Few other followers of Jesus have been saddled with a more notorious reputation than Mary Magdalene.
Sure, she has fame many of today’s celebrities would envy. She’s a popular subject for Renaissance painters with pinup good looks. She plays a starring role in just about every Passion play, TV show and movie made about Jesus’ life.
But all that stardom has come with a price. She’s often portrayed as the former prostitute who is the polar opposite of the Virgin Mary. Or, thanks to the best-selling thriller “The Da Vinci Code,” she’s seen as Jesus’ secret love interest. If she were a celebrity today, she would get salacious headlines on TMZ.
Lost in all the speculation about Mary Magdalene’s love life is the biblical record. Never once does Scripture identify her as a harlot, reformed or otherwise.
Instead, the Bible shows Mary Magdalene as an important disciple of Jesus — the one witness to the Crucifixion and Resurrection whose name appears in all four Gospels. All four note her presence at the empty tomb. In three Gospels, she encounters the risen Christ. In the Gospel of John, she is the first person to testify to the good news that Christ has conquered death.
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