Watch the Women

 It's been a while since I told a Bible story, so I thought I would write one this week. I usually write about women, because, well, I am a woman. I don't know, I guess I just can relate to those stories better. This is the third story I have started writing this weekend. The first one was Deborah and Jael, but, that story is so intense on its own, I just couldn't seem to do it justice. Then I thought, Miriam. That would be an easy story to tell and it is the right season for it. But, then I remembered a sermon my Dad gave many times as I was growing up. In that sermon, he mentioned these women I am about to tell you about. He said, "Watch the women." Many people get confused about the order of what happened during the last few chapters of the gospels. I presume a lot of the confusion is because this was a very stressful time in the lives of the disciples of Jesus. Whether they wrote the accounts themselves or verbally shared them with someone years later, it is easy to feel the emotion and intensity of the week. Sometimes it is hard to tell how much time passes between chapters, or even verses!

 The women are there too. Busy. Watching. Doing. If we watch them, so much of the storyline falls into place. I am going to try to not add too much, but I do want to put feelings and emotions in, so here we go...

The women could tell something was about to happen. Jesus seemed stressed and serious as he ate at Simon's house. They had a lot to do since Passover was only a couple days away, but this was an important dinner. Mary was gone, as usual when there was work to be done, but Martha had learned to let Mary be Mary. Martha could do what she loved to do, cook and prepare and plan! And, Mary could make Jesus feel welcome in other ways. By listening and watching. And so it was, this evening (two days before Passover) here she came. Late! Everyone was already eating. She had been to the market. She quietly came in, very somber, and walked right up to Jesus and began to anoint him with the expensive ointment she had bought. The beautiful aroma filled the room, the whole house. The other ladies came to see what was happening. They got teary-eyed. It was a very emotional time. Would this be the last time they saw Jesus? What was going to happen next? He had been saying some peculiar things that no one quite understood. Martha busied herself with preparations, letting Mary handle the raw emotions of the moment.

 "Thank you, Mary," she may have told her later. "That was a very thoughtful gift. It meant a lot to Jesus. I don't think of things like that." 

"It's okay. Martha, we would all starve if I had to prepare the food!" Jesus had taught them how to love each other, and even appreciate the ways they were different.

A day later the women were busy preparing for their families' Passover celebrations. Meanwhile, the disciples were preparing the upper room. Jesus wanted to have Passover with His disciples before he was crucified. 

After dinner was cleaned up, they probably went to bed, not realizing that Jesus was about to be arrested. In the morning (it would have been a Wednesday on our calendar), Mary, the Mother of Jesus, came and told the other women that Jesus had been arrested. What a horrible day that was. The women cried and prayed and held each other. Suddenly their world stopped. Nothing else mattered. They left their chores half done. They ran to find the disciples.

It wasn't hard to find Him. They could hear the crowd from the other side of town. "Crucify him!" They ran to try to see him. There Peter and John were. They were crying. The women began to wail, "No! No! Not Jesus!" As they caught sight of Him bloody and weak, carrying a heavy cross. They had seen many hauled off to be crucified, and it was always horrible, but this was... no words could describe it. 

Mary's heart was broken. "You have done it for my burial" Jesus' words rang in her ears. "It wasn't enough." she thought. Nothing she could ever do would be enough to repay Him for all He had done for her. 

She held Jesus' Mother. The older woman's whole body shook each time the soldiers struck a nail. They wouldn't leave him now! These strong women stayed. They got as close as they were allowed to. They lost all track of time. "Do you think he knows that I am here, that I haven't left him?" his Mother asked Mary. "Yes. He knows. He knows everything."

They heard him say he forgave the people who were cruelly torturing him. They heard the soldier's and the thief's words. They felt the earthquake and held each other as darkness fell in the middle of the day. More of their friends came, and soon several women were there. Watching. Crying. Holding each other. (Matthew 27:56)

Suddenly, Jesus looked right at his mother. John was nearby too. He told John to take care of his Ima. That was just like him. Always thinking about others. Even when he was in the worst pain a human could experience (the Romans made sure of that), he was thinking of other people.

They heard him begin to recite Psalm 22, and then he died.

"The veil of the temple just ripped!" they heard someone say. They wondered what it all meant. 

Good old Joseph came towards them. He had requested Jesus' body. The soldiers made sure he was dead by suddenly piercing his side with a long spear. Blood and water gushed out. Jesus' mother about fainted and began to wail again, but her sisters held her. They watched Joseph and Nicodemus wrap his bruised, mutilated body. They followed the procession, crying. 

When they all got to the tomb, the women whispered, "It is dear Joseph's tomb. He is laying Jesus in his own tomb. He is a good man!" The women knew the place well. They made sure to look exactly where he was buried. 

The sun would be down soon, which would bring the 15th day of the first month of the year. The days started at sunset on the Hebrew calendar. The 15th was the high day Sabbath, no matter which day of the week it landed on. It was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23: 6,7). This meant the women only had a short time, from the time Jesus was laid in the tomb, until the beginning of the High Day Sabbath. The men were in a hurry to get him buried before the sun went down. (Mark 15: 42-43; John 19:31)

The market was no doubt closed by now. It was late. The sun was about to set as they hurried home. They stumbled into their houses and held their children. Martha made them eat some soup. They all cried, again... still. I presume Martha was home taking care of the little ones. Feeding them lots of yummy Passover treats. Hoping that they were unaware of the horrible things happening across town.

The high day Sabbath would have been on, what we call, Thursday that year. The women rested. They held their little ones and each other. "Sing with me, Mama!" "Let's Dance!" the children cried. But, Mama's hearts were heavy. They told the children a bit about what had happened. Jesus was dead. He had slept in the grave that night. And, he was still in the grave today. 

"Mama! Remember when Jesus said he would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights like Jonah was in the belly of the fish?!" one of the kids said. "Maybe he will rise again! Like Lazarus!"

"You are so sweet, but that was just a lesson he was teaching us. He is dead and there is not another Rabbi who can raise dead people."

"It was not just a parable, Mama! He is going to be alive again. He isn't going to stay dead!" a little one cried.

The Mamas cried too as the children cried, understanding that their best friend was gone. Sleeping in the heart of the earth. Waiting for the resurrection. A time that seemed so far in the future.

As the sun set for the second time since Jesus had breathed last, the High Day Sabbath was over. And as the sun rose the next morning (which would have been Friday if they used the weekday names we now use) the women woke ready to work. It was time to stop crying. They swallowed their tears and began the day. There was work to be done! Not only was it the day after the high day Sabbath, but it was also another preparation day. This time preparing for the weekly Sabbath. The "Sabbath" taught in the ten commandments (Luke 23:55). It was time to think like Martha! They hurriedly bought spices and ointments. Ladies, if you love essential oils, and have ever made your own, you have a bit of an idea of what is happening here. They bought the herbs and the oil. They put the herbs in the oil to soak over the weekly Sabbath. Right? I mean, we usually let it set longer than a day, but they maybe didn't wait so long. 

Mark, dear, young Mark, who probably heard this story second-hand, includes a rather confusing verse. Mark 16:1 "And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. (KJV)"

While Luke says: "... they (the women)...prepared the spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. (Luke 23:56 KJV)

Guys! How could they prepare the spices before the Sabbath, and buy them after the Sabbath? Think about that for a minute. I know many guys are amazed at women and don't understand how we manage to do all the things we do. I even have friends who I am sure must have a clone because of all the things they manage to get done in a day, but, even a woman wouldn't be able to prepare something before she bought it!

But, fear not! I am a firm believer that the Bible is the infallible Word of God! There are no mistakes! "Let God be true and every man a liar." (Romans 3:4 KJV) is my favorite verse in the Bible! I believe, if something isn't matching up, it is WE who are wrong, not God's word!

But, as a woman, I can say, a lot of what we do actually has a simpler explanation than it might appear at first. I know we seem complicated. But, I will answer you as a sweet girl looks into her young husband's face and innocently says, "But, it DOES make sense! There were TWO Sabbaths that week, so I rested on the Sabbath. Then I went and bought the spices and prepared them after the Sabbath, but before the Sabbath, you know the Sabbath that it says in the commandments that we are supposed the rest on it. Remember?" And, the poor man looks at her as if she is from another world and all he sees is her smile and eyes and all he knows is that he loves her and it doesn't matter that he has absolutely no idea what she just said. 

So, poor Luke and Mark are doing their best to explain what they heard, but every time Mary begins to tell her side of the story she begins to cry and the other Mary jumps around so much in her story that we forget that it really isn't possible to buy something after you have already prepared it! But, God's story is still told and it is perfect! So, like I always told my brothers when I was growing up, "Listen to what I mean, not what I say!"

The blur of the High Day Sabbath, Preparation Day, and the weekly Sabbath (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) brings us to a few women checking the ointment (ie- essential oils). It is after sundown, but Jesus' body has already been in the tomb for 3 days and 3 nights.

"Do you think he will stink, his body, I mean?"

"Joseph and Barnabas put some herbs on his body before they wrapped him, but they didn't have time to do much else."

"It is getting so late!"

"This always takes a lot longer to make than I think it will."

"I think the ointment has set long enough. Let's go anoint Jesus early in the morning."

" Okay, I'll be here first thing."

The women chatter away somberly. Not in quite as much shock as they had been three days ago. Ready to do what needs to be done. Ready to anoint his body. 

The next part is even more confusing, but this is the best I can make of it at this time. You see, Mary Magdelene was having an especially hard time and it seems that she may have made more than one trip to the tomb that (Saturday) night. 

Perhaps it went something like this:

Right after the sunset (on Saturday) Mary Magdalene took her cloak and walked out the door. The other Mary didn't even have to ask where she was going. She followed her. The two women knew the path well. They held onto each other as they walked in silence. 

They sat staring at the tomb. The soldiers were guarding it. They hid a ways off, sitting in silence, watching the sunset. The beautiful colors faded as the sun sunk lower below the horizon and the first day of the week began. Suddenly the ground began to shake. The frightened women screamed. The guards fainted. The women were too afraid to speak. Was it a vision? Were those angels? What was going on? It was going to be dark soon. They found themselves walking towards the tomb, "Do not be afraid," the angel told the women, "I know you are looking for Jesus. I know you watched him be crucified and die. But, he isn't here! He has risen! Come see where he lay, and then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is on his way to Galilee and they can see him there!"

The two Marys were ecstatic and terrified at the same time. They ran to find and tell the others. But, suddenly they stopped. There he was! Right in front of them. They fell at his feet and kissed them. Could Mary still smell the perfume she had anointed him with not even a week ago?

He told them not to be afraid and to tell the others he would see them in Galilee.

That was Matthew's account, now moving to John 20... Maybe it was later, maybe it wasn't sunset, maybe it was dark, maybe it was just Mary Magdelene. It was all kind of a blur. She was in shock. Had the disciples not felt the earthquake? 

Mary Magdelene ran back from the tomb, "Peter! John! Someone took Jesus' body! I don't know where they put him!"

The guys raced ahead of her to check it out. They looked in. They don't mention seeing, or hearing angels. They went back home. Were they confused? Scared? In Shock?

Mary stayed behind. She couldn't leave. She began to cry. Was the other Mary there too? Is this the same time that Matthew tells us about? 

When Mary looks inside the tomb, she sees two angels.

Then she sees Jesus, but she doesn't touch him!

The accounts are so beautifully unmatched. I won't try to figure out what exactly took place and in what order. The discrepancies show that these were real people! Tired. Stressed. Confused. Afraid. Trying to write down what happened. Not sure what was real and what was a vision. What were the exact words said? 

But whatever the course of events, we can be sure that when several of them came to the tomb, at sunrise, (Mark 16) the stone had been rolled away and Jesus had risen from the dead! The tomb was empty, and suddenly the spices and ointments didn't matter. And, we don't even care if Peter, or John, won the race to the tomb. Does it really matter if Mary Magdelene was alone, or with other women, or if she went several times that night, trying to figure out if what she had seen was real?

What matters is what they all agree on: The tomb was empty! Jesus did meet them, several times, and was very much alive and talking and walking and it was REAL!!

And, then, I suppose, they went home and told the children that their friend was alive, and I suppose those little ones said, "I told you he would come back, Mommy!" 

I have no reason to believe that there was a child who said that, or even that any of those women busily preparing spices between the Sabbaths had little children at this time. But, knowing little children, I wouldn't be surprised!