Mary Magdalene

“Her sins which are many are forgiven; for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven the same loves little.” Luke 7:47

The Gospel introduces us first to Mary Magdalene in the house of the Pharisee. Her former life is left to conjecture. She was a sinner, and out of her went seven devils, which seems to mark the greatness of her iniquities; but her life recorded by the Evangelists commences with her coming to the Savior.

Mary Magdalene’s sins, must have been felt by her as a heavy burden. She was weary of a life of iniquity, but she knew not how to be free and then she heard the Savior was in the city. The report must have reached her of His gracious words, His acts of mercy, and miracles of love. He who had had compassion on the widow’s tears, and restored her son to life, perhaps would have pity upon her also. He who invited the weary and heavy laden to come to Him for rest, might He include her in this invitation? At all events, she would attempt to see whether her grief would enlist His pity.

She was nerved with such eagerness, that she made no delay, and thought of no difficulties. She did not hesitate to interrupt the festivities in which the Savior was now partaking but entered the Pharisee’s house. Mary disregarded all the other guests; without noticing them, she sought the Savior; but bold as she was, she still was humble and conscious of the little claim which she could make on His mercy. After the custom of the age and country, the guests were reclining on couches; and there, while as yet she dare not meet His gaze, she could kneel at His feet behind Him, and there as she wept, her tears fell so fast that they washed Jesus feet, and with her hair she wiped them away.

Mary Magdalene was in an agony of grief and yet an ecstasy of tenderness, and therefore, she covered with repeated kisses the feet her tears had just washed; but she had not come without a gift: she brought ointment, and with it she anointed Jesus as its fragrance filled the air.

The very things, which had ministered to her sin before, were now ministers to her repentance. From the eyes whose brightness had been kindled by wrong desires, tears now flowed. Her hair, which

had been used in the service of sin, she now used to wiped her Savior’s feet. And with her mouth, before used for impurity and sin, she was now covering Jesus feet with kisses. The ointment with which she had adorned herself, was now poured upon Jesus, thus witnessing in all her acts the entireness of her repentance. There was no reservation. She calculated not how much or how little would be her sacrifice, or what she might retain; but devoted herself entirely as an offering to her Lord. The passion with which she had entertained others was now for Him alone in all its purity.

The Lord Jesus spoke not; but the fact that He permitted her thus to kneel at His feet and weep and anoint Him was to her an evidence that she was not rejected; and it was not so to her only, because the Pharisee regarded it also as a proof that the token of the sinner’s love was not despised. This One, he thought, if He had been a prophet would have known what manner of woman this is that touches Him. How little did Simon know, for the very objection, which he made, was the strongest evidence that our Lord was indeed that Prophet which should come into the world. Had not the attraction of His grace brought the sinner to His feet, while overflowing Divine love looked with pity on her fears? Who that is a true disciple of the Savior would wish to repel the vilest sinner from His mercy, since His highest glory are those miracles of grace by which the penitent sinner is raised to holiness? Still, even now, there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance, and why should it not, likewise, be so in the Church on earth?

The Lord gently rebuked the Pharisee, “Simon,” He said, “I have somewhat to say to you,” and then He related the parable of the creditor and his two debtors, the moral of which He drew from the Pharisee’s own lips. “Tell me,” He said, “which will love him most?” And Simon answered, “I suppose that the one to whom he forgave most;” and then in deep compassion the Savior looked upon the woman at His feet while he replied to the Pharisee, “Simon, do you see this woman? I entered into your house, but you gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

There was great comfort here for Mary Magdalene, and for every penitent sinner besides who will seek the Lord as Savior, as she did, in the fervor of love and entire repentance. But there was rebuke to the Pharisee, not to Simon only, but to the Pharisees of every age, who wrap themselves around with the cloak of their own respectability, and think that they have little need of pardon. Why may our love be so cold, but for this very reason, that little is forgiven us. Our sins may not be of the same nature as Mary Magdalene’s, but still, they may be as destructive to our Salvation, and we may stand in as much need of pardon as she did. If our hearts are cold, when we think of the love of Christ, the cause must be that we have never fully realized our need of Him or our condition as sinners. If we had, our sins would seem as scarlet, sins which never could have been washed away if the Savior’s blood had not been poured out upon the Cross.

Mary Magdalene’s love was no passing emotion. She had laid the burden of her sins at the Savior’s feet, and there she found peace. We also find her afterwards following Jesus from city to city, together with the other women who ministered to Him of their substance.

Later, we find Mary Magdalene weeping at the foot of the Cross. The disciples had forsaken their Lord and fled, but this Mary, along with Jesus mother and another Mary, were present at Calvary. In spite of the taunts and jeers of those who passed by, she watched His agonies until suffering had done its worst, and the lifeless body of her Lord hung upon the cross. She, who had been possessed of seven devils, stood beside the mother of her Lord and the disciple whom Jesus loved. Eve had been the first in transgression, and now her daughters were the last at the Cross. Jesus had said that He, if He were lifted up, would draw all men to Him, and here stood Mary Magdalene as the first fruits of His attraction. She watched to the end. She beheld His sacred body taken from the Cross and laid in Joseph’s tomb, and then returned to the city that she might prepare the ointment for His embalming.

The Sabbath had passed, and before the first day of the week dawned, Mary Magdalene was already at the grave, and was first to discover that the stone was rolled away. She bore the tidings quickly to Peter and John who came and beheld, and then departed to their homes. But Mary Magdalene lingered at His grave. She stood there weeping, and as she wept she stooped down to look into the grave; there she saw two angels, who said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” And she said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid Him.” She continued weeping, then Jesus was suddenly there beside her, though her eyes were so filled with tears and her heart with grief, that she did not know Him. He asked her why she wept, and she, thinking it was the gardener who was addressing her said, “Sir, If you have taken Him away, tell me where you have laid Him and I will take Him away.” She forgot that in her weakness she would never be able to bear the weight of His lifeless body; but Mary’s was a love which thought not of obstacles, and would dare to do the impossible! Jesus had only to speak her name, and she immediately recognized that voice which once before had told her that her sins were pardoned and to go in peace.

When Mary Magdalene recognized that it was her Savior who was speaking to her in the garden, she would have embraced His feet, which she had once covered with her kisses in the house of Simon, but He bade her to not touch Him now, but hasten to the disciples as the messenger of this joyous Resurrection. Thus, she became the first preacher of the Gospel, ran to tell others that He who was crucified for our offences had now been raised again for our justification. Surely there was a design in this, for she whose sins were many, was the first to see her Risen Lord. The first sight of the Savior was granted to the repentant Magdalene, that all penitents of every age might hope to see Him in the Resurrection. Who shall rejoice to behold Him with the greatest joy, but those whose many and grievous sins shall have been pardoned? If in this joy we are sharer’s with Mary Magdalene, let us also be imitators of her love. It cannot be bestowed on Him in vain, for He is the same tender and compassionate Savior as He proved to be to her, and therefore, if we feel our sins are many, what should hinder us from pouring out our love even as she did?

Mary Magdalene’s presence there at the Cross is an assurance to us forever that the greatest sinner may find mercy. Our Lord’s chief glory shall be that train of sinners saved by grace of whom we may each be one, whose robes, once stained by sin, shall have been washed in His blood, made more white than any fuller could whiten them!

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Godly Sorrow

May we have such a love for Jesus, as did Mary Magdalene, that our sorrow for our sins and the seeking His forgiveness would cause us to weep at His feet.