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Forum on Christian/Muslim teachings - This past month Pastor Rick Richter of Arlington Heights, Illinois began to lead a discussion in our first inter-active forum on the topic of  Muslim versus Christian teachings. You are invited to stop by, post your questions and thoughts and participate. To date, we have had nearly 150 viewings of this forum. We invite you to check in at http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/mb/crossties2 and join the discussion.

 

New Forums - And while we're on the topic of forums, please know that you are welcome to start one yourself. If you'd like to get some people to join in a discussion about a topic  related to the Christian faith, feel free to launch. The information on how-to is all there. That's why we've set up this part of the website.

 

Mary Magdalene and The Da Vinci Code- We've just entered the Church Year season of Epiphany. During that time we focus on the outreach mission of the Church as we remember the wise men who came to Bethlehem in search of the new-born king. Those Magi were the philosophers and scientists of their day. Before that came the story of Mary's pregnancy, the difficult trip to Bethlehem, Jesus' birth and the visit of the shepherds. After the Magi left the young couple took the child and fled to Egypt to escape the demonic wrath of King Herod and his murder of innocent children in Bethlehem.

 

Luke, speaking from Mary's point of view, says that she kept all these things in her heart and pondered their meaning (2:19). It was from her that he undoubtedly received most of the information he records about Jesus' early life.

 

All this, together with another very recent phenomenon, got me to thinking about the Virgin Mary and the several other Mary's of the Bible. The recent phenomenon is the widely read novel about Mary of Magdala or Mary Magdalene. The novel is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, number one on the New York Times best seller list for many weeks now. I wouldn't normally even bother with such things, except for the very wide acceptance of the novel and its mockery of  ancient Christian teaching.

 

Brown claims that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' wife! And that the blood descendants of Jesus remain to this very day. All this has been supposedly suppressed by the Church across the centuries, but a group of true believers has preserved the secret and the worship of the goddess Mary Magdalene. She is the true meaning of the Holy Grail, for the Grail refers not to the sacred cup of the First Supper, but to Mary as the vessel that held the sacred blood of Jesus and bore his child after his crucifixion.

 

If you'd like a detailed dismantling of all this, look at the article in the Catholic e-zine Crisis (http://www.crisismagazine.com/september2003/feature1.htm) by Sandra Miesel, a veteran Catholic journalist. She demonstrates how faulty is the research upon which the book is based.

 

For my part, I'd like to share with you what the Bible itself says about Mary Magdalene. She was the first to bear witness to the resurrection of Jesus and it is important that we get a correct view of her position and character. The idea that she was a former prostitute, undoubtedly arose from a misconception of the nature of her malady, together with an altogether impossible identification of her with the woman who was a sinner in Luke 7, where we read of a woman who came into the house of a Pharisee to anoint Jesus' feet with oil and her tears. She is never named, for good reasons, and her story concludes in this same chapter.

 

Mary Magdalene is introduced at the beginning of a totally new section of the Gospel. Luke writes, "After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means" (Luke 8:1-3).

 

According  to the New Testament, having demons cast out suggests being healed from a disease or illness caused by alien and evil spirits. There are altogether about 80 references to demons in the New Testament. In eleven, driving out demons is part of the healing ministry of Jesus and his disciples (e.g. Mark 4:24; 8:16; Luke 4:40-41; 9:1; etc.)  The Lord and his disciples looked upon the possessed as diseased, victims,  not accomplices of  such evil powers. It is important to understand this in order to avoid identifying Mary with a career of public prostitution. The fact that she had seven demons seems to suggest the intensity and seriousness of her malady. What it was, however, is not discussed.

 

Mary Magdalene was a witness to the crucifixion and burial of Jesus and to his resurrection (Matthew 27:56-61; Mark 15:40-47; 16:1-9; Luke 24:10; John 20:1-18). Some want to make much of the fact that Jesus appeared first and alone to Mary Magdalene and forbade her to hold him. The point the Lord is making, however, is not that Mary was his wife and will now become the Goddess, as Dan Brown suggests in The Da Vinci Code. What the Greek implies is that the entire process of Jesus' saving the world by his death, resurrection and ascension is about to be completed. He is 'returning to (his) Father, to (his) God and (her) God' (20:17). Her task was to hurry back to tell the disciples the good news: He really is the Son of the Father and the Savior of the world. All is finished. The victory is won.  

 

Some also want to identify her with Mary of Bethany, known also as the sister of Martha and Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead (John 11). This is possibly because this Mary also anointed Jesus' feet (John 12:3-8). So the connection with the woman in Luke 7 and Mary Magdalene follows.  This is further complicated by the fact that in Matthew 26:6-13, the woman who anointed Jesus is not named. Further, this woman anointed his head as he was reclining at the table, not his feet. All in all, there is no basis for identifying Mary Magdalene with any of these women.

 

About the spurious and totally undocumented claims that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' wife and that the members of the blood line of Jesus were destined to become the rulers of the world, we must agree with the conclusions of Sandra Miesel:

• "What's more, in making phony claims of scholarship, Brown's book infects readers with a virulent hostility toward Catholicism. Dozens of occult history books, conveniently cross-linked by Amazon.com, are following in its wake. And booksellers' shelves now bulge with falsehoods few would be buying without The Da Vinci Code connection. While Brown's assault on the Catholic Church may be a backhanded compliment, it's one we would have happily done without."

An assault, we do well to add, upon the Church Catholic of which we Lutherans are a part, not just the Roman Catholic Church. This must not surprise us, of course, because Satan's attacks will always come. Yet we have this promise from our Lord: "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:10-12.

 

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Dr. Alvin H. Franzmeier

CrossTies Theological Director. Write to me at   alandsyl@airmail.net