An Excellent Wife the Lord Jesus Has Found in You

Mary Magdalene is a woman who fears the Lord, and He has risen up to praise her in the gates.  Her children also rise up to bless her, and her works follow her to praise her, both day and night.  For as St. Mary the Mother of God is both a living icon and a member of the Lord’s Holy Bride, the Church, so is St. Mary Magdalene.  And as St. Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, is remembered wherever in the world the Gospel is preached — because she loved the Lord Jesus, listened to and learned from His Word, and anointed Him beforehand for His burial — so also is St. Mary Magdalene remembered with thanksgiving to God for her works of mercy and her witness to the Gospel of Christ Jesus, our Savior.

Her gratitude runs deep, and she loves Him greatly, because she was rescued from great evil, and she was forgiven much.  Jesus cast out seven demons from this dear woman, saving her life and cleansing her in both body and soul.  He had mercy upon her, called her to Himself, and gave her, not only another chance, but a brand new life here in time and hereafter in eternity.  Thus did she become a true and faithful disciple, following the Lord Jesus throughout His Ministry on earth, listening and learning.  In love she supported Him and His holy Apostles from her own means, because she recognized the value and importance of His Ministry, both for herself and for others.

She was there, then, to witness the defining events of the Gospel: the Cross and Passion of our Lord, His entombment, and His bodily Resurrection from the dead.  In fact, St. Mary Magdalene is the first witness of our Lord’s Resurrection — not only of His empty tomb, but of His risen and glorified Body — and He Himself sends her to announce His Resurrection to the Apostles, to the very ones who would be sent to preach this Gospel to the ends of the earth.  So she is “the apostle to the Apostles,” as the Eastern churches regard her; and if their feet are beautiful because they have gone out into all the world to preach the Gospel of peace, St. Mary Magdalene is likewise beautiful among the saints of God in Christ.  She is adorned with His beauty and His glory, as a bride is adorned for her husband.  And as we thus remember her and give thanks for her on this day, we honor Christ Jesus, our Savior and hers, and give all thanks and praise and glory to Him.

Everything we know about St. Mary Magdalene is bound up in and with her dear Lord Jesus.  She received such excellent gifts and benefitted from His Ministry, and so she supported His Ministry with her whole life and all that she had.  She shared in His Cross and Passion, not only by her presence as a witness, but also by Holy Baptism and daily repentance; and accordingly, not only did she witness His Resurrection from the dead, but she herself is raised up by it, in and with Him, to live before God in His righteousness and purity forever.

Dear child of God in Christ, the same is no less true for you, as well.  Though you are not an eye-witness of His Cross and Resurrection, you are in fact baptized into those realities, so that you also die and rise with Christ Jesus through daily repentance and faith in His forgiveness of all your sins.  Consider the great treasures of His grace, mercy, and peace, which are given to you by the Ministry of His Gospel.  By these you have abundant life in Him and with Him, both now and forever.  For He is your true and heavenly Bridegroom, who has sought you out and found you and called you by name to be a member of His Body and His Bride, the holy Christian Church.

How, then, shall your life be a witness of His Resurrection?  How shall your words and actions testify that God has raised your dear Lord Jesus from the dead?  With what means, and by what works, will you support His Ministry of the Gospel for your own sake and for your neighbor’s?

Everything about you, and all that you are and have, is bound up with Christ Jesus.  For you are baptized in His Name.  You have died with Him — by your Baptism into His death — and so it is that your life is now hidden with Him in the bosom of God the Father.  Your temporary sojourn on earth, including your stewardship of whatever means the Lord in His mercy has entrusted to your use, is meaningful, significant, and holy, because you are taken up into Christ and His Gospel — through His Cross and Passion into His Resurrection and His Life everlasting

Do not try to cling to Him, therefore, in the dead and dying things of this world.  Do not attempt to find Him and have Him for yourself in that which has only the appearance of beauty, while inwardly it is perishing.  That sort of beauty is vain, and its charm is deceitful.

Trying to hang onto Jesus and His Life in the transitory familiarities of earth is futile and fatal.

The fact of the matter is that, apart from His Word and His Voice of the Gospel, you do not know where or how to find Him, nor are you at all able to find Him.  You are still in the dark, and so you are confused and afraid, and you weep with sorrow.  You seek comfort and security and answers to your questions from your mortal father, old Adam, although he is laid to rest in the tomb and remains there to rot and decay.  And as you are so intent upon the dust and the dirt, you are unable to recognize the risen Lord Jesus.  You do not know Him as He is.

But He is not that gardener, old Adam.  He is the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for the sheep — and takes it up again — that they may have abundant life in Him.  He does for you and all His sheep as He did for dear Mary Magdalene: He calls you by name.  He calls you with His sweet Voice of the Gospel — whereby He forgives you all your sins, casts out all your demons, heals all your diseases, and raises you from death to life.  His Voice calls you and leads you and guides you to and from the quiet waters of your Baptism, through the lush green pastures of His Word, to the laden Table of His Altar in His Father’s House.  There He has prepared a great Feast for you, and He pours out His overflowing Chalice, which is the New Testament in His Blood.

Now your heart sings for joy, because you know the Voice of your Good Shepherd.  You recognize and respond to the tone and timbre of His Gospel with its persistent rhythm of mercy and kindness and its melody of forgiveness.  You know, when He speaks, where He is to be found, where His Body is given and His Blood is poured out for you to eat and to drink.  You know, when you hear His Voice, not only who He is and where He is, but who you are and where you are.

Beloved, not only are you a dear sheep of this Good Shepherd, but you are an excellent wife of this true and heavenly Bridegroom.  O son or daughter of the King, you belong to His most holy Bride!  With St. Mary Magdalene, with Mary of Bethany and Mary the Mother of God, with Peter and John and all the witnesses of the Resurrection, and with all the baptized in every time and place, you belong to the Wedding Party of the Lamb, and you are seated with Him at His Table.  For He takes you to be His very own, to have and to hold forever, and all that is His, He shares with you.

He rises from the dead; therefore, you also rise.  He ascends to the right hand of God, and you are seated with Him in the heavenly places.  His God and Father is now your God and Father.  And He has prepared a place for you with Him, where even now your life is hidden, safe and secure.

Not only has He called you by name to Himself, but He has also called you by His own Name.  Even now that is your surety, your pledge, your guarantee, your down-payment, and your dowry, unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul.

No longer are you in the dark, since Christ your Lord is risen from the dead.  Even in the middle of the night, His Word is still a Lamp that does not go out, and by its light you rise up to eat and drink His Food from afar, and so to feed your neighbors in peace and love.  You are clothed with His scarlet and His purple, that is, with the forgiveness of His holy and precious Blood, and with the dignity and strength of His own royal righteousness.  Thus are you made strong, and thus are you able to strengthen your household and family, your neighbors and friends, and all your brothers and sisters in Christ.  For as He speaks so sweetly to you with His Voice of the Gospel, He likewise opens your mouth to speak in wisdom and with kindness to others.

Were you to look at yourself and consider yourself, for now, you would see no such glory, but only a poor gardener of sin and death, waiting to die and to be buried.  But listen now, and hear the Voice of your Bridegroom, who has risen from the dead for you, who blesses you and praises you according to His grace, mercy, and peace:

“Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.  For you are worth far more to Me than silver and gold, more than many rubies and fine jewels.  Have I not sought you out and found you for Myself, and given Myself for you?  Surely I have done so, and you are My own forever.  Even in the gates of Hades I declare that you shall never perish but have abundant life in Me, and no one shall snatch you out of My hand.  Rest assured that you shall not be put to shame, for I, the Lord, am your Refuge and Strength.  Let not your heart be troubled; neither let it be afraid.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

From the Dust of the Earth to the Glory of God

What would your Rabboni teach you by the example of His servant, St. Mary Magdalene, one of His dear little lambs?  And what would He teach you by the example of His mercy toward her?

She is among those many people whom Jesus cleansed and healed by His Word and Holy Spirit.  And along with a number of other faithful women, she followed the Lord Jesus as a disciple, as a member of His Church, and she supported Him and His Apostles from her own means.

She followed Him to the last, even to the foot of His Cross on Good Friday.  And then on that first Easter Sunday morning, very early, while it was still dark, she went with several of the other women to show reverence and loving care for the Body of Christ Jesus by anointing it with spices.

She came to the tomb, and there it looked and felt as though all hope were dead and gone.  Already her Lord had been crucified, put to death, and buried.  But then, just when it seemed as though it surely could not get any worse, she found the grave emptied, apparently robbed, His Body gone.  She could do nothing else at that point other than weep with deep sorrow and great mourning.

You also end up at the tomb, bereft of hope and everything you love.  Sooner or later, your own body shall be laid to rest in the dust of the earth.  Whence you were taken, thence you return.  In the meantime, everything around you is likewise returning to the dust.  Your parents, your spouse, even your children; cousins, brothers, grandparents, friends.  One by one, they are taken from you.

Everything ends in dust.  So, with Mary Magdalene you make your way to the tomb, and it is still dark, and you cannot see.  Then you do not know where Jesus is.  You do not know where or how to find His Body.  There is only death, the grave is empty of hope, and there’s nothing you can do.

In fact, He is standing there with you and for you, and He would do for you what you cannot do for Him or yourself or anyone else.  But you do not recognize Him, not through your tears, and not by your own reason and strength.  Like those first Emmaus disciples, you do not yet know Him.

You take Him for a gardener, a man of dust and dirt, like the first man, Adam, and his first son, Cain, who were gardeners.  That’s who Mary thought He was at first, and now you make the same mistake.  Instead of seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, you see only mortal flesh and all the practical logistics of death and burial — funeral arrangements, cemeteries, and grave sites.

Whether or not you break down and weep on the outside for anyone to see, you are broken and defeated by death and the grave.  You are powerless to fix it, unable to find what you need, and helpless to feel any better.  So you are sorely tempted to despair altogether and to give up hope.

But right there in the tomb, in the teeth of death, you behold the messengers of the Lord, clothed in white — like your baptismal gown; like the paraments of Christmas and Easter and the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene; like the robes of those who come out of the great tribulation, who have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb — because the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom has begun, and all things are made ready, on earth as it is in heaven.  So it is that His messengers are sent to you here, to say, “Come, and do not weep, but rejoice!”

The messengers of the Lord turn your eyes toward Jesus — from the dust of the earth and the gates of Hades to the Resurrection and the Life everlasting — to the gates of heaven, opened by the Lord Jesus Christ.  They point you to Him who was dead, and yet, behold, He lives!  And by their preaching and teaching of His Word, He calls you by name and opens your eyes to behold Him.

He sends His messengers and speaks His Gospel to you.  “I forgive you all your sins.”  All of your doubts and fears, and death itself, He takes it all away.  And in their place He gives you Himself.

That is what Jesus says and does; because, as much as you may love Him for all that He has done for you, He loves you so much more.  And His love does not fail.  His love is stronger than death.

The Church’s Husband sits in the gates of Hades — which He has broken open by His own Cross and Resurrection from the dead — and by and with His Word of the Gospel He adorns His Bride with His own Righteousness, even as He has glorified her with His own Name.  So shall Hades not prevail against her, but as her Husband and her Head has risen from the dead, so she also shall rise.

Thus are you able to stop weeping, to dry your eyes and see clearly.  You need not stare into an empty tomb and wonder what on earth you’re going to do.  Neither your own dust and bones, nor the dust and bones within the tombs of your loved ones, tell the true story of your life and future.

For the Lord Jesus calls you by name from out of death and the grave into the Resurrection and the Life everlasting — from out of the darkness of your sin into the marvelous Light of His Gospel.

It is by the preaching and Ministry of His Gospel that you find Him here, not within the tomb, but in His House and at His Altar.  The Body of Jesus is here for you, that you might find Him and receive Him to yourself, and bear Him within your own body throughout your life on earth, until He shall call you home, both body and soul, to the true Garden — the Paradise of God — forever.

You find Him here, where He finds you with His Word.  It is not yet by sight, but by the sound of His Voice, that you recognize your Good Shepherd, as He calls you to Himself by name.

If you want to know if it is Jesus Christ who is speaking, listen: Does the voice that you hear have the timbre of His Gospel?  Does it sing the melody of forgiveness and salvation?  Does it follow the rhythm of His Cross and Resurrection, the pulse of His Blood poured out for you?  If so, then you know it is the Lord who is speaking and calling you by name; and you know to follow Him.

You follow and lay hold of Him here, where He lays hold of you.  And He will not let you go.  He will not cast you away from His presence.  Nor will He allow you to be snatched out of His hand.

But He would not have you cling to Him as “the Gardener.”  He would not have you cling to Him as the Man of Dirt.  He would not have you cling to Him in the familiar things of this old earth.

His Word to Mary Magdalene, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father,” is challenging and hard to understand.  Elsewhere in the Holy Gospels He does not speak this way.  In St. Matthew the women lay hold of His feet and worship Him, and He does not tell them to stop.  And in both St. Luke and this same chapter of St. John, He invites the disciples to investigate the wounds in His hands and feet and side; He tells St. Thomas to put his finger into the nail wounds, his hand into the spear wound.  Yet, here He tells St. Mary Magdalene to stop clinging to Him.

Understand that He does give Himself into your ears, into your heart and mind by His Word, and into your hands, your mouth, and your body in the Holy Communion, that you might cling to Him — to His Body of flesh and blood — with both your body and your soul — by faith in His Word.

But whereas you also receive with thanksgiving all of His other good gifts in this body and life — your daily bread, your home and family, your body and soul, your reason and all your senses — all of which are sanctified by His Word and Holy Spirit — you do not cling to Him in those things.  Nor do you cling to any of those things as though your life and salvation were found in them.  You rather cling to Jesus by faith — and you worship Him by faith — in the Liturgy of His Gospel.

He would not have you cling to Him on the front side of the Cross and Resurrection.  That is to say, He would not have you cling to Him as the Man from Nazareth on His way to be crucified, put to death, and buried — the Man St. Mary Magdalene had known and loved prior to Good Friday.  But He would have you cling to Him on the far side of His Passion.  He would have you cling to Him as the Lamb who has been slain, and yet, behold, He lives!  He would have you cling to Him as the Crucified One, whose hands and feet and side still bear the wounds of His Cross and Passion.  He would have you cling to Him as the One who has risen from the dead.

God raised this Jesus from the dead.  That is the very heart and soul of the Gospel.  Not in contrast to or contradiction of the Cross, but as the victory and outcome of the Cross.  The Resurrection of the One who was crucified for your transgressions is your Justification; that is your Righteousness, that is your Absolution, that is your Hope, and that is your Life and your Salvation.

God raised Jesus from the dead.  The One who bore your sins in His Body on the Cross, who died your death and suffered your damnation — God raised Him from the dead – for you – from the dust of the ground into the New Creation, of which His own resurrected Body is the First Fruits.

Do not cling to Him as a gardener of this dead and dying world, but as the Good Shepherd who has laid down His life for you and all His sheep, and who has taken it up again that you may live.

He ascends from death and the grave to His God and Father.  And what a beautiful Word it is that He sends to His disciples by way of Mary Magdalene.  She is not an Apostle, but in this case she is an “apostle to the Apostles,” as the Greek Church has always called her, because she is sent to speak this Word of Jesus to those men whom He calls His brothers.  And the same Word has been written for you, as well; and it is spoken to you again on this night, as it is every Easter morning.

“Tell them,” He says, “that I go to My God and your God, to My Father and your Father.”  And such a precious gift it is that He bestows upon you and all His Christian disciples with these words.  The God of Jesus, who raised Him from the dead, is your God, who shall not fail you, but who shall vindicate you at the last.  He shall not leave you dead and buried in the dirt, but He shall raise you up in glory at the Last Day, and He shall make you perfect, as Christ Himself is perfect.

So also, the Father of Christ Jesus is your Father, and you are beloved and well-pleasing to Him.  He hears and answers when you pray, because He has first of all spoken to you by His Son, and He has called you by name.  He has not only called you by your name, but He has named you with His Name as a beloved son or daughter in Christ, as a member of His household and family.

Thus do you live with Christ Jesus at the right hand of His God and Father in heaven, seated with Him in the heavenly places.  That is where you live.  Not in the dust of the earth, but in the courts of heaven.  Even as Christ lives and abides with His Bride, the Church, in heaven and on earth.

Have you heard what He does for her?  And what she does for her children, the children of God?  He cleanses her, daily and richly He does.  And He clothes her.  He covers her shame with His honor.  He covers her nakedness with His royal garments.  And as she is cloaked in the purple of His Majesty, so does she clothe her children in the scarlet of His Sacrifice.  So are you dressed in such scarlet and covered in such purple, as a royal son or daughter of the King, a member of His Holy Bride.  He feeds you from His own hand, and He quenches your thirst from His own side.

As He thus stretches out His hands to feed you, to cleanse you, to clothe you, and to give you drink — you who belong to His Bride, the Church, likewise stretch out your hands to your neighbors.  As you cling to Christ Jesus by faith in His Word, you cling to your neighbors in love for His sake.

And as Mary Magdalene went to preach that first Easter sermon to the holy Apostles, so do you also confess the same Gospel of the same Christ to your family, friends, and neighbors on earth — to your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus — and even to your pastors!  For what the Lord did for St. Mary Magdalene and His disciples then, He does for you now, as for His whole Church.

He raises you from the dead.  He casts out all your demons, heals your diseases, forgives you all your sins, and raises you from the death of unbelief, sadness, and fear, to the life that is yours in both body and soul by faith in His Gospel.  That is what your Rabboni teaches you, and that is what He gives to you here and now, as He lays hold of you with His Word and Flesh and Blood.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.