Message
Silent Witnesses
Mark 15:40-16:8
The Women Who Were Following and Caring.
It’s Friday and Jesus is dead.
Luke 23:46
Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
Then what happens?
Let’s read Mark 15:40-16:8 (read)
Out of all that is happening here let’s focus specifically on the witnesses of these events.
Mark 15:40
Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome.
Mark 15:47
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.
Mark 16:1
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.
These women are witnesses to the key events … the essential components … of the Christian faith.
Different people turn up at different times, but only these women have seen it all.
They saw Jesus die.
They saw where Jesus was buried.
They saw the empty tomb where Jesus was meant to be
Only these women can provide continuity of eyewitness.
They are not quite “silent witness” because we know about their conversation on how to move the stone. So they are “mostly silent witnesses” who cause us to reflect today.
Individually we only have a little information about these women.
Luke 8:2
Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out.
Mary Magdalene also plays a significant role in John 20.
There is some thought that Mary the mother of James the younger and Joseph
… is the same Mary called the wife of Clopas in John 19:25.
… possible James the younger is the other disciple called James son of Alpheaus.
But this is not certain, only possible.
Salome doesn’t appear anywhere else. When Matthew records this event he writes
Matthew 27:56
Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
This has led to the suggestion that Salome is the same person as the mother of Zebedee’s sons … the mother of James and John.
It is quite possible, but again we need to be cautious.
So what we have is a group of three women,
… well known to the readers of Mark’s Gospel
… who are a little bit known to us.
Witnesses.
Not just witnesses of the death, burial and resurrection.
Mark 15:41
In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
If nothing else this verse shatters the idea of Jesus and the 12 disciples walking together around the countryside – all all-male wandering band of merry men.
Luke gives us a bit more of a picture.
Luke 8:1-3
After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
A support network, mostly women, many of them with significant means.
Witnesses …
… to the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking.
… to demons being called out, Pharisees being chastised.
… to 1000’s being feed and the same 1000’s abandoning Jesus.
… to the teachings of Jesus, spoken on hills, and from boats, to large crowds and to smaller groups.
… to the death, burial, and empty tomb.
They were following Jesus.
It is the word used in
Mark 1:16-18
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
In Mark 8:34 Jesus
called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
The women followed … it is a work focused on commitment and discipleship … they followed from the beginning of the ministry of Jesus in Galilee to the empty tomb.
The woman also cared. We see this word used in
Mark 1:13
(Jesus) was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Jesus says in John 12:26
Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.
The woman cared, attended, ministered, served. Honoured by the Father as they went about the work of angels. Doing this right from the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. Even now they were going to the tomb with more spices to finish the burial process.
These are not flash in the pan followers who gave up years ago when it became hard. Indeed, of all the disciples including the 11 who are still alive, they have proven to be the most committed, faithful, and consistent witnesses to all the events of Jesus life.
Then Mark ends his Gospel this way:-
Mark 16:6-8
7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Now, it is a whole other … long … conversation on whether this is actually how Mark intended to finish his Gospel.
We can have that conversation another time.
But I’m coming from the view that YES … this is how Mark’s Gospel ends.
“They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”
Well, they have just seen an angel.
None of the 12 disciples have seen an angel yet; indeed very few people in the New Testament have seen an angel.
To now go around saying, “An angel told me to tell you that Jesus isn’t dead.”
We don’t believe you.
We need to see the proof with our own eyes.
It isn’t logical.
So maybe that is why they said nothing and were afraid.
Or maybe … not to sound sexist … maybe it is because they were women.
There is an historian called Josephus who wrote around the same time as Paul. This is what he writes
Josephus, Antiquities, 4.219
But let not a single witness be credited, but three, or two at the least, and those such whose testimony is confirmed by their good lives. But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex.
Now they are to go out, as a group of women, and say – Jesus has risen from the dead.
“Stop speaking with levity and boldness you women!.” That is the culture.
So maybe that is why they said nothing and were afraid.
Also let’s not forget another dynamic. The Sanhedrin have been determined to kill Jesus. They won’t stand for dissent.
Matthew 28:11-13
11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’
The whole city knows how the religious elite can be.
“You are only saying this because you actually stole the body.”
That is how it will go.
So maybe that is why they said nothing and were afraid.
Go, tell … they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
That is the witness.
Which sounds like a witness of failure.
But it isn’t …
What we are witnessing here is a moment. One moment out of three years of following and serving.
One moment of silence driven by fear.
One moment where cultural expectations are given priority.
One moment where religion has squashed relationship.
One moment where doubt triumphs faith.
One moment where the questions outweigh the answers.
One moment where we are starkly reminded that we are is jars of clay.
The disciples asleep in the garden, “can’t you watch one hour.”
Martha fuming in the kitchen by herself, “you are worried and upset about many things.”
Peter broken and weeping as he remembers the words, “you will disown me three times.”
The three women fearful and saying nothing when they have been told to “go and tell.”
And us
Fearful?
Full of Doubt?
Silent?
Lacking faith?
Feeling hopeless?
Being worried and anxious.
It’s not failure … it’s a snapshot of a moment. In that moment we recognise that sometimes this is what our following and serving looks like.
When we have been in that place.
When we go into that place.
Maybe we are in that place now.
When that happens let’s remember “we are not defined by that moment.”
We are defined by the resurrection.
2 Corinthians 4:7
We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
Resurrection power.
Conquering grave power.
The power that will bring transformation in spite of what I do at times.
The power that will overcome no matter what the world is throwing against me.
Jesus lives.
Jesus lives.
Jesus lives.
Not for a moment … but for eternity.
Prayer
