Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:16-18
This is definitely a passage to pull HNAC Alison out for. Because I know if she realised what was happening here and how counter-cultural it was for the time she’d probably have far fewer issues with the Bible.
This is because Hypothetically-Not-a-Christian Alison would surely take issue with so many things the Bible says about women and their role in the home and in the church. However here in these five verses is the second scene in a two-part episode that shows just how honoured women actually are by the God of the Bible.
Earlier in the chapter Mary Magdalene was featured as the woman who went to the empty tomb. While there were others there, John zooms in on Mary because he was setting up for ‘the big reveal’. And frankly, as far as big reveals go, there are none bigger than what comes at this point in Chapter 20.
In yesterday’s passage Mary didn’t recognise Jesus.
But then he just says her name. And everything becomes clear again.
There is something so profoundly emotive about this exchange between Jesus and Mary.
You can hear the gut-wrenching relief in Mary’s words as she cries out to him in her heart language of Aramaic – Rabboni!
She had come to find Jesus but then discovered he was nowhere to be seen. She is so ecstatic when she finally sees him again that she goes to grab onto him, presumably to throw her arms around him. We know this because of Jesus’ direction to her that she shouldn’t be doing so before he returns to his Father.
Instead she is tasked.
I’m pausing here. She, Mary is a woman. She calls Jesus, teacher. Jesus gives her a task.
That’s not normal in first century Israel. But Jesus evidently knew that Mary was an able learner and also capable of doing what needed to happen next.
Evangelism.
Pause for a second time. Because Jesus has only just risen from the dead. Mary is the first person to have seen Jesus alive again. Mary is told to tell the disciples that Jesus has risen from the dead.
Mary is the first evangelist. Sure, the disciples (along with the Holy Spirit) are the ones who carve it up after Pentecost. But Mary Magdalene, a woman, is given the honour of being the first evangelist – ever.
I hope HNAC Alison, and all those like her out there are aware of this. People in this 21st century that we’re living in say a lot of things about women and the Bible. But they perhaps don’t stop to think enough about what’s really going on in the book.
If they did, they might not have as many issues with biblical femininity as they think they do.
Yours sharing the gospel,
Alison
