Mary Magdalene grew up in Bethany. Evidently, all went as well as expected for her, until one day, something terrible happened. The Bible provides very little detail. So we do not know if it was rape or seduction, but we do know that someone violated her. That "someone" was her uncle Simon, the Pharisee.[1]
As a result of this terrible experience, Mary was devastated. She lost all sense of self-respect and with it, all hope of ever amounting to anything. It appears that she may have run away from her home town and wound up in Magdala--a town several miles away. Thus, she became known as Mary Magdalene. Here, the Bible indicates that she became possessed of seven devils (Luke 8:2).
Seven is the number for completion,[2] and we gather from the description that Mary was a "basket case." She was absolutely helpless and hopeless, until she happened to meet Jesus.
The Bible record concerning Mary Magdalene is sparse, and we are not given a lot of help putting the story together, but we do know that Jesus prayed for Mary. Now, one might be inclined to believe that Jesus prayed for her only once. We assume that was it. We are inclined to believe that His prayer was so powerful, so effective, so able to reach the ear of God the Father, that Mary was completely cured in a moment, but not all agree with this assessment. The servant of the Lord gives us a different perspective.
Mary had been looked upon as a great sinner, but Christ knew the circumstances that had shaped her life. He might have extinguished every spark of hope in her soul, but He did not. It was He who had lifted her from despair and ruin. Seven times she had heard His rebuke of the demons that controlled her heart and mind. She had heard His strong cries to the Father in her behalf. She knew how offensive is sin to His unsullied purity, and in His strength she had overcome.[3]
Seven times, Jesus rebuked the demons that had controlled Mary's life. Seven times, she heard His prayers to the Father, and it made a difference, because Jesus did not pray the way we are accustomed to praying. The Bible says that He prayed with "strong crying and tears" (Hebrews 5:7).
Can you imagine the scenario? Mary runs away and becomes, in the euphemistic language of the Jews, a "sinner"--the common reference to a prostitute. However, she is no ordinary case, as bad as that would be. She becomes demon possessed. In other words, she loses control of her faculties. A demon controls and drives her to extraordinary depths of degradation. But one day, by and by, Jesus happens to come her way, and Jesus prays for Mary.
The demon is cast out, and Mary feels a sense of relief. It would appear that perhaps she is whole again. Hope revives in her young heart like the budding of flowers in the springtime, but by and by, she discovers that her problem is not entirely a thing of the past. Soon, Mary falls again. And with that fall, another demon takes up residence in her soul. And with that fall, she is forced to the realization that she is still a "sinner" in need of God's grace. It must have been devastating. Almost like the feelings of failure and despair which came over her when that awful event had first taken place so long ago. No fall hurts quite so much as the fall which occurs after one thinks he or she has been converted.
However, it happens again. Jesus comes her way, and He prays for Mary again. Perhaps, with strong crying and tears, she again hears His vehement cries to the Father on her behalf. Again, He rebukes the demon that possesses her. And again, a demon is cast out. Again, Mary feels a sense of peace. Again, she recovers a measure of hope. Yet, once again, she falls. Perhaps she returned to her old surroundings--to old and familiar company and to old familiar thoughts. We can only imagine the details. Another demon takes up residence in her soul.
So once again, Jesus finds her, and He prays, and once again, she senses a measure of healing. We really do not know. The Scriptures are silent on the exact details. Perhaps it was like the prayers of Elijah on Mount Carmel, when his servant reported back to him seven times, "There is nothing" (1 Kings 18:43). Or perhaps it occurred like the experience of Naaman dipping in the dirty waters of the Jordan seven times before the miracle took place. We do not know if Jesus prayed for Mary seven times in one day, or if it was over a period of weeks or months, as she fell and recovered and fell again, but we do know that Jesus cast out seven demons, evidently one by one, before Mary was finally fully and permanently restored.
When that struggle with the demons of her past was finally over, Mary was so happy. Her long, dark, and desperate nightmare was finally over. She was completely healed, and she knew it, and she felt that she must somehow say, "Thank You," to Jesus. The question was--how? What could she do for the Master? She had no reputation, so she could not speak on His behalf. She had no position in society, no power, no influence, no ability to do anything for His cause--but she has heard Him speak of His death. All of the disciples had, but Mary also heard it, and the difference was that Mary believed. So she goes to the apothecary to get some special ointment to anoint His body before the burial.
Can you hear Mary negotiating with the shop-keeper?
"Is this the best that you have?"
"Well, no. I have this bottle. It's a little more expensive, but worth it."
"I'll take it," said Mary. "Now, is this the very best ... that you have?"
"Well ... ," says the merchant. "I do have one more that's even better. It's the best that money can buy--very expensive!"
"That's what I need!" exclaims Mary.
"Oh no," replies the shop-keeper. "You don't want this one. It will cost you three hundred pence!" (That was the working wage of a man for an entire year.)
"That's it. I'll take it!" says Mary. And with that, she paid the price and departed for home.
By and by, she has a change of heart. "If I anoint His dead body, He will never know how grateful I am," thought Mary. "He will never know how much I appreciate His persistence and determination to deliver me from a living hell. I know what I'll do," thought Mary. "I will anoint Him before His death at a party or a feast. Then perhaps He will understand at least a little of how much I really do appreciate what He has done for me."
Meanwhile, Uncle Simon is having a problem. Can you imagine him waking in the middle of the night in a cold sweat? He has ruined a young lady's life. By day, he is all smiles, as he jokes with his fellow Pharisees, but he is harboring a terrible secret that is slowly tearing him apart. Eventually, as is often the case, the stress imposed by his terrible guilt gets the better of him, and Simon becomes very ill. He has leprosy, and the worst part is that he feels that he is bearing the irrevocable curse of God. He believes it is very likely that his sin is unpardonable.
One day, however, it was also his good fortune to meet Jesus, and Jesus loved him just as He has loved every other sinner that He has ever met. Realizing his great need of forgiveness, Jesus extracts no promise from Simon. He demands no preconditions, no payment, and no contract. He just heals him and sends him home, as He has done with so many other hopeless lepers who have shared his plight. This was His tangible way of allowing Simon to sense the forgiveness of God.
So it was that evidently the day came when Simon decided that he too must say "Thank You" to Jesus. The Bible tells us that there was a feast at Simon's house. Jesus and His disciples were invited. Christ was the guest of honor, and evidently, somehow, Mary heard about it. Surely, she was not on the guest list, but Mary "crashed" the party. "This is fantastic," thought Mary. "Uncle Simon is having a feast in His honor. This is the perfect time to anoint Him with the precious ointment that I have purchased. Then He will have some idea of how much I really do appreciate His kindness."
And so it was that Mary found herself kneeling before the feet of Jesus. Having anointed His head with "precious ointment," she notices His unwashed feet. Simon has not performed the normal attentions which were customarily paid to any guest, much less a guest of honor. Looking upon Jesus' unwashed feet, suddenly a fountain of tears bursts open, and Mary washed His feet with tears, showering them with her kisses. She had not planned for things to turn out quite this way. No mere mortal could have ever planned such a beautiful deed. She has no towel with which to dry His feet. So she lets down her long flowing hair and dries the Master's feet with the locks of her head.
This was without doubt the most beautiful deed ever performed by a fallen member of the human family. Mary knew that she had been forgiven and healed, and she was eternally grateful. That much was evident, but there were some who would deny this truth. They seem to believe, "Once a sinner always a sinner." They continued to look down upon Mary. Some were present who would even dare to criticize this most beautiful expression of gratitude. Luke describes what happened.
Jesus' Parable of Forgiveness
And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, "This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner." And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." So he said, "Teacher, say it." "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, Therefore, which of them will love him more?" Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." And He said to him, "You have rightly judged." Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little" (Luke 7:37-47, NKJV).
Please do not miss the powerful theology packed into Jesus' words to Simon. He does not imply that the woman is forgiven because she loves. She loves because she is forgiven. Her love is the grateful response of a heart that appreciates that she has already been forgiven. The intensity of that love is proportional to the magnitude of the forgiveness that her heart has perceived. In other words, as long as we think that we have only been forgiven little, we are doomed forever to love but little. "We love Him because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19), and "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). He died in order to forgive our sins. Love and forgiveness are inextricably linked together in the gospel.[4]
A Story of Love and Forgiveness
The Bible is a love story. It begins with the marriage of our first parents, and when the story of redemption is finally complete, it will end with the "marriage supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9).
Interestingly, the Spirit of Prophecy seems to capture this same dynamic. The story is told in the five volumes of the Conflict of the Ages series. Have you ever noticed how the series opens and ends? The first three words of the first volume, Patriarchs and Prophets, read, "God is love." Some 3,600 pages follow before the end of the series, and the last three words of the last chapter of the last volume read, "God is love."
The conflict of the ages is the story of God's love. It begins with God's love expressed in the creation of a home for mankind. It continues with the devastation of that home by the ravages of sin--a manifestation of man's failure to love God in return. It will finally conclude with the restoration of that home after the restoration of the love relationship between God and His special creation, mankind.
So in essence, God's side of the story could be told in the words, "I loved you. I lost you, and I'm going to move heaven and earth to get you back."
Jesus alluded to this aspect of the intended relation between God and mankind, when He said, "Therefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little" (Luke 7:47, NKJV). God's love and forgiveness are the essence of the gospel. One cannot love a sinner without exercising forgiveness.
In recording this parable of forgiveness, the Bible writer used a specific word for "forgiveness." We love God because of His unilateral, unconditional forgiveness, which is expressed by the term charizomai. In this parable concerning two debtors we see the intended effect of God's forgiveness, "To whom little is forgiven the same loves but little." When we understand and appreciate the charizomai of God, our lives will be transformed by His aphiemi.
Notes: