Mary Magdalene: The archetype of transformative penitence and the primacy of the forgiven

“ The woman who, under the name of Mary Magdalene,—whether that name be rightfully or wrongfully bestowed,—stands before us, sanctified in the imagination and in the faith of the people in her combined character of Sinner and of Saint, as the first-fruits of Christian penitence,—is a reality, and not a fiction. Even if we would, we cannot do away with the associations inseparably connected with her name and her image. ”

“ Ye seek Jesus of
Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here:
behold the place where they laid him.
41:016:007 But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth
before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said
unto you.
41:016:008 And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for
they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to
any man; for they were afraid.
41:016:009 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he
appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast
seven devils. ”

“ Early in the morning after the Sabbath, the three Marys come to the sepulcher, bringing sweet spices to embalm the body, [451] . They see an angel who announces the resurrection of our Lord, [452] . Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, who goes and tells the disciples, [453] . He appears also to the two disciples who were going into the country, who also tell it to the rest, [454] , [455] . Afterwards he appears unto the eleven, and commissions them to preach the Gospel to all mankind, [456] . ”

“ But the birth-hour of Christianity, as the worship of Jesus, was that in which Mary Magdalene saw her master as risen and eternally living.
The impulse which caught up and gave wings to his work just when it seemed crushed came from the heart of Mary. In a spiritual sense the mother of Christianity was a woman who had been a sinner, and was forgiven because she loved much. The faith that sent the disciples forth to conquer the world was the faith that their Lord was not dead but living, not a memory but a perpetual presence. That conviction first flashed into the heart of Mary. ”

“ And therefore his example will always be an encouragement to the worst of sinners when they repent. It is common for penitents to be afraid to come to God, because their sins have been too great to be forgiven; but those who are encouraging them can point to cases like Manasseh, and Mary Magdalene, and the thief on the cross, and assure them that the mercy which sufficed for these is sufficient for all: "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin." ”

“ Faith shines, when it worketh towards Christ, through the sides of many and great transgressors, and so does love, for that much is forgiven. And what matter can be found in the soul for humility to work by so well, as by a sight that I have been and am an abominable sinner? And the same is to be said of patience, meekness, gentleness, self-denial, or of any other grace. Grace takes occasion by the vileness of the man to shine the more; even as by the ruggedness of a very strong distemper or disease, the virtue of the medicine is best made manifest. Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds ”

“ Nor is it only the popularity of Mary Magdalene as the representative and the patroness of repentant sinners which has multiplied her image through all Christendom. As a subject for painting,
Whether the fair one sinner it or saint it,
it is rich in picturesque capabilities. It combines all that can inspire, [Pg 345] with all that can chasten the fancy; yet, when we review what has been done, how inadequate the result! In no class of subjects have the mistakes of the painters, even the most distinguished, been so conspicuous as in the representation of the penitent Magdalene ”

“ Hence, God the Lord requires and demands through his word, of all men of understanding, a true reformation and a renewing from these their own actual sins; that is, that through the hearing of the word of God they receive the faith, become regenerated from above, of God, be created anew in the inner mind of the heart, according to the image of God, and circumcised, being translated from the carnal into the spiritual, from unbelief into faith, from that which is earthly-minded and like Adam into that which is heavenly-minded and like Jesus Christ ”

“ He again repeated, that every Christian who truly repents possesses the remission of [259] sins without indulgence; that the pope, like the humblest of priests, can only declare simply what God has already pardoned; that the treasure of the merits of the saints administered by the pope was a chimera, and that Holy Scripture was the only rule of faith. Let us hear himself on some of these points.
He begins with establishing the nature of true penitence, and contrasts the divine act, which renews man, with the mummery of the Romish Church. ”

“ For true penitence is health of the soul and restorer of virtue; as St. Bernard testifies, saying: O Penitence, health of the soul, restorer of virtue, scatterer of ems, overthrower of hell, gate of heaven, way of the righteous and satis faction of the blessed. [5] Oh, right blessed is he that loves the penitence of the saintly life and keeps it unto the end of his days! Stand in the way of God, dear brothers, ever moving forward in the holy life. Cease not to do well: for when the time shall come, you will live in heaven for ever. ”

“ Mary Magdalene, who separated herself from the society of men, and lacerated her body with scourges even to blood. If I enter in spirit into the deserts and wildernesses, I find hearts broken with continual contrition and sorrow; bodies blanched and wasted by uninterrupted vigils, hunger, and thirst, more dead than alive, clad with hair-shirts furnished with sharp iron nails, scourged with thongs armed with spurs and knives, and other terrible implements of penance with which those repentant souls chastised the flesh. ”

“ What an abyss of the deepest anguish of soul I could discover in this woman, who was worthy of a better lot! What is highest and best in a woman? Her love, her mother's heart, her honor; and Magdalen had squandered and ruined all these by her own guilt. The blow of overwhelming fate may be easily borne, but woe to him, whose life is ruined by his own sin! She was a sinner, she felt it with anguish of repentance, and she steadily refused my offers to purchase her freedom.
"She was greedy of punishment, as a man in a fever is greedy of the bitter potion, which cools his blood. ”

“ What hast thou done for Me?' Ah, that is the true beginning. You cannot frighten men into penitence, you may frighten them into remorse; and the remorse may or may not lead on to repentance. But bring to bear upon a man's heart the thought of the infinite and perfect love of God, and that is the solvent of all his obstinate impenitence, and melts him to cry, 'I have sinned.' And along with that element there is the other, the plain striking away of all disguises from the ugly fact of the sin. ”

“ This was the holy generous feeling of Mary Magdalen, and this work must be felt in some humble degree, if ever we are saved, for except we repent, we must perish in our sins, because this repentance is the effect—not the cause of pardon, nor is it produced from any fear or dread of hell, but from a sense of love, because we have had the baseness and ingratitude, the cruelty and the bitterness to sin against a good, a gracious, a kind, and a bountiful God: we loath ourselves in our own sight for our abominations, and as this is the fruit of the Spirit, so it is pleasant and acceptable to God. ”

“ For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and magnify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty Pæan of jubilee conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter than has ever before reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her primal and everlasting strain. Self-abnegation, by which we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in Christian Science. ”

“ When pride, subdued by majesty, rejoices in humility; when grossness, shamed by purity, welcomes purging fires; when malice, melted by forbearance, partakes the sacrifice and becomes itself compassionate; when falsity, unveiled by verity, submits to its rebuke and welcomes truth with deep docility and faith; then within the sinner's penitence is every penalty absolved, and between embittered souls comes perfect reconciliation. ”

“ Where are those who, having begun as sinners, end as penitents? Show me, in your manner of living, the smallest trace of penitence. Are your graspings at wealth and power, your anxieties to attain the favour of the great, (and by these means an increase of employments and influence,) —are these proofs of it? Would you wish to reckon even your crimes as virtues?—that the sufferings of your ambition, pride, and avarice, should discharge you from an obligation which they themselves have imposed? You are penitent to the world, but are you so to Jesus Christ? ”

“ Let every service in God's house be a revival service. Let each worshiper be a mourner over his sins, each pew an anxious seat. To this end let the preaching of the Word be plain and direct. Let it be full of "repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." Where hearts are not wilfully closed against such preaching of "the truth as it is in Jesus," they will, through its power, become "broken and contrite hearts," from which will arise earnest pleadings for forgiveness and acceptance. ”

“ But it means this—that as the earth under the blessing of the dew and the rain is, by God's secret working upon it, made to take up and embrace the seed, so the heart of man is made ready to receive and enfold the gospel of Jesus Christ within itself. Man's awakened heart wants exactly what the word of God supplies. Moved by a divine influence the soul embraces the truth, and is embraced by it, and so the truth lives in the heart, and is quickened by it. Man's love accepts the love of God; man's faith wrought in him by the Spirit of God believes the truth of God ”

“ Thus, one by seeing only a withered tree, another by reading the lives and deaths of the antediluvian fathers, one by hearing of heaven, another of hell, one by reading of the love or wrath of God, another of the sufferings of Christ, may find himself, as it were, melted into penitence all of a sudden. It may be granted also that the greatest sinner may in a moment be converted to God, and may feel himself wounded in such a degree as perhaps those never were who have been turning to God all their lives. ”

“ I mean that depth and strength of devotion, tenderness, and self-sacrifice, which God has put into the heart of all true women; and which they spend so strangely, and so nobly often, on persons who have no claim on them, and from whom they can receive no earthly reward—the affection which made women minister of their substance to our Lord Jesus Christ, which brought Mary Magdalene to the foot of the cross and to the door of the tomb—the affection which made a wise man say that as long as women and sorrow are left in the world, so long will the gospel of our Lord Jesus live and conquer therein. ”

“ He catches sight of the panic-stricken Thomas in passing, and for some reason or other reassuringly nods to him; he overtakes Jesus being led to execution. The walking is difficult, small stones roll under the feet, and suddenly Judas feels that he is tired. He gives himself up wholly to the trouble of deciding where best to plant his feet, he looks dully around, and sees Mary Magdalene weeping, and a number of women weeping—hair dishevelled, eyes red, lips distorted—all the excessive grief of a tender woman’s soul when submitted to outrage. ”

“ For seeing that salvation is no mere external gift of shutting up some outward Hell and opening the door to some outward Heaven, but is a state of heart and mind, of relation to God, the only way by which that salvation can come into a man's heart is that he, knowing his need of it, shall trust Christ, and through Him the new life will flow into his heart. Faith is trust, and trust is the stretching out of the hand to take the precious gift, the opening of the heart for the influx of the grace, the eating of the bread, the drinking of the water, of life. ”

“ Faith, so soon as it has a being in the soul, is like the child that has a being in the mother’s lap; it must have something to feed upon; not something at a distance, afar off, to be purchased (I speak now as to justification from the curse) , but something by promise made over of grace to the soul; something to feed upon to support from the fears of perishing by the curse for sin. Nor can it rest content with all duties and performances that other graces shall put the soul upon; nor with any of its own works, until it reaches and takes hold of the righteousness of Christ. ”

“ Near to John, to whom, as the beloved disciple, the death of Jesus was especially grievous, sat Mary Magdalene, and Matthew trying to comfort him in an undertone. Mary, whose face was swollen with weeping, softly stroked his luxurious curling hair with her hand, while Matthew said didactically, in the words of Solomon:
“‘The long suffering is better than a hero; and he that ruleth his own spirit than one who taketh a city.’”
At this moment Judas knocked loudly at the door, and entered. ”

“ It will have been observed that as yet, although the two disciples have both entered the sepulchre, there has been no mention whatever of angels: they certainly did not see any. In immediate continuation of the narrative, however, we learn that when they have gone home, Mary Magdalene, who was standing without at the tomb weeping, stooped down and, looking into the sepulchre,—where just before the disciples had seen no one,—she beheld "two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay. 13. They say unto her: Woman, why weepest thou? ”

“ From the ruin of Eve to the restoration in Mary, the history of this world resembles a deep valley filled with death and sorrow and gloom. In Adam all died, in Christ all shall be made alive. Bethlehem with its manger is set over against Eden with its bower. During that old dispensation, manly qualities were honored and womanly qualities were ignored. The effects of sin are seen. God doth not hold guiltless the sinner. The consequences of sin run on. They made woman's life wretched. They changed the helpmeet into a slave. ”

“ I have one thing more to offer for thy encouragement, who deemest thyself one of the biggest sinners; and that is, thou art as it were called by thy name, in the first place, to come in for mercy. Thou man of Jerusalem, hearken to thy call; men do so in courts of judicature, and presently cry out, Here, Sir; and then they shoulder and crowd, and say, Pray give way, I am called into the court. Why, this thy case, thou great, thou Jerusalem sinner; be of good cheer, he calleth thee ”

“ Wherefore, if thou wouldst soonest be served, put in thy name among the very worst of sinners. Say, when thou art upon thy knees, Lord, here is a Jerusalem sinner! a sinner of the biggest size! one whose burden is of the greatest bulk and heaviest weight! one that cannot stand long without sinking into hell, without thy supporting hand! “Be not thou far from me, O Lord! O my strength, haste thou to help me!”
I say, put in thy name with Magdalen, with Manasseh, that thou mayst fare as the Magdalen and the Manasseh sinners do. ”

“ As the past of Christian life was reviewed so seriously, penitence sprang up within the heart, and then the gratitude to God, and then the consecration, and then the delightful swelling love and peace, and then the faith that seemed to hide itself in God’s own heart, and there was a mingling of the emotions as if the ocean of God’s presence was receiving them to its own deep love, and they were taking the first baptism of the Spirit. ”

“ By faith, the penitent sinner receives all these blessings—is rescued from wrath, delivered from the guilt and bondage of sin, and made a child of God, and an heir of eternal life. Thus the triumph of the cross is complete, the pride of human merit is humbled in the dust, and all the glory of the salvation of sinners is rendered to the riches of redeeming mercy. ”