Women at the empty tomb.

The Jesus Difference

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here.”
Mark 16:6-7

I have looked through all the gospel stories of the resurrection, and found different accounts. One consistency is that Mary Magdalene was the first to arrive at the empty tomb, and the only one to see Jesus. This must have been astonishing to the disciples; so surprising, in fact, that they did not believe her and went to have a look for themselves. You may have noticed that only rarely are women mentioned in the Bible, and usually as a reference to a male—Mary, the mother of Jesus, Martha the sister of Lazarus, and so forth. And yet…a mere woman was the first and only one to see Jesus on that Easter morning.

If you look hard enough, you will find that women were always there, both before and after the resurrection. The Gnostic Gospels incorporated women’s accounts of Jesus ministry. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, whom everyone took to be a ‘tainted’ woman, is there. She was called, ‘Jesus’ companion’, which may be why the Gnostic gospels were considered heretical. The earliest Christian churches were located in the homes of wealthy women, and it was women who funded the ministries of the apostles.

If you remember, there are several accounts in the gospels in which Jesus talked with women against the religious standards of the time. He allowed a woman to anoint his head with expensive perfume, and to wash his feet with her tears, and to sit at his feet and ask him questions. He saved the life of a woman who was about to be stoned. He spoke with a ‘fallen and foreign’ woman at a well, and offered to give her the water of life. Jesus had a special relationship to women throughout his ministry, so much so that his male disciples often complained about it. Women were not revered in those days, just as they are not in many countries on earth right now. But Jesus was different. Jesus was always different.

In the spirit,
Jane