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"A
woman is like a teabag. It's only when she's in hot water that you
realize how strong she is."-- Nancy
Reagan
The
claim in the "Da Vinci Code" that has created the most
controversy is Dan Brown's claim that Jesus was married to Mary
Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was certainly close to Jesus. She
wept at Jesus' tomb. Jesus even entrusted her to return and tell
the disciples about His resurrection. But ... most Christian
scholars do not believe there is any reason to believe that they were
married. Brown writes that Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last
Supper" reveals the secret. He writes that the figure to
Jesus' right, traditionally known as the apostle John, is actually Mary.
Not true. Artists often gave characters feminine features to
portray youth. John was the youngest of the disciples ... and the
disciple that Jesus loved.
The phrase disciple whom Jesus loved or Beloved
Disciple is used several times in the Gospel of John. It is the
Beloved Disciple who asks Jesus during the Last Supper who it is that
will betray him. During the crucifixion, Jesus indicates the Beloved
Disciple and tells his mother "Woman, here is your son." To
the Beloved Disciple he says, "Here is your mother." When Mary
Magdalene discovers the empty tomb, she runs to tell the Beloved
Disciple and Simon Peter. The Beloved Disciple is the first to reach the
empty tomb, but Simon Peter is the first to enter. Jesus loved
many women in His life; Martha, Mary, His mother, and others. But,
there is no evidence that Mary was any more loved than the others.
In Charles Fillmore's "Metaphysical Bible
Dictionary" we find that the apostle John represents the spiritual
faculty of love. He is known as the disciple whom Jesus loved, and
love is the dominant theme of all John's teachings and writings.
In the out-picturing of Jesus' development, John signifies the faculty
of love in its masculine or positive degree of action, while the Marys
of the New Testament characterize the different subjective activities of
love.
Brown correctly observes that few Jewish men of
Jesus' day did not marry. However, Jesus was no ordinary man ...
in truth, He was more attuned to His Divine nature than He was to His
human. There is plenty of evidence in the New Testament that show
us the humanity of Jesus ... but His Divinity is not so clearly defined
because His language was mostly "subjective" and few fully
understood what He was saying then ... and few still do today.
What we do know is that God Is Spirit, Life and Truth ... and this is
the double-thread that weaves Its way through all of us. "In
It we live and move and have our being," ... this statement is
evidence of the Truth that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave
nor free, male or female, for we are all one in Spirit." No
one has understood this to a greater degree than the Master Mind Jesus.
It is only in our "human-ness" that we differentiate the
physical ... the Spirit does not.
Dan Brown's claim that Jesus was married to
Mary Magdalene does not make sense. At the cross, why did Jesus
only commit his mother into John's hands (John 19:24). After all,
Jesus had other brother's and sister's that could care for her.
And if Jesus was actually married and expecting a child ... why would he
not be concerned that someone take care of them? Surely, as a
husband and father ... He would be worried for His own wife and child?
I believe that the point has been made
very clearly that the "Da Vinci Code" is fiction ... and
probably for many, a terrific book and soon to be an amazing movie.
Let's leave the controversy to the Catholics and Christians who
themselves have created their own fictions from the teachings of Jesus
...... read the book, if you want ... see the movie, if you want ... but
most importantly ... let's focus on something truly important today
........
.......... Mother's Day ... and as Jesus
demonstrated most assuredly, it is our love and our gift to give to and
insure that our mothers are taken care of. So, let us know
together that when Jesus gave His mother to John (Love) for safe-keeping
... this was His instruction to us all. "These things I do
and greater things still shall you do ...." So, today and
every day ... let's give our mothers our love ... in the greatest way
possible for us.
And
So It Is!
Maximum
Love,
Rev.
Bates
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