Our Gospel from Matthew this morning reminds us of the central role played by women during the time of Jesus’ ministry. (But then, of course, you already knew that!)
Women were present with Jesus during his life, during the darkest moments of the crucifixion and death on Good Friday, and in the first moments of new life after the resurrection.
Matthew tells the story of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary being “the first” to remember Jesus’ “predictions of death and resurrection” and “the first” to “worship” the risen Jesus and “the first” to be commissioned by him.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are the two of Jesus’ followers who have “the strength of faith” not to abandon “hope.” When everyone else abandons hope – they do not! Indeed they cannot.
When they entered the tomb both these woman walked into a place where others “feared to go” and then “walked out” to tell the people – the world was forever changed.
Thomas G. Long, a biblical scholar who has written extensively on Matthew, writes of Mary and Mary that “without even knowing that they had crossed the border, they left the old world, where “hope” is in constant danger, and “might” makes right, and “peace” has little chance, and the “rich” get richer, and the “weak” all eventually suffer under some Pontius Pilate “or another,” and people “hatch” murderous plots, and dead people “stay dead,” and they entered the “startling and breathtaking world” of “resurrection and new life.”
This is such a powerful passage in oh-so many ways…
They went where others refused to go.
I am not even sure the Mary’s realized where their journey was taking them, much less, where it would lead us…
It is easy to understand the “mixed emotions” of being both “fearful” and filled with “great joy” at a moment such as this.
God (The almighty One, the powerful one) had just intervened in human history in such an amazing way and turned death – the ultimate reality – into “new life.”
It was “beyond hope.” It was “unbelievable.” It was truly “wondrous.” Words cannot articulate “the feelings” and the “emotions” of the moment.
That Mary and Mary are chosen to be “the first” to announce the resurrection speaks both to their “strength of faith” and to the “nature of God.”
There was no equal rights movement in ancient Israel. Women were considered unclean and had no control over affairs of state or even their own homes.
Paul tells us in Galatians 3:28: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Part of Jesus’ mission was to break down the barriers that divided humanity – and that included gender barriers. Women were called just as men to serve God’s kingdom. God calls “all of us” to be partners in accomplishing God’s mission. Those who resist, like the Roman guards outside Jesus’ tomb, will simply become like “dead men.”
But Jesus didn’t stop there – he also broke down the walls between Jews and Gentiles, he welcomed foreigners and sinners…he offered love and forgiveness to all he encountered.
But the Jesus movement did not stop there…he came for children and all those without rights, he came bringing justice and mercy … he came for the widow and the orphan, long since forgotten…by a great many…
Thomas Long (the scholar that I referred to before) looks at the story of resurrection and writes:
“The way the world used to be, if something troubling got in the way, like “a call for racial justice” or a “worker for peace” or an “advocate for mercy,” the world could just “kill it” and it would be “done with it.” It would be destroyed and be gone forever. But Jesus was raised by the power of God…and there is no going back. Not now, now never.
Jesus is alive, and righteousness, mercy, forgiveness and peace cannot be dismissed with a “cross” or with a “sword of injustice.”
Hatred and evil is not going to triumph.
Goodness, mercy, truth and love have already prevailed.
We live in a time – where people are slipping and sliding and backsliding all over the place. You do not have to. You can go on…and carry on this one critical message.
God will prevail.
God will always prevail.
Amen.