How to Tell the Story (John 20: 1-18)

In the gospel of John, Jesus says:  “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  How awesome is our God, who desires not just life, but abundant life, for all people, a new life of healing, wholeness and salvation; a life of freedom, filled with meaning and purpose. 

On this day, this celebration of new life, I am richly blessed, and it is my hope and prayer that you find the rich blessings God has for you; that you find new life this day and every day….

   Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, before the sun had risen, when the air was still and damp and the stars in the east were only just beginning to fade, it was Mary Magdalene who came to the tomb where they had laid Jesus’s body.

According to John’s gospel, Mary came to the tomb alone. 

That’s not how the other gospels tell it. 

Mark, the first gospel to be written, has no resurrection story at all.  According to Mark’s gospel, Mary Magdalene and two other women came to the tomb just after sunrise.  They saw that the tomb was empty.  This frightened them, and they ran away in terror.  There is an announcement of resurrection, but Jesus himself does not appear.

According to Matthew’s gospel, two women – Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” – went to the tomb together, at sunrise.  There was an earthquake, an angel appeared, and then Jesus himself appeared.

According to Luke’s version, it was a whole group of women, including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James.

But according to John’s gospel, it was Mary Magdalene alone.

Each gospel writer has their own reasons for telling the story the way they do.  The differences have nothing to do with getting the facts right or wrong.  These are not newspaper accounts, but holy mixtures of allegory and history, metaphor and parable, conveying important theological truths, deep truths that transcend literal meaning.

One of the few things all four versions do have in common is the presence of Mary Magdalene.

In the early days of Christian history, when it was still being figured out what it meant to be a Christian, and what beliefs were – and were not – central to the faith, Mary Magdalene was all but ignored.  In those early days, church leaders were working to affirm a doctrine of that other Mary’s perpetual virginity.  In order to do this, they had to elevate Mary, the mother of Jesus, to a status above all other women. 

Mary Magdalene’s prominent role in the gospels was a threat to Mary-Jesus’s-mother’s status, and so Mary Magdalene’s role in things was downplayed to almost nothing.

So, you see: the habit of highlighting certain scriptures that support your own views and ignoring certain other scriptures that contradict your own views is not something that just happens today.  It happened way back when, as well.

After some centuries, the church did eventually start paying attention to Mary Magdalene.  Yes, she was there at the resurrection.  Yes, she was there at many other key moments in the gospels. She seemed to be very close to Jesus…

She must have been a prostitute.

Nowhere in scripture does it say Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.  Prostitutes are mentioned, but they are never identified with Mary Magdalene.  To say that one or more of the prostitutes mentioned is Mary Magdalene is conjecture at best.  Scripture doesn’t say that she was a prostitute, although that is the image that has persisted through the years.

More recently, some scholars have suggested that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were, in fact, married.  The scholars say that the apostle Paul recommends that people remain single.  If Jesus was single, why didn’t Paul mention that in support of his argument?  Paul couldn’t mention it, because Jesus wasn’t single.  So say some scholars.

However, this is not an idea that is accepted by many church-goers.  After all:  scripture never says anything about Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene, or anyone else for that matter.  It’s silly to say that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, if scripture never says they were married.

And yet, we are all too eager to believe that Mary was a prostitute … even though scripture never says that she was a prostitute.

Now, I’m not saying that Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus.  I have no idea, really.  But I do wonder why we find it so much easier to believe that she was a prostitute than we do to believe that she was married.  I wonder why we find it so much easier to believe that she was a prostitute who hung around with Jesus than we do to believe that she was married to Jesus.

I mean, if we’re going to believe something about her that isn’t in scripture, why would we choose prostitute over wife?  Why is that easier for us to imagine?  Why do we insist on telling the story one way, but not the other?

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A few weeks ago, two teenage boys in Steubenville, Ohio, were found guilty of raping an intoxicated sixteen year-old girl.  They were sentenced to terms in juvenile hall, and must register as sex offenders.

Like the gospel writers, and like church people through history, the media can choose how they want to tell this story.  Going beyond mere facts, the media can present the story in a way that emphasizes the narrative they wish to convey.

Here’s the story the media told:

CNN said the boys were “promising students” whose lives were now ruined because of their sentence.  ABC News made excuses for the rapists.  NBC News lamented the boys’ promising football careers.  USA Today said that that the victim was drunk. 

Bottom line:  These boys are the victims, and the girl is to blame.

And the moral of the story:  girls, don’t let yourselves get raped.

There are a few people trying to tell a very different story.  One that does have compassion on these boys, and yet is not afraid to say that what they did was wrong.  A story that says intoxication is not an excuse to rape someone.  A story that insists that the real victim here is the girl who was raped.

And the moral of this other story isn’t “girls, don’t let yourselves get raped.”  The moral is: “guys: don’t rape.”  Unfortunately, not many people are telling this other story.

How we choose to tell the story says a lot about the ones doing the telling.

So:  we choose a story that labels Mary Magdalene as a prostitute and dismiss the story that says she was a wife.  We choose a story that blames a rape victim and defends the rapists, rather than a story that supports the victim and condemns rape.

Is this not what you were expecting to hear on Easter Sunday?  OK, let’s change our focus somewhat.  God’s Spirit is alive and present.  The Spirit was present at the resurrection.  The Spirit is present today. The Spirit is present in you and in me.  The Spirit enables us to embrace new life and bring new life to others.  The Spirit makes it possible for us to live as people of the resurrection.

And the way we tell the story has the power to either help, or hinder new life.

For too long, the church has chosen to tell its story in a way that hinders new life for women.  Even when women have been the victims of male power and aggression, they get a disproportionate amount of blame.  The church decided early on that only one woman ever was or ever would be perfect.  All others, therefore, must be prostitutes and sinners.  All others are incapable of moral judgment; therefore they should not be allowed to vote.  All others are incapable of leading moral lives; therefore they should not be allowed to lead.  And if anything happens to them – rape, domestic violence – it must be their fault.

Well, obviously, women do vote, and they do lead, at least in our church, and it would seem that we’ve moved beyond a way of telling the story that casts them as inferior. 

But then you hear the media’s telling of the story in Steubenville, and you realize that we aren’t yet where we thought we were, where we hoped we’d be.

And the way we’re telling the story continues to deny people the opportunity to find new life.

I think this is one of the reasons why more and more people are leaving organized religion.  Because too often organized religion is on the side of making new life inaccessible and unobtainable.  Too often, organized religion blames people and casts upon them negative labels, when it should be working to lift them up and set them free. 

What we’ve done to Mary Magdalene, we’ve done to so many others throughout history:  to Native Americans, African Americans, immigrants, the poor, gays and lesbians, the mentally ill, and basically to anyone who isn’t like us or who doesn’t think like us.

What we need to do is start living like Easter people.  What we need to do is start living in ways that make new life possible.  We need to stop blaming victims, stop condemning those who are already oppressed, and start offering hope.  Real hope.  We need to stop focusing our thoughts on the worst things a person might have done in the past and start focusing on the best that they can become in the future.  We need to start offering grace, not judgment.  Hope, not condemnation.  New life, not ongoing death.

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And perhaps the place to start is within.  What labels do you tend to apply to yourself?  Do you treat yourself with judgment or with grace?  Are you able to surround yourself with God’s love and compassion, and move into new life? 

How often do you find yourself saying things like, “I wish I were more…” fill in the blank.  “I wish I were more friendly.  I wish I wasn’t so depressed.  I wish I wasn’t so fat.  I wish I wasn’t so negative.  I wish I had my life together.  I wish I were more organized.  I wish I could slow down.  I wish I could speed up.  I wish I could think clearly…”  I wish, I wish, I wish…

Self-improvement is a good thing.  Constantly putting yourself down with negative labels is not.  You see, the way I understand the story of the gospel, the story of the resurrection, is that it is a story about God’s love for you.  And in that story, you are given a label, yes.  The label you have been given is not that you are “perfect.”  No one is perfect.

But neither have you been labeled “sinner.” 

In the beginning, when God created you, God pronounced you “very good.”  Very good.

And then, God gave you another label:  “child of God.”

God also calls you “Beloved.”  And God calls you  “Beautiful.”

And Jesus, God’s son, thought you were worth dying for.  And God so approved of what Jesus did that God then raised Jesus back to life through the Spirit.

You see, salvation starts right now.  You don’t have to wait for it.  New life starts right now.  It starts when we learn to see things differently, through God’s eyes.  It starts when we learn to tell the story differently, through God’s love.  New life comes when we allow God’s love and compassion to surround us and enfold us.  New life comes when we learn to look upon others with that same love and compassion.

New life comes in the way we choose to tell the story.

New life comes in the way we choose to live the story.