John Bell and Graham Maule of the Iona Community wrote a series of excellent imagined conversations between Jesus and Peter (originally written in the 1980s, but published as a set by Wild Goose, 1999). This is my attempt to write one between Jesus and Mary as part of a service today which will engage with the BMS resource Dignity.
Mary: Jesus?
Jesus: Yes Mary?
Mary: You never seem to care what anybody thinks.
Jesus: What do you mean?
Mary: Well here we all are – us women – and here you are.
Most rabbis have no time for women disciples.
Most rabbis seem ok encouraging the men to pray
‘Thank God I’m not a Gentile, not a slave and not a woman.’
Jesus: Mary I’m not most rabbis.
Anyone the scriptures say:
“God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”
Mary: Jesus, do you remember Peter’s mother-in-law?
How you healed her and immediately she was rushing round
the house trying to make you a meal
and she kept telling Peter what to do, he went bright red.
Jesus: Yes that was funny.
Do you remember when I healed Tamar, the daughter of Jarius.
There was all that wailing because they believed she was dead,
and then she comes running down the stairs dancing and clapping –
full of the joy of God.
Mary: It was like a glimpse of heaven … especially when you told Jarius to cook her a meal.
I remember the woman, so brave she was,
who reached out a grabbed the edge of your cloak.
12 years she had suffered, 12 years!
and yet she found the strength to reach out.
I would have run off when you asked who it was who had touched you,
but she didn’t hide, but stepped forward
and you smiled and she smiled.
Jesus: What about that time I came to visit ...
Mary: And Martha complained that I didn’t help her.
Jesus: That’s what I love about Martha, she’s a plain-speaker. And when I get talking …
Mary: (interrupting) You never stop!
Jesus: (hands up, laughing) I know, I know.
Mary, you know my message: the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is near
You know what that means don’t you?
Mary: I think so Jesus. I think it means that you are making everything right
which has gone wrong.
I think it means that you’re ending the curse of Eve, that we would always be those
ruled by men.
Jesus: Yes Mary that is what part of the kingdom is about. The kingdom of God
is about reversing the curse of sin.
Mary: Do you think all that you are doing will ever get written down?
Like the stories of Moses and David and Elijah.
Jesus: And the stories of Miriam, Ruth and Esther.
They might do.
Mary: And they will tell all about the people’s lives you changed and all the people you called
to follow you.
Jesus: If they do, you’ll be in there. You and Joanna, Susanna and Martha and the other
Mary. There is no story without any of you and the many others. Your acts will never
be forgotten.
Mary: I remember when I first met you. You look at me and you saw me.
It was the most terrifying and wonderful moment.
You changed me.
You were the first man to see me and not want me for anything.
Jesus: It was like a glimpse of heaven.
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