As many of you know, I recently visited Israel. If only everyone could have the opportunity to visit that place. Walking where Jesus walked, visiting the places where Jesus performed miracles, seeing the place where it is likely that he was crucified, buried, and rose on the third day...I get shivers even typing this. It is surreal! What strikes me today is that all of this came to us in the form of a story. The Bible is the greatest story book ever written. It contains elements that reach every audience group that has ever lived. There is family, romance, mystery, crime, action, redemption, forgiveness. Everything. And it is all true...that's what makes it so remarkable. When you visit Israel, you are walking in the very places that these things actually happened. It's like being transported into the scenery of your favorite movie except its better than that.
As I ponder on this thought, I realize that each of us has a story to tell. A past that is either fondly remembered or ruefully regretted. Each one of us has a story that is unique to us. While in Israel, I visited Magdala. When Jesus departed Nazareth on his way to Galilee, he would have walked through this very town. Magdala is situated in a valley on the base of a very high mountain pass that opens up to the Sea of Galilee so we are quite certain that this was the path that he would have taken. When he got there, he would have met a woman named Mary. Mary was a woman of means. The Gospel of Luke says that she and other women provided for Jesus our of their own resources. Some have argued that Mary was a repentant prostitute. Most scholars deny the validity of that claim and I tend to agree with their assessment. But, nonetheless, some people believe that she was indeed a harlot. One thing we can be sure of is that she was demonically possessed. The Bible states clearly in Luke 8 that seven demons were cast out from her. The number seven is significant in the Bible. Some scholars would argue that the number seven in this passage signifies perfection as it does in other places throughout Scripture. If that is the case, it could be argued that Mary Magdalene had, at one point, been possessed to perfection or entirely. That is some serious business.
Her story doesn't end there though. She followed Jesus. Again she provided for him throughout his ministry. Matthew 27:56, Mark 15:40, and John 19:25 all tell us that she was there looking on at the Crucifixion. Mark 15:47 and Matthew 27:61 tell us that she knew where the tomb was. Mark 16:1 tells us that she was among the women who went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. John 20 tells us that as she was there to anoint the body of Jesus, she first discovered the empty tomb. She ran back to tell the disciples that the body of Jesus had been stolen. She and the disciples ran back and saw that indeed the tomb was empty. They were all despondent. The disciples' hopes had already been crushed when Jesus had died and now apparently someone had desecrated his tomb. The disciples returned home with their agony compounded.
But as Mary stood there weeping over this...when it seemed as if her heart had been ripped from her chest, she saw someone. She thought it was a gardener tending to the area around the tomb. She cried out to him in distress, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." Jesus called out to her in her time of trouble...he simply called her name and in that moment she knew it was him. He revealed himself to her. What may be more astonishing is that she was first. He revealed himself to her FIRST! Of all of the people who had followed him, of everyone who had committed their lives to being his disciple, he bestowed this privilege on her. She ran back to the disciples and said "I have seen the Lord." Jesus had just revealed his sovereignty over death, his conquering of the grave, his crushing the serpent, his almighty redemptive act to a woman who had been perfectly possessed by demons in her past. What a story!
Everyone you know has done things they are not proud of. We all have things that we regret. Indeed, we all have a past. What is remarkable is that because of what Jesus revealed to that formerly demonic woman, we can all have a future. There is nothing that you have done that Jesus can't heal. Nothing too bad that Jesus can't fix. No past that he can't turn into a future.
We all have a story to tell. Some may think that theirs is a story of ruin and destruction. Turn to Jesus! Cry out to him! He will give you a story of redemption and forgiveness. For those of us who have already been given this story to tell, it's time that we start telling it.
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