‘I have seen the Lord’
John 20:18
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’ John 20:18 So John records the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus, in the words which defined the apostolic message – ‘I have seen the Lord’. But Mary Magdalene was not an apostle, of course, even though she was given this unique honour. All of the Gospels bear testimony to her role on that first Easter morning – first, or at any rate among the first small group of women, to find the tomb empty and to hear the incredible statement, ‘He is not here. He is risen!’
What do we know of this enigmatic figure from the Gospel story, whose feast day falls on 22 July, Until the accounts of the first Easter, very little of a categorical nature. The appendix to Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus ‘cast seven demons’ out of her. She was among the small group of loyal female disciples who stood by the cross. And the early Church, at least, tended to identify her with the woman ‘who was a sinner’ who anointed the feet of Jesus at Simon the Pharisee’s dinner party (Luke 7:37). From this connection came the tradition (it is no more than that) that Mary Magdalene was a converted prostitute. What is not in doubt, however, is the closeness of her relationship to Jesus. To call him ‘my Lord’ when speaking to a stranger, as she did with the supposed ‘gardener’, and to offer to take his body away with her would be the language of a wife rather than a disciple. And the response of Jesus – the one word ‘Mary!’ - says much about the intimacy of their relationship. So this woman whose life had been in ruins until she met the Lord takes her place among that small group of people who are described as the ones Jesus ‘loved’ – Lazarus, Mary, Martha and the ‘beloved disciple’ who recorded these words. Yes, like his Father he loved ‘the world’, and he loved to the end all those who responded to that love. But there is something very revealing about the thought that the divine Lover of the World also loved, in a human and personal way, his particular friends. And that among them was one at least whose friendship began when he set her free from the prison of her past.
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