Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, 2as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them* out of their resources.
4 When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: 5‘A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. 7Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’
9 Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10He said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that
“looking they may not perceive,
and listening they may not understand.”
11 ‘Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12The ones on the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away. 14As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.
“The twelve were with him, as well as some women…Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out….”Then a crowd gathers, and Jesus tells them the parable of the sower, the seed, and the soil, in which “the seed is the word of God….”
Mary Magdalene was a disciple of Jesus who planted that seed of the gospel, from which the church grew. Yet the church has not fully recognized its foremother.
The 7th chapter of Luke tells of an unnamed woman from the street, “who was a sinner,” who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and poured fragrant ointment from an alabaster jar on them. By the middle ages, confused artistic renderings showed Mary Magdalene carrying an alabaster jar, dressed seductively as a prostitute. Sermons, from then until now, repeated this prejudice. Yet Luke, who was trying to tell the whole gospel story, wrote about 2 different women. Mary Magdalene’s cure by Jesus was of 7 demons, none identified with sexual misconduct. Healed, she went on to become one of the women who found the empty tomb, where she was given the task of proclaiming to unbelievers: He is risen (Luke 24:5-11; John 20:17-18).
Just as 20th century theology was reclaiming the real Mary Magdalene as saint and preacher, The DaVinci Code ruined her reputation again, confusing the seed of the gospel with biological seed, and the resurrection story with early urban legend.
It is as the parable tells us: the proclamation of the gospel depends upon the soil in which the seed falls: sometimes the soil is shifty, sometimes rocky, sometimes thorny. “But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.” Just like Mary Magdalene.
Prayer: God, whose word created the world, help me to read the gospel honestly, with a heart prepared to bear fruit with patient endurance. Amen.
Betsy Lunz
