As the Gospel writers tell the Easter story, they differ in the names given to those women who are first to visit the empty tomb. One name though, appears on everyone’s list – that of Mary Magdalene. It points to the significance of Mary among Jesus’ followers so it therefore feels sad that many people today won’t associate her with the Easter story but with one or both of the following. The first is the suggestion that, before meeting Jesus, Mary was a prostitute and woman of loose morals. The second, popularised by Dan Brown in the Da Vinci Code, is that she was married to Jesus, had children and their descendants are still alive today.
If I asked you which of those stories tallies with what’s in the Bible, what would you say? I’m guessing probably that the first might be true and the second fake. The reality, though, is that neither is true.
We have a Sixth Century Pope called Gregory the Great to blame for the first story He brought together two biblical stories about Jesus’ feet being anointed with perfume. One involved a woman named Mary shortly before his crucifixion. The other involved an unnamed woman with a chequered past crying over Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair. Having decided this was not two stories but one, he also decreed that the woman named as Mary in the story was Mary Magdalene. So began several centuries of Mary Magdalene having her reputation muddied. She is, for example, the patron saint of perfumers, prostitutes and sexual temptation (who knew it had its own saint!).
Does it matter given Mary is long dead and, for most people, a very minor historical character? It does. How often do we judge someone because of labels given them by other people? It might be a picture painted of someone by the media or gossip spread by our friends. There can be a huge difference between the story we’ve been told and the actual reality. Imagine the hurt and trauma that can result from having to live under judgment because of untrue labels placed upon you. It’s never a good idea to judge (cue all that stuff about one finger pointing and four fingers pointing back at you) but most certainly do not accept any of those labels as true unless you’ve had a chance to really get to know a person for yourself.
Prayer: Save me from unreliable labels and from being an unreliable labeller. Amen