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The first day of the week has come again, and here you are. While it is not as early as it was when Mary first went to the hillside tomb with the other women; while it is not still physically and visually dark, things have not changed all that much.

There are still cemeteries, “bone yards” as the slang term more accurately describes them. The graves still exist because death still exists. Death still comes for all, for you, because all have sinned and fall short of perfection. You are “there,” that is “here,” in the darkness of sin standing about looking at the tomb. And that’s good.

Your “old-Adam” fallen nature doesn’t want you thinking about death and decay. Your interior “rebel” does not want you to contemplate the wages of sin nor the inevitability of ashes and dust. Satan wants you to forget about God’s Word. He does not want you reading Holy Scripture (so if you go day to day without noticing your Bible; at least your making “The Lord of the Flies” The devil doesn’t want you contemplating your trespasses, your aging, and your eventual death. He wants you preoccupied with entertainment, (toys), career, work, family, future plans of “this and that,” money, gossip, hatred towards your enemies, politics, and everything else that you really don’t have any control over.

Only God is eternal and lives forever. Eve and Adam in their sin wanted to be like God and live forever. Their sinful hearts thought they could do it without God by their own wills and actions. They were tragically wrong. They did not hold on to the Lord in His Word. Their bones are now dust somewhere in the earth.

Also, the serpent does not want you sad. Satan wants you giddy, “psyched,” and in a constant state of drug-induced euphoria. The drug can be alcohol, “coke,” sex, or power, but at its core, the drug which the devil “pimps” to you is “self.” Love yourself above all. Love yourself more than your neighbors. Satan appears as an “angel of light” and says “it’s always ‘day’ time, the night of reckoning will never come,” and “party hearty; eat, drink and be merry.”

The Word of God comes to you and says “Repent.” The Word says: “turn from Satan, world, and most of all ‘Self,’ and believe God.” The Word needs to put you into the dark by the sepulcher…early in the cold of the morning so that you will receive Him Who bursts forth from Satan’s chains of death ALIVE and smelling of lily, myrrh, and frankincense.

Saint Mary of Magdala is your sister, your dear friend and fellow disciple.

Contrary to popular opinion, and even centuries old ‘church tradition,’ we don’t know much about the Magdalene. Her name was Mary (the New Testament equivalent of the name given to Moses’ faithful sister Miriam) and she was from the Galilean town of Magdala. She had been the victim of ‘seven demons’ from which the Christ had exorcised her. She had already seen her own personal darkness lightened by He Who is Light Incarnate. But we don’t know how old she was. She may indeed have been the age of the Lord, but she may also have been quite a bit older or even a young teen. And we don’t know anything about her vocation, notwithstanding the Church’s tradition of reputing to her an unsavory past personal life.

Was she an ex-prostitute? I don’t know, but even if she had been, she was an “ex.” So are you. Some people “whore” with their bodies for money, but everyone whores with something—for someting, usually just with ones loyalties and devotion. This is why the Old Testament Israelites (the Hebrews under Moses’ shepherding) were constantly accused of “whoring” by the Prophets. They did not give God their full and total love. They were not faithful brides but wandering tarts. They did not faithfully cleave to their Groom and hold on for life.

Maybe Mary was mean; so were you. Maybe this woman was a liar, a cheat, a gossip, a lazy slacker; so were you. Whatever Mary was, she was/is beloved of the Lord. Jesus came to her in His Person and in His Word. He showed her what life apart from God’s love and salvation was. He showed her the darkness apart from His light even before that fateful day at the tomb. He gave her faith to believe that He was Messiah; the very Son of God; her Lord.

By Grace she received the greatest gift of all from God; not just freedom from demons, but freedom from sin, guilt and shame. She received the gift of faith in the Nazarene. The Magdalene’s life from that moment of re-birth became one of holding on to the Nazarene and pointing others to Him. She was His disciple following Him and possibly even helping Him and the 12 financially as other women from Galilee apparently did. And though she was not a “Sent One,” an Apostle, nevertheless she was one that “Gospelled” others with the Good News of His Sacrificial Death and Victorious Resurrection from the dead.

Standing at the foot of the “cursed tree” with the other faithful women she saw personally with her own eyes the death of God; the atoning and washing away of your sins by the Blood of Christ. But the Holy Spirit did not let Mary and the other women remain there with only the bloody sight of Lent and Good Friday in their eyes. Mary’s faith compelled her to keep on attending to her Savior, regardless of what condition He may or may not have been in, according to her own fallible mind. She went to the Tomb the first day of the week if for no other reason than to show final respect for the Body of Jesus, the Body given in Death for her.

Mary was no solitary nun; no hermit ascetic “lone-ranger.” She told her extended “family of faith” everything she saw and knew. When the sight of the empty cave and rolled away rock greeted her eyes she ran back to Simon Peter and the other ten to immediately make them aware of this startling news…not quite good news yet, but exciting none the less.

But now note well the difference between John, Peter and Mary Magdalene. When they had examined the cave, they went back to their respective places of rest and lodging while she alone remained at the empty tomb; like Ruth refusing to leave Naomi’s side. Why?

I submit it was because according to her gift of faith there was nothing else to do! As Peter had earlier said to Jesus: “Lord, to Whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Only now Mary’s faith was active in activity while Peter’s was still waiting. Mary knew that Jesus had been crucified dead and buried. Mary knew that Jesus had promised His own resurrection. Mary knew the grave now had no corpse laying in it. What if… what if….!!!!!! And yet, what if not; conflicting thoughts, to be sure. Oh Lord I want to believe, help my unbelief. And there she waited, weeping bitterly for her sinful senses, rationality, doubts, and brain told her, that her Master was probably still dead and only stolen by grave robbers.

How fitting to have a woman weeping in a garden.

Eve having sinned unto death; soon to be banished from the Garden, wept in bitter contrition and fear. The tears of Eve were staunched when the Lord spoke to her the first Gospel: “I will put enmity between [the snake] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise His heal.” [Gen. 3.15] Eve, could only look forward to the Redemption of the human race and her own salvation from eternal dust, death and hell. Mary Magdalene saw it with her own eyes. Mary saw the Lord’s miracles of healing and restoration; she heard Him preach the Kingdom of God by speaking Law and Gospel (repent and believe; for the promise is for you and your children). Mary saw the vicarious satisfaction paid by the Lamb for the sins of the entire world, Eve’s, yours, hers. She witnessed the horror, and yes, the sublime glory of the Crucified One. Mary understood that to follow Jesus was to pick up the cross and suffer with Him. And so, she wept in the garden until the real gardener came back to her (the Seed planted but now sprouted as the first fruits of eternity). When the Lord called her by name she recognized Him; she knew that her Jesus was alive. It was truly her Easter moment!

And while this faithful saint now wished to grab and hold on to the Christ, as her faith had been doing ever since the day He gave that faith to her, Jesus now, fully glorified, still had several other appearances to make, other disciples to greet (Peter, and the two who would later traverse the hills down to Emmaus). When He told her not to touch Him, the Greek more literally reads, “don’t keep pulling at me for the moment.” There would be time for Mary and all the others to devote all their ministries and lives to holding and grasping the Ascended Savior; after His visible Ascension.

You too dear ones have known Jesus, and have recognized His presence in Word and Supper since the day He called you by name; the day of your washing into + His bloody side.

Our little sister Saint Mary of Magdala then did what you do: she ran and told others of the reason for the joy in her soul: “He is Risen: He is Risen Indeed, Hallelujah.” It is now Easter forever!

You, along with the entire Church Catholic, do well to remember this fellow Saint this morning, for in remembering the woman from Magdala, the Magdalene, you receive through her Gospel as recorded in Saint John’s Gospel: Jesus the Word. The Magdalene points to the Nazarene.

Now come and feast at the Lord’s Table with Mary and all the other gathered Saints who have gone before you into the Church Triumphant. This is a good day to be with your heavenly family; a good day to receive the gifts of Calvary in His Body and Blood.

In the Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost