Of all the daring
things which Jesus did in connection with his earth career, the most amazing
was his sudden announcement on the evening of January 16: "On the morrow
we will set apart ten women for the ministering work of the kingdom." At
the beginning of the two weeks' period during which the apostles and the
evangelists were to be absent from Bethsaida on their furlough, Jesus requested
David to summon his parents back to their home and to dispatch messengers
calling to Bethsaida ten devout women who had served in the administration of
the former encampment and the tented infirmary. These women had all listened to
the instruction given the young evangelists, but it had never occurred to
either themselves or their teachers that Jesus would dare to commission women
to teach the gospel of the kingdom and minister to the sick. These ten women
selected and commissioned by Jesus were: Susanna, the daughter of the former
chazan of the Nazareth synagogue; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the steward of
Herod Antipas; Elizabeth, the daughter of a wealthy Jew of Tiberias and
Sepphoris; Martha, the elder sister of Andrew and Peter; Rachel, the
sister-in-law of Jude, the Master's brother in the flesh; Nasanta, the daughter
of Elman, the Syrian physician; Milcha, a cousin of the Apostle Thomas; Ruth,
the eldest daughter of Matthew Levi; Celta, the daughter of a Roman centurion;
and Agaman, a widow of Damascus. Subsequently, Jesus added two other women to
this group--Mary Magdalene and Rebecca, the daughter of Joseph of Arimathea.
It was at Magdala
that the women first demonstrated their usefulness and vindicated the wisdom of
their choosing. Andrew had imposed rather strict rules upon his associates
about doing personal work with women, especially with those of questionable
character. When the party entered Magdala, these ten women evangelists were
free to enter the evil resorts and preach the glad tidings directly to all
their inmates. And when visiting the sick, these women were able to draw very
close in their ministry to their afflicted sisters. As the result of the
ministry of these ten women (afterward known as the twelve women) at this
place, Mary Magdalene was won for the kingdom. Through a succession of
misfortunes and in consequence of the attitude of reputable society toward
women who commit such errors of judgment, this woman had found herself in one
of the nefarious resorts of Magdala. It was Martha and Rachel who made plain to
Mary that the doors of the kingdom were open to even such as she. Mary believed
the good news and was baptized by Peter the next day.
Mary Magdalene
became the most effective teacher of the gospel among this group of twelve
women evangelists. She was set apart for such service, together with Rebecca,
at Jotapata about four weeks subsequent to her conversion. Mary and Rebecca,
with the others of this group, went on through the remainder of Jesus' life on
earth, laboring faithfully and effectively for the enlightenment and uplifting
of their downtrodden sisters; and when the last and tragic episode in the drama
of Jesus' life was being enacted, notwithstanding the apostles all fled but
one, these women were all present, and not one either denied or betrayed him.
Standing near the
cross at one time or another during the crucifixion were Mary, Ruth, Jude,
John, Salome (John's mother), and a group of earnest women believers including
Mary the wife of Clopas and sister of Jesus' mother, Mary Magdalene, and
Rebecca, onetime of Sepphoris. These and other friends of Jesus held their
peace while they witnessed his great patience and fortitude and gazed upon his
intense sufferings.
The sandstorm grew
in intensity and the heavens increasingly darkened. Still the soldiers and the
small group of believers stood by. The soldiers crouched near the cross,
huddled together to protect themselves from the cutting sand. The mother of
John and others watched from a distance where they were somewhat sheltered by
an overhanging rock. When the Master finally breathed his last, there were
present at the foot of his cross John Zebedee, his brother Jude, his sister
Ruth, Mary Magdalene, and Rebecca, onetime of Sepphoris.
While all this was
going on, the women were hiding near at hand so that they saw it all and
observed where the Master had been laid. They thus secreted themselves because
it was not permissible for women to associate with men at such a time. These women
did not think Jesus had been properly prepared for burial, and they agreed
among themselves to go back to the home of Joseph, rest over the Sabbath, make
ready spices and ointments, and return on Sunday morning properly to prepare
the Master's body for the death rest. The women who thus tarried by the tomb on
this Friday evening were: Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Clopas, Martha
another sister of Jesus' mother, and Rebecca of Sepphoris.
The women who went
on this mission of anointing Jesus' body were: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother
of the Alpheus twins, Salome the mother of the Zebedee brothers, Joanna the
wife of Chuza, and Susanna the daughter of Ezra of Alexandria.
They were greatly
surprised to see the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, inasmuch
as they had said among themselves on the way out, "Who will help us roll
away the stone?" They set down their burdens and began to look upon one
another in fear and with great amazement. While they stood there, atremble with
fear, Mary Magdalene ventured around the smaller stone and dared to enter the
open sepulchre. This tomb of Joseph was in his garden on the hillside on the
eastern side of the road, and it also faced toward the east. By this hour there
was just enough of the dawn of a new day to enable Mary to look back to the
place where the Master's body had lain and to discern that it was gone. In the
recess of stone where they had laid Jesus, Mary saw only the folded napkin
where his head had rested and the bandages wherewith he had been wrapped lying
intact and as they had rested on the stone before the celestial hosts removed
the body. The covering sheet lay at the foot of the burial niche.
As these women sat
there in the early hours of the dawn of this new day, they looked to one side
and observed a silent and motionless stranger. For a moment they were again
frightened, but Mary Magdalene, rushing toward him and addressing him as if she
thought he might be the caretaker of the garden, said, "Where have you
taken the Master? Where have they laid him? Tell us that we may go and get
him." When the stranger did not answer Mary, she began to weep. Then spoke
Jesus to them, saying, "Whom do you seek?" Mary said: "We seek
for Jesus who was laid to rest in Joseph's tomb, but he is gone. Do you know
where they have taken him?" Then said Jesus: "Did not this Jesus tell
you, even in Galilee, that he would die, but that he would rise again?"
These words startled the women, but the Master was so changed that they did not
yet recognize him with his back turned to the dim light. And as they pondered
his words, he addressed the Magdalene with a familiar voice, saying,
"Mary." And when she heard that word of well-known sympathy and
affectionate greeting, she knew it was the voice of the Master, and she rushed
to kneel at his feet while she exclaimed, "My Lord, and my Master!"
And all of the other women recognized that it was the Master who stood before
them in glorified form, and they quickly knelt before him.
After these women
had recovered from the shock of their amazement, they hastened back to the city
and to the home of Elijah Mark, where they related to the ten apostles all that
had happened to them; but the apostles were not inclined to believe them. They
thought at first that the women had seen a vision, but when Mary Magdalene
repeated the words which Jesus had spoken to them, and when Peter heard his
name, he rushed out of the upper chamber, followed closely by John, in great
haste to reach the tomb and see these things for himself.
Peter at first
suggested that the grave had been rifled, that enemies had stolen the body,
perhaps bribed the guards. But John reasoned that the grave would hardly have
been left so orderly if the body had been stolen, and he also raised the question
as to how the bandages happened to be left behind, and so apparently intact.
And again they both went back into the tomb more closely to examine the grave
cloths. As they came out of the tomb the second time, they found Mary Magdalene
returned and weeping before the entrance. Mary had gone to the apostles
believing that Jesus had risen from the grave, but when they all refused to
believe her report, she became downcast and despairing. She longed to go back
near the tomb, where she thought she had heard the familiar voice of Jesus.
In viewing the
prominent part which Mary Magdalene took in proclaiming the Master's
resurrection, it should be recorded that Mary was the chief spokesman for the
women's corps, as was Peter for the apostles. Mary was not chief of the women
workers, but she was their chief teacher and public spokesman. Mary had become
a woman of great circumspection, so that her boldness in speaking to a man whom
she considered to be the caretaker of Joseph's garden only indicates how horrified
she was to find the tomb empty. It was the depth and agony of her love, the
fullness of her devotion, that caused her to forget, for a moment, the
conventional restraints of a Jewish woman's approach to a strange man.
When the apostles
refused to believe the report of the five women who represented that they had
seen Jesus and talked with him, Mary Magdalene returned to the tomb, and the
others went back to Joseph's house, where they related their experiences to his
daughter and the other women. And the women believed their report. Shortly
after six o'clock the daughter of Joseph of Arimathea and the four women who
had seen Jesus went over to the home of Nicodemus, where they related all these
happenings to Joseph, Nicodemus, David Zebedee, and the other men there
assembled. Nicodemus and the others doubted their story, doubted that Jesus had
risen from the dead; they conjectured that the Jews had removed the body.
Joseph and David were disposed to believe the report, so much so that they
hurried out to inspect the tomb, and they found everything just as the women
had described. And they were the last to so view the sepulchre, for the high
priest sent the captain of the temple guards to the tomb at half past seven
o'clock to remove the grave cloths. The captain wrapped them all up in the
linen sheet and threw them over a near-by cliff.
"Men and
brethren, all this time you have served me in accordance with your oath to me
and to one another, and I call you to witness that I have never yet sent out
false information at your hands. I am about to send you on your last mission as
volunteer messengers of the kingdom, and in so doing I release you from your
oaths and thereby disband the messenger corps. Men, I declare to you that we
have finished our work. No more does the Master have need of mortal messengers;
he has risen from the dead. He told us before they arrested him that he would
die and rise again on the third day. I have seen the tomb--it is empty. I have
talked with Mary Magdalene and four other women, who have talked with Jesus. I
now disband you, bid you farewell, and send you on your respective assignments,
and the message which you shall bear to the believers is: `Jesus has risen from
the dead; the tomb is empty.'"
From the time of the
resurrection until the hour of his spirit ascension on high, Jesus made
nineteen separate appearances in visible form to his believers on earth. He did
not appear to his enemies nor to those who could not make spiritual use of his
manifestation in visible form. His first appearance was to the five women at
the tomb; his second, to Mary Magdalene, also at the tomb.
The third appearance
occurred about noon of this Sunday at Bethany. Shortly after noontide, Jesus'
oldest brother, James, was standing in the garden of Lazarus before the empty
tomb of the resurrected brother of Martha and Mary, turning over in his mind
the news brought to them about one hour previously by the messenger of David.
James had always inclined to believe in his eldest brother's mission on earth,
but he had long since lost contact with Jesus' work and had drifted into grave
doubting regarding the later claims of the apostles that Jesus was the Messiah.
The whole family was startled and well-nigh confounded by the news brought by the
messenger. Even as James stood before Lazarus's empty tomb, Mary Magdalene
arrived on the scene and was excitedly relating to the family her experiences
of the early morning hours at the tomb of Joseph. Before she had finished,
David Zebedee and his mother arrived. Ruth, of course, believed the report, and
so did Jude after he had talked with David and Salome.
They all wanted to
rush off to the city to tell the doubting apostles about what had happened, but
James restrained them. Mary Magdalene, only, was permitted to return to
Joseph's house. James forbade their publishing abroad the fact of this morontia
visit because of certain things which Jesus had said to him as they conversed
in the garden. But James never revealed more of his visit with the risen Master
on this day at the Lazarus home in Bethany.
The fifth
manifestation of Jesus to the recognition of mortal eyes occurred in the
presence of some twenty-five women believers assembled at the home of Joseph of
Arimathea, at about fifteen minutes past four o'clock on this same Sunday
afternoon. Mary Magdalene had returned to Joseph's house just a few minutes
before this appearance. James, Jesus' brother, had requested that nothing be
said to the apostles concerning the Master's appearance at Bethany. He had not
asked Mary to refrain from reporting the occurrence to her sister believers.
Accordingly, after Mary had pledged all the women to secrecy, she proceeded to
relate what had so recently happened while she was with Jesus' family at
Bethany. And she was in the very midst of this thrilling recital when a sudden
and solemn hush fell over them; they beheld in their very midst the fully
visible form of the risen Jesus. He greeted them, saying: "Peace be upon
you. In the fellowship of the kingdom there shall be neither Jew nor gentile,
rich nor poor, free nor bond, man nor woman. You also are called to publish the
good news of the liberty of mankind through the gospel of sonship with God in
the kingdom of heaven. Go to all the world proclaiming this gospel and
confirming believers in the faith thereof. And while you do this, forget not to
minister to the sick and strengthen those who are fainthearted and fear-ridden.
And I will be with you always, even to the ends of the earth." And when he
had thus spoken, he vanished from their sight, while the women fell on their
faces and worshiped in silence.
Of the five
appearances of Jesus occurring up to this time, Mary Magdalene had witnessed
four.