Mary Magdalene
Delivered, devoted, and the first human voice to announce the resurrection of Jesus Christ
Who She Was
Mary Magdalene is one of the most misrepresented figures in Christian history. Centuries of tradition conflated her with the unnamed “sinful woman” of Luke 7 and with Mary of Bethany — confusions not supported by the text and formally addressed by the Catholic Church in the twentieth century. What scripture actually says about her is both simpler and more significant than the legends.
She was from Magdala, a prosperous fishing town on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. Luke introduces her in a single verse that says everything necessary: she was one of several women who traveled with Jesus and the twelve, supporting the ministry out of their own means. And from her, Jesus had cast out seven demons.
Seven Demons
What those seven demons represented in terms of her experience is not described. What is described is what happened after they were gone: she followed Jesus to Jerusalem, she was present at the crucifixion, she was there at the burial, and she came back at dawn on Sunday morning.
The women who funded Jesus’ ministry and traveled with the group are an often-overlooked feature of the gospels. They were not peripheral. They were present at the moments when the twelve were not. When the apostles fled at the arrest, the women stayed near the cross. When no one else could bear to watch, they watched. Devotion of this kind comes from deliverance of that kind.
Mary Magdalene is named first in almost every list of the women disciples. Whatever was cast out of her, its absence left room for a faithfulness that outlasted everyone else’s.
At the Cross
All four gospels place Mary Magdalene at or near the cross during the crucifixion. John’s account places her among the women standing near — close enough to hear Christ speak, close enough to witness the hour of death. Mark says she watched the burial and noted where the tomb was laid.
There is no record of what she thought or felt during those hours. There is only the record of where she was. She did not run. She stayed. And before the Sabbath ended, she had already prepared spices to anoint his body. She was going back to the tomb as soon as the law allowed.
The First Witness
The account in John 20 is one of the most intimate scenes in all of scripture. Mary came to the tomb while it was still dark. The stone had been rolled away. She ran to tell Peter and John; they came, confirmed the tomb was empty, and left. Mary stayed.
She stood outside the tomb weeping. She stooped to look in and saw two angels in white. They asked why she was weeping. She said they had taken away her Lord and she did not know where they had laid him. She turned around and saw a man she did not recognize. He asked the same question: why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?
She assumed he was the gardener. She said: sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him. Then he said her name.
Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
One word recognized him. She had heard him say her name before — possibly in the moment of deliverance, possibly a hundred times across the months of ministry. When he said it on Easter morning, she knew. She turned and said teacher. In that exchange, the resurrection was first announced — not to an apostle, not to a ruler, not in a temple. To a woman standing alone outside an empty tomb, weeping.
Apostle to the Apostles
Jesus sent her to tell the disciples. The early church gave her the title apostola apostolorum — apostle to the apostles. The people who would spend the rest of their lives testifying that Jesus rose from the dead first heard it from her.
In a first-century Jewish legal context, a woman’s testimony was not accepted in court. This is one of the quiet evidences that the resurrection accounts were not invented: no one fabricating a resurrection story in that culture would choose a woman as the first witness. The fact that all four gospels independently place women — and Mary Magdalene specifically — as the first to encounter the risen Christ is more consistent with history than with fabrication.
What She Teaches
Mary Magdalene teaches what happens when deliverance is taken seriously. She had been set free from something that had held her completely. She never forgot it. Everything that followed — the financial support, the journey to Jerusalem, the vigil at the cross, the return to the tomb before sunrise — flows from that one moment of liberation.
She also teaches something about grief and presence. She did not leave when the disciples left. She stayed at the tomb weeping — which is exactly what led to the encounter. She was in the right place because she was too committed to leave even when there was nothing left to do. The risen Christ appeared to the person who was still there.
No one who has been delivered from something dark, and then heard their name spoken by the one who delivered them, ever forgets it. That is the whole arc of Mary Magdalene’s story — and the whole arc of the gospel.