Mary Magdalene

One of the most famous contemporaries of the Savior was Mary Magdalene.  We actually know very little about her life, and yet I think there is a lot that we can learn from her and her story.  She came from Magdala, a city near the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  We are first introduced to her in a passing reference in Luke: “And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils” (Luke 8:2).  One other passage corroborates the story in referring to “Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils,” but that’s all we know about the event (Mark 16:9).  How long she was afflicted with these seven devils we don’t know, but it seems likely that she was very seriously afflicted if the casting out of the evil spirits was dramatic enough for the gospel writers to record it.  If I read Mark 15:40-41 correctly, Mary Magdalene was one who “when [Jesus] was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him.”  Surely she was a faithful disciple and follower of Him, but we know little about her interactions with the Savior until the time of the crucifixion and resurrection of the Savior.  We read that she was there “beholding afar off” at the cross when Jesus was crucified and was with Mary the mother of Jesus when He called on John saying, “Behold thy mother!” (Matt. 27:55-56, John 19:25-27).  She was also there when they put Jesus in the tomb: “And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre” (Matt. 27:61).”  Clearly she was a devoted disciple who loved the Master and grieved over His suffering and death.  She doesn’t appear to have been afraid of the societal repercussions of being associated with Him; she stood by Jesus even after He was dead and stands to us as an example of a faithful follower of the Savior.  

                 Of course, the most famous event in connection with Mary Magdalene was the visit of the Savior to her when He rose from the dead.  As far as we can tell from the gospel accounts, she was in fact the first person that Jesus appeared to after His resurrection.  She stayed at the tomb weeping when she found that His body was gone, and in her moment of greatest sorrow the Savior appeared to her: “And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.  Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master” (John 20:14-17).  She then became the bearer of good news to the other disciples, and she stands revered among Christians as the one to whom Jesus first revealed Himself as a resurrected being.  For all of the oppression that has come by men to women throughout the world’s history, it is enormously significant that it was to a woman—not a man—that Christ would show Himself first.  It wasn’t to a Caesar or a chief ruler even the chief apostle that He came—it was to a woman who had surely been marginalized by society because of her being possessed by devils.  From Mary we learn that if we will seek Him with unwavering devotion, He will come to us no matter how devalued we might be by the world.

               The word Mary is thought by some to mean “bitter.”  Mary Magdalene was certainly one who had known great sorrow and bitterness, having at one time been possessed of devils and then having been witness to the scourging, beating, and cruel death of her Lord on that fateful Friday.  But her story shows, as Elder Wirthlin taught, that Sunday will come for those who mourn in the Friday of their lives.  She stayed faithful to Him through it all, and truly received “the oil of joy for mourning” as she witnessed the triumph of the Savior over sin and death (Isaiah 61:3).