Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 625
Delivered on Sunday Morning, April 16, 1865, by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
“Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils.’” Mark 16:9.
THE doctrine of a risen Savior is exceedingly precious. The Resurrection is the cornerstone of the entire building of Christianity. It is the keystone of the arch of our salvation. It would take us many a discourse to set forth all the streams of living water which flow from this one sacred source—the Resurrection of our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But to know that He has risen and to have fellowship with Him as such—communing with the risen Savior by possessing a risen life! Seeing Him leave the tomb by leaving the tomb of worldliness ourselves—this is even more precious!
The doctrine is the basis of the experience, but as the flower is more lovely than the root, so is the experience of fellowship with the risen Savior more lovely than the doctrine itself. I would have you believe that Christ rose from the dead so as to sing of it and derive all the consolation which it is possible for you to extract from this well-ascertained and well-witnessed fact. But I beseech you rest not content even there.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I bid you aspire to see Christ Jesus by the eye of faith, and though you may not touch Him, yet may you be privileged to converse with Him and to know that He is risen—you yourselves being risen in Him to newness of life. To know a crucified Savior as having crucified all my sins is a rich kind of knowledge. And to know a risen Savior as having justified me and to realize that He has bestowed upon me new life, given me to be a new creature through His own newness of life—this is a high style of experience. Short of it, none of us ought to be satisfied to rest.
In fine, I would have you this morning, like the blessed Magdalene, among those to whom Jesus Christ should manifest Himself after His Resurrection, as He does not unto the world. Let us come at once to the consideration of this first appearance of the Savior after He had left the tomb. He appears to Mary Magdalene. There must have been some reason for the choice. We shall notice first of all, who she was. Then, how she sought. And, thirdly, how she found.
I. First we shall have to take into consideration this morning who SHE WAS. Jesus “appeared first to Mary Magdalene.” Why? One answer might be because He chose to do so. For in His sovereignty He may reveal Himself to whomever He wills and He may withhold Himself from whomever He shall please. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,” may be a very grating truth to human ears, but it is a Truth of God for all that and he who does not acknowledge it scarcely puts God into His true place as sitting upon the Throne and doing as He wills with His own.
I should be content to know that He appeared to Mary Magdalene first and not to ask another question if I thought it unwise to ask it, for “He is the Lord and let Him do what seems Him good.” And if He will reveal Himself first to her, let it be so. Here I see His Grace and say, let His name be magnified in the sovereignty of His love. But we may go a little further into the matter, I think, and perhaps find some reasons. He revealed Himself first to Mary Magdalene, a woman. Was it not most meet that a woman should first see the risen Savior? She was first in the transgression—let her be first in the justification.
In yon garden she was first to work our woe—let her in that other garden be the first to see Him who works our weal. She takes the apple of that bitter tree which brings us all our sorrow—let her be the first to see that mighty Gardener who has planted a tree which brings forth fruit unto everlasting life! A woman let it be, for woman was last at the Cross and last at the sepulcher—let her be earliest to return. The Marys embalmed the Savior and put Him into the tomb—let one of their company be selected to be the first to see Him. Sisters in Christ Jesus, there is a curse which falls more heavily on you than on others—a curse which is peculiar to you. But here you have reason to rejoice since, “Unto you a Child is born, unto you a Son is given.”
It is by that child-bearing which brings you sorrow that we have been delivered—even through the birth of Him, the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us—whom you are privileged first to see because He is peculiarly yours. “The Seed of the woman who shall bruise the serpent’s head.” The text seems to indicate that the particular reason why He appeared to this woman first was because out of her He had cast seven devils. Perhaps no person mentioned in the Scripture has been more singularly slandered than Mary Magdalene. It has been supposed that she was a harlot and her name has been appended to societies which have the merciful object of endeavoring to reclaim the fallen.