JESUS ENCOUNTERS
MARY MAGDALENE
DR. JIM DIXON
JULY 15, 2007
JOHN 20:11-18
In the year 326 AD Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, the mother of the Roman emperor, made her famous pilgrimage to the city of Jerusalem. As she arrived in Jerusalem, she was very emotional. She had just lost a loved one—one of her best friends, a member of her family—and she was elderly. Now well into her seventies, she was not as strong as once she had been. She had recently had an experience with Jesus Christ that that took her deeper into her commitment to Christ and her walk with Christ. And she was excited as she walked around the city of Jerusalem, as she walked where Jesus walked. Everywhere she went, she asked the same question: where is the tomb? Where is the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea?
She was always given the same answer. People always pointed to the same place. They pointed to the temple of Aphrodite and said that the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea is somewhere underneath that Greek temple. Now, it was common practice in the Greek and Roman world when a nation was conquered to build Greek or Roman temples on sites that were regarded as holy in the nation that has been conquered. And so, they built this temple of Aphrodite, the Roman Venus, the goddess of love, over the site where the garden tomb was.
Now, Greek and Roman religion was on the wane. It was fading in the Roman Empire, and Helena had great power. She was the mother of Constantine the Great, the mother of the emperor of the Roman Empire. And so by her command, the temple of Aphrodite was torn down and by her command, they began an archeological dig.
In that year 326 AD, they began an archeological dig under what once was that temple. And as they dug down, they did indeed find what once was a garden, and they found a garden tomb. And all of this is recorded by Eusebius, the great historian who was a friend of the imperial family. According to Cyro of Jerusalem and Ambrose of Milan, when Helena went into the garden tomb, she also found the three crosses from Golgotha and the trilingual inscription of Pontius Pilate. Of course, we do not know whether what Ambrose and Cyro wrote was true. We do know that by the command of Helena a Christian church was built on that site and she supervised the construction of that church on the side of the garden tomb. She spent her final months of her earthly life supervising the building of that church.
Then, ultimately, in the crusader period around the year 1100, the church was greatly expanded. And it became what it is today the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Today, millions of people, millions of women and men, travel from all over the world to go and see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And why? Because they want to see the place where Jesus was buried. They want to see the garden tomb. They want to see the place where Jesus rose from the dead. They want to see the place where Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and where Mary Magdalene encountered Him. And so today we have our first encounter with Jesus, the encounter of Mary Magdalene at the garden tomb. What I’d like to do is take a look at three words, and these words will help us understand Mary’s experience with Jesus and her encounter with Christ and the way it impacted her life.
The first word is the word “tetelestai.” This is a Greek word. It was a word that Jesus uttered from the cross. It was a word that Mary Magdalene heard as Jesus was on the cross. His disciples had abandoned Him. Jesus had been criminalized; the disciples had fled, with the exception of John. And the women disciples who had followed Him from city to city and village to village, they were there. Mary Magdalene was there at the cross. She was faithful to Him unto His death. And so, she was there and she heard Jesus from the cross cry out, “tetelestai.”
And that word means, “It is finished.” Tetelestai—it is finished. You can only wonder what Mary would’ve felt when she heard that cry, when she heard her master and her Lord shout, “It is finished.” Mary had found meaning and purpose through Jesus. Jesus was her rabbi, her master, her Lord, her friend. In Jesus, she had found forgiveness. In Jesus, she had found life itself, and now it was coming to an end. And Jesus cried out, “tetelestai,” “It is finished.” What could Mary have possibly felt?
Some Bible scholars think that perhaps Mary had a deeper understanding of “tetelestai.” And maybe that is true. Certainly it is true that today many Bible scholars have a deeper understanding of “tetelestai,” and they tell us that “tetelestai” was a very special word, and that when somebody had a certificate of debt and they had paid the entire debt, the word “tetelestai” was stamped or imprinted on the certificate of debt. And so that a certificate of debt was canceled through the stamping of the word “tetelestai.” “Paid in full.” It is finished. And perhaps Mary somehow in that moment had this deeper understanding. Maybe she understood that Jesus was dying for the sin of the world. Maybe she understood that Jesus was dying for her own sin. Maybe she understood that He was dying in substitutionary atonement and that when h tetelestai e shouted “tetelestai,” it was a victorious cry, and the debt had been paid in full. Maybe she understood that.
Certainly Mary Magdalene had found forgiveness in Christ. So we come to Luke’s gospel, the seventh chapter, and we see Jesus dining at the home of a Pharisee. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of Jerusalem and Israel in the time of Christ, the religious elite. And Jesus, from time to time, would accept an invitation to dine at the home of a Pharisee. In Luke’s gospel, we see three different occasions when Jesus dines at the home of a Pharisee. And in virtually every case, the Pharisee winds up kind of shocked and usually offended. This is no exception. Now, Jesus was dining at the home of a Pharisee whose name was Simon (and Simon was a common name in the time of Christ). And as they were dining, Jesus was reclining at table. A woman came in and Luke tells us that she was a sinner. And in Luke’s gospel, this term often refers to a prostitute. So we understand that this woman who came in was likely a woman of the street, and she had lived in immoral life—a promiscuous life—but she had heard the teachings of Jesus and they could not keep her out.
Now Simon the Pharisee, he thought to himself, if this Jesus is really a prophet, then He’ll know what kind of woman this is. If he’s really the prophet, if he’s really the Messiah, surely He’d know what kind of woman this is, and surely He would never allow her to touch Him. But Jesus did allow her to touch Him. And she came up to Him, in the midst of her sin, with tears falling down her face, and she knelt at the feet of Jesus and her tears just washed Jesus’s feet. And she began to wipe the feet of Jesus with her hair and she began to anoint the feet of Jesus with costly and beautiful perfume.
Now, according to Roman Catholic tradition, that woman was Mary Magdalene. According to some Protestant and Orthodox scholars, that woman was Mary Magdalene. At least historically, many Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox scholars thought the woman of Luke seven was Mary Magdalene. Today, most scholars think not. I mean, there’s nothing contextually that would indicate this woman was really Mary Magdalene, and the name of the woman is not given in Luke seven. But I do think there’s a sense in which Mary Magdalene was like that woman. Mary Magdalene was like that woman because she had found forgiveness through her tears. As she came to Jesus, she had found forgiveness and a whole new life. And so, we come to Luke’s gospel, the eighth chapter, and that’s where we encounter Mary Magdalene. We see Mary as part of a band of women following Jesus.
Mary was from Magdalene and Galilee, but she followed Jesus as she became one of His disciples in this band of women who followed Jesus from village to village and town to town. We’re told in Luke chapter eight that these women actually through their work and through their labor raised money to support the cause of the ministry of Christ. Mary was one of these, but we’re given the shocking information there in Luke chapter eight that Mary Magdalene had been demon-possessed, that Jesus had actually cast seven demons out of her. She had been possessed by multiple demons. We cannot possibly know the background of Mary Magdalene. I mean, we do know that demon possession biblically has been associated sometimes with physical illness, sometimes with mental and emotional illness, and oftentimes with moral misconduct. But in the time of Christ, and I think in all times, surely demon possession has resulted in a horrible social stigma.
And so this woman was banished from good society, surely. Demon possession wasn’t something you put on your resume. She was possessed seven times, but she’d met Jesus and she’d been delivered by the power of the Son of God and she’d been forgiven and amazingly cleansed. Mary knew certainly the forgiveness of Christ, and perhaps understood the deeper meaning of “tetelestai,” paid in full.
I think this morning Christ would want us to think for a moment about how it’s going in our soul. How’s it going with your soul? Have you been forgiven? Do you feel washed and clean? Have you heard Jesus say, “tetelestai?” Do you know that He has paid for your debt in full?
In the year 1854, a man was born whose name was Oscar Fingal, O’Flahertie Wills Wilde—five names. Of course, he’s known to history as Oscar Wilde. He was born in Dublin. He was educated at Oxford. He was a brilliant man, and he was a playwright and an author and a wit. He was known for his humor. He was also known for his immorality. I mean, Oscar Wilde, by his own testimony, lived a profligate life and a life of debauchery and sexual promiscuity. Ultimately, he was incarcerated for his immorality in the year 1895. He was released in 1897. Three years later, he died of disease and illness. It was a sad life. Oscar Wilde only wrote one novel, one book, and that book was written in 1890, and it was called The Picture of Dorian Gray.
It’s an ingenious book. Most literary scholars believe Oscar Wilde, through this book, is writing a parable of his own life. It’s a moral parable. In this book, you have this guy, Dorian Gray, who’s witty and brilliant and so talented and good looking and promiscuous and living a life of sin. And outwardly he doesn’t change. The years go by and outwardly he still looks handsome and he still looks good to society and people. But at his home, there’s this picture, and the picture is changing. And on the face of Dorian Gray in the picture, every sin is impacting the appearance, so that the picture of Dorian Gray is getting uglier and uglier and more hideous and more hideous with every sin. And as Oscar Wilde weaves this tale, he’s really describing (most literary scholars believe) his own soul. It’s a picture of his own soul, ravished by sin. Because even in the midst of his sin, he knew that on the inside things were rotting. He might look good on the outside, but on the inside things were rotting.
How’s it going in your soul? How’s it going in my soul? How are we doing on the inside? Do you know that you have been washed and cleansed? Have you come to Jesus?
You know, there’s this beautiful passage in Colossians chapter two where the Apostle Paul tells us how Jesus forgives our sins when we come to Him in faith. And Paul describes the cancellation of a certificate of debt, that when you come to Jesus, He cancels your certificate of debt. And Paul uses an amazing word. He uses this Greek word “exaleiphein,” which is used five times in the New Testament, but two times in the sense in which it’s used in Colossians chapter two. And you see, when you have a certificate of debt and you want to cancel it, normally the word used to describe that is “charizomai.” Charizomai begins with a Greek letter Chi, which looks like an “X.” You’ve all seen a Chi, you know that it looks like an “X.” Charizomai is a Greek word meaning “To X out.” Charizomai is the word normally used for the cancellation of a debt. So a certificate of debt, when it was canceled, you just put an X through it.
That’s a beautiful concept, but nothing compared to exaleiphein. Paul uses the word exaleiphein, which is much stronger because it means “To wash, to purity, to wipe the slate entirely clean so it doesn’t even exist anymore.” That’s what Jesus does. He doesn’t just X out your sin. He literally washes the slate clean. He just erases it. It’s gone. And when you encounter Him and you come to him, you’ll hear, “Tetelestai—paid in full,” and He will cleanse your soul and your sin will be forgiven you. Mary Magdalene understood this.
A second word is the word “egerte.” As we look at Mary Magdalene, we see her through this word, egerte. This is a word that Mary heard, not from Jesus, but from an angel. We don’t see this in John chapter 20, but in Matthew 28 and in Mark chapter 16 we’re told that as Mary was at that garden tomb and she encountered the angels, the angels said to her, “egerte.” And what does that word mean? Well, it means, “He has risen.” He has risen. What a shock this must have been to Mary Magdalene. I mean, can you imagine how she had lived her life? Having come to Christ, she had followed Christ. She’d given up everything to follow Christ from village to village, and Jesus had become her friend and her masters and her Lord and her rabbi and her teacher. She’d found her life and her purpose and her meaning in Jesus. But then Jesus died. It’s hard to imagine her grief, the grief that Mary would have felt losing Jesus.
Some of you have lost a loved one. Some of you have lost a husband, you’ve lost a wife, you’ve lost one of your kids. Many of you’ve lost a parent. You know what grief is. You know how you’d give almost anything if you could see your loved one again, if you could have them back today. I know if I were to lose Barb, I’d give almost anything if I could just see her again. I know that’s how Mary must have felt. I mean, surely she felt like that as Jesus was gone. He had died, He was buried. But now the tomb was empty, the stone rolled back, and the angel said, “Egerte.”
“Egerte.”He has risen. It’s hard to imagine what she must have felt. He has risen. Of course, we leave this week, Barb and I with some of you to take our church’s 25th anniversary trip. We will be going to some of the places that Peter went and some of the places that Paul went. Through the years, Barb and I have taken a number of trips with many of you to the Holy Land. On one such trip a few years ago, Barb and I were in Jerusalem, and we were just walking around and it was a day that was free. We could do whatever you wanted to do. Barb and I went for a while to the old city, and then we headed out towards Zion Square. And as we were heading out towards Zion Square in the city of Jerusalem, we saw this memorial. The memorial had the name “Talitha Cumi.” As soon as I saw those Aramaic words, I stopped. I knew those words because Jesus had said them, and those words were in the Bible. “Talitha Cumi.” And so, Barb and I went up to this memorial to see what it was all about. And the memorial explained that on this site, there had once been an orphanage and hospital for little girls. And the memorial was there to remember that. But I knew there was more to that story. I mean, I knew that they were leaving something out. I knew that that orphanage had surely been a Christian orphanage and that hospital had been a Christian hospital because the words “Talitha cumi” were spoken by Jesus. And the Bible tells us that they were spoken over the body of a little girl, the dead body of a little girl. Jesus stood over her body and Jesus said those words, “Talitha cumi”—”Little girl, arise.” And she rose from the dead, the daughter of Jairus.
Do you know Jesus? I mean, have you encountered Jesus? Have you felt anything of His power? Have you experienced anything of His power? I mean, He has raised the dead. He raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus; He raised from the dead the widow’s son of the village of Nain. He raised Lazarus from the dead, and death could not hold Him. He rose from the dead in power and great glory, and the angel said, “Egerte,” He is risen. And when you think about the garden tomb beside which Mary Magdalene stood, it’s not like any other tomb in the world.
There are a lot of famous tombs. You can go to Arlington Cemetery and you see a lot of tombs there. John Kennedy is buried there. The so-called eternal flame burns there. Many famous Americans are buried there near Washington, D.C. You can go to London, England, and Westminster Abbey and you can see many famous people buried there. You can see their tombs—kings and queens and poets and scholars and authors and scientists and politicians—at Westminster Abbey.
Some years ago, Barbara and I traveled to China. We went to Xi’an, China, because we wanted to see a tomb. We wanted to see the burial chamber of Qin Shi Huang. Of course, Qin Shi Huang established the first dynasty in China. He established the Qin dynasty. China takes its name from the Qin Dynasty and from Qin Shi Huang. Of course, Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall of China. This man was great. And when he died, a very special tomb was prepared. It was subterranean. He created a subterranean world with sky and water buildings, a place for him to live and death. And he took an eternal army into the grave. You know how he made those terracotta replicas of every member of his imperial army and then took them into the grave with him. And of course, he was buried there along with members of his royal family. It’s a famous tomb, famous because of what’s in it.
See, there’s never been anything like the garden tomb. It’s famous because of what’s NOT in it. There’s never been a tomb like that. I mean, you can go to Arlington and you can go to Westminster and they’re famous because of the people who are buried there. But the garden tomb is famous because no one is buried there. “Egerte,” He has risen. The tomb is empty. So Mary heard that word, and Mary took that message to the disciples. It was Mary Magdalene who, encountering this news concerning Jesus her master—that He has risen—would never be the same. And she went and told the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.” She went and told the disciples, “He has risen.”
The only question today is, do you also bear that word? I mean, do you take that message to the world? Have you heard the word egerte? Do you know your sin is forgiven you, and have you heard the word egerte? And do you take Jesus to the nations and to your neighborhood and to your place of work? Do you tell people the good news that Christ is risen and He is Lord?
There’s one other word that we should look at in this encounter that Mary had with Jesus, and that’s the word Rabboni. That’s what Mary said when Jesus suddenly appeared outside that garden tomb, when Jesus called her by name. When Jesus said, “Mary,” she turned. Who can imagine her shock? She turned and she said to Him in Hebrew (really an Aramaic), “Rabboni.” And Rabboni is the Aramaic equivalent, roughly, of the Hebrew word, rabbi. The Hebrew word rabbi comes from the Hebrew root “rab.” And what does “rab” mean? “Rab” means reat. It means master; it means Lord. It can mean teacher, great one master, Lord, teacher.
Rabbi has the possessive ending, and so rabbi means “my master, my Lord, my teacher, my great one.” But of course, the title rabbi in the Hebrew world had become an honorific. So if you saw any rabbi—if you saw any teacher, any master, any lord—you would call them rabbi because the possessive sense of rabbi had been lost. So it was just an honorific, and it didn’t matter whether the rabbi you saw was your teacher or not, you would still call them rabbi because it was an honorific.
But the Aramaic Rabboni is different. It’s more personal and it’s more powerful. Most scholars agree Rabboni is Aramaic intensification of rabbi. So Mary Magdalene would’ve been saying, “My great teacher, my great master, my great Lord,” or the intensification might’ve been more internal and more personal, as some scholars believe, so that she’d be saying, “My very own teacher, my very own master, my very own Lord.” But are you aware how amazing this word use was for a woman in the days of Christ? For her to say Rabboni, “My very own teacher, my rabbi, my master, my Lord…” those words were not spoken by women in the time of Jesus.
Rabbis did not have female disciples. Did you know that rabbis in the time of Jesus did not have female disciples? To teach a woman was to cast pearls before swine, or so the rabbis said in their patriarchal world. And so what did rabbis do when they chose their talmidim (Hebrew for disciples)? What did rabbis do when they chose their disciples? Well, they wanted men, and they wanted the best of the best. So they wanted men who as children had gone through Bet Sefer and had memorized the Torah. And then they wanted children who after Bet Sefer had proven themselves and gone through Bet Talmud and had memorized the entire Hebrew scriptures, from Genesis to Malachi, word for word. That’s who rabbis were looking for: the best of the best of the best, those who had gone through Bet Sefer, “the house of the book,” and those who had gone through Bet Talmud, “the house of learning.” And then they looked for someone who would beg, somebody who was desperate to be their disciple, somebody who wanted to enter into Bet Midrash, somebody who had come up to them was the best of the best and would say, “Please make me your disciple. Let me join your talmidim. I will accept your semikhah. I will accept your authority. What you bind will be bound for me; what you lose will be loose for me. I embrace your yoke, your interpretation of Torah. I want to be your disciple. Let me join your talmidim.” That’s what rabbis looked for.
But Jesus wasn’t like that. I mean, we’ve looked at this stuff before. You know Jesus wasn’t like that. He didn’t just look for men, and he didn’t just look for young men. He looked for people—young and old. He looked for people—male and female, men and women. And He said, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. Take My yoke upon you. Join my talmidim.” Jesus didn’t look for the best of the best of the best. There’s no evidence that He looked for people who’d gone through Bet Sefer or Bet Talmud or were dying to enter into Bet Midrash. There’s no evidence of this at all. He just invited everyone. And he invites people today because “egerete”—He has risen and He’s alive and He’s still recruiting disciples. He’s recruiting disciples today.
Can you say what Mary Magdalene said? Can you, can you say, “Rabboni”? Will you ever be able to look at Jesus someday and say, Rabboni, “My very own teacher, master, Lord, rabbi, my great one.” If you can’t say that, maybe today is the day when you encounter Christ. Maybe this day you encounter the risen Christ, just like Mary Magdalene once did. He’s here. He’s here by His Holy Spirit. He died for you, and He shouted “tetelestai!” Mary Magdalene heard that word. She was there and you hear it today: paid in full. It is finished, paid in full. And “egerete.” He is risen; He is alive. This is a message to take to the nations. And Rabboni. You can join His talmidim; you can be His disciple and it can happen today. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.