Also Starring Mary Magdalene - The Apostle to the Apostles

There are some stories that are so familiar that we almost don't have to hear them anymore… The Wizard of Oz, Forest Gump, The Lion King, Harry Potter, Star Wars. We know the words… the plot twists and all the things that happen to the main character… For some, John 20 might be one of those passages. Because we gather together on Easter morning, and read the story of the empty tomb, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. And as we read, Jesus is the center of the story… rightly so! Jesus is the one who was crucified and is now risen. He’s the one we proclaim on Easter morning: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Jesus is the reason we’re here. But something can happen when we read a familiar story. Sometimes we know the story so well that we stop really listening… stop noticing the details… the people in the story. And so today, I want to focus on a portion of this text—a person—who we tend to overlook. Because standing right in the middle of one of the most important stories in all of scripture is a woman named Mary Magdalene.