Corona Chronicles 2: S8:E10: Women Watching
91 sermons
Here we are coming towards the end of this series in Corona Chronicles, in Mark's Gospel. And Jesus is has been crucified, and we've been looking at that event sort of slowed down to look at that event a little bit more detail. And there's just a couple of verses here. And in men in many ways, this they could be seen as throwaway verses. But actually, they tell us some very, very significant things.
So we're just gonna read Mark chapter 15 and verse 40 and 41. Some women were watching from a distance among them, were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, the younger, and of Joseph, and Salome. In Galile Lee, these women had found him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were there also. And it's obviously the he there is is Jesus.
Yeah. That's right. So Jesus in the in the last session had her you know, has has has died and the Roman centurion has recognized in the moment of his death that this was the son of God. And back in chapter 14, Jesus said to his disciples that in this moment when the shepherd was struck, the sheep would scatter And he said to them, you will all fall away, and we've seen over the course of the last few weeks the disciples sort of fleeing from Jesus really, as he approaches his hour. But this little note tells us that not everyone had run away.
In fact, there were these women, this group of women, and these specific women who had remained with Jesus. And although they were standing at a distance, they refused to be separate from their lord. And even as he died, they were there watching on. And, you know, we're supposed to see here that these were not just here for this event. You know, in galilee, these women had followed him and cared for his needs.
So they had been committed to him for a long time. They had been with him in his ministry. They had looked after him practically and they refused to abandon him in his moment of great need. So in some ways, this is the model of a true disciple, isn't it? You know, we've been following the blokes.
But, you know, let's not forget these disciples who were within the whole time. Yeah. And I I think I think in Christianity, actually women are a backbone to the whole to the whole of the thing. So the sort of often modern reading of Christianity that it's, you know, it's all about men and putting down the little women is so wrong. This is a first century document -- Mhmm.
-- written by Mark. Isn't it? And, you know, whatever we think about how people treated people in history, we know that women's accounts were not important. Yeah. Yeah.
They they they you wouldn't have a woman in court. You wouldn't have a woman giving an eyewitness account. They were not believed. They were seen as something separate to men. And yet foundational to to the Christian witness, is that these women were important backbone to followers of Jesus and eyewitnesses of these accounts.
I think that's really important. And it's it's it is good for us to understand that because 1 of the criticisms that is often leveled at the bible or certainly used to be at least was that that it's a it's a hoax book. And, you know, these followers of Jesus got together and decided. Right, Lads. What can we what can we make up?
But if that was the case -- Mhmm. -- as you say they would never have included this because it wouldn't have given Christianity track in the first century. People would have said, well, you know, if your if your witnesses to the death and as we'll see the resurrection were women and as you say we can't really trust testimony, then then who on earth would want to begin? With that, you would want a load of strong intelligent blokes. Who had seen it all, wouldn't you?
You just wouldn't write it like this. Not at all. And and that's why I think we we can we can say that these are eyewitness accounts. This is actually what happened. As you say, you would not have just made that up and put that down if you were making it up.
But what women they were? As you say, they're there, They are not the ones that run away. It's all it's all the disciples, isn't it the runaway? The male disciples. They're there, caring, and it's it's just a lovely expression in verse 41.
These women had followed him and cared for his needs. You know, they're they're thinking about the lord. They're thinking about, you know, what he's got to do and the pressures he's under and there's just this this compassion and care for him. Mhmm. There is.
Yeah. And and they are you know, although we're told there's a group of women there. You know, Mark highlights you know, some individual women. Mary Magdalen. Mary, the mother of James, the young girl of Joseph and Salome.
I mean, everybody's called Mary. That's the hard part. It's a very frustrating reading to get working out which Mary is who. But but the point is that these are not, you know, these these were women that you could have gone to. They had families and homes -- Yeah.
Yep. Yep. -- heritage. Yeah. They weren't just names plucked out of the air.
And the whole point was that, yeah, you know, when they when when the early Christians were reading these documents, they could they could trace lines and they knew people. So It just shows again that what we're dealing with is is historic is historical. It really took place with real people, real events, that have real significance -- Yeah. -- for us. And and and they're they're they're women from different backgrounds as well because Mary you've got Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James and the younger and so forth.
So you've got, you know, quite a diverse group of marys there. It is funny. It's it's like in the sixteenth century. Everyone was called Thomas. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And I want Mary. It's quite a Mary. Well, everyone was called Mary.
Thomas is a very sort of common name. Yeah. Yeah. So there we go. I mean, it's just it's just a couple of verses, isn't it?
But But but something that just shows how beautiful how beautifully important women were to the Christian testimony and still are and what an authentic we've been dealing with in these sessions. Mhmm. Yeah.