the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Mary Magdalene
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or I cannot prevail upon myself to pass over this memorable name, without shortly noticing the distinguishing mercy of the Lord Jesus manifested to this poor sinner. She was the first, we are told, that had the honour and holy joy afforded her, lo have an interview with Christ after he arose from the dead, (Mark 16:9) It was not Peter, nor James, nor John, no, nor any of the whole college of the apostles, to whom Jesus first shewed himself. A woman is marked out for this peculiar privilege, yea, and such a woman as one might hare supposed would have been not the first upon the occasion; for we are told, that Jesus had cast out of her seven devils. And what is more remarkable, the Holy Ghost is particular to tell the church this, in the same moment he speaks of the mercy; for so the sweet and gracious words run" Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary, Magdalene, out of whom he cast seven devils;"Did the kind compassionate, Lord mean to say by this condescending act of grace, that there he will be most gracious where Satan hath been most, cruel? Did he thereby mean to intimate to all his disciples, that the poor lamb of his fold shall have, the softest lying down in his bosom, whom the prowling wolf hath most torn and worried with his claws? Oh! that every deeply-exercised follower of the Lord Jesus would frequently think of this; and, as often as this Magdalene riseth to their recollection, would behold the Lord Jesus in this unequalled act of mercy, that "where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord?" (Romans 5:21)
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Mary Magdalene'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/m/mary-magdalene.html. London. 1828.
