Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Once I attended a graduation ceremony when I was a student at the Seminary. Many lay people from the surrounding community often attend this celebration, and I figured the two women seated in front of me were long-time regular attendees of Seminary festivities like this. When the doctoral degrees were being awarded, there was one in which the graduate’s thesis was announced that it had proposed to study the role of women in the church. One woman snickered to her friend in my hearing, “Must have been a short paper!”

Okay, despite all of today’s useless noise about the subject, the Bible’s teaching stays the same: women can’t be pastors. As Confessional Lutheran church bodies like the Missouri Synod, the Lutheran Church of Latvia, Siberia, Madagascar, Ghana, Australia, Argentina and others teach, women shouldn’t take roles of spiritual leadership that God has already assigned for certain qualified men to do. God’s Word is abundantly clear about that. But, Holy Scripture, as well as God-given reason and good sense, together state just as clearly that women are precious in God’s sight, and their unique gifts and service for the church and for their neighbors are irreplaceable. The Book of Proverbs ends with an excellent chapter that praises and exalts “a woman who fears the Lord,” making special mention of those to whom God has given the blessed and holy vocation of wife and mother. By dark contrast, societies around the world that have rejected the light of Jesus Christ tend also to demean and debase women. Churches like the ELCA and the Church of Sweden and most other Lutheran state-controlled churches, those that have adopted the heretical practice of female clergy, have also eventually ventured into paganism, earth-goddesses, and using the word “She” in reference to an ever-changing and, in their mind, self-improving God.

And then there’s the fascination with Mary Magdalene. Andrew Lloyd Webber writes a big role for her in the Broadway hit “Jesus Christ, Superstar.” She figures quite prominently in the story of the fictional and anti-Christian book and movie, The Da Vinci Code. Some unbelieving scholars go so far as to suggest the fantasy that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife or girlfriend; others only are bold enough to say Jesus regarded her as the leader among His disciples. None of these things about her grasp even a shred of reality as it has been revealed to us in the Bible, and all of them do this holy woman a great disservice.

According to the Gospels in the New Testament, Mary Magdalene had seven demons. She was under total domination by the forces of darkness, as the number seven depicts in other parts of the Bible. At the hearing of Jesus’ powerful, Divine Word, those seven spirits were released from her, and she followed Jesus along with other women, a few of whom had some wealth to share, as they accompanied the disciples whom Jesus later called to be His preachers.

In the Gospel reading you just heard, Mary Magdalene was specially listed as one who came to the tomb of Jesus, even though the other Gospel writers tell us that other people had accompanied her at first. Due to this account that has been preserved for us in God’s Holy Word, Mary Magdalene is given the honor of being the first among believers to see Jesus risen. She was also entrusted to relay the good news to the disciples, which she announced joyfully, having the dawn of forgiveness shining anew in her heart.

But that early morning, as you know, did not begin with joy and expectation, the smell of flowers and blinding sunshine cascading through stained glass, like we are accustomed to here at Easter. It began with unfinished work to do, with the cloud of death choking every glimmer of hope. Mary and her female companions were risking their lives to perform what they thought was one last tender gesture of respect and love for Jesus—to bury His body properly with the traditional spices, and perhaps say a few appropriate prayers. Then when the tomb was discovered empty, with the stone rolled away, sorrow must have turned even darker, to utter dread and a downward spiral of bewilderment. Not only has she lost her Teacher and Friend, but as a good student she knows that with a dead Lord, she is a goner. It means to Mary that she would still be dead in her sins. Those demons will soon be back with a vengeance. Could you imagine what you would feel if you knew such a horrible existence was just waiting to pounce on you yet again?

John, in his divinely inspired telling of the Easter story, notes that there was a time when Mary was alone, weeping, speaking first to the angels stationed in the tomb, then to the mysterious gardener. Could any light pierce or penetrate this complete darkness that had suddenly returned to a woman who had been so captured before?

Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ That’s it! That’s what needed to happen to bring light into the hopeless darkness! Jesus called her by her name and that makes all the difference. Mary knew the Voice of the Good Shepherd when He called her by her name. Good Friday grief is fully replaced by Easter Sunday joy. Jesus said to her, ‘Mary’ and Death’s sadness gives way to Life’s gladness. In this way, Mary Magdalene properly stands according to the Bible as the flesh and blood symbol for you, the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For you have been rescued from the utter darkness of your sins, and lifted up from your dreadful weeping, all because Jesus called you by name. For you, along with Mary, rejoice at this comforting Voice of Jesus, and you confess who He is, as Savior and Teacher, calling out to Him in prayer.

The Christ who died on the cross for you, to pay the price to save you from eternal darkness, rose from the dead so that He could impart His eternal light of forgiveness upon you. When you were baptized, heaven was opened, clouds were parted, God called your name, and so His face began to shine with the love He had for you from the very beginning. As you heard His Word, whether it was all your life, or only just recently, His countenance was lifted up in a new dawn and your demons were put to flight, never to return in domination ever again.

Even though the disciples would be the chosen Apostles sent to all the world, and they would be the ones who would preach and proclaim the Good News, Jesus specifically chose this woman, Mary from Magdala on the Sea of Galilee, to help and support them. They really needed her, not for her to preach to her own congregation, but to provide assistance for the church according to her own God-given gifts. To be sure, Mary’s help and support probably

was better at the time than if Jesus had sent twelve male messengers from the empty garden tomb. Yes, she was doubted; the men thought she was telling tales or the grief was making her delusional, but that’s how the Gospel is still treated with disdain in our world. We heard a few weeks ago God’s own reminder, My power is made perfect in weakness. In her former demon-possessed life, Mary Magdalene most likely was marked and avoided in her community. Yet this time, armed by a Spirit-filled boldness, she would proceed undeterred.

Such a thing could happen to this day. Very well-respected church leaders could throw out the Bible’s message for their own pet projects. Nevertheless, the humble, unassuming yet powerful message of forgiveness will not be darkened. Sometimes, a godly lay woman’s kindness and baptismal faith is what the Church needs to remember who the true Lord, the Bridegroom, the Good Shepherd, really is. The light of Christ still will shine, even when many reject it for what their itching ears would rather hear. Rejoice, all you who are baptized into the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Rejoice along with Mary Magdalene who first saw the Savior alive, because your demons are gone, your sinful darkness is past, and the light of Christ has risen upon you.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Proverbs 31:10-31 A woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Acts: 13:26-31 In him we have obtained an inheritance
John 20:1-2, 10-18 to Mary Magdalene: go to my brothers and say to them ‘I am ascending…’