Day 73: A Composite Of Marys

Mary Magdalene by Giovanni Bellini circa 1490

Luke 7:36-38

New Living Translation (NLT)

Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman

³⁶ One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat.³⁷ When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. ³⁸ Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

***

If I were to guess, I'd venture that no woman in the Bible is surrounded by more mystery and intrigue than Mary Magdalene. Mary was such a common name that she was often confused with other women; Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary the sister of Martha, Mary some mythological "wife" of the Messiah. (Jesus was never married, and I've never cared enough to research the origin of that cultish belief.) Last names weren't given in Scripture, and women, in particular, were rarely identified by family.

Our only real clue to Mary's identity is "Magdalene". Since we know Magdalene is not a surname, we must assume it refers to where she came from. Magdala was a fishing community about 120 miles north of Jerusalem on the shore of Galilee. At least one Jewish text, Lamentations Raba, declares that the town was destroyed by God because of rampant sexual sin. This was during a time under Roman Imperial rule, and families were often under such heavy tax burdens that they were forced to sell their children into slavery. Brothels were abundant throughout the Mediterranean region during this period in history, as well, so when you take all those factors and roll them into one big ball, it is easy to see how the modern day picture of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute began to take shape.

The truth is, Mary Magdalene is mentioned in all four Gospels, but is never once referred to as a hooker, nor are any specific sins ever associated with her. And she is most certainly not named as the woman of ill repute who washed the feet of Christ with tears and anointed Him with precious essential oil at the home of Simon the Pharisee.

(When Jesus realized Simon's disgust at the woman, He told Simon that a person who is forgiven much, loves much. In the parable, he implied the value of the prostitute at his feet was ten times greater that of the hypocrite serving him dinner.)

Aside from where she was from, we know only that Jesus had cast 7 demons from her at one time, that she was a follower of Jesus through His ministry, and was one of the women who discovered His empty tomb.

Having said all that, I am going to share (yet another) lyric I once wrote. The poem should not be taken as anything other than a fictional work, a composite of women who may or may not have been named Mary. But like the legend of Mary Magdalene, it is a tale of great sin, deep sorrow, sincere repentance, and absolute redemption. It is a story of a woman who is valued little by society, but who is valued greatly by her Redeemer. This rendition follows a woman from infancy to adulthood, showing the pattern of events that shaped her life.

So, without further ado...

Magdala Inn

Father, oh father,

Why have you forsaken me?

Where is my shelter from this storm?

He was only a shadow

of the man he'd once been,

a fisherman of high esteem.

He stood there in front

of the Magdala Inn,

reflecting on his broken dream.

His wife and his daughter

had brought joy to his hearth,

and prestige among his friends...

but his lover, his lady,

she'd died giving birth

to a beautiful set of twins...

and he cried...

Father, oh Father,

Why have you forsaken me?

Where is my shelter from this storm?

It is written

that pride goes before the fall,

and a proud man he was, no doubt...

refusing charity,

though he'd lost it all,

the man gave them up and walked out

as the children cried...

father, oh father,

why have you forsaken me?

where is my shelter from this storm?

Mary worked at the Magdala Inn,

where she'd been since she was a child.

She'd grown into a ravenous beauty

since the day she'd first been defiled.

She was held in reserve

for the wealthiest of men

who traveled through the town of Magdala...

the lowly prostitute,

princess of the Inn,

dressed in the finest regalia.

She had scented oils,

and silks and linen,

the best that money could buy...

but nobody knew what raged within,

and nobody heard her cry...

father, oh father,

why have you forsaken me?

where is my shelter from this storm?

Then came a man,

a prophet, some said,

called Jesus the Nazarene...

and despite the objections

from the apostles He led,

He touched her,

and washed her past clean.

She followed Him faithfully

for years to come,

having finally found peace inside.

Then she stood at the foot

of the cross where He hung,

and she heard Him as He cried...

Father, oh Father,

Why have you forsaken me?

Where is my shelter from this storm?

Day 49: Love Outside The Box

Isaiah 8:11-15

New Living Translation (NLT)

A Call to Trust the Lord

¹¹ The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,

By DPic (Own work) CC-BY-SA-3.0-us  

¹² “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do,
    and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.
¹³ Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life.
    He is the one you should fear.
He is the one who should make you tremble.
¹⁴     He will keep you safe.
But to Israel and Judah
    he will be a stone that makes people stumble,
    a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem
    he will be a trap and a snare.
¹⁵ Many will stumble and fall,
    never to rise again.
    They will be snared and captured.”

***

I have always wondered why the Bible has referred to Jesus as not only the cornerstone of a strong foundation, but as a rock that would cause even His own to stumble. Israel and Judah, although they were stubborn and rebellious (just like we are) were God's chosen people. They were God's children, just as anyone who accepts Christ as Savior becomes grafted in and adopted into His own family. So why would God want to trip His own kids?

He doesn't! That's not what this is about, and I'm finally starting to make sense of the words. I'm sure if God had inspired holy men to take dictation for Him in this day and age, it would have been worded much differently so people like me wouldn't have such a hard time grasping the context.

This passage isn't about God causing us to stumble. Instead, it is a clear call for us to quit thinking the way the secular world thinks and experience the kind of devine love that only He can provide. 

Or put another way, we need to think outside the box, because God loves outside the box.

Consider this. We all know that rules made to be followed, right? But I remember back when I was young and rebellious, my friends and I adopted this motto that we thought we cleverly thought up; Rules are made to be bent... or broken, depending. As I've grown older and wiser, I've heard my children say the same thing. I'm sure my grandchildren will be saying it by the time they're old enough to read this. And I'd be willing to bet that my parents, my grandparents, and every other generation before me all thought that they invented the phrase. So, what's my point?

This is my point. When people are doing what they know is right, they generally understand that the rules are for our own good. A law that restricts us from breaking into someone's house in the middle of the night is going to save us from getting our brains blown out. A law that prohibits us from driving under the influence of some intoxicating substance is going to reduce the risk of plowing our car headlong into a telephone pole. But when people are doing right and don't want to be corrected, the very rules that are there to protect us are going to be in their way. And since they're walking around in spiritual darkness, they're going to stub their toe, and it's going to hurt.

Trust me, God doesn't want us tripping and stumbling through life. He doesn't want us to screw up and get hurt. But when we rebel against Him, He's going to make sure we feel the sting of our own stupidity. That's what discipline is about! Loving parents discipline their children, don't they? If He were to let us continue in our rebellion, our lives would only get worse. That isn't love. It's better to be allowed to experience the consequences of our actions before our actions become so out of control that the consequences consume us.

We all know people who have spent years in prison because they refuse to straighten up. Or people who feel like the whole world is against them, so they destroy their lives with drugs and alcohol. Maybe they're rich, maybe they're poor, it doesn't matter. Rebellion is an equal opportunity offender. 

What does it take for someone to clean up their act and start living with standards that help us succeed in love and life? Ask anybody you know, and you'll likely hear the oft-repeated phrase "they have to hit rock bottom." Why? What happens when they hit the bottom? Well, if it doesn't kill them (and it often does),  they figure out that there is only one way to go... Up. And that's where God's tender mercy comes into focus.

God's discipline may be harsh, His punishment is often painful. But without it, we just keep spiraling out of control. He wants us to come to a point where we will recognize that He is our only hope, our only way out of troubled waters... our only salvation! And He wants us to cling to the life-line that he is throwing out there for us.

If you're in the middle of your rebellious era right now, let this be your bottom. Seriously. Our box is only as deep as we draw it. You don't have to hit a brick wall doing 90 miles per hour to hit bottom. You don't have to be sentenced to life in prison to hit bottom. You don't have to lose your home and your family to hit bottom. You can set the boundaries wherever you want. You can draw the bottom of the box right where you stand, and step out into a love that will always welcome you into it.

Day 40: It's My Life (...and Yours)

Jonathan Billinger [CC-BY-SA-2.0]

Psalm 32:5

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁵ Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
    and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”
    And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. 

Psalm 32:8-9

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁸ The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
    I will advise you and watch over you.
⁹ Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
    that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”

***

Oh, how this psalm seems to reflect to my life! That's the beauty of it, for me.   I can read this psalm, written thousands of years ago by some shepherd-boy-turned-king, and feel like we have so much in common! I wonder what life experience, what rebellion, David was thinking of when he wrote it. The worst thing I can think of that could have inspired this was when he got Bathsheba pregnant and then set her husband up to be killed so that her infidelity wouldn't be found out. 

That's really pretty bad, and I don't think I could top it, but I can sure relate to it. There was a time in my own life when I had found myself in a similar predicament as David's mistress. Nobody plotted the death of my then-husband, though. No, he's still alive and well. 

God didn't let David off the hook for that. I can only imagine that he tried to ignore God for as long as he could. Nobody wants to feel conviction when they're passionate about their disobedience, and if Bathsheba was his disobedience, he certainly was passionate about her! 

How that speaks of the human condition! Aren't we all like that? Even if we love God with all our heart, when we are seduced away from a right relationship with Him, we get so caught up in the enjoyment of our sin that we just don't want to hear that what we are doing is wrong!

Sooner or later, though, we have to face the music. David sure did. The penalty for committing adultery, then having Uriah killed so that he could marry his lover, was the death of their son. I'm not sure that's what this psalm is about, but I do know that David spent a lot of time on his knees while his infant boy was struggling for life. And I know that later, David enjoyed a renewed relationship with God that can only come from true repentance. In this case, I'm guessing David's rebellion probably lasted all of a year. Oh, I wish mine had been so short-lived. It took me more like a decade.

Once back on track spiritually, God took control of David's life, just as He took control of mine, and just as He will take control of anybody's life who is willing to relinquish their own stubborn will. It's amazing how we always think we can manage our lives just fine, and how far unmanageable our lives become before we realize that we've strolled too far off  the right path. But once we repent and get back in line, we discover what we should have already known... that life is so much easier when we're living for God! There really is true freedom in that. 

We may think we can do better for ourselves than God can, but we can't. Since I have assumed that the sin that brought David to pen this psalm was sexual in nature, I'm going to be bold enough to point out one of the most common misconceptions about our ability to choose for ourselves.

Myth: 
"I can't possibly consider marriage to someone I haven't slept with, because I might get stuck with someone I'm not sexually compatible with." 

Fact: 
God knows everything about us... including what we enjoy physically. Think about it. God created us to be sexual people. He created intimacy between a husband and wife to be a special, wonderful gift! He didn't intend for sex to just be utilitarian. He wants it to be pleasurable, and there is plenty of scripture to back that claim up. So why on earth would anyone think that God wouldn't make sure that any mate that HE was allowed to choose for us would be unsatisfactory in that way? On the contrary, if we were to all live for God and give Him control of selecting our mates, we'd discover the true potential of God's gift to us, and it would be a mind-blowing experience every time.


If we will just trust God to bring us His very best in our lives, we will never, ever be disappointed with the results.

Now, I have to apologize to my mother in case she's offended by reading this. And to anyone else who might wonder how on earth I took a psalm of repentance and restoration and turned it into a lecture on sexual misconduct. Honestly, I don't know. It wasn't what I had in mind when I started writing, but it's what I ended up with. Maybe God knew that someone reading this needed to hear it. I'd sure like to think that even now, I'd allowed God to direct my thoughts, and given Him control over my keyboard.

Day 21: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

1 Samuel 18:5

New Living Translation (NLT)

David waiting for word from Jonathon 
copyright V. Gilbert and Arlisle F. Beers

⁵ Whatever Saul asked David to do, David did it successfully. So Saul made him a commander over the men of war, an appointment that was welcomed by the people and Saul’s officers alike.

I had a hard time deciding what to blog about today. There is just so much to be said about David that it's difficult to choose just one thing! Unless that one thing can be painted with a really broad brush, like the subject of his character.

David was just a decent guy, no matter how ya slice it. No matter what life threw at him, he handled it with dignity, with the notable exception of Bethsheba, which happens a bit later in his life. 

Anyway, to stay on topic, David had a remarkable work ethic. He had unshakable faith and gave God glory in all he did. For example, when he was chided for offering to slay Goliath in chapter 17, he pointed out that God had delivered both lions and bears into his hand as a shepherd, and that God would deliver the Philistine into his hand as well. Then he took a slingshot and brought the giant down.

He was humble. When King Saul offered his daughter to be David's wife, David  couldn't understand why he should be honored in such a way. Of course, there are a thousand better examples of David's humble nature, but I don't want to get ahead of the current chapter.

He went above and beyond when assigned a task. When King Saul told him to bring him 100 foreskins from the Philistines, he brought him 200 instead. 

He was smart. Everything David did, he did successfully. He showed wisdom in his thoughts, decisions, his tactical maneuvers on the battlefield, and in every aspect of his life. It gained him the respect and admiration of everyone around him, and everyone who worked for him.

He was forgiving. When King Saul became so jealous that he sought to kill him, David refused to avenge himself. Even when he was given two perfect opportunities to kill Saul himself, he wouldn't. Instead, he cut the corner of his robe, or took his water jug, and then begged Saul for mercy, even calling himself Saul's servant, and calling Saul God's annointed. Why he couldn't see that God's annointing was long gone from Saul is beyond me.

He was compassionate. Although he wanted to take revenge on Nabal, a wealthy man whose shepherds David and company had protected, refused to be charitable to David's men when they needed food, he stopped and listened to Abigail, Nabal's wife, when she stepped in to undo her idiot husband's stupidity. He agreed to spare her husband's life because of her request. Shortly thereafter, when God caused Nabal to die of a heart attack, David offered to take the widow as his own wife.

So there you have it. If you want to be the kind of person esteemed by God, and admired by people, then you need to adopt the elements of David's character.

• Let your life be a testimony to God. 
• Seek His will in everything.
• Be humble and give God the glory.
• Work harder than you have to.
• Act wisely in all you do.
• Be forgiving to those who wrong you.
• Be compassionate to those around you.

Day 4: Genesis 41-50

Joseph Forgives His Brothers

Scripture: Genesis 50:15-21 (New King James Version)

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.” 16 So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying, 17 ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: “I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you.”’ Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18 Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
19 Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. 21 Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Observation:

joseph's brothers had good reason to be concerned. they pretty much deserved whatever was coming to them, at least from my point of view. but from a godly perspective, this is what total forgiveness is all about. joseph had never, not for one moment, forgotten the cruelty of his brothers, but his forgiveness was so complete, that it was his desire to help them, to provide for them, when they were down and out.

Application: 

when people have hurt me deeply, it takes a while for the healing to take place, sometimes even after the forgiveness has already happened. joseph had many years for those wounds to heal, and when his brothers came before him, those wounds opened back up, and he wept, on more than one occasion. (why does the word "wept" sound more palatable and masculine when talking about a guy? if it had been a woman, she'd have just cried!)

but even though those emotions still needed to be expressed, God was faithful to bring about total forgiveness and complete healing from the past. i've been in joseph's shoes! hard to imagine that all these thousands of years later, i could actually experience the same thing that one of the biblical patriarchs experienced. am i in a place now where, if it were necessary, could i be so gracious to those who have hurt me in my lifetime? 

yes, i believe so. i can't think of anyone off the top of my head whom i would even hesitate to help, no matter what the history was.

prayer:

Father, i thank you for all the times you have heard me cry out, and have healed my broken heart. sometimes forgiveness comes a little slow on my end, and it takes a lot of work to allow you to forgive through me, and in the future, Lord, i hope you will help me to get my pride out of the way a little quicker! there is such freedom in forgiveness!