Here’s
a monologue from the perspective of Mary Magdalene. It was written by Mary Mae Swartzentruber.
Monologue
(based on the events
in John 20:11-18)
I
have seen the Lord!
You
don’t seem surprised. You are thinking, Mary Magdalene, of course you’ve seen
the Lord. You walked
with him daily after he healed you.
That’s
not what I mean. I saw him risen – alive!
You
might not know how I felt: I was there, at the foot of the cross, when Jesus
gave Mary and John to
each other. Who did I have? No one!
I
was there when he said, “I’m thirsty,” and they gave him a swab of vinegar.
What could I do? Nothing!
I
was there when he said, “It is finished.” Who would have thought it would come
to that? A dead man on
a cross—God forsaken! Was this the glory he had intended? Was this God’s way of
acting? God-forsaken
– alone - lonely. As a daughter of Jerusalem, the one thing I had learned was
to mourn.
I
loved him. I had followed him. I would stay with him! – when the Sabbath was
over, of course. I
thought the worst had happened, until I got to the tomb that morning. The stone
had been moved – they
couldn’t even leave a body in peace! Surely the Master had deserved a proper
burial. Later – I wondered why I hadn’t walked right in! Instead I ran to tell
the others – what they had done to our teacher
and friend’s body Peter and the beloved ones left – running, but I couldn’t
stay still long enough
for them to return. I set out again.
Why?
You ask.
To
cry, of course, near to his last resting place – or to find out where he was
taken!
Now
I had the courage to look in and two messengers guided us. Would you ask a visitor
at a grave site
why she is crying?
I
was so lonely – without Jesus. He meant everything to me!
Then
the gardener came and asked the same thing, adding “Whom are you looking for?”
Looking
for? “Just a body – to give it a proper burial now that it’s been desecrated.”
Then
a wonderful thing happened. “Mary!” The gardener knew my name. No one knew me
that well and
loved me so much as Jesus! “Mary….”
He
had told us once that he calls the sheep by his own name and they know his
voice.
Teacher
and Master!
I
wanted to cling to him forever – not ever to enter such despair again. But I
couldn’t.
His
words were beautiful – “Go to my sisters and brothers and tell them that I am
on the way.
To my Father and your Father
To my God and your God.”
Equality, love, unity. He was one with us!
Not
only was I freed from that deep despair, but then I knew this was not only a
teacher of Israel, the Lord
–God has acted in this Jesus. I have seen the Lord!
~
from We Have Seen the Lord: Four Easter
Monologues (John 20), written by Mary Mae Swartzentruber, Stirling Avenue
Mennonite Church, 1989. Posted in the From
Our Churches archive on the Mennonite Church Canada Resource Centre
website. http://resources.mennonitechurch.ca/FileDownload/15167/4_Easter_Monologues.pdf
