I Am Mary Magdalene

Once I met Jesus, I couldn’t stop following Him. Like a moth, which sees the light of a flame and can’t fly away, I was caught up in His radiance. Many have speculated that I started following Jesus after being caught in adultery, when Jesus bent down and wrote in the sand to defend me. Others believe it was me who poured the fragrant oil from an alabaster jar over His body. I’ll leave these stories for you to make a decision about. History has determined not to reveal the identity of these women and so I too, will do the same. I would rather focus on the moments that the scriptures do have me present at.

Like I’ve said, following Jesus was like second nature to me. There was nothing He said that I didn’t long to understand further, to gain a deeper understanding of. I watched as He healed others like me; outcasts, people who were dying and already dead, sinners, scoundrels. They listened to Him too and followed Him.

I learned that leadership for Jesus wasn’t about being king (although He is), it was about being kind, gentile, meek and genuine-hearted. It was about telling the truth even when it was hard for some to understand and impossible to others. Jesus knew that some of His teachings would fall on deaf ears. He understood and volunteered for the risks involved in spreading such a controversial and counter-culture message – that He was the Messiah.

That message is what led to His suffering. The same deaf ears that refused to believe and understand His message crucified Him. There, Jesus died in my place, in your place. And it is here that the scriptures first make mention of me. I was one of the women who followed Jesus and ministered to Him on his way. The other women and I sat and watched from a distance as Jesus was tortured and put to death.

In His suffering, I saw the same qualities expressed from Jesus as I did in His teaching. He went to his death without complaint. The same meekness I had heard him speak about was now boldly displayed in the silence and obedience of his suffering. This lesson made a strong impression with me but it wasn’t the greatest lesson Jesus ever taught me. That lesson came three days later.

Jesus’ mother and I, along with some of the other women, prepared Jesus’ body for burial. After we had laid him to rest, I walked away with questions in my heart. It wasn’t that I questioned Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah. Instead I wondered exactly how His ministry would continue now that He was gone. How would His prophecies be fulfilled? I remembered His words to Martha on the day her brother was raised from the grave, “I am the resurrection.” Those words haunted me now, crept into my thoughts in the midst of my grief like bright sparks in a dark room.

One morning I was making my way to the tomb when I noticed something was different. To my astonishment the tomb was empty. Peter, who was with me, bent down to peer inside. We were told by two men in dazzling white clothes that Jesus had risen, that He was alive! I am ashamed to say that I did not believe the men. I hardly believed Peter when he confirmed what they said by reporting the emptiness of the tomb. It took a long time before the reality set in.

Jesus was alive.

His promises were true.

He is the resurrection.

This was the greatest lesson of all – that Jesus was who He said He was. All the claims he made were made in truth and his teachings, promises and prophecies were real. It was easy to follow Jesus because He didn’t just tell the truth, Jesus is the Truth.

Tom Rees

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that our first guest speaker was going to be our very own professor, Tom Rees. It isn’t very often that students get the opportunity to gain so much insight about the lives and testimonies of the people who will be instructing them for the next three months and lucky for us, Tom has an amazing testimony of God’s leadership and provision for his family. He also has a fresh perspective and knowledge of church leadership and disciple making.

Tom felt the effects of an unstable home life at an early age when his parents divorced and his father disappeared from his life. Throughout the years, two other “dads” came into and left his life, both leaving behind a wake of tragedy. The first father, a Vietnam helicopter pilot, was killed overseas and later the second father was discovered to be a man with another family as well as a mistress. Happily, shortly after the fallout between the family and the most recent “dad”, Tom’s mother found Jesus and committed her life to the Lord.

Tom’s mother was diligent in seeking salvation for her son, often encouraging him to sit in front of the television and watch Billy Graham crusades. It wasn’t until some time later that Tom found some tracts in a record store and shoved them into his pockets to give to his mother later. A few weeks went by and one day on the train, Tom rediscovered those tracts. After reading through them he realized the truth about God’s grace. Shortly thereafter he and his mom began attending a charismatic Catholic church and later found a home at a local Assemblies of God congregation.

Through the years Tom has gained training and experience in church leadership through various partnerships with AG churches and organizations. Because of his current position at Glad Tidings in Reading, I was interested in his point of view on church size. I have recently gone through a church-search of my own which raised questions about different models of churches. So my question for Tom was, “What is your church size philosophy?” His answer to that was,

“My feeling is that you need to provide multiple connection points for people. There are people who tell me they love coming Saturday night because it’s smaller. I have to be careful with that because people say it is a non-growth philosophy. I’m not anti-numbers. I want to grow because I’m reaching lost people, not because I’m taking other believers from other churches.”

What Tom said about connection points really stood out to me. He makes a good point that the size of the church doesn’t matter as long as you are truly reaching people where their needs are, including their need for a place to minister.

Listening to Tom’s story and having the opportunity to interact with him was certainly a treat. I know that we will learn many things from him as the semester progresses.