March 17, 2024
St. Andrew Church
Rev. Anne McAnelly
5th Sunday in Lent
First Lesson: John 11:17-27
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
Second Lesson: John 11:28-39a, 43b-44
28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” 38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” 43 he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” In response a woman confesses, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God, the One coming into the world.” Throughout Lent I have been presenting a theory that the woman was not Martha but rather Mary Magdalene. That Lazarus had only one sister, Mary. This Mary has been called Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene. That these are the same woman. Finally, Martha might have been introduced to lessen the power or influence of Mary Magdalene because she was a controversial figure. Let’s continue the account listening for how Mary is portrayed and for similarities between these conversations with Jesus. Read John 11:28ff.
What did you notice? Jesus speaks to a woman in the same location. He doesn’t draw closer to the house but waits in the same place. Both women say the exact same words, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (21, 32). Some scholars think this suggests the addition of Martha. They could not create words to put into Martha’s mouth, so if they added Martha, both women said the exact same words. Yet if someone added Martha, I could not figure out how we had these two developed sections, one with Mary and one with Martha, each speaking with Jesus? I get changing a letter and creating a second sister, but not an entire paragraph. BUT
Then I noticed that the first account with Martha is theological, while the second with Mary is relational. This could be separated between two people, Martha and Mary, or it could also clarify two aspects of what is happening here. If this exchange happened only between Mary and Jesus, the first part would be the Christological statement, furthering John’s theology. While the second part would be the personal, relational aspect of grief, love, and compassion. Jesus loved Lazarus and his sister. I can’t imagine this passage without both parts, the Christological and the relational. In the first Jesus speaks of the resurrection, in the second Jesus weeps for his friend Lazarus. This so fit with John’s understanding of Jesus as fully human and fully divine. Jesus wept and Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead!
So, what was so controversial about Mary Magdalene? Why might Martha have been added? Outside the New Testament in the first few centuries, Mary Magdalene was one of the most prominent disciples. Mary was a prominent female disciple. In the Gospel of Mary, an ancient text discovered in the last century, Mary Magdalene gives Jesus a vision. Unfortunately, half of the gospel of Mary is lost to us, but it tells of a discussion between our risen Lord, Mary and the disciples. We read, “Peter said to Mary, ‘Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than all other women. Tell us the words of the Savior that you remember, the things which you know that we don’t because we haven’t heard them.’ Mary responded, ‘I will teach you about what is hidden from you.’ And she began to speak these words to them” (www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-mary-magdalene-119565482/). But jealousy rears its head when Andrew and Peter challenge that Mary is given greater understanding. Some men today would have a hard time with a woman given power, so just imagine how that would be in Jesus’ time when women we simply property. Dr. Karen King, in The Gospel of Mary Magdalene writes, “Andrew and Peter…have not understood the Savior’s teaching and are offended by Jesus’ apparent preference of a woman over them. Their limited understanding and false pride make it impossible for them to comprehend the truth of the Savior’s teaching” (The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle). Dr. King continues, “(The Gospel of Mary) presents the most straightforward and convincing argument in any early Christian writing for the legitimacy of women’s leadership.” That would certainly explain why the Gospel of Mary was not included in the Bible, and possibly why Martha was added to the text. If the goal was to quiet Mary Magdalene’s voice and influence, then adding Martha would dimmish Mary, because Mary is no longer confessing Jesus as the Messiah.
Dr. Libbie Polzer has a more gracious thought. She wonders maybe Martha was added to soften John’s gospel. She reflects on John 15:13, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Lay down your own life for the Good News, for the gospel of Jesus. Was the life of Mary Magdalene laid down, lessened, diminished? Is it possible that the Gospel of John was altered to do that? Was it changed so that the beauty of John’s gospel was included in our scriptures? I certainly would rather have John’s Gospel changed and included than to be without the mystery, wonder and witness of the fourth Gospel.
Dr. Polzer’s work is being reviewed by the world’s best scholars, including the Nestle-Aland
Translation Committee. They are the guardians of the Greek New Testament. They are basically a whole bunch of very old German men who have spent their entire lives making sure the Bibles that we have in English and all the other languages around the world are the closest and most precise Bibles that we can get to the original manuscripts. (Dr. Polzer presented her work) And at the end, they said, “Well, we might need to change something here” (Diana Butler Bass, All the Marys). Mary Magdalene is coming into her own.
The Catholic Church has also started to see Mary Magdalene in a new way. Libbie’s scholarship was published in Harvard Theological Review in 2016. The same year Pope Francis personally asked that St. Mary Magdalene be given additional recognition. The decree reads, “The Church, both in the East and in the West has always regarded Saint Mary Magdalene the first witness of the Lord’s resurrection and the first evangelist…Given that in our time the Church is called to reflect in a more profound way on the dignity of Woman… it seemed right that the example of Saint Mary Magdalene might also fittingly be proposed to the faithful. In fact this woman, known as the one who loved Christ and who was greatly loved by Christ…can now rightly be taken by the faithful as a model of women’s role in the Church” (www.tektonministries.org/st-mary-magdalenes-feast-day/) Pope Francis elevated Mary Magdalene to the status of having her own feast day. Her feast in the Catholic calendar is now equivalent to that of the 12 male apostles. And the Pope said he was sorry that the church had misidentified Mary Magdalene through all of its past as a prostitute and as a sinner. The Pope also said, from henceforth, she shall be known as the Apostle to the apostles (Diana Butler Bass, Halfway Through Lent: Mary Magdalene is Us).
Mary Magdalene is coming into her own.
Diana Butler Bass writes, “Why does this matter that there’s only one woman and that one woman is Mary Magdalene? We have two entire chapters right in the middle of John that emphasize Mary Magdalene, the second most important woman, and obviously the most important of all the women who follow Jesus, all the female disciples. And if you look at the whole of the two chapters, something profound and transformative and radical emerges, not just for women, but for every person who ever seeks to follow in the way of Christ. If There’s Only One Woman in John Chapter 11, that means that Mary Magdalene is the one who invites Jesus. Mary Magdalene is the one who runs out to Jesus. Mary Magdalene is the one to whom Jesus says, I am the resurrection of life. Do you believe this, Mary? And that means that it is Mary Magdalene who says in John Chapter 11, you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the world” (Halfway Through Lent: Mary Magdalene is Us). Next week we hear about Mary Magdalene anointing Jesus before his crucifixion, and on Easter she runs to the tomb and proclaims the risen Lord!
Mary Magdalene, this one woman, invites, confesses, anoints, witnesses, and proclaims Jesus! Mary Magdalene is coming into her own. Amen.
