The touching story of Mary
Magdalene in John 20 is familiar to almost everyone. It is a striking instance
of ignorant, yet genuine affection. She might have known His glorious
resurrection. She ought to have remembered His words, "After three days I
will rise again" (Matt. 27:63). But though her faith and intelligence were
defective, her heart beat true to its Object and her Treasure. Contrast her
with Peter and John:does she not stand on a platform far above them? They
could return to their home, satisfied that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb,
though they knew not where He was. This was not enough for Mary; her loyal
heart panted to know where He was, and finding Him not, was ready to break down
with grief.

Mary stood at the sepulchre
weeping, stooping to gaze at the spot where they laid Him (John 20:11).
Unperturbed by the angels, she lingered there, and there her heart must be.
Here is a beautiful instance of the amazing power of a single object that
governs one’s affections. She spoke to the angels:"They have taken away
my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." Then she spoke to the
One whom she supposed was the gardener:"Sir, if you have borne Him hence,
tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away" (20:13-15).

How was she rewarded? Most surely
according to the desires of her heart toward Himself. First, He allowed her to
hear her own name on His risen lips. Wonderful moment for Mary! Wonderful
moment for Jesus! was not every pulsation of her devoted heart met, and more
than satisfied, when His blessed voice caused her to look into His own face,
her Master and her Lord? I am bold to say that two hearts were made glad that
daybreak—hers who could find no home where He was not, and His who gave His
life for worthless rebels like us. And I am bold to say further that it gave
him greater joy to own her as His sheep, calling her by name—Mary!—than it did
her to be so owned and called.

This was not all, for He
commissioned her to carry the most wonderful message ever entrusted to human
lips:"Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and
your Father, and to My God and you God" (20:17). He sent her forth to
proclaim the victory of His love, that He, the risen Man, was Head of a new
race, that "both He who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of
one" and that "He is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb.
2:11,12). He sent her forth out of the second garden where the mournful history
of the first garden (Eden) had been more than wiped out by the glories of His
triumph, to say to poor trembling hearts like ours that He Himself had not only
won a new place for them, but that He had positively brought them into it in
Himself. "He who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of
one" does not mean that He was degraded to their level, but that He, by
His death, His glorious triumph and victory, had elevated them to the heights
of His own new place before His Father and God.

What grace! wondrous grace! He
passed by angels who excel in strength and came down to a poor weak woman upon
the earth, owned her as His sheep, and then sent her forth to wipe the tearful
eyes and comfort the trembling hearts of His own by announcing unto them the
conquests of His love. Who can fail to say that Jesus delights to reward the
devoted heart? And who can deny that in thus rewarding the devoted heart, He
gratifies His own changeless affections?

Let us now turn to Mark 14. Here
is the only instance recorded in Scripture of any one having intelligent
sympathy with Christ. It is a scene full of wonder. Everyone is thinking of
death. Jesus has the vision of death before His spirit. How must the passover,
with its lamb whose blood was shed, have brought forward death before every
mind! There were the type and the antitype face to face, as it were:the chief
priests and scribes with a hatred to Christ that nothing but His death could
appease, seeking how they might take Him by craft and put Him to death. Thus we
see how death filled all thoughts. But there was present one—another Mary, Mary
of Bethany—whose heart kept company with all that was passing through Christ’s
heart; she alone was in full sympathy with His feelings at the moment and
entered into the thoughts of God concerning His beloved Son.

Mary’s heart and affections, in
true and genuine sympathy, traversed with Christ the dreariness and loneliness
of His path, as well as marking her sense of the utter worthlessness of all
around in view of His agony and death. On one side she intelligently
apprehended not only who and what He was in Himself, but likewise His value in
the eyes of His Father; on the other, she made use of His tomb as a burying
place for every valuable thing of hers on earth. For her, if Jesus died, He
would carry all of hers down into the grave with Himself!

In Matthew and Mark, the blessed
Lord is consciously in man’s hand in the closing hours of His life. This indeed
characterizes these gospels in their record of His death, His cross. That cross
was both the fruit of the counsel of God in view of redemption as well as the
fruit of Jewish enmity and man’s revolted, reprobate heart. How blessed it is
then to see Mary here at such a moment, marking her sense of the glories of His
person in the face of the accumulated hatred of both devil and man! It is a blessed
sight, in the intelligent apprehension of faith, the homage of one willing,
loving heart, thus laid at His feet—one solitary soul in that rebellious land
owning Him Lord of all. All this sheds its light on His own words:
"Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world,
this also that she has done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her"
(Mark 14:9).

Let us now look at the facts as
they are here recorded a little more in detail. Mary’s affection, her
intelligent sympathy, takes precedence over the treachery of Judas. Her love to
Jesus was of that order and character that it secured for Him that which was
suitable to Himself at such a moment, and that which entirely met His heart and
thoughts. "The box of ointment of spikenard very precious" answered
to all that was around Jesus, in the hatred and malignity of man, in that hour;
but it also coincided with all that filled His soul, and it was also community
of thought with the Father concerning the Son of His bosom. It is a sight of
surpassing blessedness to gaze at Him as He sits there:to see Him accepting
and vindicating the affection and sympathy that His own Person had created and
called forth; to see Mary, the fruit as she was of His grace, expending on Him
her all. Mary, as it were, says by this action of hers, "While the King
sits at His table, my spikenard sends forth the smell thereof" (Cant.
1:12).

There is another point of solemn
interest in this affecting scene, namely, how opposite the thoughts of men are
to what suits the mind of God and His Christ. The most that some could say
concerning Mary’s act was that it was marked by waste. Oh, how little was He in
their eyes who measured the service rendered to Him after this fashion! For it
is the person to whom the service is rendered that is the true measure of its
value. Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, Jesus, the spotless and perfect
Son of God, Jesus, the willing and ready friend of need and want and sorrow,
stood so low in their estimate as to call forth the expression of waste in
regard to that which was voluntarily expended upon Him. It is the same today;
the lack of appreciation of who He is and what He has done passes on from
generation to generation. In today’s world, with all its boasted light, superiority,
and advance, the poor, the perishing, the destitute, and the oppressed have
their friends and allies; but Jesus, the precious, blessed, wondrous Saviour,
is forgotten and neglected—only remembered to be slighted and despised.

There is a bright spot in this
dark cloud; turn you eye upon it for a moment:Jesus vindicates Mary. How
blessed! The eye under which this act was performed discerned its value, and
the heart that had caused to spring up affections so suited to Himself, her
Lord, measured out its appreciation of all that was expended on Himself.
Furthermore, He let everyone know what He felt and thought about this
manifestation of her devotedness to His Person. "Let her alone … she has
wrought a good work on Me … she has done what she could; she is come
beforehand to anoint My body to the burying" (Mark 14:8). Oh, the joy of
being vindicated by Jesus, and the satisfaction of knowing that, however
feebly, we have truly ministered to the longings of His heart!

May the Lord give His saints in
these last days more genuine affection for, and true sympathy with, our Lord
Jesus Christ and His interests. May nothing be able to divert our hearts from
Him, engage our powers but Him, satisfy our souls but Him!