Originally, marking the start of Passover, now Palm Sunday begins Holy Week in traditional Christianity.
Passover, a day of high ritual, a day Jesus and the disciples honored and traveled into the city of Jerusalem to celebrate.
Yet according to the Gospel of John, Mary has already anointed Jesus with the costly nard. Before his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, he had spoken of his burial. Only in John is the woman who holds the alabaster jar given a name. Mark and Matthews simply say a woman but describe the same scene, all set at the house of Simon the Leper.*
It is also in John, that the disciple who criticizes Mary's action is identified as Judas the Iscariot, saying, "Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?" John also tells us that Judas said this not because he cared about the poor but "because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions."
Just as Judas was already plotting the betrayal of Jesus, Mary knew the day of Jesus' death was imminent.
The next day, Jesus rides the donkey into Jerusalem, his entry met by crowds waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
John tells us that the large crowd of the Jews found out that he (Jesus) was there and came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
Were there two different crowds in the masses? One filled with his followers, those who could testify to his raising Lazarus from the tomb. The other, the masses who would become the mob, came curious to see the man once dead who had been given life by this itinerate teacher from Nazareth.
For the next days, Jesus performed many miracles, almost as if to defy the Pharisees and still there were those who could not, would not believe.
But the Magdalene believed. Did she see the dark shadow cross his face each time Jesus spoke of his coming death, of his burial, of being raised up and the three days to follow?
She would have known his time on earth was short. I see her watching him, memorizing every line of his
face, his gestures, the sound of his voice. Watching him, perhaps from afar as he spoke, healed, taught, his back to her and remembering the strength of his shoulders.
Passover is celebrated following the first full moon after the spring equinox. This Passover would end
in the first Easter, now only days away.
Did the Magdalene sit that night bathed in the light of the full moon? She knew Jesus would travel into
Jerusalem the next day. If she prayed, what was she praying for?
Perhaps she was somehow comforted by that moon, for she knew that all would soon be taken away.
Dorothy Gibbons
2021
* Luke tells a story of anointing but that story veers into Jesus telling his host Simon the Pharisee, the parable of which debtor will be forgiven the most, the one who owed or the one who owed little and chided Simon for not offering Jesus the common courtesies given any guests.
The Last Supper and the Agony in the Garden
The Crucifixion
Giotto 1315
HOLY SATURDAY
PALM SUNDAY
"I HAVE SEEN THE LORD!"
Our Mary Magdalene
The Woman at the Heart of Easter, the First Witness of the Resurrection,
the Apostle to the Apostles, the Woman Who Knew the All
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Flemish Tapestry from 1573, donated to the
Church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, Norfolk
Mary Magdalene meets Jesus, "the
Gardener"
"Mary!" said Jesus. She turned around, and exclaimed in Hebrew: "Rabonni!" (which is to say "Teacher"). "Do not touch me," Jesus said: "for I am ascending to my Father and their Father, my God and their God." Mary of Magdala went and told the disciples that she had seen the Master, and that he said this to her."
Gospel of John 20: 16-18
A New New Testament
"He has risen from the dead and is
going before you into Galilee; there you will see him. Remember, I have told you." They left the tomb quickly, in awe and great joy, and ran to tell the news to his followers. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings!" he said. The women went to him, and clasped his feet, bowing to the ground before him. Then Jesus said to them: "Do not be afraid; go and tell
my brothers and sisters to set out for Galilee, and they will see me there.
Matthew 28: 7-10
A New New Testament
Then Mary stood up. She greeted them all, and said to her brothers and sisters, "Do not weep and be pained, nor doubt, for his grace will be with you and shelter you. But rather let us praise his greatness, for he has prepared us and made us Humans." When Mary said this, she turned their heart to the Good, and they began to discuss the words of the Savior.
Gospel of Mary 5: 4-10
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So Pilate gave Jesus up to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus; and he went out, carrying his cross himself, to the location called "The Place of a Skull," or, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified him and two others with him--one on each side, and Jesus between them.
Gospel of John 19:16-17
A New New Testament
THE DAY BETWEEN
Today she waited.
The custom dictated that work was forbidden on this day. On this day of Sabbath, the mind and heart was supposed to dwell on thoughts of the most high. The day devoted to prayer and listening to the sacred verses handed down since the time of Moses.
Today, they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. No work on this day, although women were expected to do those things most basic, set out the prepared food, serve the men attend to the family.
She did no work as was commanded but she could not stop the work of her mind, busy in thought, and almost defiantly she acknowledged her thoughts were not of G-d.
MARY MAGDALENE AT THE CROSS
La Saint Baume, France
Photography by Dorothy Gibbons