Hello. My name is Mary... Mary of Magdala. I would like to tell you about something that changed my life forever, and not just my life, but the course of the history of the world. This all happened about two thousand years ago, in a place called Jerusalem. You must have heard about Jesus. I knew Him. I loved Him, not as a man in the way that you usually think of. I loved Him because of who he was, and is and always will be. Because Jesus was a man, but He was also my Lord and my God.
I saw him first as he was teaching on the shores of Galilee. People always talk, and this was the talk of the land here in Magdala. They were telling how he would touch them, and they would be healed. They talked about miracles, and that how when he would talk, their hearts would burn within them, and he didn't speak as other men did. He spoke with great power and authority, yet he took the time to sit down with the children. I had heard about one time when his disciples had tried to stop the children from coming to him. He was tired, and needed some rest, they told the mothers. Jesus had overheard them, and spoke sharply to them. "Don't hinder the little children from coming to me," he had said, "You must become like a little child yourself, to enter into the kingdom of God." This man was different, so I had to see him.
I went down to the lake that day, and my heart started to burn within me. I knew that he did not know me, but it seemed as if everything that he said was describing my life. Did he know? Had somebody told him? It was almost as if he were singling me out of that vast crowd of people, and talking just to me. It troubled me greatly, and finally I could stand no more. I had to get up and leave. But his words went with me. It was not something that you could walk away from. Believe me, I tried.
The next day, I found myself walking down the hill again, to the meeting place. I hated to hear what he was saying, yet I had this intense desire to hear. It was like I was being torn apart from the inside out. Everyone that I saw at that time, felt my wrath and my fury. You think that I was a gentle woman? No, they called me a shrew and worse. I had the reputation of a wicked tongue, and I could use it very well. But I kept coming back.
One day, he looked at me. His eyes burned into my very soul. He asked me to come to him. As always there was this huge fight going on inside of me. What did this man want with me? But I went. Jesus did something for me that day that many of you will not believe. He commanded the demons that had been harassing me and driving me all of my life to go... never to return. I felt something lift off of me, like a huge weight. Peace indescribable enveloped me, and I fell at his feet weeping in the dust. He touched my hair, and said "Mary, your sins, which are many, are forgiven you."
After that day, I devoted my days to serving him and his disciples. Everything that I had, was theirs. His kindness and goodness were not of this world. I saw many miracles at his hands, but the one that he did in my life was the greatest, because it was for me. You can witness thousands of things that happen in other people's lives, but when it happens to you, it is so very precious.
It was hard for me to understand how they could take a man like that, so good and so kind and so merciful, and accuse him of blasphemy. It was that Judas. I knew him for what he was from the moment that I first set eyes upon him, but Jesus wouldn't listen. Or maybe he knew... And there was a purpose for everything that Jesus did. But Judas betrayed him for the price of a days wages, and the soldiers took him and beat him, and ripped out his beard, and then they crucified him. I was standing there watching as those swine drove in the spikes, and I was there when he drew his last breath. I stood there helpless, and I hate being helpless.
Because of the time that he had died, on the eve of the Sabbath, we were not permitted to give him a proper burial. So some of us ladies determined that we would come back on the first day of the week, and finish the job. So the other Mary, His Mother and I went to the tomb. We were wondering who we could get to roll away the stone, because it was too heavy for us. We went early in the morning, and the sun was just starting to come up. There were guards there yet. The Temple officials had made sure of that. We thought that maybe the guards would help us, but most of the time, Roman guards never lifted a finger to help a Jew, let alone a woman. But we were believing that God would make a way for us.
As we approached the grave, the ground started to shake, and we saw the guards fall to the ground. We hugged each other tightly, and covered our eyes. When we opened our eyes, the stone was rolled away from the door of the tomb! We rushed over to the entrance, and I looked in. The body was gone! I started to weep... Where had they taken him? Mary (his mother) had just shaken her head, the tears flowing down her cheeks as well. She turned to go, but I could not. I looked all around the garden. Somebody had done this awful thing, and I was going to find out who. I saw a figure a little ways from me, and I thought that it was the gardener. I went up to that man, my eyes still blinded with tears, and asked him if he knew where they had laid Jesus.
That man turned to me, and his eyes burned into my soul as they had so many times before. "Mary," he said.
I fell on my knees, and tried to clutch at his precious feet, because this was not the gardener, it was Jesus! "Rabboni!" [Teacher] I cried. And then he told me to go tell his disciples that he lived! Praise be to the Almighty God and Father of us all... God had raised Him from the dead. O death, where is your victory? Jesus has triumphed over you. And not only that, he made a way for us too. What joy we had, to know that he was living! And because of His death, and the blood that was shed there on Golgotha's hill, our sins are completely forgiven, and we also can be with him someday in heaven.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
Do you know in your heart, beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are going to heaven if your life should end, tonight, tomorrow, or fifty years from now? That is the most important question that anyone will ever ask you in all of your life. Because it concerns your destination and your home for all of eternity. If you believe that Jesus is God's Son, that He died on the cross for us, and God raised Him from the dead, that is wonderful! but it isn't enough just to believe in Him. The Bible says that we need to believe it in our heart, and to confess it out of our mouth that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. If you have never done that before, or if you would like to make certain of your eternal destination, please pray this prayer with me, and mean it from your heart.
God in Heaven,
I know that I have not lived my life for You, but I want to change that. I know that I am a sinner, and I ask you to forgive me of all my sins and make me clean again. I believe that Jesus is your Son, that He died on the cross for me, and You raised Him from the dead. Jesus, I ask you to come into my heart and my life, and be my Lord and my Savior. Thank You Jesus for saving me.
amen
I want you to know that if you did pray that prayer and meant it from your heart, you will go to heaven someday. I encourage you to go to church, read the Bible and pray. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me, and let me know if you did pray this prayer. I would like to pray for you. I also would like to tell you that you will never be the same again. The Bible says that when we pray a prayer like that and receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are taken out of the kingdom of darkness (the devil's kingdom) and placed into the kingdom of God's dear Son. You belong to Him, and your sins are completely gone. God will never remember them. We might remember them, but God doesn't. Bless you, and have a wonderful Easter and the rest of the year!
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