Who was Mary Magdalene?

A prostitute…….probably not.

A sinner……..probably (we all are).

A wealthy patron……maybe.

The wife of Jesus……probably not.

A real historical figure…….probably.

A woman once possessed by demons…..probably.

An important companion of Jesus…..definitely.

The first person to encounter the risen Jesus…..definitely.

Mary doesn’t get a lot of ink, but she gets more ink in the gospels than many of the apostles. When the apostles ran and hid……even Peter…….she stayed close to Jesus. After his death, she went to the tomb with the intention of caring for his corpse. The apostles were sleeping in.

So what is the main thing that we need to know about Mary?

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene…….first……before Peter……before Paul……before the apostles…….before his family. This was his choice. He chose to appear…….he chose to appear to Mary. This was arguably the most important event in human history……..and he shared it with Mary.

He shared it with Mary because she was very important to him…….because she was the most loyal of his followers……..because he could trust her to handle the knowledge properly.

I think that Mary Magdalene…….and Mary Jesus’s mother are extraordinarily important characters in the New Testament. The fact that they get little coverage may be related to the position of women in society at that time.

But, they were important……to Jesus……and that is all that counts.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

John 20:11-18, ESV

We see it again and again in the Bible…….the family tree of Jesus. It is typically recited as a lineage…..from Adam through David to Joseph. Jesus’s maternal lineage……through Mary……gets very little coverage.

And yet the simple biology of the matter is this:

Jesus was the son of Mary.
Jesus was the son of God.
Joseph……….was an innocent bystander.

And yet, Joseph’s lineage is clearly important.

It is important……..because it is a fulfillment of prophesy.

It is important from a legal perspective.

It is important……..because fathers matter.

But

Throughout the Bible, when Jesus talks about his father…….he talks about God. He never mentions Joseph…….not once. Joseph is never quoted……not once. After the annunciation and the birth of Jesus Joseph gets 2 direct mentions. Once when he leaves Jerusalem……and forgets Jesus. Once when he flees to Egypt to escape Herod. Overall, the silence of Joseph and about Joseph…….is deafening.

This must be important…..but what does it mean?

God shaped and developed the spiritual life of Jesus. God, Jesus, and the holy spirit are distinct….but inseparable. On the other hand, Joseph tended to the physical needs of Jesus……food, shelter, clothing, and protection…….at least until he was an adult.

The only conclusion that I can draw from the profoundly limited coverage of Joseph in the Bible is that, compared to the spiritual development of Jesus, his physical development…….beyond his basic survival……was inconsequential.

So……..Don’t lose sleep over your physical situation during your short time in this broken temporal world. Your time here will be over in a flash. Focus on developing your spiritual situation……….because you have a soul that is eternal. Your spiritual self is going to last forever…….for better……or for worse.

So…

The lesson of Joseph?

Your spiritual situation is critical.
Your physical situation is inconsequential.

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Jesus, Matthew 5:29, ESV

if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Jesus, Matthew 6:30-34, ESV

This week’s post is primarily directed at Christians. If you are an atheist or a committed secular humanist, you may find it helpful……..in understanding what is going on in our heads……in understanding what drives us……in making sense of what looks like foolishness.

Human beings do bad things…….little bad things……horrible bad things. Some of us do them occasionally…….some of us do them constantly. But, we all do them. Some of them we can rationalize…….justify. Some of them we do because we just enjoy them.

My homework assignment for this week will be hard, but potentially very rewarding. I want you to meditate on something that you have done……something that was wrong. You could choose something small……the parking meter that you didn’t feed. But, if you take the easy way out, you will gain very little. Rather, I want you to meditate on the big screw-up…….the worst thing that you have ever done. Worst, not because of the consequences…….worst because of the wrongness of it. This will probably be something that you have been dragging around for years….possibly decades. It may be something that you have never shared……something that nobody else even knows about.

Next, I want you to visualize your death. You float above your body. You move toward a bright light. You see old friends and relatives. And then you meet Jesus. And he walks up, gives you a hug, calls you by name, and says “welcome home”. And his welcome is absolutely sincere and completely defined by love. Because he either doesn’t know about your big screw-up…….or he doesn’t care. Because your big screw-up and all of your other screw-ups have been forgiven……forgotten……erased.

What’s the point?

The point is that the bigger your screw-up, the more precious the forgiveness of Jesus is. And that is the second part of your assignment. I want you to meditate on the worth of that forgiveness.

I once read an essay by a pastor. As young man, he got his girlfriend pregnant and pressured her into an abortion that she didn’t want. Decades later, he shared this with his congregation…….and was shunned. This severely damaged his ministry and may have cost him his job. He concluded, “Jesus has forgiven me……why can’t they”.

We are all dragging around past sins. We don’t talk about them because we are embarrassed. We don’t talk about them because others won’t forgive us. Even worse, we don’t let go of them because we can’t forgive ourselves. Everybody thinks that we believe we are pure…..better than everyone else…….but we know.

And yet, Jesus, the creator of the universe, has forgiven us.

When we drag around past screw-ups, we devalue what Jesus did for us on the cross. In a way, what we are saying…….is that we don’t trust in his forgiveness……..or we don’t believe in it.

This doesn’t hurt Jesus……he loves us unconditionally. But it is devastating to us.

So the final part of this week’s assignment?

Forgive yourself……and prepare for that hug……from a guy who loves you absolutely and unconditionally………..from a guy who either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about your big screw-up. Because what he really cares about is the relationship that you and he share.

That relationship is the most important thing in your life. And failure to embrace Jesus’s forgiveness interferes with your ability to embrace Jesus.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

David, Psalm 103:11-12, ESV

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Paul. Ephesians 1:7, ESV

“What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me.”

Marghanita Laski, an atheist, reflecting on forgiveness

I recently saw a photo taken by the Hubbel space telescope. It was aimed at the Andromeda galaxy, the closest galaxy to earth. The number of stars in the image was shocking. So, I looked it up.

How many stars are up there?

200 billion trillion.

Of these, on a typical urban night, about 2,000 are visible. They are separated by large areas of black. But, the black isn’t empty space……. the rest of the stars are there……we just can’t see them with our eyes……or with our best multibillion dollar telescopes…….because they are too far away. In fact, if we could see every star, the night sky would be a uniform white with a few brighter spots due to the closer stars. Even with our best tools, we cannot see the entire universe. Furthermore, the light from the furthest stars has been travelling for a long time to get to us. Earendale, the furthest star found by the Hubble telescope is 28 billion light years away. Scientists estimate that it was 13 billion years old when it emitted the light we are seeing. It is a very large star which would typically have a lifespan of a few billion years. In other words, the star Earendale…….documented and measured by one of our most sophisticated telescopes……is likely already dead and gone.

What’s the point?

The point is that we cannot see everything that is real. The fact that we cannot see or measure, or analyse something does not mean that it is not real. Even worse, some of the things that we can see, like Earendale, are no longer real. The fact that we can see, measure, and analyze something does not mean that it is real.

The simple reality is that science cannot see or measure or analyse the entire universe. We cannot see, measure, or analyse the big bang and what followed it. We can detect radiation that was emitted about a half million years after the “big bang” but we are completely blind for the first 400,000 years and almost completely blind for billions of years after that. We fill in that blind spot……millions to billions of years……with assumptions, extrapolations, and theories. And even these assumptions change about once every ten years. The fact that this year’s theory as to how the universe began is different from last year’s theory means that last year’s theory was wrong. And next year’s new improved theory will mean that this year’s theory is wrong.

The greatest of the assumptions behind these theories are:

There is no creative intelligence behind it all.

Even if there is a creator, he is bound by the same rules of nature that we are bound by.

If we cannot measure it…….it isn’t real.

If we can measure it…….it must be real.

And that doesn’t even begin to deal with the mass and energy that are missing. The 90% of the universe……the so called “dark matter and dark energy”……. that science simply cannot find. Dark energy and dark mass are real…..but we cannot detect them.

This is the house of cards that secular humanism builds on when it tells us that there is no creator.

This is the house of cards that you are wagering your future on……..when you believe the scientist when he tells you that he has it all figured out…….when he tells you that there is no creative intelligence, no God, behind it all.

we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Paul, 2 Corinthians 4:18, ESV

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Paul, Colossians 1:15-16, ESV

Sex….is for one husband and one wife.

There it is.

Arguably the most unpopular teaching of Christianity.

It is so unpopular that the vast majority of non-Christians reject it. Our civil laws clearly repudiate it. Our society does not accept it. Furthermore, a significant minority of Christians reject it.

Today, I will focus on same sex relationships. Extramarital sex between a man and a woman is a topic for another day. So what are the arguments for and against extramarital, same sex, intercourse.

For same sex intercourse:

The primary teaching of the Bible and of Christianity is love…….Love God…..Love man. There is no “but”. There is no “except”. We are to love everyone….from God at one end to our “enemy” at the other. To teach that it is wrong for a man to love another man is to reject the very heart of Christianity.

Homosexuality is inate….common….normal. I have no doubt that many of us are born with a natural, inate physical attraction to others of the same sex.

Same sex marriage is common and legal. This takes same sex intercourse out of the category of adultery.

Against:

Every reference to same sex intercourse in the Bible is strongly critical. The Bible uses descriptors like: abomination, unrighteous, shameless, unnatural, dishonorable, and immoral. These descriptions come from the old testament and from Paul in the new testament. Same sex intercourse is never once described in a positive light. This is repeated over and over. In the Bible, things are repeated……because they are important.

But, what does Jesus say? He never specifically addessses the issue of homosexual intercourse. When he gets close to the issue of extramarital heterosexual intercourse, he defines it as sin but is more concerned with repentance and reconciliation. Jesus clearly and unmistakably defines marriage as a rite involving God, one man, and one woman.

Conclusions

First, marriage is a rite of the church…….not a rite of civil government. Marriage was created by God before man created civil government. It is a contract between a man, a woman, and God. Nowhere does the bible define marriage as a union of same sex partners. Same sex marriage is a creation of our culture….of our laws. It is not a creation of God. It is legal……but, the fact that it is legal……. does not make it right. History is replete with laws codifying activities that we all would agree were and are wrong. Just look at Nazi Germany. Just look at “partial birth abortion”.

Second, regarding commonality. There are many common desires, innate predispositions, that are wrong. For a list, just read the ten commandments. The fact that a desire is common, even inherited, does not mean that acting on it is right.

Third, there is a distinction between love and sexual intercourse. We are to love everyone without exception. Sexual intercourse, on the other hand, is strictly limited to one man and one woman. Sexual intercourse outside of traditional marriage falls into the category of entertainment……..recreational sex.

What it comes down to is this:

The Bible and same sex intercourse cannot be reconciled. You must either reject same sex intercourse……or reject the Bible. If you reject the Bible, you are saying either that God, paradise, and hell do not exist……..or that you are smarter than God……. that what you want is more important than what God wants.

And that is a good working definition of hubris.

You must either trust your intellect, your desires, and your appetites……..or trust your creator.

Just because you want something……..does not make it right.

‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will live with his wife. The two will become one.’ So they are no longer two but one. Let no man divide what God has put together.”

Jesus discussing marriage and divorce
Mattew 19: 5-6, ESV

And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Jesus instructing a woman guilty of extramarital sex.
John 8:11, ESV