Why did JESUS Choose HER? The Hidden Secret of Mary Magdalene

 

Magdala AD26. A young woman walks barefoot along the edge of a cliff above the Sea of Galilee. Her hair is tangled and her clothes are filthy. And here’s the [music] strange part. In her hand, she holds a few handwritten verses. [music] And then she throws them into the void. She reaches the edge, looks down, clenches [music] her fists, and takes a step toward the drop.

 This woman’s name is Lilith, but you probably know her by another name, Mary Magdalene. This is the story of [music] one of the most misunderstood women in the entire Bible. For 1500 years, she [music] was portrayed as a repentant prostitute, but the gospels never in any verse say that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.

 [music] So, who was Mary Magdalene really? This is the story of the first woman [music] who believed in Jesus. The only one who accompanied him throughout his entire ministry to the very end and the first witness [music] to eternal life. But it is also the story of a woman broken inside.

 Because within Mary, something very dark tormented her. A wound so deep that her demons had taken hold of her. And her greatest [music] battle was not against the judgment of others, but against herself, against her shadows, against her traumas, and against the deep loneliness that consumed her from within until Jesus found her.

 Mary was born in Magdala, a port city on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Her father was a fish merchant, a devout, [music] God-fearing man who made an uncommon decision for his time. He decided that his daughter, even though she was a woman, would know the scriptures as well as [music] any man. Every night after dinner, he would light the oil lamp.

 He would sit on the dirt floor of the kitchen with little Mary and have [music] her recite the psalms. He taught her the Hebrew alphabet traced with a little stick in the [music] ashes of the fire and told her the parables of the prophets as if they were bedtime stories. But there was one phrase he repeated to her always, a phrase he had chosen specifically [music] for her.

 He found it in the book of Isaiah 43. Thus says the Lord who created you, oh Mary, [music] the one who formed you. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. He would say it to [music] her like a lullabi, like a promise. He assured her that verse was meant for her and that when she was afraid, she should remember it.

 That when others told her who she was, [music] she should first remember who she was in the eyes of God. Remember this verse from Isaiah because it will become very important later on. But before Mary even reached adolescence, something happened that she could never have imagined. >> Her father died [music] and for little Mary, her father’s death was not only an emotional tragedy.

 It was a social sentence. To understand what happened to Mary, you first have to [music] understand what was happening in Magdala. Magdala was one of the most important port cities on the Sea of Galilee. Known throughout the Roman Empire for its [music] salted fish, Magdala’s salted fish was exported all the way to Rome itself.

 Ships loaded [music] with sardines and anchovies preserved in salt set out every week for the Mediterranean. That meant [music] two things. A lot of money was moving through the city and there was a strong Roman presence. And as in every port city of the ancient world where there were soldiers, there were also red light [music] districts.

 Magdala had one of the largest in all of Galilee. But for a fatherless girl, life in that city was especially cruel. A woman without a husband or father at that time was left with almost nothing. A woman had almost no rights. She could not inherit as a man could, nor could she testify in court. And if someone attacked her, justice rarely intervened.

 Without a man to protect her, Mary became invisible to the law and an easy [music] target for the cruelty of the Roman occupation. First came the stairs in the marketplace, [music] then the mockery and shoving, and finally the abuse. It is possible that Mary suffered a violent encounter at the hands of a Roman soldier.

 An event that not only stripped her of [music] her physical dignity, but also plunged her into deep trauma. Tormented, Mary fled to Capernium, a much smaller [music] fishing village. But the people of Capernium, seeing her degradation and misery, gave her a nickname. They began calling her Lilith. >> Lilith was not just any name.

 [music] It was the name of the first woman who, according to tradition, had been created before Eve. >> According to the story, Lilith rebelled against God and was condemned [music] to live as a night demon, attacking babies and seducing men. And so to call a woman Lilith was the gravest insult one could utter.

 [music] It was to call her literally a demon since Mary had no one to defend her. She eventually answered to that name. By the time she reached adulthood, Mary was utterly tormented. Years later, Luke would describe it with a single sentence. Seven demons had come out of her. In biblical symbolism, [music] the number seven represents completeness, totality.

 The text is meant to show that Lilith was completely captive to [music] darkness. Were they literally seven demons or post-traumatic stress disorder? The gospels don’t enter into [music] that debate. But what is clear is that her suffering was visible to the entire city. Her demons manifested [music] as inner voices, voices that whispered to her day and night.

 She lived in [music] a state of hypervigilance and constant terror. To drown out the voices, Lilith began taking refuge in the tavern by the harbor. There she drank wine non-stop while the local men looked at her with a mixture of pity and mockery. And here is something worth clarifying. For 1500 years, the church portrayed Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute.

 But the gospels [music] never state that. Not once in any verse. >> The confusion began in the year [music] 591. Pope Gregory the Great in a public homaly blended together three different biblical women. Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and the unnamed sinful woman from chapter 7 of Luke. The error [music] spread through sermons, through paintings, through entire books for centuries.

 It [music] was not until 1969 that the Vatican officially corrected that interpretation. But the damage had already [music] been done. Mary’s real problem was never prostitution. It was a darkness [music] that had tormented her until it left her empty inside. One night, the leaders of the synagogue decided [music] they had to do something about Lilith.

 Her condition was getting worse and worse. And as it happened, one of the highest religious authorities in all of Israel was passing [music] through the city. Rabbi Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, the supreme council of Judaism. A deeply learned man, [music] respected by everyone. If anyone could help Lilith, it was him.

 Nicodemus [music] accepted the case. He was convinced that his holiness would be enough. They took him to the place where she was being restrained. In those [music] days, Jewish exorcisms followed a strict protocol. Specific prayers were spoken. The patriarchal names were invoked and psalms of deliverance were recited, especially Psalm 91.

 Nicodemus did all of [music] it step by step. He spoke the traditional prayers. He recited the psalms. He invoked the sacred name [music] of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He did everything tradition required, but nothing happened. Lilith was still tormented. Nicodemus left that room devastated.

 This was unheard of for a rabbi of his stature. The correct formula [music] was supposed to produce the expected result. And if it did not work, he was to blame. Remember this name, Nicodemus, because he will reappear [music] in this story in the most unlikely way. After Nicodemus’s failure, Lilith fell into [music] her darkest moment.

 If even the wisest of the rabbis had not been able to heal [music] her, then who could? One morning before dawn, then to the palace of the Sanhedrin. She looked down at the black water 90 ft below. She closed her eyes and she took a step toward the edge. But at that [music] very moment, a dove flew above her and guided her back to the city.

 Lilith didn’t know it, but everything in her life was about to change. That night, she returns to the tavern and orders wine. She wanted to drink until her pain fell silent. But just as she is about to take the glass, [music] a hand stops her. He was a man of about 30, plainly dressed with road dust on his sandals. She gets angry.

 But when she looks at the stranger, something suddenly happens inside her mind. She feels something so powerful that it makes her leave the tavern. The stranger follows her and then the [music] man speaks a word. A word she had not heard from anyone’s lips in many, many years. Mary, Mary [music] of Magdala.

 She stops dead and asks him who he is. And the stranger answers her. This is what the Lord says. He who created you, [music] oh Mary, he who formed you. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. Mary was stunned. That was the [music] exact phrase her father used to whisper to her every night before she fell asleep.

 How did this stranger know it? Then something inside her changed. In that instant, the seven demons fled. For the first time in [music] years, Mary no longer heard the voices that tormented her day and night. She collapsed into his arms, weeping. But she wasn’t crying out of fear. She was crying out of recognition. After years of hearing voices tell her who she was not, [music] someone had just given her back the voice that told her who she truly was.

 Here, we need to pause for a moment because this moment explains one of the deepest truths of [music] the Christian faith. There are two very different ways of relating to God. The first is religion through [music] works. >> Religion tells you that you have to do things to earn God’s love. Follow rules, pray a lot, fast, follow the right rituals, [music] and avoid sin.

 If you do it right, God accepts you. If you do it wrong, God pulls away. In religion, you are the one climbing up toward God. Your acceptance depends on your effort. The second way is called the gospel, which in [music] Greek literally means good news. And the gospel tells you exactly the opposite. [music] >> It tells you that God already loves you and has already accepted you before you did absolutely anything [music] to deserve it. You don’t have to earn it.

You can’t earn it. It’s a gift. >> In the gospel, it is God who comes down to you. Your acceptance does not depend on your effort, but on his grace. [music] And look at what happened that night in Capernium. >> Nicodemus did everything right. The exact prayers, the [music] exact rituals, pure human effort aimed upward, trying to reach God [music] so he would heal Mary. And it failed.

 Jesus, by contrast, did not ask Mary to pray first. He did not ask her [music] to repent or purify herself. He asked absolutely nothing of her. [music] He simply came close and called her by name. Mary did nothing to deserve it. She was simply found. From that night on, Mary got her [music] name back and her happiness, too.

 She seemed like a different person. She was clean. Her hair was done. She had new clothes. In Jerusalem, Nicodemus hears that Lilith has been seen completely transformed, [music] and he decides to go find her to make sure his exorcism had finally worked. Nicodemus finds [music] Mary and is left speechless.

 The last image he had of her was of a possessed woman. And now he saw her with the clearest eyes he had ever seen [music] in his life. They were clean, calm, at peace. Nicodemus asks her how it was possible, what had happened to her in these past months to change her so much, but she doesn’t even remember him. And she answers, “I [music] used to be one way, and now I’m another, and what happened in between was him.

” Nicodemus is [music] filled with questions, but Mary leaves to prepare her first Shabbat dinner. That night, just as they were about to begin eating, someone suddenly knocks at [music] the door. Mary opens the door and sees him. It’s the stranger who saved her. And at last, he introduces himself by name. I am Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth.

 Jesus encourages her to [music] begin the prayers, and Mary recites the ritual prayers in Hebrew with such ease that everyone falls silent. What her father had taught her as a child after so many years of darkness [music] now came from her lips as if she had never stopped practicing. The people sitting at [music] that table were some of Jesus earliest followers.

They were not yet a group. They were only a handful of people [music] beginning to understand that something extraordinary was unfolding before their eyes. In the [music] weeks that followed, Mary’s life changed completely. She began to follow Jesus wherever he went. She was present at [music] the wedding in Kaa, a small village near Nazareth.

 There she witnessed [music] Jesus’s first public miracle. Water turned into wine. [music] And that afternoon, Mary began to understand something important. Her teacher [music] was something far greater than she could yet imagine. In the months that followed, Mary witnessed miracle [music] after miracle. She saw the leper healed, a man who had been condemned [music] to exile because of a disease society considered unclean.

 She saw him touch Jesus and return with his skin made clean. She saw the paralyzed man get up. The man whose friends lowered him through the roof of a house [music] because there was no other way to bring him close to the teacher. She saw Peter’s mother-in-law burning with fever regain her strength with a single touch and start serving the meal as if nothing had happened.

 And among all the people she met in those first months, the most important was Jesus’ mother, Mary [music] of Nazareth. Mary of Nazareth was a widow, quiet but deeply wise. And from the very first day she welcomed her like a daughter. The two of them prayed the shama together every morning and they understood each other with just a [music] glance.

 One day Jesus accepted an invitation to have dinner at the house of a man named Matthew. >> Matthew was a tax collector for the Roman Empire. And this is more important than you think. Tax collectors were considered traitors to their own people. [music] They worked for Rome. They robbed their own.

 They charged more than they were owed and kept the difference. >> They were hated by all observant Jews and were forbidden from entering the synagogues. When Jesus announced that he was going to dine with one of them, the disciples felt uncomfortable. >> Some complained under their breath. A few [music] even refused to enter the house. But Mary did go in.

 She helped with the meal. She greeted Matthew and served him unleavened bread with her own hands. When he looked [music] up to thank her, he found no contempt. Mary treated him like a brother. Soon after, another young woman named Rama joined the group. She was the daughter of a wealthy ventner from Galilee. [music] She could barely read Hebrew, and Mary offered to teach her.

 Every night [music] after the camp chores were done, the two of them sat by the fire with a scroll, and Mary taught her the letters. one by one, just as her father had once pointed them [music] out to her. Mary was healed, she belonged, and she was at peace. [music] But a few days later, a shadow Mary thought she had overcome forever was about to return.

 While the group was away, [music] a man who was not well arrived at the camp. Something inside him moved with a will of its own. He was possessed, and as soon as he saw Mary, he recognized her and called her by her old name, Lilith. That single word hit her so hard that in one second all the confidence Mary had built over the past few months shattered.

 The man began to speak to her. He reminded her of who she [music] had been. He reminded her of her debts. He reminded her of her sins and [music] of things she had already forgotten. Even though Mary was no longer that person, [music] the echoes of those words began to ring in her head louder and louder.

 and she felt as if her new life was only a disguise, as if she didn’t belong there, as if she were an impostor. And that deep down she was still Lilith. [music] Mary didn’t seek help. She locked herself inside her shame and made a [music] desperate decision. She slipped out of the camp without telling anyone.

 She headed to a dark tavern, a place [music] that represented everything she had left behind. And she started drinking to numb the pain. Back at the camp, [music] the disciples search everywhere for her, but have no luck. So Jesus sends Simon, Peter, and [music] Matthew to find her. When the disciples finally find her, she is in a state of deep [music] shame and despair. She was drunk and filthy.

 She told them she had been fooling herself all that time, believing she could truly change, that she wasn’t worthy of following Jesus. Then Matthew answers that he isn’t either. They brought her back to the camp and when they arrived, Jesus welcomes her, but she cannot lift her head. She was too ashamed.

 She was convinced [music] that this time she had ruined everything. That Jesus would cast her out for good. But Jesus [music] was not angry. When she finally lifted her head, she found no eyes of judgment. [music] And then Jesus told her something important. He told her that redemption [music] is not a one-time event.

 that the father never grows tired of lifting his children up when they fall and that what matters in the end is not perfection but the heart. >> This shatters a very widespread myth. Many believe that a true believer never falls and that if you follow Christ all your wounds automatically disappear. But reality is very different.

>> Peter, the apostle closest to Jesus, denied [music] him three times on the most important night. David, the king after God’s own heart, committed adultery and planned [music] a murder. Thomas, one of the 12, doubted the resurrection until he had physical proof. And Mary, [music] the first witness of Christ, fell back into alcohol.

>> Conversion is not the guarantee that you will never fall. It is the guarantee that you will have a place to return to. >> From that restoration on, Mary lived the happiest months of her entire life. The group of Jesus’ followers grew every week. They traveled [music] all through Galilee, village by village, preaching and healing the sick.

 And Mary was at the center of it all. She accompanied him throughout the full 3 years of his public ministry. She walked with him from the small villages of [music] Galilee to the busiest squares of Jerusalem. And she was present at the most important and decisive [music] moments. As the months went by, Jesus began entrusting some disciples with the task of memorizing and recording his teachings.

 Matthew, [music] who had been a scribe for the Romans, carried most of the work. He was the most educated [music] one in the group. He knew how to read and write Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. But Mary also took notes. Her memory had been trained since she was a child. [music] And here is something important that few people know. Part of what we read today in the Gospels passed through the memory of Mary Magdalene before it was ever written down.

 As the moment approached for the most important sermon of Jesus’s [music] public ministry, the sermon on the mount, Jesus spent entire days preparing [music] it. He called Matthew and Mary to listen and tell him which biatitudes sounded clearest and which ones needed refining. And when Jesus finally delivered it before hundreds of people, she was there [music] in the front row.

 She saw how Jesus restored sight to a blind man who had spent [music] his whole life in darkness. how he drove demons out of people who had been bound for [music] years. And how he calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee with just three words. Each miracle confirmed what she already knew. That Jesus was more than a man.

 Jesus sent the twel [music] apostles through the towns of Israel. Back at the camp remained the women, the children, and a few assisting disciples. While the men traveled the roads of Galilee, it was Mary who oversaw life in the camp. She organized the meals, cared for the children, and tended to the sick.

 She even joined Jesus’s mother in prayer. The women were the ones who sustained the heart of the ministry throughout that [music] time. During those months, new women drew near to the group, women whom Jewish society rejected. The first was [music] Fotina, the Samaritan woman from Jacob’s well. And here there is something important to understand.

 The Samaritans and the Jews had [music] hated each other for more than 400 years. They considered each other enemies. They did not eat at [music] the same table. They did not even speak to one another. >> For a Samaritan woman to join the followers of a Jewish rabbi was a scandal throughout [music] Galilee. >> But Mary was one of the first to embrace her when she arrived.

>> She treated her like a sister from the very first day. And along with Fotina, others came. [music] widows who approached timidly, searching for comfort, and women who had spent years working in Galilee’s [music] red light districts and now wanted to leave that life behind. They all saw in [music] Mary living proof that there was a way out.

 Then came one of the most spectacular [music] miracles of his entire ministry, the multiplication of the loaves. 5,000 [music] men, not counting women and children. Only five loaves and two fish. Jesus [music] blessed the little they had. five loaves and two fish and began to break it apart. Mary received a piece of broken bread in her own hands, and she watched as the baskets never emptied.

 12 full baskets were left over, but as soon as the miracle ended, the darkest and most intense stage of all that Mary lived through beside the master [music] began. Everything began to change with news that froze the group’s blood. John the Baptist had [music] been beheaded. Herod Antipus in a burst of drunken pride and at the whim of a dancing girl had silenced the voice crying out in the wilderness.

 When the news arrived, Jesus withdrew alone [music] to a secluded place to weep. And Mary, watching him from a distance, understood something terrible. If Herod [music] had killed John, the man who had baptized Jesus in the Jordan, there was nothing to stop Rome or the Sanhedrin [music] from doing the same to the master.

 A few days later in Cesaria Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples a question that [music] changed their lives. But who do you say that I am? Simon, the [music] impulsive fisherman from Capernium, answered without a second thought. You are the Christ, the son of the [music] living God. And then Jesus said something no rabbi had ever said [music] to a disciple before.

 You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. He changed his name just as [music] God had done with Abraham and Jacob. Mary understood the weight of that change better than [music] anyone because she herself had lived through a name change years earlier from Lilith to Mary. She knew exactly [music] what it meant for the son of God to call you by a new name.

 It meant your entire life had just begun [music] again from scratch. But the hardest blow to the heart of the group was still to come. In a moment [music] of chaos and persecution, the unthinkable happened. Rama died. That young woman who had left behind a life of luxury to learn to read Hebrew alongside Mary was violently [music] taken from them.

 Mary was among the first to reach her side. She saw Rama’s red tunic stain into a darker, more real [music] red. She saw Jesus look at Rama with a sorrow beyond words. and she saw how for the first time the teacher allowed death to [music] take one of his own. Mary tried to stay close to her fianceé Thomas in his grief, but he was no longer the same. He didn’t eat.

 He barely slept. The man who had once been precise and logical was now a well of resentment and silence. Mary stayed by his side, but this time [music] there were no magic words to soothe the wound. Thomas stopped eating, stopped laughing, and began to look at Jesus, not with [music] faith, but with a painful question no one knew how to answer.

After Rama’s death, the camp was a place of shadows. The [music] disciples expected Jesus to turn back, to return to the safety of the hills of Galilee. [music] But Jesus did not look back. Despite the pain, he gave a clear [music] command. They were going to Jerusalem, and not for a quick visit, but for Passover.

 The journey south was the strangest of all. Jesus walked toward the [music] holy city with a determination that frightened the apostles. He no longer stopped in every village to preach parables of hope. Now [music] his words spoke of sacrifice. Mary watched this change with terrible clarity. She saw Jesus preparing his friends for a world [music] where he would no longer be.

 The male disciples with Simon Peter at their head [music] did not understand. Peter was furious and confused. He could not grasp why Jesus was walking into the wolf’s den [music] just when they felt weakest. During that journey south, Mary Magdalene became the group’s [music] silent anchor. She saw how the group was beginning to fracture.

 Judas had started looking [music] at the money bag with contempt, and the sons of Zebedee were still arguing over positions of power [music] in a kingdom they imagined with golden thrones. They arrived in Bethany, and there the event took place [music] that sealed everyone’s fate. Lazarus, a close friend of the master, had been buried for 4 days.

 His sisters were inconsolable. Jesus [music] wept, too. It is the only time in the four gospels that Christ is recorded as weeping in front of a tomb. Then he approached the tomb, [music] asked them to remove the stone, and spoke a three-word command. Lazarus, [music] come out. And suddenly Lazarus came out of the tomb wrapped in burial cloths, walking into the daylight.

 When Mary saw Lazarus returning from death, a chill ran through her. As the crowd celebrated and the apostles shouted with joy, [music] she saw the eyes of the Sanhedrin spies among the people. She understood [music] with terrible clarity that by giving Lazarus life, Jesus had just signed [music] his own death sentence. The authorities would not allow a man with such power to remain free.

 And not [music] everything was going well within the group. Internal tensions were growing week by week. Judas, the disciple in charge of the common purse, [music] began quietly complaining about the master’s wastefulness. He said [music] Jesus accepted offerings that were far too costly, that the group’s money [music] could be managed better.

Finally, the morning of the entry into Jerusalem arrived. Jesus went up to Jerusalem riding on a young donkey [music] and entered the city, fulfilling the prophecy from the book of Zechariah. The crowd welcomed him like a king. They spread their cloaks on the road and waved palm branches [music] as they shouted, “Hosana!” Believing that the political liberator had come to drive out the Romans.

 The male disciples [music] got swept up in it. For a moment, the grief over Rama’s death and the fear of the Sanhedrin [music] seemed to fall away. They looked at one another, beginning to believe that at last, the kingdom of thrones [music] and crowns they had dreamed of for so long was about to become real. But if you looked at Mary Magdalene, the contrast was stark.

 She walked a few feet from the colt, [music] dodging the palm branches falling to the ground, but her lips stayed sealed. She did not shout. She did not celebrate as they passed through the city gates. She was the only one who never [music] stopped looking toward the hill where a few days later everything would end. After [music] Sunday’s triumphal entry, Mary began to sense something in the air of Jerusalem that frightened her.

 The city had stopped being a [music] place of welcome. It had become a pressure cooker about to explode. The Romans had reinforced the garrisons for the Passover festival. The Sanhedrin [music] spies were on every corner of the temple. And Jesus, instead of turning back, entered the outer court of the temple and stopped dead.

 There were the money changers, the dove sellers, the merchants [music] charging poor pilgrims abusive rates to exchange their coins for the official temple currency. What Jesus had seen and endured for years finally overwhelmed him that [music] morning. He overturned the tables. He set the animals loose. He drove out the merchants with an improvised whip.

 And throughout the court, he shouted a phrase that [music] would change the dynamic of the entire week. My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. The priests who saw it knew in [music] that very moment that they had to kill him. And as soon as possible, Mary saw everything from a few yards away, paralyzed.

 [music] And she noticed something in the teacher’s eyes that she had never seen in all the months they had spent [music] together in the hills of Galilee. Fury. During the nights of that week, the [music] group withdrew to Bethany for safety. It was there that the strongest bond of the series took shape.

 The bond [music] between Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary Magdalene became the mother’s constant support. She saw the Virgin Mary watching her son [music] with a mixture of divine pride and human pain. Without needing many words, [music] the two Marys shared the weight of what was coming.

 In the days that followed, the Pharisees and [music] the Sadducees tried to corner Jesus with trick questions one after another. The most famous of all [music] was the question about paying taxes to Caesar. They showed him a Roman silver coin and asked whether it was lawful to pay [music] tribute to the emperor. If Jesus said yes, he would be betraying the Jewish people.

 If he said [music] no, it would be a direct act of treason against Rome. Jesus asked for the coin. He looked at it for [music] a moment and then he answered with 11 words that would remain forever in the memory of the world. Render unto Caesar what is [music] Caesars’s and unto God what is God’s. Mary watched everything from the women’s corner.

 And every night as they returned to the camp [music] in Bethany where they were staying, she could feel the tension rising. The situation grew [music] more dangerous with each passing day. But the greatest threat in those days was not in the temple. [music] It was inside the group itself. Judas, the disciple in charge of the common purse, [music] had reached his breaking point. And it was not just greed.

 It was something [music] deeper. It was a bitter disappointment that had been building for years. Judas had followed Jesus for 3 years, convinced that one day [music] he would see him sit on David’s throne. That the master would use his divine power to overthrow Rome and restore Israel’s glorious kingdom. But that week, watching Jesus speak of his own death instead of his own coronation, [music] something inside Judas broke. And he made a decision.

That same week, Judas met secretly with the chief priests [music] in the shadows of the Sanhedrin Palace, and he sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, the price the law of Moses set as [music] compensation for the owner of a slave injured by an ox. That was the amount for which the son of God was sold. There is a theory you should know about this moment.

 Some experts argue that Judas did not betray Jesus [music] because he had stopped loving him. He betrayed him because in his twisted mind, he thought [music] he was helping him. >> He convinced himself that he was forcing the master’s hand. That if he handed him over to the authorities, Jesus would finally [music] have to act like a king to defend himself.

 And he would use his divine power to destroy [music] his enemies with fire from heaven. That was the logic that doomed him forever. As Judas sank [music] into the shadows, other disciples were also falling apart inside. Thomas remained [music] an empty shell after Rama’s death. Mary tried to reach out to him many times during those days, but she understood that Thomas represented [music] the silent doubt of the entire group.

 The question no one else dared to ask out loud. [music] Is the kingdom worth it if it only brings pain? Is following Jesus worth it if those who follow [music] him end up dead? Thursday night arrived, the Passover meal. The last [music] supper, Jesus had dinner with the twel apostles in an upper room in Jerusalem. Mary Magdalene was not in that room.

 The upper room was [music] only for the apostles, but she along with Jesus’s mother and the other women waited in a nearby house. They knew that night [music] something was about to break forever. Meanwhile, in the upper room, Jesus took off his outer garment. He tied a towel around his waist. [music] He filled a basin with water.

 And he began to wash his disciples feet one by one. In first century Judaism, washing feet was the work of [music] slaves. No rabbi did it. No teacher did it. It was an act that shattered every social hierarchy. [music] Peter refused at first, but Jesus told him that if he did not allow him to wash his [music] feet, he could have no part with him.

 Jesus, the son of God, washed the dust covered feet [music] of the twel men who within a few hours would abandon him. After dinner, Jesus made a statement [music] that froze the room. One of the twel would betray him that very night. The disciples [music] looked at one another, each one asking with a trembling voice, “Is it me, Lord?” Jesus [music] did not answer with words.

 He dipped a piece of bread into the bowl of sauce. And [music] he gave it to Judas. It was the traditional gesture of a host toward the guest of [music] honor at a Jewish meal. One final act of love toward a friend who, in truth, was already gone. Judas took the bread, chewed it, stood up, and left the [music] room without saying a word.

 When the door closed behind him, the air in the whole room changed. Then Jesus [music] took a piece of unleavened bread. He blessed it. He broke it. And he shared it, saying only four [music] words. This is my body. Then he took a cup of wine. He blessed it. And he passed it around, saying, “This is my [music] blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

” There at that small table in Jerusalem, he was [music] instituting the meal the Christian church would celebrate every Sunday for the next 2,000 years. After midnight, Jesus went up with the 11 remaining apostles to [music] the Garden of Gethsemane. Mary Magdalene and the other women, sensing what [music] was coming, could not stay in the house.

 They went out to the garden and kept their distance, watching in silence among the olive trees. In the center of the olive grove, Jesus knelt [music] down to pray. And he prayed three times in a row in anguish so intense that his sweat mingled with blood. As Luke would later record in his [music] gospel, “My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

 Yet not my [music] will, but yours be done.” While Jesus was sweating blood, the three apostles closest to the master, Peter, James, [music] and John, fell asleep, overcome by exhaustion. And Mary from a few yards [music] away heard the master’s sobs mingling with the disciples snores. That image [music] would never leave her. Mary saw dozens of Sanhedrin soldiers coming down the mountain path toward the garden armed [music] with swords and clubs.

 And at the front of them all, a familiar figure, Judas. He approached [music] Jesus, greeted him, and kissed him on the cheek. It was the signal agreed upon with the soldiers [music] to identify the teacher in the darkness of the garden. >> This is where the latest released season of The Chosen, the series you have been watching [music] on screen, comes to an end.

>> However, they have already filmed the final two seasons where they [music] will portray the two most important moments in the life of Mary Magdalene. The first [music] begins that very same early morning. That night was the longest Mary would ever remember. The soldiers took Jesus first to the house of Annis, the father-in-law of the high priest, then [music] to the house of Caiaphas, then to the palace of the Sanhedrin, and at dawn before the Roman governor, Pontius [music] Pilate.

 In the courtyard of Caiaphas’s palace, Peter denied knowing the teacher three times. When the rooster [music] crowed, he ran away and wept bitterly. But Mary Magdalene did not leave. Mary followed every one of those steps. Not up close because they wouldn’t let her, but close enough to hear the crowd shouting and to see her master led in chains into each new tribunal.

 At dawn, the soldiers took Jesus to the whipping post. They tore off his tunic. Then they lashed his bare back 39 times. Mary heard the blows from outside, hidden among the people. Then they placed a crown of thorns on his head. They draped a purple robe over him and the soldiers mocked him pretending to worship him as king of the Jews.

 When Pilate finally presented him to the people and said, “Exie homo, behold the man.” Mary saw him from the back of the courtyard. He was unrecognizable, his face swollen, his back torn open, his eyes sunken after an entire sleepless night, but it was still him. Then they laid the beam of the cross across his shattered shoulders and ordered him to walk.

 The road to Goltha was barely 600 m long, but for Jesus it was the longest walk of his life. He fell three times. The people shouted. The soldiers [music] struck him. And there making their way through the crowd walked the women. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary of Clus, Salomi [music] and Joanna. When they reached Calvary, the soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross.

 They drove iron nails through his [music] wrists and feet. Then they raised the wooden beam between two condemned thieves. But where were the 12 disciples? The apostles, who [music] for 3 years had listened to his teachings, those who had witnessed miracles and had [music] sworn to die for him fled. They were not there.

 Only John, [music] the youngest, returned in the end beside the mother of Jesus, the only one of the 12 who dared to be there. But the women did not run. And at the head of them all was Mary Magdalene. >> All four gospels agree that Mary Magdalene was there. She did not flee. She remained there at the foot of the cross until the [music] very end.

>> Mary heard the master’s final seven words one by one until his last breath. And then Jesus bowed his head and died. Suddenly, the sky went dark in the middle of the day. Mary felt the earth tremble and heard in the distance the veil of the temple being [music] torn from top to bottom.

 And when it was all over, she did not move. She stayed there at the foot of that wooden beam, staring [music] at the nailed feet of the one who had given her back her name. Here is a very deep truth that we cannot overlook because it is easy to follow Christ when there are miracles. [music] >> It’s easy to walk with him when everything seems glorious.

 When loaves are multiplied and storms are calmed. Because while Jesus was healing, [music] everyone wanted to be near him. But when Jesus was humiliated, beaten, disfigured, [music] and crucified, almost everyone disappeared. The hard part is staying [music] when everything seems to have ended in tragedy. >> And Mary stayed precisely there.

 She stayed when there was nothing left to [music] receive without understanding why God allowed that to happen and without knowing what would happen afterward. >> She didn’t know it yet, but this is why she [music] would become the woman who 3 days later would receive the most important news in all of history.

 That Friday afternoon, [music] two men took Jesus’ body down from the cross. They were Joseph of Arythea [music] and Nicodemus. Yes, the same Nicodemus who years earlier in a dark room in Magdala [music] had not been able to heal her. They wrapped him in a linen cloth. They anointed him with myrr and aloe, [music] and they laid him in a new tomb carved into the rock.

 Mary Magdalene watched as they rolled the stone over the entrance and she memorized the exact [music] place. On Sunday, before dawn, Mary got up. She took a jar of perfumed oil and accompanied by other women made her way to the tomb to finish [music] the anointing that Friday’s haste had kept them from completing. But when they arrived at the tomb, the [music] stone had been rolled away, and Jesus’s body was not there. It had disappeared.

 Mary was frightened. She thought someone had taken the master’s body during the night. She quickly ran back to Jerusalem to find Peter and John. She found them hiding in a house. The door locked because they [music] were afraid of the Romans. And she told them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him.

” Peter and John ran toward the tomb. And Mary ran after them. When they arrived, they found the linen cloths folded on the ground and the cloth that had been around his head rolled up separately in a place by [music] itself, but the body was not there. The disciples did not understand what was happening.

 They looked at each [music] other and went back to the city. But Mary did not leave. Once again, she did not leave. She stayed there [music] outside the tomb, weeping alone, sitting in the dust of the garden. And then still weeping, she bent down to look inside the tomb once more. [music] And she saw two angels dressed in white, one seated at the head, [music] the other at the feet of the place where the body had been.

Woman, why are you crying? They asked her. She answered in a broken voice. Because they have taken my lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him. As she said this, she turned around and she saw a man standing behind her. In the dim light of dawn, she thought he was [music] the gardener.

 The man asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” Not recognizing him, she pleaded, “Sir, [music] if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him.” And then that man spoke a single word. The same word that years earlier in a tavern in Capernium had broken the chains of her seven demons. Mary.

 Mary looked up [music] and recognized the master. She rushed toward him wanting to embrace him. But Jesus gently [music] stopped her. Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my [music] brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. But why did Jesus choose Mary Magdalene? When the moment came to reveal to the world the greatest miracle [music] in all of history, the final victory over death, Jesus could have appeared to [music] anyone. He could have appeared before

Pilate and put Rome to shame. He could have walked into the temple and silenced the Sanhedrin forever. Or he could have appeared first [music] to Peter, the disciple he had named the rock of his church. Instead, Jesus chose to appear to a woman who years earlier had been so [music] broken that she had wanted to throw herself off a cliff.

 A woman society had cast aside. And he made her the first witness [music] to eternal life. >> And there is one detail that should not be overlooked. In those days, a woman’s testimony was not even valid in a Jewish court. It had no legal [music] value. And yet Jesus wanted the first person to announce the resurrection to the entire world to [music] be a woman.

 The first Christians understood this so well that they called her apostle to the apostles. The first of them all. >> And this teaches us something profound about [music] the Christian faith. God does not choose his own because of their merits, nor their titles, nor their wisdom [music] or strength. He chooses them out of love.

Mary remained at the foot of the cross out [music] of love when everyone else fled. And out of love, she also stayed at the tomb when everyone [music] else left. That is why Mary was chosen. The first person to know that death had been defeated and that Jesus had risen. Mary ran [music] to Jerusalem.

 She entered the house where the disciples were hiding. And she spoke [music] six words that would change the history of the world. I have seen the Lord. He is alive. At first, [music] they did not believe her, but over the next 40 days, Jesus appeared to many others. To the 11 in the upper room, [music] to Thomas when he showed him his wounds, to more than 500 brothers at once, to Peter whom he restored by the Sea of [music] Galilee, until one day on the Mount of Olives, the disciples watched him rise toward heaven, [music] and a cloud hid

him from their sight. Mary was there. She watched the master [music] depart, but this time she did not weep. 10 days later at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon those gathered [music] in the upper room, and Mary Magdalene was among them. From that day on, her entire life became a [music] living testimony.

Tradition says that Mary accompanied the Apostle John on his journeys and [music] together with the mother of Jesus moved to Ephesus where she spent her final years in prayer. Another [music] tradition much cherished in the south of France says that she crossed the Mediterranean [music] in a boat with Lazarus and that she spent her final years in a cave in the mountains of S bomb in contemplative prayer.

>> We do not know which of the two traditions is true. Perhaps neither. But what we do know is that Mary of Magdala was buried as a saint. >> The Eastern [music] Church honored her with the title equal to the apostles and the western church celebrates her every July 22nd. >> The story of Mary Magdalene is not the story of a woman who was especially holy nor especially strong nor especially wise.

>> It is the story of someone broken inside, despised by [music] everyone who one day was found by Jesus. And from that night on she never let go of his hand. >> We all have demons and we have all [music] known darkness. Each of us in our own way. >> Darkness does not always take the form of a demon.

 Sometimes it is an inner [music] voice that repeats day and night that you are not enough. They may be old wounds we’ve carried for years or the shame we keep hidden. the fears that won’t let us sleep or the sins we thought had been forgiven only [music] to return in the middle of the night to remind us who we used to be.

 All of us at some point have heard their voices. In Mary’s case, the voices grew so loud that they stole her identity because we don’t choose our identity on our own. It takes shape year after year through the voices we listen to. The voice of the father who told us we were good for nothing.

 The voice of the child who gave us a nickname at school or the voice of the partner who abandoned us. The inner voice that repeats the worst moments of our lives on a loop. Those voices pile up. And one day, without even realizing it, we end up believing we are what they say we are. That is [music] exactly what happened to Mary. >> And this is where faith comes in.

>> Faith is daring to trust the voice of God. a voice that does not come from your story, but from beyond it. Faith is daring to believe there [music] is someone stronger than your wounds. Faith does not promise that the voices will disappear forever. [music] Mary relapsed as you’ve already seen in this story.

 And [music] still, she was chosen to be the first witness of the resurrection because it takes courage to believe. That courage, [music] that stubborn faith that refuses to give up is what God seeks. Not perfection [music] or holiness, but the courage to keep believing when there are no reasons left to do so.

 So remember [music] this, your demons do not have the final word. Your past does not determine [music] your destiny. Your mistakes are not your identity. When you hear the voices of [music] your demons, lift your eyes, clench your fists, and dare to believe, because that is faith. YouTube’s artificial intelligence has [music] demonetized this Christian channel without any explanation.

 But your action can help prevent the power of the word from disappearing. We need a real person at YouTube [music] to review our case. And the only way to make that happen is by getting enough supportive comments on X, Twitter. Just one minute of your time could save [music] this channel.

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