The Woman of great Love - 1

A woman’s heart is a big reservoir of love. This love springs forth naturally and enables her to nurture the child in her womb and bring that child forth into the world. She does not stop there; she keeps on providing nourishment to the child of her womb from her very blood – the mother’s milk. Should the child fall sick, the woman goes at any length to make sure that the child is treated back to good health. The joy of a mother is in seeing her child grow up and be successful. This is the story of a woman.

But this post is about a different kind of woman. You know her as Mary Magdalene, but I call her a woman of great love. Mary Magdalene appears in the bible under different kinds of circumstances. In some of the circumstances she has no name, in others she is just a woman who came in and did something around the person of Jesus. In John’s Gospel we see her as the woman caught in the act of committing adultery. Are really sure that this is the same woman? Not sure, but bible scholars seem to think that she is one and same person. Here we see her encounter with Jesus as a sinner, nay a criminal. Her accusers demanded for her execution and wanted Christ to sanction their plan. But were they disappointed? To them Jesus said, “Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her. Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground. When they heard this, they all left, one by one, the older ones first. Jesus was left alone with the woman still standing there. When he straightened up and said to her, “Where are they? Is there no one left to condemn you? “No one, sir,” she answered. “Well, then” Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again” Jn. 8:8-11. To this woman Jesus had given a second chance. It is easy to see how she would devote her whole life to serve Jesus.

In Mark 14:3-9 we read the story of the anointing at Bethany. Here Jesus was in the house of Simon and while eating, a woman came in with an alabaster jar full of a very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus’s head. Some of the people there became angry and said to one another, “What was the use of wasting the perfume? It could have been sold for more than three hundred silver coins and the money given to the poor!” She anointed the head of Jesus out of love. You see, for this woman, nothing was ever too expensive for the one she loves, no distance was too long and no labor too great for her to perform for her master. Hers was the labor of love.

In Luke’s Gospel we see Mary as she sits at the feet of Jesus listening to him to the point that Martha was upset and cried out to Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to come and help me!” The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha! You are worried and troubled over so many things, but just one is needed. Mary has chosen the right thing and it will not be taken away from her”, Lk. 10:38-42. Just imagine sitting at the feet of the one you love and watching his every move and taking in his every word. What a feeling to have! To be continued…