Topsy-turvy - On The Importance Of Women At Jesus’ Tomb

If Luke was a marketer, he would have written it differently. A centurion would have confirmed that the tomb was empty, or perhaps the high priest. Instead, his Gospel gives us a group of women seeing angels. Luke even acknowledges the credibility issue: when the women reported it, “the story sounded like nonsense to the men” (Luke 24:11).

The secondary status of women in the ancient world is well known. In some cultures, a woman’s testimony wouldn’t stand up in court. Men believed men. So this is hardly the way to launch a worldwide religion . . . unless, of course, you’re just telling the truth.

Perhaps the greatest testimony to the truth of the Gospel accounts is their utter honesty. These are not puff pieces, telling us only what we want to hear. We get the real picture. Peter often said the wrong thing. Thomas doubted. The other disciples quarreled. And here, at the moment of ultimate victory, in the glow of a resurrection Jesus had predicted, the men refuse to believe the women, because . . . well, maybe just because they’re women.

Instead of asking Luke or the other Gospel writers why they wrote it this way, perhaps we should wonder why God made it happen this way. Then, suddenly, we begin to see a pattern. Why was Jesus born to a peasant girl? Why the tiny nation of Israel? Why did he bless the poor and heal the sick? Why did he include children? There is a topsy-turvy quality in all of God’s doings. The first shall be last, Jesus said, and in the Resurrection account the supposedly second-class gender is entrusted with the most important news ever: He is risen!

The resurrection of Jesus sets us free not only from sin and death, but also from the accumulated injustices of human culture. No group can say to another group, “You don’t matter,” because Jesus offers new life to all. The Spirit is poured out upon young and old alike, sons and daughters. And so the trail of witnesses extends from the Marys at the tomb to Priscilla, Phoebe, and Lydia, to Perpetua, Marcella, and Mahalia.

Let us all testify boldly to the power of Christ’s resurrection in our lives and in our world.

It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.

Luke 24:10-11