Mary the mother of James and Joses.
Mark 15:40–41, Luke 8:1-3
Many of us are aware of the Resurrection of Jesus , but we don’t always realise how we got the record of this event: and it is this: the first witnesses of the resurrection were women. Now with our 21st century ears when we hear that, and it doesn’t seem particularly noteworthy. But in the 1st century this would have really stood out. For women were not considered to be reliable witnesses. Jewish rabbis at the time said that the testimony of a woman, especially in a court of law, was not to be considered valid. While this was not Jesus’ stance toward women, it was the thinking of the time.
So what can we learn from the fact that in every one of the four Gospels, it is the women who are the primary witnesses of the Resurrection.
First of all, this helps to authenticate the resurrection of Jesus, that this is a real, historical event and not some legend. After all, if you are going to make up and invent a story, the last thing you would do would be to make your witnesses people (women) with the least credibility and give them a prominent role in your tale. The idea of bodily resurrection was something the first century world already scoffed at, and this feature of the narrative just made it an even easier target for rejection.
And yet the early church didn’t adjust their story to make it more palatable to the world. They didn’t take out the part about the women and give prominence to the evidence of the men, to whom Jesus appeared later. No they stood by the women. They didn’t change how the story happened because this wasn’t a concocted story in the first place. This is how it actually occurred, and no amount of rejection or persecution could make them deny this life-changing truth.
And there is another thing we can learn from the women being the first witnesses of the resurrection. Their central role in this points to the fact that Jesus’ resurrection is the undoing of the fall of mankind. You recall how in Genesis, it was Eve who was tempted by the devil in the Garden - Gen. 3:1-6 ; 1 Tim 2:14. and after she succumbed and ate, she passed some along to her husband who was with her and he also ate. Though both Adam and Eve were equally guilty, it was from the woman to the man that sin and death came. That was the path by which the curse traveled and the grave gained its power over us. “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” - Gen 3:19
So now on Resurrection morning, our Lord Jesus reverses and destroys this curse. Just as the fall came through Eve to Adam, so now word of the raising up (restoration) of mankind comes from the women who followed Jesus to Peter, and to John and to all the disciples and through them to the rest of mankind. . Here in this Garden where Jesus had been buried, the announcement that the tomb is empty is carried by the women to these men who would be ordained by Christ to be the first preachers and apostles of the Resurrection Gospel The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a gift from God and fulfillment of His promise. It is the very foundation of Christianity.
By the resurrection Jesus is shown as the new Adam , the one through whom humanity has a new birth and a new beginning. And we need this new life desperately. For our old life from the first Adam is riddled with sin and death even from our birth . It’s the hollowness that we still have even after we’ve taken in our fill of all this passing world has to offer. There’s ultimately no avoiding the truth of our mortality.
All the Gospel accounts preserved in the New Testament have the women who followed Jesus from Galilee as the first witnesses to the evidence of the resurrection. In effect, the women were the first evangelists. The culture of the day was male centered which could have led to the testimony of the women being edited out of the account of the first evidence of the resurrection .
Luke 8:1-3 names some of the women who are recorded in the resurrection account. Without the resurrection Jesus can be viewed as just another good man who died for His cause - or a Roman crucifixion of a false messiah.
The resurrection empowers the whole of the Gospel. The lives of those who saw Jesus after the resurrection were changed. The hopelessness they experienced after the crucifixion was turned into joy as a result of encountering the risen Jesus.
In Matthew's list Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave. (Matthew 27:56, 61) Mark in 15: 40 identifies who the other Mary was: Mary the mother of James and Joses.
We do not know a lot about Mary the mother of James and Joses. We do not even know who Joses was . We do know that she was a faithful follower of Jesus. .
Mary raised two sons who served Jesus. James, also called “the less” was one of the twelve apostles. He is called “the less” not because he wasn’t a great apostle, but because he was younger than the other apostle James. The elder James is mentioned with Peter and John as one of the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples (Peter, James, and John - Mark 9:2-3; Luke 8:49-56;Matt 26:36-38)
Mary was one of a group of women who followed Jesus’ and ministered to His needs and the needs of the twelve. We do not know what this meant in practical terms - whether they cooked , mended and washed the clothing etc but we know that she was one of the women who funded the ministry. Jesus’ twelve disciples left their jobs in order to join Christ in His ministry. It was the usual custom in those times for wealthy women to make contributions to the Rabbis and their students. Jewish rabbis were responsible to feed and house their students. Of course, one of the twelve disciples that Mary was giving support to was her own son - James. We do not know more about the other son, Joses, but indications are that he too was a close follower of Jesus - Matthew 27:55-61; Mark 15:40, 47; 16:1; Luke 24:10, see Luke 23:49-56.
She was also a spectator at the tomb and fled when told by the angels that Jesus was not there
This is according to Mark 16:8. Matthew and Luke does not mention that they fled. Matthew and Luke mentions that they went their way to carry out what the angels(angels) told them to do Mat. 28: 5-8 ; Luke 24:4-9.
“There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.” - Mark 15:40–41
The Eleven all fled when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:50). Judas was dead by this time - he hanged himself - Matt. 27:3-5. John returned to the cross before Jesus breathed His last; John 19:25–27. Yet, one other group of Christ’s followers remained near Him to the end—the faithful women who had loved and served Jesus during His ministry.
Mark mentions the presence of the two Marys at the tomb during Jesus ' burial to prepare for his statement that they were present to witness the empty tomb ( Mark 16:1; Mark 16:5). They had seen Jesus die ( Mark 15:40), and now they saw Him buried. There was no question that they went to the right tomb on Sunday morning since they had been there Friday afternoon- when Jesus died they waited by the cross, and when Joseph and Nicodemus - John 19:38-39 of the Sanhedrin arrived they observed all that was happening. .
They would not dare to approach them. It was not the kind of thing that respectable women would do, and could have been seen as an affront. And then to their astonishment they saw those two men arrange for His body to be laid reverently in a nearby tomb, and they watched the great stone was rolled across. They determined that they would return and anoint His body, for they did not know that those great men had already seen to the anointing with great care. Matthew, Mark and Luke all mentioned that the women watched Jesus being laid in the tomb - Matt. 27:57-61; Mark 15: 47; Luke 23:55 They guarded against any conclusion that the women were mistaken about the tomb where Jesus was laid.
Now, at first glance, the text may seem insignificant. His burial was kind of a rush job to get done before the Sabbath, and there were no family members present In fact, we might be tempted to ask the question, why so much fuss about the burial? Every gospel mentions it; Paul later included it as part of the gospel, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” - 1 Cor. 15:3-8 . So what’s so important about this burial? I invite your attention to Mark 15:40-47.
Let’s begin by looking at the story itself to see the different characters involved. We meet the first group in verses 40 and 41. Actually, we’re still at the cross in this scene. Jesus had just died, and the centurion gave the eulogy, “Truly this man was the Son ( a son) of God.” - Mark 15:39. The centurion was a Roman and he worshiped the Roman gods (plural) He did not recognize the Jewish belief of one God. This battle-toughened warrior – executioner – had seen the way He died, and the earthquakes etc. surrounding the death and confessed, “This was the Son (a son) of God.” Then we get to the next verse, “There were some women looking on from a distance.” Mark 15:40.
There have been a few unnamed women in Mark – Peter’s mother-in-law, the woman with the bleeding issue, Jairus’ daughter - the little girl Jesus raised from the dead, the Syrophoenician woman, the widow and her mite, the woman with her alabaster vial of perfume. All unnamed.
But all of a sudden, here, we meet three women by name – Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome.
First, I suppose we should meet these women. When Matthew gives the introduction, he writes, “Many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to Him. Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” Matt. 27:55-56. The sons of Zebedee were James and John, and comparing Mark, we find her name was Salome
There are two very important things I want you to see from Mark 15:40
First, they, like the disciples, had followed Jesus all the way from Galilee. They didn’t fly down, they didn’t drive, they had no public transportation – they walked all the way from Galilee. This suggests they were committed followers of Jesus Christ.
This is what I want you to know about these women: they followed Jesus from Galilee just like the disciples. But there is a significant difference between them and the other disciples. We never see them arguing about who was the greatest. We never see them boasting they would follow Jesus everywhere. We never see them boasting they would never flee.
And the next time we see these women is in chapter 16, verse 1, “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, brought spices so they might come and anoint Him….[go down to verses 5-7]:
Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. And the young man said to them, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him."
“But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.’”
Here’s my point. These women were at the crucifixion. They were at the burial. And they were at the resurrection. These women, and these women only, were at the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And apparently, it impressed somebody, because the angel appeared to these women, and they only, and said to them, “Do not be amazed ; you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here But go, tell His disciples.” And while they were going Matthew 28:9 states -, “And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.”
These women were privileged to see the empty tomb first. They were privileged to hear from the angel first – the only ones to hear from the angel. They were privileged to see Jesus first. And they worshiped Him first. They were privileged to carry the news of the resurrection first – to the disciples. It has been rightly said, the first witnesses to the gospel – the first to share the good news of the resurrection , were these women.
So what’s so special about them? Their pursuit of Christ was consistent and unwavering. They loved Jesus, and wanted to be where He was. When Jesus hung on the cross – while all the disciples fled – they wanted to be by Jesus. When Jesus was taken down from the cross, dead – they wanted to be by Jesus. When Jesus was buried, they wanted to be by Jesus. Three days later, they wanted to be by Jesus to anoint Him. . And as a result, Jesus was by them, and appeared to them, first.
Now, I don’t think they fully understood the gospel – I don’t think they even understood what the resurrection meant. When they went to the tomb to anoint His body they were just as surprised when they were told by the angel that Jesus had risen from the dead. But the point is, their love for and commitment to Jesus was unwavering. While they didn’t understand what was going on, they simply wanted to be by Jesus.
They loved Him – they ministered to Him all the way from Galilee, through His death, burial, and resurrection – and He ministered the gospel to them first. Is it safe to say they were the first Christians?
The resurrection is not simply a fact to be believed or rejected, it is a matter to which our response will determine our eternal destiny. The resurrection of our Lord was a kind of watershed event in the New Testament. It was an event which brought about significant changes in the lives of the followers of Jesus - they were willing to sacrifice their lives to proclaim this truth.
I am reminded of Matthew’s account of the resurrection of our Lord. He tells us that the soldiers who guarded the grave in which our Lord was buried were terrified by the things which accompanied the resurrection of Christ - they were terrified by the earthquake and the sight of the angel, who rolled away the stone. Matt 28:2-4. and they went to report to the Chief Priests their story.
""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. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day." (Matthew 28:11- 15).
When the priests and Pharisees heard the report of the soldiers, they could tell that these hardened men were telling the truth, and that the tomb really was empty--not opened up by the disciples but by a angel of God. If they had been skeptical, they would surely have gone to the tomb themselves to investigate.
They did not do so, however, but instead bribed the soldiers (and possibly Pilate later) to lie about the matter. One would think that these respected religious leaders, now that they knew that Christ really had risen from the dead, would have been willing to confess their mistake and receive Christ gladly as their long-awaited Messiah.
Instead they became more determined than ever to oppose Him and His disciples, denying the undeniable truth of His victory over death and the grave. They had known about His miracles and His wonderful teachings for over three years, yet they still bitterly opposed Him and sought for some means to destroy Him, still deluding themselves and others with the notion that He was a "deceiver," doing His mighty works by the power of the devil.
Now there is no evidence that these guards came to faith in Christ. Instead, they received their bribe and became a part of a conspiracy to cover up the resurrection: Neither is there evidence that the chief priests and the elders came to faith in Christ. Knowledge of the event of the resurrection did not make them believers. It is ironic that the very thing the Sanhedrin tried to prevent with the placing of a guard became the story they made up to hide what really happened. when Jesus was resurrected (28:1–10), Instead, like old Pharaoh, they "hardened [their hearts]" (Exodus 8:15) and proceeded to do everything in their power to deny His resurrection and to prevent His followers from proclaiming it. (Acts 4: 1-3 ; 16-18) They may have once thought Jesus was a deceiver, but now after the story of the guards they knew He was not. They themselves became conscious deceivers, bribing the soldiers also to deceive.
However when we come to the centurion supervising the crucifixion of Jesus and the two criminals we find a different reaction. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son (a son) of God!” Was this a confession of faith or was he trying to define something outside his scope of experience? Obviously the centurion was deeply moved by what he witnessed and his declaration of deity is what followed his observations.
I believe the centurion meant that He was one of the sons of the gods. The Roman idea of god was that of heroic, courageous manhood, magnified in all its powers, and looking upon this man in His suffering, the heroism, the courage and the discipline manifested in submission, also the natural happenings of earthquakes and darkness appealed to him as being godlike.
And yet Luke says that he made another confession , "Certainly this was a righteous Man." - Luke 23:47 What did the Cross do for the centurion? We have no record of his life afterwards. He did not know the full facts of the life and death of Jesus But he reacted to the evidence in a positive way with the knowledge he knew. While the chief priests and elders know the scriptures rejected the evidence of the earthquake, the angel rolling the stone and the empty tomb - Matt. 28:2-4
They rejected all this evidence not because it was insufficient, but because of its moral implications on their lives.
Society at that time had a tendency to overlook women Jesus didn’t. They loved Him – and He loved them. If you were making up a story about the resurrection – you would not write that women were the first witnesses . No you would have Jesus appear first to Peter or James or John. Their testimony would have appeared credible.
No, this is not the way it happened . Christ Jesus is indeed risen from the dead and He has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. - 1 Cor. 15:20 and the women who followed Him were the first witnesses . Our Lord has led the way through the grave, so that those who die in Him will also rise with Him when He comes again. Let us all, then, as the women who followed Jesus and who witnessed the death, burial and resurrection did - echo the statements of the angels and their own convictions.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
