On this festive day friends, if fear is one of the things you’ve been carrying around lately, Easter does not ask you to pretend otherwise. The first witnesses carried fear too. But they also carried great joy. And that is the strange and beautiful paradox of Easter: fear and joy can live in the same heart at the same time. Fear can be very real. But because Christ is risen, it does not have the final word. Joy does.

Magdala, in Aramaic, means fortress, or tower. Now perhaps, the town of Magdala, where Mary came from, had a fortress of some kind. But Schrader suggests that Mary Magdalene is not named solely for where she comes from, but for who she is. Both Peter and Mary Magdalene confess Jesus as Lord. Peter is the Rock, Mary is the Tower. This is theologically meaningful. It suggests that confessions like these are both the foundation and the pinnacle of our faith. They are our starting point and the culmination of our journey with Christ.