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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

What Can We Learn From Mary Magdalene?

Many followers of Christ surrendered all.

Today we're going to examine the life of 1 of those followers.

My message today is entitled, What Can We Learn from Mary Magdalene?

Father in heaven, we thank you that you've brought us here today to a place where modern day followers of Christ gather together.

And Lord, we know that we're no different than those followers of old.

Human beings that live in a fallen world.

And we're thankful that the stories found in the Bible speak to us, relate to us, because we are all human.

And today, Lord, we pray that as we examine the story of 1 of the most well-known characters in Scripture that you would draw near and speak to us, Lord.

There's a Palestinian town located on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives called Al-Asariya, which means the place of Lazarus.

In the time of Christ, it was called Bethany, a small village situated near the well-known and well-traveled road to Jericho.

The name Bethany is translated by some to mean a house of figs because it was a place where you would find several fig trees and palms in the area.

Some scholars think that Bethany was more like a modern subdivision or a neighborhood rather than an entire village or town.

And it was here in Bethany that we find 3 siblings.

3 siblings live here, They live together.

Their names were Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.

Lazarus, he was the older brother and breadwinner of the home.

He likely walked less than 2 miles to the nearest, largest neighboring city of Jerusalem.

After all, he lived among fig trees and so he probably traveled to Jerusalem often.

Martha, oh, Martha, she was known as a good cook.

Oh, she was good in the kitchen, and she was a good hostess.

There's no doubt that Martha had the gift of hospitality, and everyone knew that.

You know, and she often opened her home, like many today that have that same gift.

She opened up her home and welcomed large groups of people.

She loved food preparation and she loved cooking and serving.

You know, she was the type of person that couldn't sit still.

Somebody here today can relate to Martha.

She had to be busy serving others and giving of herself to others.

Mary was the youngest of the 3 and most likely she was more social than the other sister.

She enjoyed interacting with guests and preferred to be mingling and interacting with the guests in the living room than being busy in the kitchen, working in the kitchen.

And Mary, oh, Mary, she felt at home with the large crowd.

And I could see Mary walking down the streets of Bethany.

Mary, just walking down the streets, maybe, you know, with a little skip in her walk and smiling at people, making eye contact with people and greeting them, greeting everyone around her.

And then there was also another individual.

He was a well-known individual in the town of, in the small village of Bethany.

He was well-known because he was a local Pharisee.

So he was part of the elite group of religious leaders, and Pharisees were generally respected by the masses.

And he loved being greeted in the marketplace while reciting long prayers and, you know, being seen by all on the main street of Bethany, with his hands extended towards heaven, there was Simon.

And maybe it was during 1 of those prayers in the public square that Simon noticed Mary.

She often came down to that Main Street where Simon loved to be seen, smiling.

There was Mary greeting, making eye contact with men and women alike.

What she didn't realize was his prolonged stare.

It soon became evident that Simon, the Pharisee, was going out of his way to interact with such a captivating young woman.

You know, there's a well-known Chinese proverb that says this, watch your thoughts, they become your words.

Watch your words, they become your actions.

In this case, impure thoughts led to immoral actions that resulted in a lack of self-control.

And now Simon the Pharisee wanted nothing to do with Mary.

She hated herself And it soon became evident that something had happened to Mary.

And now everyone began to look at her with suspicion.

Mothers advised their daughters, no, no, no, no, don't spend time with Mary.

And if you've heard of the words village gossip, it became rampant in Bethany.

The whispers continued and continued to spread until it got so bad that Mary had no choice but to leave.

And so she packed her belongings and probably secretly ran away to the neighboring city of Jerusalem.

We can speculate because Jerusalem was a large city.

It's easy to get lost in the crowd when you don't want to be recognized, when your reputation has taken a twist and it's not good.

And you don't want to be quickly recognized in a small setting.

But human nature hasn't changed since day 1, since the fall, millenniums later, not much has changed.

Gossip spreads quickly, Especially when it involves a scandal with the Pharisee.

So Mary soon realized that she had to go to a place where nobody would recognize her.

So she traveled north approximately 76 miles to the region of Galilee.

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What Can We Learn From Mary Magdalene?

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