When describing the scene at Jesus’ death Matthew 27:55 says,  “Many women were there, watching from a distance.  They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs.”  Actually, all four gospels record the women watching from afar.  In John’s Gospel, some even make their way through the crowds to bravely stand near the cross. Since reading Matthew earlier last week, I can’t stop thinking about these women.

Who were they?  What was it that kept them at the horrific scene while all the men, save one, ran for cover?  What can I, as a woman, and we, as Christians, learn from our dear sisters?

Luke 8:1 tells us that there was a large group of women who traveled with Jesus and the disciples as they ministered in different towns and villages.  “After this, Jesus traveled 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 Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others.  These women were helping to support them out of their own means.”  So, while Jesus and the disciples were ministering to large crowds, these women, from extremely diverse backgrounds, were behind the scenes serving and supporting the ministry in remarkably significant ways.  They all had one thing in common.  Their lives were radically changed by their encounter with Jesus, the Son of God.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to serve in Jesus’ ministry?   In the midst of a culture that could be downright hostile to women, Jesus affirmed them. He talked to them when no one else would. He explained the deep things of God. He taught them. When he looked at them, they never had to feel insecure, inadequate, or self-conscious. He acknowledged their worth. He appreciated them. He called them by name.  Oh, how they must have loved their Rabboni! Jesus completely liberated them to serve him with all their heart, mind, and strength. When Jesus was near, they experienced the full acceptance and favor of God. When they were around him, they were at their best. What’s more, as the leader, he would set the example for the other disciples to follow.  These women were treated right! The more I think about it, the more I realize this is the kind of ministry all churches should aspire to be like.  Treat the women right!  Free us up to serve!

At Jesus’ crucifixion (and the events leading up to it) the men didn’t too well. When Jesus took front-and-center for the darkest hour in history, all their big talk proved to be just that – talk. But the women were different. They wouldn’t budge.  They quietly stood at a distance with their Jesus in full view.  How could they leave him? As they sympathetically fixed their eyes on him, they had a birds eye view of the whole scene.  They observed all the players.  They could probably tell you which Roman soldier was the most sinister.  They could identify who in the crowd had once received healing from Jesus, but now mocked the Lord as he hung on a cross with his flesh hanging off. They watched while strangers and passerby’s entertained themselves at the Lord’s expense.  They heard the taunts, “Come down from the cross and save yourself.”  They watched the self righteous chief priests and teachers of the law harden their hearts and silence their conscience. They felt the stab in Mary’s heart as righteous Simeon’s prophecy came to pass, “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”  Even though all their hopes and dreams of tomorrow were violently dashed in a single bloody day, the women of Galilee would not waiver.  They would remain steadfast and loyal.

So, what can these women teach us today?  Devotion. Commitment. Loyalty. May God produce in us the same devotion that these women had for the Lord.  May we love him like they did. May our worship never become rote or obligatory, but let it come from a heart that is full of affection and overflowing with adoration. May we serve in our ministries as if we were serving the Lord himself.  And, in the face of the world’s hostility to the Jesus we love and adore, may we stand like our sisters, the women of Galilee,  faithful till the bitter end.

I once knew a man whose wife died of cancer at a young age.  I had the privilege of visiting him in upstate New York where he gave me the grand tour of his mansion. We stopped when we came to a large sitting room.  There, above an elaborate marble fire place, hung a marvelous oil painting of a young woman.  She was radiant.

“This is a portrait of my wife,” he told me.  “I will never forgive God for taking her from me.”

A few years later this man died.  At his funeral people spoke well of him.  With the utmost sincerity and sympathy, I heard someone say, “Poor so-and-so, he never did get over the death of his wife.”

Compare this heart attitude to that of George Mueller who, when grappling with the death of his beloved wife Mary, found strength in the goodness of God.

“The last portion of scripture which I read to my precious wife was this: “The Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Now, if we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have received grace, we are partakers of grace, and to all such he will give glory also. I said to myself, with regard to the latter part, “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly”—I am in myself a poor worthless sinner, but I have been saved by the blood of Christ; and I do not live in sin, I walk uprightly before God. Therefore, if it is really good for me, my darling wife will be raised up again; sick as she is. God will restore her again. But if she is not restored again, then it would not be a good thing for me. And so my heart was at rest. I was satisfied with God. And all this springs, as I have often said before, from taking God at his word, believing what he says.” Online Source

Do you see the difference?

Psalms 2:3 describes a rebellious nation.  “Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters.” This kind of heart rages and rails against an Omnipotent God because it doesn’t get what it wants.  Job 15:25 describes this kind of person as distressed and anguished.  Why?   “because he shakes his fist at God and vaunts himself against the Almighty.” What a spiritually dangerous place to be.

If I’m honest with myself (and God) there are places in me that need to be conquered.  How about you?  May God deliver us from an apostate heart.  We might be able to fool the world, but does not He who planted the eyes see everything?

“What causes fights and quarrels among you?  Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1)