I’m not sure what you know about me.
I’m a woman from the region of Galilee, actually, from the prosperous shipping district called Magdala,
which is where I get my name, Mary Magdalene.
Over the years some misunderstandings have attached to me like barnacles on a boat,
so I set the record straight
whenever I can.
I am not a prostitute.
Never have been,
never will be.
I am not the woman from the city
who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears
and wiped them with her hair.
And I’m not Martha’s sister, either.
But you’d know that right away—
I’m not one to sit quietly at the feet of others. I’m a woman of independent means with a very common name.
Did you know there are seven Mary’s mentioned in the Gospels?
And then there’s Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code. Of course he had it right that I wasn’t a prostitute,
but then he made me Jesus’ wife!
I don’t have anything against being Jesus’ wife! But I wasn’t.
He never married.
Don’t you think if he’d been married,
people would have known?
Jesus did change my life,
but not through marriage.
He changed my life
by forgiving me,
healing me,
and saving me.
Jesus healed me of seven demons.
I’d been living under circumstances and in relationships that ignored my contributions and choked my dreams.
Maybe you can relate to the demons that preyed on me:
depression, fear, low self-esteem,
doubts, procrastination, bitterness,
and self-pity.
Seven demons.
Count them.
Ann R. Palmerton
Almighty God, whose Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of mind and body and called her to be a witness to his resurrection: forgive our sins and heal us by your grace, that we may serve you in the power of his risen life; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.