This is Mary Magdalene’s moment, in time, in history – although Matthew places ‘the other Mary’ with her, and Mark also name checks Salome. Read the story here.
To attend to a loved one after death was generally women’s work – there’s the whole ‘unclean’ thing going on, but Jesus has turned that upside down many times. And of course there’s His command to love one another in practical and even demeaning ways, such as washing feet.
Everyone is scared and dejected, but Mary Magdalene (and others) are doing their love duty, simply doing what is expected of them, but getting more than they bargained for. There’s an earthquake, an angel, fainting Roman soldiers, and an empty tomb. These women came to tend the dead, but have instead become the first recipients and bearers of the gospel.
Jesus chooses women. Sinful, forgiven, faithful, daring women to be the first to know and the first to tell, even though they know they won’t be believed, even though He knows that in his society women don’t count as witnesses. Jesus chooses them and trusts them. And he appears to them. The disciples are told to go to Galilee to wait for Him, but the women meet Him here and now in the garden ‘afraid yet full of joy’.
Afraid yet full of joy… even though Mary Magdalene would have been the last person chosen by society for such an important task, she is there, and she is entrusted by Jesus Himself. If Jesus hadn’t wanted Mary and the other women to carry the news, be gospel-bearers, He would have waited, but He didn’t. The women are already responding to what they have seen and what the angels have told hem. Jesus doesn’t need to greet them personally but He does.
When others try to diminish my ministry, or any other woman’s ministry, this still holds. From the moment Jesus burst out of the tomb women were chosen to become part of the gospel bearing, gospel declaring Good News (and it was the boys who had to wait).
nothinglikeadane 