Women of the Bible Video Series: Mary Magdalene

Rachel Wojo:                   00:00                   Hey there, Rachel Wojo here. Thank you so much for being a part of our women of the Bible video series and today my dear friend Jennifer Jackson is going to be teaching on Mary Magdalene. I know you’re gonna love it.

JenniferJackson:             00:15                   Mary Magdalene. Wow. That’s saying a lot. She could have her entire book just about true life. She’s in all four of the historic gospels. She made such an impression on so many people that she’s. She’s listed everywhere, so she’s a really fun character to study and I like her because she’s just like us. She, she’s so much like me so much like all of us and I just think she’s very relatable and she has a town in Israel named after her. I just wanted to let you know, it’s so cute. There’s a little white church. It’s right on the Sea of Galilee. She’s famous in Israel to this day.

JenniferJackson:             00:52                   It’s called Magdalena cute little town where she lived and they’ve, they’ve put memorials in churches. It’s beautiful. Very beautiful, quiet place. So that’s just a fun fact. One to Redo a few verses about Mary Magdalene. First is Luke [inaudible]. It says in some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases, Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out, seven demons and diseases. So you know, just starting there, you think about what were these demons like? Was she part of the sex trade? How? I mean, how many people had she slept with w, what did she have? Sexual Diseases? What happened to her? Was that voluntary or involuntary? Does that really matter? If you’re dealing with the aftermath of it, so much pain in work or maybe she just had anger and fear. Maybe she’d been physically hurt, meet up or. I mean we don’t know, but something happened to her that she had been attacked and so pressed and Jesus delivered her of all of this and you know, when we have a, she was a recipient of a great salvation, you know, all of us are.

JenniferJackson:             02:08                   But when you think about my past was so dark, this was so heavy, so, so burdensome, and then when Jesus comes in and saves you and he, he cleans up all of that, your gratitude is so much more. You’re just like, wow, how did, how did you cover all of that? And that’s what you’ve sent with Mary Magdalene. He did all of this and so I’m all in and she just has that sense of a hundred, 10 percent. And that’s what I like about her. So 17 and she had this amazing freedom. I think about it could have even just been social phobias or anger, embarrassment, anxiety. We don’t know. I know for me, I had a time when I was completely afraid of basements, you know, um, when it’s fear and it doesn’t sound realistic to somebody else, when you tell them the story, they’re like, just get over that.

JenniferJackson:             03:05                   But when it’s you, it’s not rational, but it’s real. And um, I, when I was a child, something happened to me in a basement, very bad experience. And so I hated basements. I’m a newlywed and we have the laundry down in the basement. It was one of those seller basements and old fixer upper house. It was not, you know, uh, no carpet, whatever. But we have the laundry down there. We had a little office down there and I would literally has a newlywed run up the stairs with my laundry basket, race down to do whatever I could do as fast as I could and, and hunt, you know, hurry back up. But um, when Jesus delivered me of that fear, it, it was such a freedom was such an amazing thing. And that’s how practical God is. He wants to take our fears and give us peace and take those irrational thoughts and worries, anxieties, phobias, any.

JenniferJackson:             04:02                   None of that is too big for him. Seven, when you told that story, saying that your husband prayed for you, he prayed over to you and said, Lord, we want her to be delivered from the sphere. And God answered that prayer. And I just, I want to insert that because I think for so many of us, we forget to share our fears with someone else to make ourselves vulnerable enough with that particular fear because we think it is a, it’s not logical and this person is going to think I’m crazy. But when we step up and share that fear with the appropriate person, then as a result, he was able to minister to you and be. And you’ll never forget that as long as you live that your husband prayed for you and God delivered you from that. What we see this theme like you did the woman with the issue of blood, that you can’t be embarrassed.

JenniferJackson:             04:55                   You have to say here, here it is. And there’s a vulnerability in that. And when you, when you bring that to Jesus, he can just move and really do something powerful that you weren’t even expecting. Exactly. And so it’s, it’s a, it’s a fun, fun part about the Lord. I love how he does that for us. So, OK, what else happened with Mary Magdalene? Her name means beloved, choose, truly loved by God. She was loved by all the disciples. They’ve put her all throughout the New Testament. And um, she was set free. She. So she has this gratitude because of this great deliverance. And what does she do it she is scene at the foot of the cross. She’s seen ministering everywhere Jesus went. She’s in the group, she’s serving, she’s giving, um, and here she is, I think about mother Mary at the foot of the cross.

JenniferJackson:             05:48                   How, what, or who are those people in their life that are there and the hardest, darkest days, the worst day ever. And there was Mary Magdalene, she was supportive, she knew what it was, like two weeks she knew what it was like to suffer and so she was an amazing strength to her friend and I’m, there she is and they didn’t know Jesus was going to rise from the dead and they didn’t know at that moment it was. That’s right. And so then she goes and she gets spices. I just see you’re just getting a spice cabinet as fast as she can, like anything. What do I have? I could take him, you know, the grief, the overwhelming grief, she must have felt, and then she goes to the tomb and then the next day when he’s risen, I mean, she’s the first one and honor and you know, he knows what all she’s been through and it’s just like he gives her this special place and he does that for each of us.

JenniferJackson:             06:48                   Like he knows how hard it’s been. And so he does special relational personal visits with us. And so I love the fact that she’s running. It says, if you read through all the scriptures, let, let me read you one more. It says I’m a John [inaudible]. Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. I have seen the Lord and I think there’s other verses where she ran quickly and she’s always in a hurry. You see her going and it’s because she knows how important, um, the task that was assigned to her. Jesus, I want you to go and tell the disciples that I’ve risen. She had that urgency. She did and she knew where to place that she knew where to place that urgency. I think about growing up on a farm, daddy is out, Baling Hay in a storm is coming and they have to get the Hay in the barn before the rain.

JenniferJackson:             07:45                   They have to wear. It’s ruined. The whole thing is ruined. And if, um, if you’re out there sweeping the porch, normally that’s a great thing, but daddy’s like, no, I need everyone in the field. We have to get the Hay in the barn. A storm is coming and Daddy, our father in heaven, he knows what his business is about and he wants us to help him. And so asking God, OK, I want to be urgent about the priority that you have for me. Where are you working? What field are you working in? And he will give us that task and that sense of urgency and then we can join them. Yes, yes. And forget about sleeping porch. That’s right. If needed. Sometimes we just think that’s so important and not a normal day. It might be, but sometimes God is like, like, no, no, no.

JenniferJackson:             08:33                   And to have that sensitivity to, to listen to him and say, isn’t it interesting how we think of his big work as being an interruption in our small jobs? That’s right. No, he calls us like to an urgent work makes an interruption interruption in our day. And so we’re just like, oh, that interruption state I was doing and he asked me for the porch or whatever it is. And then all of a sudden it’s clear to us, wait a minute, I want to be urgent about the things that he’s urgent in about. In the big scheme of things. What really matters is right? What is this interruption teaching me, you know, about his work. And I love that. I love that. So good. He’s a good daddy and we can trust him.

JenniferJackson:             09:22                   So she came, she simply came. Mary simply came to God for deliverance, for healing from her disease. Um, she as a result, the other thing she, she gained some friends, some lifelong friends, and they are sharing all of this together. She was first just the way Elizabeth was first [inaudible]. Elizabeth greets Jesus, you know, he’s in the womb and she’s the first person to welcome him in that way. And then you have, you have Mary Magdalene, she’s the first person at that tomb to welcome him. So there’s a little bit of a theme there that he wants us to be, to want to be near to him to want to be right there where he’s working right where he’s doing something in, on the action, I guess is what I’m saying. And don’t you think that when we put the effort in being as close to his presence as possible, don’t you think he’s going to show up?

JenniferJackson:             10:17                   Like we somehow think that it’s all going to be for naught. Right? And yet of course Jesus is going to show up, you know, of course he’s gonna show up when we put in the effort to pursue his presence. So I just left that and thought, well, the only other thing, I have my main medtown after her. That’s pretty cool. It’s pretty cool. Um, what am I [inaudible] yeah, why don’t we say a prayer? God, I thank you. I thank you for the, the excitement and urgency that Mary Magdalene brings, and also just, um, the deliverance God. Today we need deliverance from, from anxiety. We just seal. I’m nervous and worried, Lord. And um, we have fears. We have so many things that aren’t just harassing us today and I pray that you would deliver us, that you can save us from anything, set us free from that and, and place it with your peace and replace it with just a sense of I want to be close to you.

JenniferJackson:             11:24                   I’m going to be right there where you’re working right there, helping you. Lord. We want to be like that. And so we ask you today just to show up in this just average, normal, regular day, but we need you and if you would simply come, that’s all we need. And so we invite you in to this day and Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Rachel Wojo:                   11:46                   Thank you so much for being a part. This is the conclusion of our video series for women in the Bible. Who knows? Maybe we’ll pick up a second series and do this again. If you have any questions or concerns, please go to Rachel [inaudible]. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This is NOT the last video in the series. Please come back next week for Video 6. I escalated Mary Magdalene this week for Easter. 😉 Rachel