Luke 8: Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the realm of God. The twelve were with him, s well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for the disciples out of their own resources.
Luke 24: On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, and when they went in, they did not find the body. They were perplexed about this, and suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ Then they remembered his words; and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to the apostles an idle tale, and they did not believe the women. Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
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In the first of the CS Lewis stories, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, Aslan the lion lies dead, and the two girls - Susan and Lucy Pevensie - are the only ones to be there with him as he dies. They stay, much longer than they should, and just as they are leaving, the stone table cracks in two - and when they turn around, Aslan is gone. We learn that the deepest of deep magic is love, the love of someone who will freely give up life if it will save the lives of friends. Of course, they can no longer find Aslan in that place. Yet when they find Aslan again, the world of Narnia is undergoing a recreation, and coming of new life, sweeping away the old.
The story throughout this weekend has made a point that the people who stayed with Jesus to the end were the women, and in every one of the stories, consistently, it’s Mary Magdalene who is there. It’s Mary Magdalene who stands near the cross with Jesus’ mother, and it’s Mary who is the one who goes to the tomb. In Matthew’s Gospel there are two women, in Mark’s there are three, in John there are four, and in Luke there are several. Of them all, Mary Magdalene is considered to be the first believer and the first disciple of Jesus, even before the men.
It is the women who remain with Jesus right to the end, and the women who are first at the grave. It is the two girls - Susan and Lucy - who remain with Aslan, and are there at the time of his resurrection.
I heard the comment this week that Luke’s Gospel was patronising and put women down. Yet I can’t help but think again of the opening passage of Luke - that he was writing down to the best of his ability the events as they had been told to him. I don’t think Luke patronises the women at all, I think the men get the brunt of it - the women come back with a story of an empty tomb, and the men dismiss it as an idle tale - although Peter still has to go have a look, and *then* the rest of the men accept it.
In one way or another, the Gospel writers have all focussed on the women, on Jesus’ willingness to treat women as people, as equals, not property as in Jewish law. So the very first recognition of resurrection is through a woman, the first words of new life are to a woman, Mary Magdalene. ...and in the end, Mary was able to turn the minds and hearts of all of them to the good, and bring them together as a group once more.
I have a question for the women of the congregation. Have you ever had the experience of going in to an automobile repair shop or dealership, and explained what was wrong with the car, and been completely patronised? And then go back in with your partner, and find the mechanics take it seriously right away?
I remember being very ill, shortly after Norio and I arrived in Michigan. I was excessively tired every day, hair loss, muscle and joint pain. I went to see a doctor, who said I was “just depressed” and needed something to “boost my mood”. Norio was so angry he came to the next appointment - and it was almost humorous how fast the doctor suddenly took it seriously, asked questions about my life, children, job, etc - and decided I was burned out and needed six months rest.
According to Luke’s telling, not only did Jesus have women disciples, he had travelling women disciples. You can imagine the headline in the Galilean Gazette— ‘Radical rabbi on the road again with women and men he is not related to—- Oyveh! News at Eleven’. Jewish men were not supposed to study with, fraternize with, or travel with women they were not somehow related to, and yet in Luke 8.1-3 we see Jesus on the road with a significant group of women, as well as the Twelve men. In fact we hear that they travelled with Jesus to that last fateful Passover festival in Jerusalem. When they got there, it was the women, not the Twelve who were last at the cross, first at the empty tomb, first to see the risen Jesus, and first to proclaim ‘he is risen’. Miryam of Migdal is at the forefront of this story. In a patriarchal culture, a man’s man’s world like first century Judaism, in which the witness of women was consider suspect, and not necessarily valid in court, you don’t make up a story like we find in Luke, about these women, if you are trying to start a world religion involving both men and women. The prominent role of women in the Easter story is a sure sign of its authenticity.
In this story today, the women - a good crowd of them, by the sound of it - all come back from the tomb having seen two messengers - angels - in dazzling white robes and hearing the message that Jesus is no longer there, but is risen. The women believe; the men dismiss it as an idle tale, until Peter goes to have a look, and then suddenly it’s a story worth re-telling. Their reaction is so contrary to the way Jesus treated women, that it sticks right out like a sore thumb. Would Jesus have dismissed them so quickly? Funny how even in the midst of such grief, old prejudices still have a role. It’s almost as if they learned nothing from Jesus.
Mary Magdalene was restored to wholeness of spirit by Jesus, Maryam, the woman from Migdal, or Magdala, was the first disciple and the one who remains by Jesus. Joanna, the wife of Herod Antipas’s steward, Chuza. Chuza would have been the chief financial officer of the tetrarchy, a very powerful position indeed. Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, is the third one mentioned by Luke, and Matthew tells us of the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
When the men fled on Good Friday, the woman witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion. Their desire to properly prepare Jesus body for burial on Easter morning made them the first to recognize that Jesus had risen.
The Gospels give us a glimpse into the nature of Jesus’ followers. Rather than being limited to twelve disciples (from the point of view of being pupils of a rabbi), Jesus’ entourage includes unsung heros whose contribution has been undervalued. The Easter accounts help to correct this picture, particularly with respect to the women who followed him.
I believe that this whole story is a confirmation of the text from Isaiah 65 - that a new heaven and a new earth are being created. The inclusion of women is a piece of the picture - a piece close to the nature of Jesus. The women are there when the new creation begins.
“Why are you here? Whom do you seek?” ask the angels. “For I am about to create a new thing’, says God in Isaiah “Look, do you not see it?” Here is the new creation at its beginning, a new way of being in which women are as equally valued as men, regardless of who they may be. Women who otherwise would have been discriminated against because of their lives or their histories. The old earth passes away, and a new one is created.
So when we come to this tomb, we are also coming straight to the risen Jesus who has yet another tough message for us. This is the coming of a new creation, a new realm, in which God and humans are co-creators. What is it that the risen Jesus is saying to you this morning? Could it be, don’t cling to the Jesus of the past, don’t cling to the church of the past? Could it be “Look, I am about to begin on this new thing. I warned you it was coming, didn’t I? Well, here we go.
The message of the two angels, and Jesus, is not about getting back to the good old days, but about going forward into a bright future. The future is as bright as the promises of God— and what the resurrection of Jesus promises is that this new thing has begun, and the love of God goes on. Jesus is risen - and in that act, all manner of things are possible for this church and for God’s world. In the rising of Jesus we are offered a chance to work at something new and completely unfamiliar - and it’s the women around Jesus who lead the way. Amen.
Sources:
1. Mary, Mary Extraordinary - an Easter Sermon, author anon.
2. Women at the Tomb, an Easter sermon from Rev. Fran Ota.
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