Mary Magdalene: Wholehearted Call

With the Da Vinci Code drawing record crowds to movie theaters this summer, interest in Mary Magdalene is running high. All four Gospels record her name first among the women around Jesus although the details of their relationship are left to our imagination (and fiction writers). According to scripture, she was neither a prostitute nor a penitent who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. Instead, Mary’s call as a disciple is a good example of one that deepened over time.

Who Am I?

Mark tells us that Mary Magdalene had been “healed of seven demons,” and that she and other prominent women provided for the disciples “out of their personal resources.” That CALL—to support the ministry of Jesus—was directly linked to her liberation. Jesus called her out of darkness into light, and Mary discovered her true identity, her ability to love wholeheartedly. Support was a sign of her gratitude.

It seems to me that anger and/or depression are modern demons that keep many people from the basic call which Jesus gave to all of his disciples: to love one another as he had loved them. We don’t have to read far in the Book of Acts to see that the disciples failed at that fairly often. And we don’t have to read far in the morning newspaper to see that we do too. Left to our own devices, we’ll probably stay that way. When I’m feeling critical or hopeless, I often reach for a book, under the illusion that understanding will heal the inner wounds that keep me hobbled emotionally. Mary’s story tells me that I need to bring those demons to Jesus for healing, so I look to the prayers and songs and words of weekly worship as a reminder to keep doing that.

What Is My Work?

But God’s call doesn’t stop there. All four Gospels describe Mary Magdalene at the tomb of Jesus after his burial. While other disciples barricaded themselves in an upper room, desperately afraid, Mary went to their last point of contact, driven by love and longing.

Both Matthew and John describe Jesus’ appearance to Mary at the empty tomb. In both Gospels, she receives a specific call to “go and tell,” to name her experience of the risen Christ to the paralyzed disciples. Although it seems like too small a thing to count as CALL, that’s the work Mary was given to do. It was simply the next step in a work that was larger than herself.

One measure of CALL continues to be bringing together parts of Christ’s body. Bearing witness to our own experience. Doing the inner work necessary to develop the kind of compassionate heart that Jesus had for this hurting world, and being willing to do the specific task that is ours to do. When I ask people at a retreat to “find a symbol of your work in something you’re wearing”, people always know what to choose. I believe we want to bear witness to the work we are called to whether we know it consciously or not.

Comparison doesn’t seem to be what Jesus had in mind. When Peter was straining against Jesus’ directive to “Feed my sheep,” trying to sidetrack the discussion by asking “What about him?” Jesus replied tersely, “What is that to you? Follow me!”

I think that’s the key to CALL: to follow Jesus into the world. Each one, it seems, will have a different work. It may not be the job we are paid for. It may be at home, with a spouse or child in need. It may be in the political realm, to bring about justice and mercy. It will, most likely, take us into territory we hadn’t planned to explore. But we will know it is ours to do. And we will need the company of others who feel the same word of hope stirring at the empty tombs in their lives.

Because we live in a culture of individual effort, we tend to identify CALL with vocation, but the Bible presents a more complex picture — that of an ongoing relationship which does not stop with the death of Jesus.

My Unique Gift

What Mary Magdalene brought to the early church was different from what Peter or John brought. I wonder if healing had made her more fearless, more open to the mystery of the resurrection? Whatever the cause, all the Gospels describe the unique role which Mary Magdalene had among the earliest apostles, calling them into an open future rather than leaving them in the closed room of despair that they were in.

Now that I’m getting older, I’m asking that question about CALL: what is uniquely mine to do? What gift do I bring to the world now that others are doing the work I used to do? What shall I do with more limited time and energy? Who needs what I have to offer? What’s the point of connection between my unique gift and the world’s need?

In the last issue of Faith@Work, we looked at “God’s call.” In this issue, we focus on “My Call,” but we need to keep the broader context of God’s unfolding story of love and healing as we search for specific next steps. As technology conspires to keep us distracted with too many choices, our faith calls us to deepen our roots in a few places so we can offer ourselves wholeheartedly, as Mary Magdalene did.

MZB On the Road

9/17...Baltimore MD, Ch of the Redeemer

9/21...Spotsylvania VA, ECW Retreat

9/23-25...Roanoke VA, Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church

10/6-8...Minneapolis MN, Colonial Heights Presbyterian Church WE

Marjory Bankson is editor of Faith@Work magazine, artist, relational teacher and author of Call to the Soul and a brand new version of Seasons of Friendship, and is a Steward of The Seekers Church, a faith community of Church of the Saviour in Washington DC.