Peter says in The Gospel of Mary, “Sister, we know the Savior loved you more than all other women. Tell us the words of the Savior that you remember, the things which you know that we don’t because we haven’t heard them.”
This passage marks the beginning of what for me is the heart of her gospel. The core teachings. Her secret teachings. This passage and the way Peter addresses Mary ushers in some of the most transformational spiritual truths we could ever hear.
First, let’s start with this. Peter calls Mary Magdalene “Sister.” It might be easy to overlook this. We might think, briefly, how nice, or that’s sweet. Peter thinks of Mary as his sister. Or even, it allows us to imagine that he might consider her family.
But if we set this reference of Peter calling Mary his sister within the context of the first century– it represents much more.
A woman was considered inferior to a man in the first century. So Peter calling her sister is a direct challenge to the structures of power that conferred unequal power to Peter and Mary as a man and woman within the hierarchy of the roman empire.
Sister, is a quiet, but resounding nod to their equality in the face of a system of power external to them that refuses to acknowledge their parity.
When Peter calls Mary sister, he acknowledges the inherent worth they each possess.
When he calls her sister, he disengages with the unjust power in the world around them and exists from a more ultimate power that comes from within.
When he calls her sister, he refuses to see her as somehow less worthy than he is to speak or lead or teach on behalf of Christ, on behalf of the Good.
When he calls her sister, Peter is putting into practice what the earliest Christians knew as Christ’s singular aim– to remind us to love one another.
And love is the ultimate power that exists within each of us, without barricades, boundaries, or conditions.
Now, brace yourself.
Peter says to Mary Magdalene, “we know the Savior loved you more than all other women.” (Excuse me while I pass out for a minute.)
The Savior loved her more than all other women. Peter states this as if it’s a given, as if he’s just repeating what they all know and witness and believe to be true.
But for those of us taught to believe that Mary Magdalene was the penitent prostitute, this sweeps clear any label or title for her other than, simply, beloved.
The Savior loved her more than all other women.
For me, it stopped my heart when I first read it. It stopped my heart because I felt like I knew this. I somehow already knew that Christ’s love for Mary was extraordinary.
This felt like the truest truth I could ever hear and that I had always already known.
Now it’s very significant that Peter acknowledges this singular love Christ had for Mary because of the request he then makes right after it. He continues, “Tell us the words of the Savior that you remember, the things which you know that we don’t because we haven’t heard them.”
Mary has received teachings from Christ, that the other disciples have not, precisely because she is a woman. Precisely because she is the woman Christ loved the most.
What before had made her inferior, or less worthy, in the eyes of the roman empire, the patriarchy, is the very aspect that made her the one disciple who could receive teachings from Christ that the other male disciples could not.
Mary inherited teachings from Christ through the exceptional love he had for her. His love for her taught her something the other disciples could not learn without her.
And this passage ends as provocatively as it began. Mary Magdalene responds to Peter in Mary 6:3, “I will teach you about what is hidden from you.”
The core of The Gospel of Mary then follows, and it’s the truth that has been hidden from the other disciples. The truth that has also consequently been hidden from us. For nearly two millennia. And it comes from the unconditional love of a woman.
***Offered both in person and livestream***
The Gospel of Mary reveals a transformational power that exists within all of us, no matter who we are.
The Gospel of Mary, and other texts labeled “apocryphal,” or “of doubtful authenticity,” like The Acts of Paul and Thecla challenged the patriarchal structure of power in the 1st century by demonstrating that women were as worthy as men to hold positions of spiritual authority.
And to find this transformational power, all we need to do is turn inward, be still, and acquire a form of spiritual perception The Gospel of Mary refers to as “the eye of the heart.” This allows us to see past the ego of our own little lives to what’s more real, and lasting, and infinite, and already here, within.
Through lecture, lively discussion, and practice of the soul-voice meditation, we’ll discover the secret teachings Christ gave to Mary, why she was uniquely meant to receive them, and why they’re radical, even for today.
We’ll return home with a personal experience of the love The Gospel of Mary reveals, the love that has the power to change everything.
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