We've all been delivered from things. Our mothers delivered us from their wombs. Good explanations delivered us from confusion. Time delivers us from our pasts.

It's a continual process, deliverance. It comes in all shapes and forms and ranges from significant events to the familiar moments that slip by quietly. Mary Magdalene knew this well.

First, she was delivered from seven demon. Then, over the course of Jesus' three years of ministry, she was delivered from everything she thought she knew. Mary went from being constantly tormented by darkness (Luke 8:2) to being regularly enlightened by the Light of the World, Jesus. The sparse details about her life prior to Christ only serve to emphasize her deliverance--meaning that because Jesus delivered her form death, she followed Him to His. Mary Magdalene was one of the few with Jesus until the very end.

Familiarity developed over that three-year span of ministry. She knew His voice and His laugh. She listened intently to His teaching. Some of His words she could process immediately, some she failed to fully comprehend. She marveled at Jesus' compassion for the suffering and marginalized. She became fiercely loyal to the one who healed the oppressed and set captives free. Each subsequent miracle substantiated what she knew the moment she experienced her own: He was the Messiah.

Jesus was arrested. The disciples scattered. And Mary found herself standing at the foot of the cross with the woman who had delivered the Messiah into the world.

After His crucifixion, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away. Jesus--the Messiah, her deliverer, teacher, and friend--was not there. The Gospels have varying accounts of what happens next, but Luke 24 says she was reminded of what Jesus had told her in Galilee: "The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of the sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again" (v. 7 NIV). Those words had eluded her before, but now she remembered and understood that He too was delivered.

After the ultimate sacrifice, the resurrected Christ appeared first to this devoted woman we know so little about. But Jesus knew her. He knew exactly what He had delivered her from and for. And while standing in front of the empty tomb, Jesus told her it was her turn, Mary Magdalene would the the first to deliver the single most important message in human history: He has risen!

PRAYER FOCUS

Thank God for the fact that His deliverance allowed for yours, then ask Him for guidance in delivering the news to others.

MOVING FORWARD

• Describe what Christ has delivered you from.
• In what ways can you identify with Mary Magdalene?
• What role has Christ delivered you for?