And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. --
Mary Magdalene was a very close friend of Jesus, and was there witnessing His horrific death, and how His body was taken from the Cross and laid hurriedly in the tomb. She must have been deeply grieving for the shameful way her Beloved was treated, and His death.
And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; --
There was still one more thing Mary could do for this gentle Man she loved so much: make sure His burial would not be deficient in any of the customs afforded a loved one in burial, so she prepared many pounds of spices and ointments commonly used in formal funereal burials to show respect for the deceased.
and rested the Sabbath Day according to the commandment. --
That day of the death and burial was the day of preparation for the Sabbath the next day, when the Law commanded rest from common work, so Mary and her lady friends used that day to put together the preparations to be applied after the Sabbath.
Now upon the first day of the week, --
The day after the seventh, the Sabbath; the first day of the week, Sunday.
very early in the morning, --
Mary was eager to perform this last courtesy to her dear Lord; it was before sunrise.
they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, --
I'm sure Mary and the other women with her may have been tearful, in mourning and expecting to perform this very distasteful task lying before them.
and certain others with them. --
The women are named later, in Verse 10.
And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. --
The stone was rolled away after Jesus rose and exited the tomb, Matthew tells us (Matt. 28:2) that the Angel of the Lord came with a great earthquake to roll back the stone from the door of the tomb and sat on it, which scared the soldiers half to death.
And they entered in and found not the body of Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, --
First they wondered why the stone was already rolled away, then they did not even find Jesus' body there where they saw it laid two days ago, so they were very confused.
behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: --
Whenever Angels appeared to people in the Old Testament, they looked like young men. This remains true to the stories previously given in Scripture.
And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, --
Every time Angels or the Angel of the Lord appeared, they inspired fear in the recipients, and almost always said first, "Fear not!"
they said unto them, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but risen: --
They needed to be told, as this kind of event had never before happened in the history of the Earth, that One would rise, alive, from being dead.
remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." --
Angels aren't given the privilege of presenting the Gospel, that Jesus died fulfilling the Scriptures, and rose from the dead fulfilling the Scriptures, this has been gifted to us; but he could remind these women of the words Jesus spoke to them before.
And they remembered His words. --
They didn't remember before because they didn't understand them before, the concept was too unreal to make sense of. But now that it has happened, it made perfect sense.
And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. --
They obeyed what the Angel told them to do, to go tell the others.
It was Mary Magdalene, and Johanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. --
So Mary Magdalene's sorrow and grief turned into joy and celebration. As did that of the other women with her, who had been with Jesus as He taught and traveled, and they even helped to support Him in His ministry (Mark 15:41, Luke 8:2-3).
So, Ladies, we can also serve, minister to and help support with our own means, the ministries of our Lord. Jesus elevated women's place in society to have equal value with men, so Christianity is the only religion in the world that does not subjugate women's value to be less than a man's.
We are all to be subject to one another in our daily interactions with others (Ephesians 5:21), and God's order of authority mandates that someone must be in charge to avoid confusion, so the wife is to be subject to her own husband (Eph. 5:22-23ff), but this does not diminish her value in relation to his any more than Jesus' value is diminished in relation to His Father by obeying Him.
And the first person Jesus chose to show Himself to as Resurrected was this same Mary Magdalene (John 20:14-17). She was apparently as dear to Him as He was to her.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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