Today’s sermon title sounds like it could be about professional sports teams or pro wrestlers. Instead, The Tower and The Rock are nicknames, titles given to people who held particular significance in the early church. We know Simon Peter, Cephas, the Rock. But who is the Tower? We know the sons of Thunder, James and John, we know the Twin, Thomas, the Zealot, Simon; we know the dagger man or city slicker, Judas Iscariot. Who are we missing? Haven’t we covered all of the apostles?
I’ll give you a hint: it’s possible that one of the stories we just heard read from Scripture this morning is not about the people we think it’s about. Last week we heard the story of Martha, a woman who owned a house where her sister Mary also lived, and who welcomed Jesus into their home. In John’s Gospel too, we hear about a Martha, a Mary, and we add a brother, Lazarus. No, Lazarus is not the Tower.
Some recent scholarship from Dr. Elizabeth Shrader suggests that the figure of Martha in John’s Gospel was added later, possibly to harmonize this story with the story of Mary and Martha in Luke’s Gospel. The very earliest texts omit a woman named Martha from this story altogether . The oldest Greek text in the world says, “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, at the village of Mary and his sister, Mary.” Dr Shrader could actually see the place in the 4th century text where a Greek Iota had been changed to a Greek Theta – Mary to Martha. The homeowner is Mary, and Dr Shrader suggests that if we pay attention to the way John tells the story of Jesus’ life, the logical conclusion is that this Mary is Mary Magdalene. She is Mary, not of Magdala -a village for which there is no evidence in the 1st century – but Mary the Tower. “Tower” is the literal meaning of the word Magdala in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Mary the Tower is just as important to early Christianity as Peter the Rock. In John’s Gospel, it is this Mary, sister of Lazarus, who recognizes Jesus as the Messiah, and it is her brother who is raised. Later it is Mary Magdalene who is the first to meet the resurrected Jesus himself, and to tell the apostles about him. Two of the most important events in the story of Jesus, and both occur between Jesus, and a woman.
This is how historian Diana Butler Bass summarizes part of Dr Shrader’s research:
It says a little later on that Jesus was talking to Martha. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had not been here, my brother would have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” And Jesus said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” And Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” And Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.” One of the most important lines in the whole of the Gospel of John. “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jesus asked this woman. And in this text, your English Bible, Jesus says that to Martha, “Do you believe this, Martha?” And she said to him, “Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Messiah. The one who’s come into the world.” Mary the Tower – by Diana Butler Bass – The Cottage (substack.com)
The church father Tertullian, writing about 200 CE –and he was no feminist, in fact just the opposite– he wrote that it was Mary with whom Jesus had this conversation. This implies that in the Gospel text Tertullian had, it was also Mary. There was no Martha in John’s story.
There are two points in the Gospels in which we get what’s called a Christological confession: someone declares Jesus to be the Messiah. One, where Simon recognizes the Christ in the Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – and Jesus’ response in Luke’s Gospel is to name him Peter: “And on this rock I will build my church”. This has been one of the key Scriptural arguments for the papacy and the claim of the Roman Catholic church to be the only legitimate form of Christianity for centuries. The other confession is in this story, where Mary declares Jesus to be the Messiah – the Christ.
So what if Libby Shrader and the scholars who have since pursued similar research are right, and the two people in the early church who were most in tune with the reality of who Jesus was, were Peter the Rock and Mary the Tower? What if, throughout history, we had paid as much attention and placed as much emphasis on The Tower as on the Rock? How would the church look different if the church of Jesus Christ was built on the Tower as well as the Rock? Wouldn’t you love to hear that story?
Someone needs to write it.
I find this idea fascinating. It makes total sense to me that John would create parallel structures in his telling of Jesus’ story; those kinds of structures were basic to storytelling in that time and place. Mary’s brother is dying; she sends for Jesus; Jesus delays until Lazarus has died, then when he arrives Mary lets all her grief out and scolds Jesus for being too late, while still holding out hope that he can intervene – which is remarkable in itself! It is her grief that prompts Jesus’ own tears, and in turn, it is his response to her that produces the declaration of faith. In John’s Gospel, it is the raising of Lazarus that is the prompt for religious leaders to get serious about getting rid of Jesus. In another foreshadowing, they even plot to kill Lazarus, so that news that he is alive doesn’t get out.
Later, it is Jesus’ own death that is grieved, and again, Mary is sure that it’s the end – that death has had the final word, but she is given good news by a messenger from God, and is reassured by Jesus – this time the resurrected Jesus who chooses this same Mary for his revelation – that her faith has not been in vain. That’s a good story. Lazarus’ death and coming back to life, Jesus’ death and resurrection, Mary’s grief in both cases, the combination we see in her of doubt and faith, and the good news of Jesus as the risen Christ. It’s all there, tied up with a rather nice bow!
When we see the story this way we can see that Lazarus and Mary were close friends of Jesus who played pivotal roles in his ministry. We can see that it was with them that Jesus found a home when he passed through Bethany. We know that Mary supported his ministry and went along with him on his journey at least part of the time. Now there’s an interesting dynamic: maybe Lazarus stayed home to tend the hearth and keep whatever the family business was going, while Mary the Tower went with Jesus. Maybe these people, this family, are not quite who we thought they were!
I’ve often wondered if this family became a kind of surrogate family for Jesus. Perhaps one of the reasons Mary keeps popping up in Scripture is that Jesus was like part of her family – maybe even WAS family! The idea of chosen family isn’t unique to the 21st century, or the queer community. I think many of us can name people in our lives who are like family to us – the “brother from another mother”, sister-friend, soul-sibling, adopted auntie, honorary grandparent, neighbourhood uncle, mama bears and surrogate parents – who love us like family no matter whether or not we have ties by blood or by marriage. A chosen family is especially important, though, to those who may feel some isolation from their own family, or who have had to leave them behind.
Jesus’ relationship with his own family is rather hard to tell from Scripture. He is seen to publicly reject them, but that seems to be a preaching device as much as anything – to show his followers that the kin~dom of God comes before all else. Some of his relatives wanted him to calm down and stop being so strange and loud and controversial – and Jesus was having none of that. It appears that his brothers may have been among his followers, and certainly became followers after his resurrection. His mother is named as among the women who were witnesses to his death and who saw him appear in the upper room. He cannot have been completely estranged. But perhaps he needed this other family, Mary – surrogate sibling or perhaps even wife, Lazarus, adopted brother or kinsman – who truly understood and supported who he was and what he was giving his life to.
Unlike John – I don’t have a way to wrap this sermon up with a bow. I wanted to share with you what I have learned about Mary the Tower, and let you ponder that for a while. I also invite you to think about chosen family – and how the church can be chosen family for some, especially people who may not find another place they feel safe and welcome. Forming a family, a community, a congregation where all are equally valued and all are loved is a part of what the Christian life is about. The image of Peter the Rock and Mary the Tower can form a solid foundation for such a community – strong and enduring, mirroring different gifts and identities, sheltering and saving many. The Tower and the Rock – valued parts of Jesus’ family, and an inspiration for us today.
(This sermon is part of a summer series on Discipleship, which continued on into September and October. If you wish to access earlier sermons in the series, please contact office@gordonunitedchurch.ca)
