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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the texts come from the Gospel reading, but also the Old Testament reading. You may be seated. Of all the New Testament women, Mary Magdalene is mentioned the most. Interesting. One of the most prominent parts about Mary Magdalene’s life is revealed to us in the Gospel of St. Luke where it is recorded that Jesus had driven out seven demons from this woman named Mary Magdalene. We know not what her demons were, but that they were driven from her. And though they may have been driven from her, the Lord does not erase her memory.
So all of the memories of her struggling and dealing with those things in her life were what haunted her. And Satan would always bring them to remembrance. Overwhelmed, you could say that her brain was on fire. Her soul was foaming like a boiling cauldron, struggling within herself. And all of those memories and all of those struggles that she had would come flowing back because her memory still was intact, though she had been made whole and restored by her Lord.
Jesus came crashing into Mary’s life. Jesus found her with her seven demons and calmed her and restored her. Just as he did to the Sea of Galilee that was foaming and tumultuous, and He said, Hush, be still! And the sea was still. So He did in Mary Magdalene’s life. But her memories, just like yours, were still intact. Hush, be still! Just as she could not find her own ability to find peace and release from these things within her, neither can you. And Satan will not give you peace day or night because of them.
You and Mary Magdalene find release from these things only in the forgiveness of your sins because of Him who won them for you. Therein lies wholeness. Therein lies restoration. Restoration. And therein lies true peace. But peace in the midst of memories that will not fade until death comes.
So I wonder, as you wonder, all that was written by the writer of Proverbs 31, does it apply to a woman like Mary Magdalene? What a huge list that women have to have placed upon them by God in this text of Proverbs 31. You will not find such a laundry list about us as men, because we’ve got it worse. Our example is Jesus Christ himself. But therein lies in Proverbs 31 the only one of the many places where a woman is lifted up and shown what she is like.
You tell me, women who have heard it read and have studied it before in all the women’s Bible studies, do you not get done reading it and leave saying, Well, I sure as shirt and match don’t measure up to that? So are there two kinds of Christian women in this world? Women like the women that we imagine Proverbs 31 applies to? And women like Mary Magdalene? Are there two kinds of Christians in this world? Christians that we imagine them to be that have this high standard? And, well, every other Christian.
What does a wise and God-fearing woman look like? You have in your own mind, when you would read those stories, and in fact you have even women’s faces that you look up to as being, there’s my proverbial example of a proverbial 31 woman. And I don’t think any of you put your face in that mind’s eye picture. I think you put someone else’s face.
So here’s the question. Does the woman who fulfills everything in Proverbs 31 have the ability to reflect upon it and say, I know why I am a Proverbs 31 woman? How does she reflect upon herself? Does she reflect upon herself like you reflect upon yourself? Only aware of what you are not? And very aware of what He brings to you in His grace and forgiveness? Like Mary Magdalene?
Mary Magdalene is a Proverbs 31 woman. And don’t forget it. She did not know that she was a Proverbs 31 woman, and yet she was. She was not able to reflect upon, I fulfill all of these things because the only thing that she knew is that she didn’t fulfill anything, but her Lord Jesus fulfilled everything for her. That she was very aware of.
It’s like the parable of the sheep and the goats. The sheep left Jesus’ comments to them with this stupefied look saying, when did we serve you, clothe you, feed you, and so forth? That is how the Proverbs 31 woman views herself. That is how Mary Magdalene viewed herself. Unaware. The only thing that Mary Magdalene and the Proverbs 31 woman was aware of was of the grace of Jesus Christ and Him alone. That and that alone is what she was aware of. Because that and that alone is upon which she stands.
So Jesus, in the Gospel reading, brings Mary’s confidence back to light again, like He does to all of His beloved children, whether male or female, brings them back to confidence through His calling them by name. How many times Jesus must have called Mary, Magdalene, Mary, but again He calls her by name in the garden to affirm her as His child and to give her confidence not in herself but in His name calling her.
Then again, He gives her this great message and this great, seeming minuscule job to go do. Go tell my apostles. Here’s the message, you go tell them. That’s the last we hear of Mary Magdalene. This one little moment in the sun and it’s only among those apostles and then that’s it. We don’t hear anything more about her. She kind of fades off into quietness.
So if the world was aware of how proverbial 31 she really was, would they not have written more about her? She’s like you. God uses you, and then quietly you go back to what you think is your normal way of life. But you don’t have the ability to determine, wow, this moment was when God was really using me. Well, this moment, not so much. By whose definition? Yours or God’s? And that’s the point.
Mary Magdalene’s confidence is what God had given her to do, what God had proclaimed to her. The message that He was giving to her was a very profound message in this. When Mary Magdalene had hold of Jesus’ feet, Jesus makes a very interesting statement to her and in essence says, don’t hold on to me. Go to my brothers, tell them I’ve not yet ascended to my God and to your God, to my Father and to your Father.
Think about this. This is the message that He gives; she gives to you. Because you and I are people who can hear this message and it resonates. For Mary Magdalene and the twelve apostles, their entire understanding of Jesus had all been shaped by these orifices known as their eyes. Everything about Jesus would come to them through their eyes and their ears. Which one predominates in all of us typically? Except for Paul. Their ears do not dominate. Their eyes dominate.
And He is trying to tell them, no longer see me as this and where I’m to be found, but see me where I am going to promise to be found for the rest of the world’s eternity until it’s finally over for the world. I’m going to be found in the word of the water of baptism. That’s where I call you by name and affirm you as my child and give you that same mission: tell about me.
Find me in the word of the sinful man who preaches to you and teaches to you, whose life is full of pockmarks. Find it in the word that he preaches, because it’s my word, not his. Find me, Jesus says, in the bread and wine with my flesh and blood, where I have promised to be found, so that you know whose are you but mine, and what great love I have for you. That’s the wisdom of Mary Magdalene, who truly is the Proverbs 31 woman.
Do you think that that’s how God views you? And the answer is yes. He views you with those words proclaimed about that woman in Proverbs 31 because He sees you relying upon, trusting in, and clinging tenaciously to His grace and to nothing else. If that was really describing a specific woman, that woman in Proverbs 31 went to sleep not because she said, I’ve taken such good care of my children and my husband. I’m the bomb diggity. No.
She went to sleep at night trusting that God’s grace was what covered everything that she failed to do. Mary Magdalene did not go to sleep at night saying, I’m the apostle to the apostles because I told them about Jesus Christ. I’m the one who got to see Him alive first, nobody else. She went to sleep probably still struggling with her memories, trusting in God’s grace to carry her and make her His at her death. And it’s the same for you.
You’ll go to sleep at night and you’ll close your eyes in death on nothing but God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Where He called you by name, where He feeds you with His flesh and blood, and where He gives you the proclamation to proclaim in all kinds of different service, regardless of how mediocre it may look to you. There were a beautiful parable that Jesus spoke about servants that describes really kind of your and my response to this all as we go to sleep each night. And it was where the response of the servants was this that Jesus said.
The servants said, we are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty. And your and my duty is to receive His gifts. And your and my duty is to believe in those gifts and die in the faith that trusts that gift of grace. That’s why we will be praised in the gates of the Lord’s house.
In the name of Jesus, Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
