Being
Mary
“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she
said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put
him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her,
“Mary.” John 20:15-16
Valerie and I rented the most recent James Bond movie last week-end.
The one with Daniel Craig.
I did not like it. I used to be a big fan of Sean Connery; and no, this
is not a senior citizen's rant on old movies.
Mind you...
Actually I complained almost throughout. Didn't I? (glance at adoring
wife)
What I didn't like was the way it was photographed. It was too dark.
My sons in law tell me its because the new Bond is a dark character.
I don't care. I like movies well lit. Gee I am sounding like a
cranky old guy.
I don't like the way they keep changing the scene in such rapid
sequence.
You don't get a chance to focus and see what's going on and suddenly
its to a new camera shot.
And there were too many close-ups during all the chase scenes.
Oh I know, the point is to create the mood of speed and dizzying action.
But I like my movies well lit, lots of wide angle shots and hold the
scene, please.
Harumph
Of course good cinematography is all about point of view.
Alfred Hitchcock was the master of that.
Change the viewing point and you change the point of view.
Like with real estate where location, location, location is everything,
in movies and news documentaries, point of view is everything. Who
tells the story and through whose eyes we see the scene will determine
to a large extent what our conclusions will be.
There was a very weird movie a few years ago called "Being John
Malcovich" in which people were able to crawl inside John Malcovich's
head and see the world through his eyes. Very freaky, but interesting.
What is it like to see the world through someone else's eyes?
In the gospel passage this morning we are told of three people who come
early to the tomb: John, Peter and Mary Magdalene.
The gospels are all written in the third person, the narrator style so
we see all the characters from a neutral view point.
But it is really necessary to try to see what happened from the point
of view of the people who were there.
How did Mary Magdalene experience Jesus resurrection, that Sunday?
We know a little about Mary. She is from the town of Magdala on the
west shore of Galilee.
We know that Jesus delivered her of seven demons and that she had
become a devoted follower of Jesus, who traveled with his disciples
and Jesus to Jerusalem. She was present at his crucifixion and came
early in the morning on Sunday to complete the anointing of the body
for burial.
Without spending any time on what it meant to be delivered of seven
demons, we can say that she was a badly broken person. Some have
suggested she might have been a prostitute or something of the sort,
but there is no substantial evidence for that at all.
Her life was broken and Jesus thought it worth enough that he put it
back together. He "fixed" it .
But there is more to this.
Jesus fixed a lot of people.
One day he healed ten lepers. He "fixed" them in that sense.
But once they were healed, nine were literally off and running--back
presumably, to a life that was waiting. Only one, a Samaritan, came
back to say thank you.
So to what extent were the other nine really healed in the end?
Mary is healed of the obvious brokeness in her life.
But profoundly broken people often develop a coping style of life that
suits their brokeness.
I have always wondered what happened to the blind beggars Jesus healed.
What did they do for a living after that, once they could no longer
beg? What's it like to cope with sight when for a good part of
life you have been blind?
Mary had her issues and now the presenting problems are gone. What does
she do with her life now?
How does she learn to live as a whole person?
Think about that. Living as a whole person is what we spend our lives
learning to do.
Which is not to say Mary had learned nothing.
But invariably her whole way of doing life would be shaped by her
demons. What now, once they are gone?
Jesus undoubtedly had become her rock, her soul's center.
Her behavior shows that to be the case.
Jesus was not just her healer, he was her hope. He was her soul's
center point.
He was her future, in whatever way she conceived of that.
And I have no doubt that on some level, she loved him. Who wouldn't?
And now he is gone and her life's center has collapsed.
It had for the rest too, but they could, if need be, go back to what
they knew. Peter said as much.
For Mary there was no going back. And what did going forward mean?
I can relate to that.
If somehow, my faith in Christ were taken away, my soul's center would
collapse as well.
I am not sure what going forward would look like for me, if having
faith in Him were no longer possible.
I do not want to contemplate that.
And so she does the only thing she can do.
She comes to the tomb at the earliest possible moment...before it is
light.
What a sad moment, when you think of it. A tomb had now become the only
fixed point in her life.
That would change, you would hope, but ask anyone who has experienced
profound loss and the wound of their loss can become the center of
their life for a while.
When I was in my late teens I tended a baseball park at the edge of
town for Lethbridge Parks and Recreation as a summer job. You got to
Dave Elton Park down a gravel road at the edge of the city. The road
did not stop there. It continued on to the Catholic cemetery on the
edge of the coulee.
Every day an elderly woman would walk down that road to the cemetery.
Every day.
I am sure she was elderly by the way she walked, but I never really saw
her face as she was always dressed in black from head to toe with a
black scarf over her head and face.
I was told she came every day to lay flowers on the grave of her
husband. Had done for many years.
In some way this ritual had become a fixed point for her life.
Mary comes to Jesus grave in the early morning hours to complete the
anointing of the body for burial which had not been done completely
because it was the beginning of Passover when Jesus died.
What she finds is two angels where the body had been. They ask, "why
are you crying?"
They know what she does not know and this is reason for celebrating,
not crying, but she doesn't realize that yet.
She says, "they have taken my Lord away and I don't know where they
have put him."
Jesus is there and he asks, the same thing, "why are you crying?"
Jesus knows why, but it is important for her to verbalize her loss. She
says the same thing and asks if he knows where the body is, will he
please tell her, and she will get him--or his body at least.
He merely calls her by name, "Mary" and she knows.
Maybe it was the same voice and tone of voice he used with her once the
demons had been sent packing: "Mary".
But she knew. It is Him!
She calls to him in obvious joy "Rabbi".
Now I said she undoubtedly loved him on some level or other.
But I have no doubt at all it was not on a romantic level or she would
not call to him in that moment with the word, "Rabbi!"
Valerie never calls me "Pastor".
Not yet anyway.
What's it like to be Mary. We cannot say for certain, but looking
through her eyes, we can see that Jesus is the one who puts life
together when it is broken.
And we can see that Jesus is the one she stuck with to figure out what
to do with life.
And no doubt, being around Jesus was the only way life and the future
made any sense for her.
His loss was the loss of her soul's center.
His resurrection was the return of hope and of life itself.
And while some might not have considered her the most worthy of
persons, she was the very first eyewitness to the risen Jesus. And she
was given the first message from the risen Jesus, "to tell the others".
Jesus is the one who makes sense of life.
Jesus is the one who makes sense for the future.
Without that hope and that faith, life would lose its center.
And Jesus is the one who gives our lives their special meaning and
dignity.
If your life needs mending, he can mend it.
If your life needs new direction, he can point the way.
Jesus is alive. He is calling your name.
Listen for his voice and follow Him.
Preached April 19, 2009
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian
Church
Victoria, British Columbia
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