"When God Met a Girl"... a demon and Mary Magdalene

(Luke 8:1-3)

We know this woman as one who ministered to Jesus and His disciples throughout their ministry, a woman who was there at the cross when Jesus died, and as a woman who came with spices to anoint His body and instead met the risen Lord. But where did this woman come from? How did she find out about Jesus?

Truth be told, she used to be a demoniac. A disgrace to society. A schizophrenic woman with more than a bad case of PMS. If the demoniac Jesus healed in Luke 8:26-39 was anything like her, she might have also lived in the tombs outside the city. She may have been laughed at as the town ghost, the central figure in mothers' bedtime stories as they cowed their children with threats of, "watch out or you will grow up to be like her!"

And sadly, it wasn't just one of Satan's minions assigned to plague her. She was tormented day and night by seven of these evil spirits. Seven personalities all at war with each other. Seven voices in her head driving her to the point of wanting to destroy herself, but they wouldn't allow their host to actually have that blessed relief. She found the voices forcing her to scream out curses on every passer-by and yell blasphemies to the empty skies. There was no end to this struggle. Could she even remember a time when she played in her family's house or sat around the Shabbat table reciting prayers?

We don't know why Mary Magdalene was so afflicted. We don't even have a record anywhere within the four gospels that details how and when she met Jesus. We don't know where He sent those seven spirits, except that He sent them to a place He has designed especially for them.

But I imagine that it was a day like any other. Jesus might have been walking out of the town on His way to somewhere else when she came out of the forest and stopped. The voices in her head were shouting at her, making her feet feel like lead, and causing her to convulse. Except that this time the demons were actually afraid; they were about to encounter something they could not win against. And yet she willed her legs to carry her towards the group of travelers and that Voice. The Voice sounded like a cool drink of water, a warm fire during the cold desert nights and a tug at something deep in her memory. And best of all, the more she concentrated on the Voice, the quieter the voices got inside her head.

But she looked like a mess. The things she had done to try to drown out the voices had left her bruised and scarred. The rocks that others hurled at her had broken some bones which had set incorrectly, leaving her somewhat deformed. Her hair was unkempt and knotted, what was left of her clothes were soiled and ripped and she had long since lost her sandals. She looked like a walking dead woman...

And then He saw her. He took pity on her. He knew that she was trapped; she was incapable of anything to help herself. And He could see past the spirits into the eyes of the woman begging to be released. We don't know what Jesus said or did to expel the demons, but I'm sure it was not a lovely process. We know that darkness cannot stand the light, and it may have only taken a look, or a touch, or a word for those seven things to explode from her in a scream of agony.

But what was she to do now? She must have been a demoniac for some years; would anyone remember her back home. Or be glad to see her? With her reputation she had little chance for a good marriage, if any marriage at all. She had nothing. But to be rid of the voices was everything.

We see her later coming behind Jesus and His motley crew of followers and disciples. We see her--along with several other women--caring for His needs out of their own means. And we see her and "the other Mary" as the first to whom the risen Lord appeared to.

We only see glimpses of this remarkable woman here and there, but we know that the day she met Jesus was a bad day to be a demon!

"When God Met a Girl"... an outcast woman and Faith

(From Mark 5:25-34)

This young woman had a problem. It had lasted for twelve years and showed no signs of letting up. She couldn't be more than mid twenties to thirties. She must have lived in shame and she had spent everything she had on doctor after doctor. And instead of offering any relief, they forced her to suffer many things and she became worse and worse. She had been hopeful so many times, and each time she had been rudely let down.

Where did she live? The hemoraging would have made her unclean. Everything she touched became unclean, everything she wore became unclean, and every person she touched would have to ceremonially bathe before entering the syngagouge. Everyone avoided her. Perhaps she lived outside the city with the lepers and other "unclean" people. Perhaps with them she found a sense of community and acceptance that was closed to her otherwise.

Until one day...

I'd like to think that this young lady found out about Jesus from one of the ten lepers that He had cleansed. Perhaps that leper came back to collect his things and goodbye and told everyone about the Healer. Maybe a flicker of hope started inside her. Maybe this doctor would be different!

It would have been exhausting to walk even into the nearby village where Jesus might have been teaching. Even getting out of bed, getting cleaned up from the sticky mess, and getting dressed would be wearying for one suffering from anemia. But she dragged herself into town only to find Him surrounded by a large crowd.

But that didn't stop her. She had to try. And she found that the flicker of hope was blowing into a tiny fire of faith. She knew that if she could only brush up against His robe she could be healed.

So she pressed through the crowd and reached out. Immediately, she knew something had changed. The weariness was gone, the despair was banished, the sticky wetness was no more... And she knew that she was incognito no longer when she saw Him turn and scan the crowd for her.

"Who touched me?"

And though the disciples joked that He asked a stupid question, she knew He meant her. And she walked out of the crowd, head held high, and fell at His feet. She had nothing to offer, and yet she was indebted to Him. What did He want from her? They were near the synagogue official's house (v35), and perhaps He knew that she was unclean and had no right to be in that part of town. But Jesus' words warmed her heart and reminded her of an identity she had almost forgotten she had.

"Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed from your affliction."

And He turned as He overheard that the official's daughter was dead. He moved on to His next miracle, and let her blend back into the crowd. He didn't point her out, He didn't ask her why she had reached out to touch something holy, He didn't ask her anything. He didn't degrade her for having a uniquely female sickness. He didn't downplay her cramps, weakness, and emotional drama. He simply saw a woman who had nothing and healed her.

She came with nothing and left with everything. She came sick and left healed. She came with a tiny bud of hope and found that the hope bloomed into faith. She had enough for one last try and found that the last try was all she needed.

"When God Met a Girl"...writing in the dust and Grace

Monday afternoon I was in a local Christian bookstore looking for a book. I didn't find what I was looking for, but ended up buying a book called "When God Met a Girl" because the cover intrigued me. The author has taken ten women from the gospels and expanded their stories--women who only briefly met Jesus, women who only have a few verses about them, women whose lives were turned upside down by a chance encounter.

I've started reading the first few chapters, and it's totally changed my perspective on some of these women. Maybe these next few blogs will open your eyes too as I share some of what I have learned.

The first woman is found in John 8:1-12. We know her as "the woman caught in adultery." What an awful way to go down in history. I've always wondered why she was still called that after this encounter with Jesus, I doubt she could have been the same woman. Andrew Snaden, the author, gives her the name "Grace" instead.

The story opens with a woman being brought to Jesus as He teaching in the synagogue. She seems to have been caught in the very act of adultery, and she was being used as a pawn in a political game between the Pharisees and Jesus. They knew how they wanted to test Jesus, and if they were looking for someone who was committed adultery it would have been easy to go look for a prostitute. This had been seemingly planned against her!

Jesus didn't take the bait.

He saw the Pharisees just waiting to descend and condemn him on their way to stone her.

She was a nothing in their eyes.

She wasn't what they were really after, but that didn't matter to Him.

He saw a mess and a web of sin.

He saw a woman wrapped up in the middle of it all.

And he took compassion on her.

He didn't lash into the teachers of the law standing there.

He didn't defend the woman.

He knew as well as they did that she deserved to be stoned according to Moses.

He simply knelt down and wrote on the ground.

They kept looking for a fight.

He kept writing.

They continued questioning Him.

He straightened up and said to the crowd,

"All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!" (NLT)

He was the only one who could pick up that first stone.

And He chose not to.

But that wasn't enough.

Jesus knelt back down and continued writing in the dust.

And then from the oldest to the last teacher, they filed out of the synagogue one by one.

The crowd looks on as Jesus looks up at her and asks,

"Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?"

"No, Lord."

"Neither do I..." (NLT)

What! Was He forgiving this woman? Was she getting off the hook just like that? Why?

The Pharisees may have left, but what if they were waiting on the street outside.

Waiting to deal with her the way that they wanted to.

What had Jesus done about them?

It was all well and good that He had forgiven her, but what about tomorrow when Jesus moved on to the next town. Who would defend her then?

What had Jesus written in the dust that made them all turn and walk out? Had he written something that each person read as an open record of their own sin? Had He exposed the sin in each of their hearts with one personally-interpreted phrase? Had they been so embarrassed that the rest of the crowd could read it that they walked out in shame?

But Jesus wasn't done.

"...Go and sin no more." (NLT)

Maybe that's what she expected. Maybe she wanted Someone to realize that this act of adultery had not been a one-time thing--she was caught in a web of sin. Maybe she needed Someone who knew her story to tell her that she did have the power to change the ending of her story. Change her life.

Forgive her and free her.

Unexpected and unasked for freedom.

Unconditional forgiveness.

Grace.

the centripetal force that keeps pulling me back

Yes, I’m in physics class…. well, “in” is kind of an understatement! Maybe more like drowning, suffocating, swamped, and stressed… that’s more like it. And I am wondering how I will survive five weeks of physics 2 that starts in a week!

See, in layman’s terms, centripetal force is the force that pulls you around the roller coaster’s loop-de-loops, the force that keeps NASCAR cars on the track around the banked curves, and the force that makes you dizzy on a merry-go-round. If you want to get all technical F_c=mv²/r. It’s the force that keeps pulling the object towards the center. It’s constant throughout the whole circle. It changes with the mass of the object and the speed at which it’s going “round ‘n round,” but it always has the same effect. Without it, the seatbelts wouldn’t keep you from falling out of the roller coaster cars, the hula hoop wouldn’t be a favorite playtoy, and David wouldn’t have been able to kill Goliath with his sling. It’s kind of important.

It can’t be seen; only its effects can be seen. You can’t touch it, but you feel its results. And it’s always pulling towards the center of the circle of movement. It keeps the object in motion and counteracts the effects of gravity.

And then God shows me Himself in my physics homework. He shows me that He’s pulling me back to the center, but unlike gravity that keeps pulling and pulling until the object theoretically arrives at the very source of the gravitational pull, God wants to keep me in a constant circle moving around Him. He wants me to impact my sphere of influence, but still be attached to His heart. To keep moving around the circle, but remain “center-seeking.” And when I change speeds, reverse directions, or attempt to hide my real mass, He changes the pull on my heart to reestablish the equilibrium. He changes His tactics to remain constant because even “if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13