Mary magdalene

Mary Magdalene

My name is Mary. I came from the village of Magdala not far from Jerusalem and this is my story. I was the first to arrive at the tomb of Jesus very early in the morning before the sun even came up. I did not go there alone. I had Mary, the dear mother of Jesus with me, and another friend by the name of Joanna with me. Why were three women out late at night, trying to get into a tomb, knowing that what we were doing was very dangerous?

Jesus, my Lord and my Master, had been crucified. In horror we watched Him die that day! If that was not horrifying enough, we watched as the Romans bundled his body up and started dragging it away. If it weren't for Joseph, they would have thrown Jesus' body away like so much garbage. There wasn't much time. Joseph went to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body so that it could be buried properly in his family tomb. Sundown- and the Sabbath was coming. All Joseph could do was to hurridly throw some sheets on Jesus' body and place him in the tomb. But us women knew that this would never do. It was bad enough to see him have to leave this world the way He did. The very least thing we could do for Him was to give Him a decent burial.

Mary, Joanna, and I prepared the spices, gathered some clean linen, and aloes, and made our way to the Garden where Jesus was. It was so early, but we couldn't sleep anyway. We were so frightened. It was after dark. What if robbers would attack us on the way? And another thing, what were we going to do when we got to the tomb. We knew the soldiers were guarding it. How were we going to persuade them to let us in. Would they roll the stone away for us or would we have to do it? How were we supposed to do that? These nagging questions persisted, but it was our faith- and our love for Jesus that urged us on. So many times we had seen Jesus do the impossible- we felt guilty for these doubts, especially after we arrived at the tomb that morning.

Imagine our shock after we got there, standing there looking at the open grave with the stone already rolled back! Who could have done this? We saw the low flicker of torches glowing up above- no sense in asking the soldiers what was going on- they were sound asleep! Could someone have taken Jesus' body away and they not know it?

Joanna and Mary ran home weeping. They left me standing there thinking the worst. Tears blinded my eyes for several moments when someone called out my name. "Mary!" he said. Who was this? The gardener? But how could he have known my name? "Why are you crying?" he asked. It didn't occur to me how strange this was, "Because they have taken my Lord away and I don't know what they did with Him. If you know tell me please so I can go get Him!"

Through my tears, and through my doubts I saw Him. It was no gardener! It was Jesus- come to life again! All I could do was to want to throw my arms around Him. I couldn't believe my eyes! He was alive!

But Jesus said to me, "Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go and tell my disciples that I am alive again just as I said."