Easter With HopeSample

He Appeared First to Mary Magdalene

I love how so much of what Jesus did and said, challenged the status quo. 

He promoted the poor, He befriended sinners, He healed and uplifted the despised. He chose people who society ordinarily wouldn’t. 

It’s probably no accident, then, that the first person He appeared to after rising from the dead wasn’t only a woman (in a world where women weren’t greatly honoured) – but a woman once afflicted by demons. 

We don’t know much about Mary Magdalene’s background, or how she came to be demonically tormented. Perhaps she’d walked some dark roads, and made really bad choices; perhaps she’d dabbled in the occult; maybe she’d fallen prey to the enemy in her thought life. Either way, we can assume she’d suffered much. 

Before Jesus restored her, Mary may well have been a very needy, difficult, toxic person; maybe suffering mental or physical illness; presumably low in the village pecking order. 

How beautiful then, that Jesus appeared to her first!

Because of the transformation in her life, Mary Magdalene was compelled by a deep gratitude and desire to always be near Jesus. As a result, she was the first to witness the greatest miracle in history: the Resurrection.

Regardless of your station in life, remember: Jesus’ love doesn’t discriminate as the world does; He turns everything upside down. 

May this encourage you in the way you view yourself, and others, today.