Jesus
said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which
means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do
not hold on to me… (John 20:16-17)
It is tantalising how little we know about Mary
Magdalene. One of the three Marys… Mary his
mother, Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus), and Mary of
Magdala. The idea that Mary Magdalene
was a reformed prostitute is probably a silly libel – there is no primary
source that says that about her. What
does seem sure is that she was one of Jesus’s disciples, just as were James and
John, Peter or Andrew. On the Easter
morning, early it says, and still dark, she is at the tomb, sunk in
grief, all the more because the tomb is empty.
Mary knows Jesus is dead. She saw
him die, she saw him buried. Someone has
stolen the body. How will she ever cope
with that?
Jesus says to her, “Mary”. That is the first kairos in Mary’s Easter.[1] He interrupts her grief and pain. He calls her by name. In her darkness and loss, she is addressed
from the heart of God’s love, which is greater than death. Such a kairos
may happen to any of us in any of a myriad of ways, usually just as
unobtrusive, through the events of life.
Dag Hammarskjöld[2] wrote in his journal at
Pentecost 1961: I don't know Who, or
what, put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to
Someone, or Something, and from that hour I was certain that existence is
meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal. He knew himself addressed, by name, by
risen love.
The second kairos
is her response. She turned and said to him “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). That is the way she knew him – as her Teacher. It may not seem to us like full-blown Easter
faith, but it is perfectly fine that she sees Jesus in her own way, according
to her own encounter, and in her own time.
In time to come the church would prescribe all manner of titles for
Jesus, and exalted ways of responding to him, complete with incense. I am content to be with Mary of Magdala, for
whom he was, at least initially, Rabbi, Teacher.
The third kairos
is when, understandably, she moves to keep him, embrace him. The Greek verb used here means to take hold, possess.
But he is not available now to be enlisted, used, possessed, by the
church or anyone. Mary receives,
accompanies the risen Jesus in the same way we do now – not by intellect or
dogma or the most inspiring creed, but by the heart’s quiet response. Her yes to Jesus is an answer of love. She will learn to recognise his summons in time
to come, in the varied circumstances of life and of death. And he will call her through her own death. She has encountered the love over which, as
Paul put it, death has no dominion – neither death nor life, nor angels, nor
rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor
depth, nor anything else.[3]
[1] Remember our Greek word kairos… it is the biblical word meaning a special moment, the
moment that changes things, God’s moment, the moment of newness.
[2] Dag
Hammarskjöld, Swedish Lutheran diplomat, Secretary-General of the United
Nations, 1953-1961.
[3]
Romans 8:38-39
No comments:
Post a Comment