Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”
John 20:18 (ESV)
Of all people, why was Mary Magdalene the chosen one to be the first person to see the risen Christ? Why not someone more prestigious, a favored disciple, or someone with a more influential voice? In part, we are seeing a manifestation of a scripture that has shown itself to be true again and again: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;” 1 Corinthians 1:27 (ESV)
Women didn’t count for much in those days, and they were certainly not voices of authority; at best, they were second-class citizens. Surely they were foolish and weak in the eyes of the world. It did not help that Mary Magdalene and the other women who followed Jesus were Galileans, looked down upon in the pecking order of the time. Jesus himself had already invited scandal by letting a woman cry at his feet (Luke 7:38), pardoning an adulteress about to be stoned (John 7:53), and speaking of His divinity with Samaritan woman who had a bad reputation (John 4:4).
Jesus clearly had a higher view of women than most did in His first-century world. Through what seemed foolish and weak, Jesus went on to reveal the best news that the world was yet to hear. God exalted Mary and the other women present by revealing the resurrection to them first, and choosing them to be the messengers to take this good news to the apostles.
God also wisely used this group of women to preempt the accusations of the Jews. After all, how was this weak group of women able to get past Roman guards, move the great stone, and make off with the body of Jesus? This accusation would hold no water for anyone who critically looked at the circumstances.
But God had an even bigger picture in mind as well. In Genesis, we read of how sin first entered the world through Eve. It was Eve who received the promise of the coming Savior and deliverance of the world, and Eve who would bruise the head of the serpent. It was her offspring – women! – who would be the first to receive the good news of the defeat of sin and declare it to others.
While we see Jesus rightly as our Savior and Lord, He was a revolutionary in the worldly sense. He challenged the conventions and practices of His time on every level. Much of what Jesus confronted was not the Old Testament social order so much as the legalistic jumble the religious leaders of the time had made it. What better choice for the first declaration of the good news of the resurrection than what seemed weak and foolish?
Thank you, Lord, that we can see the signature of Your wisdom and Your plan in the things that confound the world!