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Mary of Magdala Written By Sherry Brandon (Monologue by Mary Magdelene on the resurrection of Jesus.) I’ll never forget the day. I hardly recognized him up on that cross. He was beaten so badly and bleeding. His mother, Mary, next to me crying. I put my hands on her shoulders. How could I think of my own mourning, when her very son was up there dying. But how could I not weep myself, after what he had done for me. Just weeks before, he came to my town, the city of Magdala. Everyone was buzzing about the news. At the same time, I felt the horrible buzzing in my head. For years, I lived with the torment and pain. My thoughts were a clutter of horrible thoughts and sounds. And the nightmares…they were just unbearable. When I’d heard of the rabbi and the things he had done, I had to go. If for just one shred of sanity left within me...I had to try. Could he heal me? WOULD he heal me? One such as me, who’d been cast away, accused of housing unclean spirits? I had to go to this man. When I saw him, it was like a thunder of voices in my head all screaming out at once. His eyes met mine, and I couldn’t move. The voices in my head crying out, NO! I just stood there… mesmerized by this man, this very gentle man. His words were few, but all at once, (hands to head) those terrible voices in one loud crash …(remove hands, realizing the silence)…were gone. I was free! Seven demons left my body that day. They call me Mary Magdelene… and on that day, I started a new life, a new direction. This rabbi, this man Jesus, was like no one I’d ever known. I hung on his every teaching, his every word. From that day forward, my life was to follow Jesus. I traveled with he and his disciples everywhere they went. I absorbed every word Jesus spoke with all of my very being. How could I do any differently? Do you know who this is? He is the Messiah...the one we have waited for. So how…tell me how can they do this? How can they crucify him up on that cross? Who could not help but to love this kind and gentle man, this giving man? (angrily, as if to the Romans) This is the Son of God, don’t you see? (look up to the cross) How can you…(break, crying…then pause to re-compose) It was three days later, I went to the tomb. I had spent the rest of my money for oils and spices to anoint his body with. On my way, it suddenly occurred to me that I wouldn’t be able to move the large stone at the tomb by myself. I wondered if possibly the guards might help me, but there at the tomb…the stone was rolled back. Why? I ran into the tomb…he was gone! Who would take the body of our Lord? I was overwhelmed with grief at not only the loss of Jesus, but now they had taken the last opportunity I would have to say goodbye to him. I sunk down by where his empty shroud lay and wept. I cried so, I almost didn’t hear the voices that spoke to me. When I looked up, it was two angels of God. They asked me ‘why was I crying’? I thought this a preposterous question, under the circumstances, but of course I would never refuse to answer an angel sent from God. I told them that ‘they have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve gone with him’. At that point, I became determined to find where they’d taken Jesus and I ran back out into the garden. A man stopped me and he asked me ‘who I was looking for and why I was crying’. To be honest, I was growing tired of everyone asking me questions. I was simply in no mood to answer everyone’s questions that day. But then it occurred to me that perhaps this man was the gardener. Perhaps he knew where they had taken Jesus, or even so, perhaps he had moved the body himself. I begged the man to tell me where Jesus was, so that I may go and fetch him and bring him back to his resting place. Then the man spoke to me softly. ‘Mary’, he said. It was him! I know his voice, above any other voice…it was him. (crying) ‘Rabboni’, I cried! Master and teacher! There stood Jesus, my Lord in front of me. He’s alive! He is risen! My Lord, Jesus Christ died and was risen from the dead…all for me. A woman who was once possessed of seven demons, I am now a new creature in Christ Jesus. He is my Lord and my salvation. Jesus is alive! (back to the scripts page)