Unlimited: Breaking Free from Life's Limits

Mary from Magdala. A lot of attention in the church goes to many of the great men who have shaped the faith. But there is a woman in the resurrection story today who was intricately involved in the ministry of Christ, and in the lives of the disciples. Her name was Mary, and she was from a Galilean village on the shores of the Sea of Galilee called Magdala. She was commonly referred to as Mary the Magdalene, or Mary Magdalene.

 

Early works from the first century let us know (at a minimum) that she carried significant influence in the early days of the Christian movement. What you need to know about her today is that while many disciples fled when Jesus was being crucified, Mary Magdalene was there with Jesus’ mother and John, the disciple who wrote his own Gospel, three letters in the New Testament, and the book of Revelation. While Peter denied even knowing Christ when the temperature rose, Mary Magdalene kept her cool and was present for and with Christ as he endured the most severe torture imaginable. When Jesus was buried, Mary Magdalene was there. And when Christ rose, the first person he showed himself to was Mary Magdalene. It was to Mary Magdalene that Jesus gave the commission to go tell the disciples the good news of the resurrection, and to wait for him to come. For this, Mary Magdalene has been given the title in church history, Apostle to the Apostles.

 

As the years went on after the Ascension and Pentecost, a young man named Paul began persecuting the church and those who called themselves followers of Christ. Mary Magdalene, meanwhile, was making the case for Christ to government officials.

 

What compelled Mary Magdalene to be courageously present when so many others fled? What happened in her life that enabled her to rise from the cultural constraints of gender to become a leader in the earliest Christian community? When others cowered, why did she take a stand?

 

Mary wasn’t always such a heroin. She had her own resurrection story to tell. And we need to hear it.

 

Mary Magdalene Before Christ: Limited by Seven Demons In the Gospel of Luke, we first meet Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:1-3). She was one of a number of women who were cured of evil spirits. There are three basic camps of thought on what these demons were. Some believe this word was used to describe psychological phenomena like psychoses. Others believe that demons represent a mythological description of a person’s existential need to transcend the oppressive power systems of evil in the world. The third camp simply reads it “as is” – demons were agents of Satan that messed with people. Your position isn’t as important as your understanding of Jesus’ response: he overcomes. Whatever it was that was messing with Mary Magdalene’s life was no match for what Jesus brought. She was faced with a decision with which every person can relate: does she let go of the awful-yet-familiar-and-comfortable even though it’s killing her? Or does she choose to let that die with an anxiety filled leap of faith that Jesus will heal?

 

Mary Magdalene took the leap. Her life forever changed. Christ was faithful. In return, Mary Magdalene was faithful to Jesus for the rest of her life.

 

The principle that cannot be missed here, especially on this Easter Sunday, is this: there’s no resurrection apart from death. Resurrection is an impossibility apart from death. The new life we desire can only come if we let the former life die. Big, life-changing milestone-level decisions. Apparently small, ordinary, day-to-day decisions. Both provide death which then allows resurrection to occur.

 

Death is a frightening thing. Letting go of what is known is an act of intentionally moving into anxiety. When I let one thing die, what is the new thing that will replace it? I don’t want to let go if I don’t know what’s next. All of Christ’s life and teaching, and ultimately his death, resurrection, ascension and giving of the Spirit of God are all massive statements saying to us in our fear: “trust me with what’s next – I’ve got you covered.”

Question: What are some of your “demons” that you struggle with? What motivates you to keep them?

 

Mary Magdalene with Christ: Unlimited When Christ found Mary, she was limited in a number of ways that kept her from experiencing the fullness of life for which God created her. She was living out of a: limiting identity, limiting thoughts, limiting emotions, limiting behaviors, limiting systems, limiting rituals, and limiting pursuits. How do I know she lived with such limitations? Because we all do. The good news is that God has come in Christ to free us from these limiting ways of life, and has provided a different, unlimited life in its place.

 

Check out the following snapshots of how, perhaps, Mary and all people find themselves living with severe limitations, and how life walking with God holding Christ’s hand leads to an unlimited life.

 

• Limiting identity. I am simply and painfully the product of my DNA, the formation from my childhood, and the decisions I’ve made. I am genetically limited. I am the product of imperfect parents who got some things right, but some things really wrong. I am an addict. I am a whore. I am a cheat. I am a liar. I am depressed. I am poor. I am unworthy of love. I am limited.
• Unlimited identity with Christ. I am first a child of God. God’s spirit is at work in my life and will always empower greater wellbeing. I am more than my primal teaching. I am more than my poorest decisions. I am more than my addictions. I am renewed – extra-virgin pure. I am made for truth. I know I am worthy of love because God has loved me. I may be poor in cash, but I am rich beyond measure in life. I am unlimited.
• Limiting thoughts. Mary Magdalene was quite familiar with conversations that took place between Jesus and highly intellectual people. One in particular was a top Jewish leader named Nicodemus. Long story short, Nicodemus discovered, while talking to Jesus, that he was going through life with some extremely limiting thoughts about God which greatly impacted the quality of his life. Limiting beliefs about God need to die, however, because God is bigger than our biggest beliefs!
• Unlimited thinking. Mary Magdalene obviously (by her status) let old, destructive, and limiting thoughts die so that new and beautiful ways of thinking could rise and live. There is immense beauty and freedom in Christ – but we won’t see it until we let go of some ideas that restrict our vision.
• Limiting emotions. Mary Magdalene, being a human being, knew about emotional floors and ceilings. Sometimes we just won’t let ourselves believe on a heart level too deep or too high, for fear of being let down. Mary Magdalene watched as she saw these floors and ceilings dissolve for two sisters – Martha and Mary – as their level of belief was challenged at their brother Lazarus’ passing. Sometimes we won’t let ourselves go emotionally, because we’re just not sure if there will be anything to catch us if/when we fall.
• Unlimited passion. Lazarus’ sisters (and the hundreds of witnesses who were there mourning with them) discovered that they could believe as deeply and as lofty as they wanted when Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave four days after his passing. They saw God move powerfully, unmistakably. Their level of emotional belief and conviction immediately went to new heights and depths. Mary Magdalene experienced this, too, and began living with new and increased levels of passion because of it. Sin and death have been forever conquered. Live like it!
• Limiting behaviors. Mary Magdalene has had her named well-smeared over the centuries. Many have mistaken her for other women in familiar stories. One of the women she has been wrongly associated with is one who was caught in adultery. This particular woman was a pawn in a game of chess between the religious leaders and Jesus. They set her up, caught her in the act, and threw her at Jesus’ feet. Jesus knew the gravity of the situation for the woman, and the inhumanity of the religious leaders in using her in such a way. He invited the sinless onlookers to cast the first stone, whereupon everyone left the scene. Alone with the adulterous woman, he offered her words of forgiveness. And then he offered words of instruction: go and leave your life of sin. Let old, destructive ways of life die before they kill you.
• Unlimited lifestyle. Embracing the way of Christ is to allow new behaviors to take root that lead to greater life – not take away from it. The lifestyle Christ guides not only is a healthier, more wholly balanced way for us, but it allows for others to be positively affected as well. Mary Magdalene chose that way of Christ, and she became a world changer.
• Limiting systems. Nobody lives in a vacuum. We are all affected by those around us, and we affect them, too. Jesus knew of our individualistic tendency to promote ourselves, and called the disciples on it – an event likely witnessed by Mary Magdalene. Love cannot be learned individually. It requires others. Jesus told the disciples to learn to love each other well, even to the point of humbling self to serve the other. Death of pride was required. Death of individualistic thinking was necessary.
• Unlimited network. Replacing pride and individualism was community. This network of brothers and sisters was the place where love could be found and learned and practiced. Mary Magdalene was in the heart of this community, and knew well how to love and be loved. Dying to self opens up the possibility of life to be found in community – a richer, full, lovely life than can be experienced alone.
• Limiting religiosity. We only love religion when it gives us the control we desire. We hate religion, ironically, because it has been used to control millions with an iron fist. Religion controls God, too, by limiting our understanding of God to narrow constructs that cannot breathe. Mary Magdalene watched one day as Jesus conversed with a man born blind – a sure sign (according to the authorities of religion) that he was being condemned by God. Jesus offered healing to the man. The blind man chose to let his blindness die in favor of seeing clearly. Religion kept the love of God from him. Jesus brought the love back.
• Unlimited rituals. That blind man came to an incredible insight that Jesus followers have repeated before being baptized and taking communion ever since that day: I once was blind, but now I see. When we worship in the light of Christ, we see rituals not as mindless religious acts, but relationship developers. Communion really is.
• Limiting pursuits. Mary Magdalene made many choices in her life to follow Christ, and she was not disappointed. While we don’t know as much about her, we are sure that she witnessed a course correction regarding Peter. Peter gave into temptation. He was afraid for his own life. Just like us, when we are engrossed in fear, we see limited options that turn into limiting pursuits. Peter’s pursuits changed from being a faithful follower of Jesus to looking out for himself alone.
• Unlimited ambition. When Jesus forgave and reinstated Peter, he made it clear that he needed to let something die before he could allow resurrection to proceed. Self and selfish pursuits. Jesus invited Peter to die to the limiting ambition of pursuing self, and offered him a much grander volitional ambition – change history. By following Christ, we not only experience the best of life, but we make it more possible for others to experience it as well. Mary Magdalene was a world-changer right alongside Peter – both let their smallish pursuits die so that resurrection of a greater ambition could be give birth.

Question: Which of the previous limits do you know you struggle with presently? What part of the unlimited contrast most motivates you to change?

 

All of the limiting forces needed to die for Mary, and they need to die for us if we have any desire for a life of great meaning now, and a life based on a confident hope that there is hope beyond the grave. We have to embrace death in a myriad of ways in order to allow for resurrection. Without death, there is no resurrection.

 

Maybe you’re not a Mary. Maybe you’re one of the countless tens of thousands that day who were indifferent to what was happening to Jesus. Maybe you have little or no interest in the teachings of Jesus, or the presence of God that comes along with walking with God while holding Christ’s hand. Perhaps it’s time for you to reconsider. Millions upon millions have come to grips with the fact that this one life changed the history of the world and our understanding of God more than any other. He’ll change your future history, too, if you’ll die to death and its ways in favor of the life offered you by God.

 

Maybe you’re not a Mary. Maybe you’re more like Peter. You are fine with Jesus until it gets tough. Then it’s like you never knew him. There’s no knife to your throat, but there is definitely the pressure to conform to the culture around you in a multitude of ways. To say yes to the better way of walking with God while holding Christ’s hand means letting go the hand of those ways that are destructive. Perhaps today is the day you come to grips with the decision you’ve actually been making – one which favors the problems of this world more than the solutions that are needed. Maybe, like Peter, it’s time for you to be reinstated like Peter. Forgiven, welcomed back, and pointed in a new direction.

 

Maybe you’re not a Mary. Maybe you’re more like Paul. You really can’t stand religion. Except the one you believe in, that is. You have no problem singling out the problems of the beliefs of those who you perceive to be destructive. The irony, however, is that you run the risk of becoming that which you loathe, married to your own type of religiosity for others to hate. Perhaps today you can discover the truth that Jesus was anti-religious just like you, and that he didn’t come to create a new religion. Perhaps today is the day you meet Christ again or for the first time, and see him for who he really is: resurrected, inviting you to the same. Check out Paul’s change in perspective in his letter to the church at Philippi (Philippians 3:7-11).

Question: Who are you most like: Indifferent bystander, Peter the Denier, or Paul the Persecutor?

 

Mary Magdalene’s resurrection didn’t happen overnight. She knew it was happening in that first encounter when she chose to die to the demons that bound her, and accept the life this Christ was offering. Is today that day for you? I so hope so. Out of love for you, I so hope so.

 

Mary Magdalene discovered new opportunities for life to emerge from death as she walked with Christ. I will introduce you (or reacquaint you) with the key limiting areas she faced and the unlimited life she found beginning on April 18, running through the end of May. I hope you’ll come along for the journey.

 

Count on lots of death.

 

And count on life to take its place.

 

Questions: What’s your next step? How are you going to let die that which needs to die in order for resurrection to begin in your life? What do you imagine will be difficult? How do you imagine you might handle it? What might the resurrected experience feel like? Is the good of the resurrected life worth the price of the death of the former?