(Meet Mary the Magdalene. This is her story as told to the children's class gathered in front of the open tomb, at our church on Easter, 2007).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Hello…my name is Mary. I am a close friend of Jesus. He’s really closer than a friend to me. Jesus is more like a family member. He is closer than a brother.

I met Him a few years ago when He came to a nearby town. I had heard of Jesus and what a wonderful person He was. I heard He healed the sick. Some said he was the Messiah, the Son of God, for whom we had been waiting for hundreds of years.

I lived in a city off the Sea of Galilee, called Magdala. Our town was a huge city and we were fishermen, shipbuilders, we made beautiful clothing and we were famous for those things. Most of us were very prosperous. Even though I had a lot of money and lots of things, I wasn’t well. I felt bad all the time and no doctors could help me. When I heard about Jesus coming to teach and heal, I wanted to see Him. I needed healed.

So, I went to see this man who had all this power to heal people, who could tell us about what God was really like, and hopefully, touch me and make my sickness go away. I was excited to think I would finally feel better and couldn’t wait to get to Jesus. And then it happened. I heard His wonderful voice of peace. I pressed closer to Him through the crowd...and He saw me.

Oh my, what wonderful eyes of love and compassion when Jesus looked at me. He motioned for me to come closer and when I did, Jesus knew right away I was sick. I didn’t have to say a word. He spoke ever so softly, and rebuked seven sicknesses out of me and they all left. Instantly, I felt so much better. All the pressure in my head was gone. I could breathe. I wasn’t tired anymore. I was no longer afraid, or worried about my health, or what to do with my life.

 From that day forth, I followed Him and His disciples everywhere they went. I would have given my entire fortune to a doctor to heal me, but none could. Jesus didn’t charge me a penny for setting me free. I was so grateful, I decided that I would use my money to help Him and His 12 disciples in any way that I could.

There were many other women who had decided to do the same thing. So for almost 3 years, we went with Him and cooked and took care of Jesus and His men. We learned so much from Him. We learned He was God’s only Son, and He told us how the Father loved us, and had sent Jesus to save us from sin. I didn’t quite know what that meant, until He said to just believe that the Father had sent Him and to believe that He was who He said He was…the very Son of God in human form. I believed every word Jesus spoke.

We had a wonderful life, all of us traveling around to all the cities, listening to Jesus tell the crowds about God the Father, and explaining all the writings of the prophets, called the Old Testament Bible. I learned so much from Jesus. Much more than from the religious teachers at the Temple. God became a real loving Father to us, as we heard Jesus talk about Him.

 Then one day, a terrible thing happened. All those religious leaders were very jealous of Jesus because the people loved Him, and they were afraid He would take over the churches, and they would lose their jobs and their money and their power. So they made up awful lies about Him. They told the governor of the city that Jesus was a bad influence on the people, and demanded that the Roman soldiers arrest Jesus.

Because the religious leaders, called the Sanhedrin, made such a fuss, the governor, Pontius Pilate, had to do as they demanded. Jesus was betrayed by a friend named Judas, and was arrested, and taken before Pilate.

Our Lord was hit in the face and made fun of, they pulled out His beard, and beat his back with a whip; and then the soldiers put Jesus to death, according to the law. He suffered a horrible death on a cross. I was there along with Jesus' mother and some others, as He was dying. How we all suffered with Him. He never deserved such a terrible thing. Finally it was over, and a relative who was a secret follower of Jesus, named Joseph from the town of Arimathea, asked for Jesus’ body.

Several others and I helped him take Jesus body down off the cross and laid Him in a tomb…something like this tomb. The day of preparation was about to begin, before Sabbath, so we had to get home before sundown.

 Three days later, several women and I went early in the morning to wrap Jesus’ body according to our Jewish custom. Mary the mother of Jesus, and I got to the tomb first. The Temple Police had rolled a huge stone in front of the cave, and guards were posted to watch it, but I didn’t know that. I just knew about the stone, which was the normal thing.

When the 2 of us arrived, the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty...Jesus’ body was gone! I just started running. I didn’t stop until I got to where the disciples were staying and told them Jesus was gone. They didn’t believe me, but Peter and John ran back to see. Meanwhile,  Mary had gone near to the tomb, and the Angel of the Lord appeared to her. She left to meet up with the other women who were following with the spices.

 At this time Peter and John arrived, looked in and then went away shaking their heads.

I got back there after everyone had left, and was alone in the garden. I fell down and started crying. It was just too much after all that had happened. I finally stooped down to look into the tomb, and I saw 2 angels in white sitting at the head and foot of where Jesus had lain. They said “woman why are you crying?” I said because they have taken away my Lord and I don’t know where they have lain Him”.

I turned around, and a man was standing there. I thought he was the gardener, and he also asked me why was I crying and who was I looking for. I said, “Sir, if you have taken Him away, tell me where you have lain Him and I will take Him away”.
Then He said “Mary”! Oh that voice, when He said my name, I knew…it was my Jesus.

I turned around and said “Rabboni”! (which means teacher). I was beside myself…He was alive…He had risen from the grave! The devil couldn’t kill Him and the grave couldn’t hold Him…Jesus was surely the Son of God!

Jesus said, “Go...tell my disciples”.

Mary the mother of Jesus meanwhile, had met up with the women who were bringing the spices. As they returned together, they all saw the 2 angels. On their way to deliver the message to the disciples, they were met by Jesus too.

For several weeks, Jesus continued to appear to many people; even a crowd of 500 at the same time.

Finally, Jesus spoke with His disciples for the final time, and they got to see Him go up into Heaven on a cloud. The angels told them that one day Jesus would return in the same way, and catch His Church up to Himself in the air.

Several years later, Jesus appeared to the Apostle Paul, to Stephen, and  one last time to the Apostle John to help him write the final book of the Bible, the Revelation.

We were all disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ, until each went to be with Him in death. During those years in between, we preached, taught and testified about Him everywhere we went...we all knew He was not dead...He is RISEN"!

God Bless You All During This Sacred Season,
Pastor Moser...April, 2007

W. O. W.

"I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also"...Jesus