, style, and purpose for writing. However, despite those differences, the message of the good news of Jesus’s coming and His offer of saving grace remain constant throughout.
Because the message is consistent, the variations in the Gospels welcome us to compare the accounts and learn what each author wants to communicate and what the Lord wants us to learn. So, for our next series, I would like to explore the differences in the Gospel stories that reveal how the first hearers learned about and responded to the good news of Jesus’s resurrection.
To prepare for our series, I invite you to read the accounts in the following passages: Matthew 28:1-11, Mark 16:1-11, Luke 24:1-12, and John 20:1-18.
As you read each account, observe that although the announcers, audiences, and responses differ, the fundamental truth of Jesus’s resurrection is the same. Also, note the one disciple named in each Gospel who shows up and receives the good news in each account.
That disciple is Mary Magdalene. I’m sure you’ve heard her name before. She is the subject of many sensational, non-biblical tales. Those legends about Mary either exalt her as the most loved disciple of Jesus or disparage her as an unrepentant prostitute.[1] Meanwhile, the actual biblical accounts of Mary reveal a much different picture of her as a healed and committed disciple of Jesus.
According to the Gospels, Mary Magdalene’s discipleship began when Jesus healed her from spiritual, mental, and physical illnesses (Luke 8:2-3). After her healing, Mary followed Jesus and (along with many other women) traveled with Him throughout Galilee, supporting the ministry and caring for Jesus’s needs (Luke 8:1-3, Mark 15:40-41).
The term used for the support Mary and the other women provided is diakoneo, which means to serve or minister.[2] As we learned in a recent post, (She Serves) this is the same term used to describe the work of Martha and the ministry of other deacons. Therefore, we know Mary was one of many women deacons who followed and honored Jesus.
Just as Mary served Jesus throughout His ministry, she also attended His crucifixion, death, and burial (Matthew 27:56, 61; Mark 15:40, 47; John 19:25). Mary also came with other women to dress Jesus’s body at the tomb after the Sabbath. That morning, Mary became the first consistently named disciple to hear and report the good news of Jesus’s resurrection.
No matter what story or legend you hear about Mary Magdalene, please remember this: the names of her companions change, but the Gospel writers each named Mary in their accounts. Clearly, she was a disciple who showed up, and her consistency was rewarded with the awesome privilege of first learning about and testifying to the risen Christ.
Thomas Aquinas called Mary Magdalene the “apostle to the apostles,”[3] and I agree. We don’t know much about Mary’s life, but her commitment to show up and believe Jesus tells us a lot about our Lord.
Likewise, because the Gospel accounts of how she tells others the news of Jesus’s resurrection vary, I suspect there is something there for us to learn about our own approach to relating the good news of Jesus. Therefore, I would like to invite you to study with me over the next five weeks and listen anew for the good news the Lord wants to tell us through Mary.
Coming next week: She Ran to Tell, The Women of the Resurrection: Week 2
© 2023 Lori Myers Berry
[1] Carolyn Osiek, “Mary 3,” Women in Scripture, Edited by Carol Meyers, et al. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001), 120-123.
[2] James Strong, The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996), s.v. “G1247.” Logos software.
[3] Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John: Part 2, translated by Fabian R. Larcher, O.P. (Albany, NY: Magi Books, Inc., 1998). Accessed online at https://isidore.co/aquinas/english/John20.htm.