The Power of the Penis

Mary Magdalene, Apostle

John 20: 1-2, 11-18

In the Gospel text we see a woman is given divine authority to speak. Mary Magdalene is the apostle to the apostles. The apostle Paul doesn't mention this at all. Paul talks about the resurrected Jesus appearing to Peter and John, the 12, the 500 and then himself. The Gospels agree that Mary is the first one to whom Jesus appeared. Jesus commissioned Mary Magdalene to proclaim his resurrection to the male disciples, the brothers.

Jesus tells her not to hold on to him, or cling to him, and this is important. All too often men hold on to Jesus and use His authority to hold on to the Church. The papacy is a good example of how Jesus' authority is used to control others...who can commune and who can't. When the Pope was "crowned" he presided at a communion service outside St.Peter's Basilica and standing next to him was a Patriarch from the Orthodox Church...they have penises. The message there is that that the Orthodox Christians are "OK;" they are really Christians. The rest of us are baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but that is as far as the connection goes.

Seizing hold of Jesus sandals and all is taking the authority of Jesus and using it as a stick to beat other people with it. This is all about control and controlling the Means of Grace and can mostly be seen in communion. When Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper He took the bread and passed it and did the same with the wine, he passed it and the disciples passed it to each other. It is seen that I and the assisting minister are the ones in control of the consecrated elements, but in reality we are just the hands that are passing them.

This is about the trusting the Gospel. The power of the message, the Word is to be trusted and if we don't trust it then we create legalistic power to control others.Communion is and individual experience with Jesus. In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he excommunicates someone in his letter exercising his apostolic authority. When it came to communion practices he told them that they would receive it to their own condemnation, but he did not exercise his authority to tell them directly what they should do or not do.

The painting of Jesus in the Book of Revelation have it wrong when they depict Jesus with a sword in his mouth like a pirate. The image is that the Word of the Lord is mightier than a sword. It is the power and authority, the sword of rule. Trusting in the Gospel is to trust in the authority and power of the Word Made Flesh and not to hold on to it.