Passover begins tonight and we are thinking of Holy Week events 2000 years ago when Mary Magdalene and Yeshua were alive and in Jerusalem for Passover, the ominous clouds rising.<\/p>\n
Margaret Starbird writes:<\/p>\n
As some of you know, I believe that the “Passion of the Christ” begins\u00c2\u00a0–not at the Last Supper and the Agony at Gethsemane– but with the\u00c2\u00a0anointing at the banquet at Bethany that occurred shortly before the\u00c2\u00a0Passover.<\/p>\n
All four canonical Gospels include the story of the anointing of Jesus\u00c2\u00a0by a woman. Only Luke removes this event from Holy Week, placing it\u00c2\u00a0early in Jesus’ ministry and calling the woman “a sinner from the town.”
\nThe other Gospels agree that the event occurred during Holy Week and\u00c2\u00a0at a banquet held in Bethany. John’s Gospel explicitly states that\u00c2\u00a0Lazarus reclined with Jesus at the table, while Martha served the\u00c2\u00a0dinner.\u00c2\u00a0It was their sister Mary who anointed the Lord with precious nard and\u00c2\u00a0“wiped her tears from his feet with her hair”–a detail mentioned also\u00c2\u00a0in\u00c2\u00a0Luke’s version. It’s clear that John was trying to correct Luke’s\u00c2\u00a0spurious\u00c2\u00a0version of the story, reclaiming the reputation of Mary, the woman with\u00c2\u00a0the Alabaster Jar. And her fragrance filled the house! (John 12:3).<\/p>\n
This line links the anointing to the Song of Songs (Solomon) where the\u00c2\u00a0nard of the Bride wafts about the Bridegroom at his banquet table (SoS\u00c2\u00a01:12). And “The king is captivated by your tresses.”<\/p>\n
John’s Gospel goes on to record that Judas complained of the wasted\u00c2\u00a0value of the perfume, which could have been sold and the money used\u00c2\u00a0to feed the poor, to which Jesus responds, “Let her keep it for the\u00c2\u00a0day of my burial….” This is significant because in John’s Gospel,\u00c2\u00a0Mary Magdalene goes alone to the tomb on Easter morning to mourn\u00c2\u00a0the death of her Beloved and finds him resurrected in the garden.<\/p>\n
The importance of this anointing of Jesus by a woman is huge!\u00c2\u00a0“Messiah” means “anointed One.” She was proclaiming him\u00c2\u00a0King and Messiah of Israel in his role as the “Sacrificed Bride-groom King.”<\/p>\n
The anointing of the “Bridegroom King” was an ancient rite in\u00c2\u00a0the Middle East, in the fertility cults of the “Sacred Marriage”\u00c2\u00a0(hieros gamos). The royal Bride represented the land and people\u00c2\u00a0and was a surrogate of the Goddess. She anointed her Bride-groom in a nuptial rite, a prefiguring of the anointing by the\u00c2\u00a0feminine during coitus. She then led him to the Bridal Chamber\u00c2\u00a0to consummate their union. The joy and blessing from their love-making spread out into the crops and herds and into the people\u00c2\u00a0of the land — and everyone lived happily ever after — just like\u00c2\u00a0Cinderella!<\/p>\n
Actually, NOT. Shortly after the celebration of the hieros gamos,\u00c2\u00a0the Bridegroom King was arrested. He was tortured, mutilated,\u00c2\u00a0executed and entombed at the Spring equinox. Then, on the third\u00c2\u00a0day, his Bride went to the tomb to mourn his death and discovered\u00c2\u00a0him resurrected in the garden! This ancient festival in the cults\u00c2\u00a0of numerous god-goddess couples in Near and Middle East was\u00c2\u00a0a celebration of the eternal return of LIFE in the springtime… and\u00c2\u00a0from their sacred RE-union, all blessings flowed–as in the “nuptials\u00c2\u00a0of the Lamb” in Revelation 21-22.<\/p>\n
“Easter” is merely a corruption of the name of the Goddess\u00c2\u00a0Oestare, derived from Ishtar\/Astarte. Christianity may have “new\u00c2\u00a0wine in new wineskins”—but the “Passion Story” is that of the\u00c2\u00a0eternal “Bride and Bridegroom” and beings with the anointing of\u00c2\u00a0the King: “She has done me a favor… She has anointed me in\u00c2\u00a0advance for my burial, and wherever this gospel is preached,\u00c2\u00a0what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mark 14:7-8).<\/p>\n
Mary Magdalene is clearly styled as the Bride of the Easter\u00c2\u00a0Mysteries. Picture her anointing Jesus at the banquet,\u00c2\u00a0following him as he carries the cross, standing with him as he\u00c2\u00a0endures the tortures of crucifixion, anointing his body for\u00c2\u00a0burial and returning at first light on Sunday to mourn him.
\nBefore celebrating the liturgies for Palm Sunday, please\u00c2\u00a0contemplate the mysteries of the “Sacred Marriage” celebrated\u00c2\u00a0in the Song of Songs and the Anointing at Bethany (John 12:8).<\/p>\n
In Memory of Her- Passover begins tonight and we are thinking of Holy Week events 2000 years ago when Mary Magdalene and Yeshua were alive and in Jerusalem for Passover, the ominous clouds rising. Margaret Starbird writes: As some of you know, I believe that the “Passion of the Christ” begins\u00c2\u00a0–not at the Last Supper and the Agony at … Continue reading Easter & the Anointing at Bethany, Margaret Starbird<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMargaret
\n“Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile”
\n www.margaretstarbird.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"