He Is The Discordant Note. Part 2: The Magdelene
I think Jesus is like a discordant note. Discordant notes are notes which shouldn’t work and yet do. Notes which should jar. Notes which should sound like fingers on a chalkboard….but which bring things to life. Notes which don’t fit with the notes around them and yet bring beauty and depth and power and shade and wonder to us.
I think Jesus is like a discordant note. He jars with that which is around him and yet he brings beauty and depth and power and shade and wonder to those situations.
In the glorious ancient stories of the Bible we meet a woman called mary. Mary was from a town called Magdala. A village on the opposite shore from the now peaceful man from Gadara (have you read part 1 yet?) A woman who had seven demons inside her. Whose story was about shame.About dirt. About uncleanliness. About self-hatred. About rejection. And the discordant note comes and jars with this story of Mary the magdelene.
He tells a better story.
He cast out demons from her and he starts to rewrite her story.He gives her stature, she is mentioned by name more often in the gospels than some of the 12 disciples. He gives her love and acceptance, she becomes part of Jesus close group.He gives her perhaps the greatest gift of all, the good news of the Christ’s resurrection starts with her. She is the first one to share the news that he is not dead…the grave is empty…the christ is alive.
The fourth century theologian, Augustine, describes this woman as the apostle of the apostles.
This woman starts off with one story but then the discordant note tells a different story which shouldn’t fit with a possessed woman and yet beauty and depth and power and shade and wonder are birthed in the most unlikely of places.
This blog post was brought to you by....Oli Higham
Oli Higham is part of the leadership team at the Rock Community Church. He finds it hard to sum himself up in a few sentences. However he loves Jesus and is also rather fond of his family, films, coffee, rugby, Arsenal FC, poetry, spray paint, beards, cooking and laughing.