The social dimension of Mary -Magdalene-.
At some point with some my colleagues we had a “team building” time, one of those times for us that work from home (THANK YOU LORD) destined to have chitchats, talk about whatever, anything to share, hanging out only. So we somehow ended up talking about movies and somebody mentioned “inter worlds” that is a movie of somebody that was abducted to Mars, here he meets a princess, they fall in love so much but a group of “3 deities” don’t like that idea so they send him back to earth; our hero, desperate to go back again what he had in mars with no tools to travel (not even now and the movie is played in Victorian ages), tricks the 3 deities to steal the device that allowed him travel back to mars (the same devices that was used to abduct him to mars initially).
So, it kept me thinking, besides the classic stuff that we normally see when watching a movie like, the colors, tech used, animations, costume, actors, etc., how powerful a seed in our minds or anywhere else where we save happiness or the state that it gives us in our bodies to drive us do stuff that nothing else can; so I went from this movie to imagining what happens when a person looses a loved one and all that process in their life to go back again to a different state of happiness and continue in life with that, perhaps “fix it by fixating on a rewind” is the path most of us, humans, decide to go. Today I wanted to address this from the Bible perspective, but not as some of you might have already thought, this is not from the theological side, like N.T Wright at some point mentioned, perhaps we can focus today on the Anthropo-theology (or would it be Theo-Anthropology? Your call).
So, the story of Mary “called Magdalene”. Yes, that woman!
By the Gospel in Luke 8 we know that this lady was the one from whom Jesus drove out seven demons. Some people for no reason associate her with the adulterous woman that was released from her persecutors that threatened to stone her, not sure if valid but it also fits the final argument of this post.
We take the word of Luke that she was possessed with demons, we don’t know since when, but we DO KNOW that IF you are being “possessed” by someone/something else, then there is no such thing as you yourself whatsoever, it’s simply OTHER(s) but you, therefore this is clearly the definition of AN OBJECT, it’s simply not you in control of anything but the OTHER(s) always (that resembles so much to the idea of government controlling every single aspect of our lives, but that is topic for another post perhaps later on 😉).
Let us do some extrapolation a little bit here, imagine not you 😊 but you know somebody that is being possessed by something/someone else; this doesn’t even have to be with demons, imagine a person that is being forced to do something, like a woman being forced to sell her body for money and when I say “forced” I mean, NOT because she needs to have the money but because there is “an owner” of her that is forcing her to do that, clearly that person is no longer existing in the actual meaning of existence, that person is just being a living object, a physical object that anyone can “use” by paying some price for it, yes in an profound usage of the word that person internally can go from being referred to as “she/her” to “it” which is the total loss of dignity as a person (In an even more profound thought, we might want to ask ourselves, what does possess me? What is driving me do what I do? Perhaps the answer is not exactly: I, myself…).
That is what Mary felt, I believe; from her own perspective and others too, let’s see:
- Her own perspective: what if I say “no”?… I HAVE TO SAY YES or worse I’D BETTER SAY NOTHING, DO NOTHING… I am simply not allowed to.
- Others’ perspective: probably for the synagogue leaders she was the “object of the example”, classic phrases like “that is what all of you SHOULD NOT do”, for the good or the bad the was the object of warnings or threats to the synagogue attendants on what they should avoid doing otherwise the punish from God/synagogue shall come.
- Others’ perspective (2): imagine the society itself; who wants to be nearby a demon possessed? Who? Any one hand up? Of course, clearly it generates rejection not necessarily because of the “demons” word (not nowadays, probably more in the past times as psychology was not present) but because if we know a person that is not in control -by any of the means- will generate chaos based on their unpredictability of the behavior as “conscious person” thus very, very, few people will want to be around.
Alright, up to here I think I have given enough arguments that she was feeling HORRIBLE (1 one is needed only) when Jesus ‘released’ her from the possessors, thus giving her (perhaps back) what drive us internally: FREEDOM and DIGNITY, not being an objects anymore, but a person; not a no-voice-entity but a human being in all its essence; she clearly went from 0 to 100% person, it was a poor state of happiness to a full state of happiness (not even considering the spiritual stuff here) what can defeat that? Most of the stuff we do, if not everything, it’s related to the state of happiness that is makes is feel.
Keeping with the story, then she keeps walking with Jesus, getting every day more and more familiar, we don’t know exactly how long, but we do know she was following Jesus in every stuff he did until one day she suddenly gets the memo that Jesus was arrested, for 1 week she is in the state of threat knowing that that person who gave her the full sense of Person is having cruel treatment with no ability to defend him or give him something back from all that that he gave her to make her feel complete; even worse, she realizes that at the end of the week he has been killed; picture yourself in that scenario, imagine you have a person you love the most because of so much that person gave to you (no, I’m not talking about objects here, not the person that bought you all your presents you wanted to have), all that greatness you felt while being with that person and suddenly you are in the day after that person has died; when a person says “a part of me is gone” makes total sense as you know that happiness that person made you feel is gone (exactly, that is why I said, not talking about object, that, objects, EVERYONE can give, ANYONE) and you know that that state of completeness is not going back ever again; while remembering that person, you realize that at some point that person said something about coming back to life at the 3rd day…
Right, that is exactly what Mary remembered. Now, of course it makes total sense that she was the FIRST eye witness/sighter of the resurrection of Jesus, she was willing to wake up early in the morning, perhaps did not even sleep faithfully waiting for dawn break to see that person again and feel once again that happiness, completeness, state of fullness. She was longing for that moment, perhaps after the death of Jesus she felt like she was nothing, no value, no happiness, no dignity, no direction, no nothing; me in her shoes I’d feel the same AND if at some point I recall that I had a small chance to feel that again, even if it goes against all the odds and null probability, of course I will want to give it a try as a desperate last option that I have but if you add to it the fact that she had seen Jesus freeing her from that possessed behavior, of course THE HOPE of having it back again will make her believe that IT IS POSSIBLE, driving her to be the very first person to eyewitness the event.
What happens then is a mystery, the form once Jesus is resurrected and the event of Magdalene not knowing him right away, but that is Theology and this post is about social stuff so I’ll skip this part for another post.
So once Jesus is gone, the apostles are somehow in a way like Mary, from the social part I don’t consider they were feeling the same (perhaps this would explain why they are not the first eyewitness to Jesus’ resurrection) mainly because they had a life before Jesus, they were fishers, farmers, tax collectors, business men, fighters, etc., they had something to go back to, clearly not Mary’s case, how would she want to go back to demons state; my in her shows, hell no, of course no; so they are in a predicament; “I am feeling now incomplete that my Master is gone”; Jesus as social entity knew this, he knew that it would be very easy for one/all of them to take a route to “kill the pain” of feeling alone without their Master with them anymore, and this is part of the greatness of a mind like Jesus’ so he sets them a “psychological trap”, “moral barrier” or “powerful trick” whatever you want to call it, fine with me; “Go into the world and preach the Gospel” / “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” = “I know what you guys will be feeling like after I am gone but please DO NOT take the short way to releasing that pain”; and Jesus knew that a consolation word is not as powerful as a commandment, so he clearly sets the order of power for words: 1. Commandment (2. Present) 2. Consolation.
Jesus understands fully properly the human nature, instead of letting them wander around, Jesus gives them a mission, now their lives are not just “a person waiting for when will be gone” but instead there is a mission before that end happens, also here there is another collection we can make, Jesus is also implying “don’t take your own life” you are really sad, that is fine, but instead of the short way, way until your creator (whether a Deity, universe, biology, nature) takes back the life that has been given unto you. Yes, we can have a large discussion of the technical definition of suicide here (action / inaction) but clearly the message here is: you no longer think about taking the “shortcut” to the end IF you have a mission”; I am totally sure at this point if you, a reader, are a father/mother to a family, this resembles much almost most of what you feel when you think about death. (you can deny all you want, but intrinsically this happens way more often than you realize); some writers like Mathew also collects the fact that a present is given to smooth the path ahead, like the fact that Jesus tells his disciples that authority was algo given to them to perform the mission and of course the consolation word that He -Jesus- would be with them every day until the end of the times.
So now, Mary and the disciples have a mix of emotions: on one side they long to see their Master again as soon as possible, but on the other hand their Master gave them a mission to accomplish while that end comes; here the how powerful a word can be; the strong desire to have that state of happiness back again (see / be with the Master again) AND the responsibility to fulfill the commandment. It’s not an easy but effective way to reconcile these two seemingly opposite positions: Dying for the Gospel…
The actual response of the disciples (and Mary perhaps, we don’t know, as there is not many scriptures about her) to this predicament is a social behavior more than spiritual, or perhaps, yes?
Thank you for reading me.
Entremés: from a believer’s perspective, this tells me that every single believer has a different reason WHY they believe in a Deity, AND, the fact that my reason is not the same as yours doesn’t mean mine is right and yours is wrong OR the other way around.