At the Cross and the Tomb

When the male disciples fled, the women remained. Mary Magdalene stood by the Cross of Christ (John 19:25), watched from afar with the women who had followed Him from Galilee (Matt. 27:55–56; Mark 15:40–41), and sat opposite the sepulchre as the body was laid in it (Matt. 27:61; Mark 15:47). This unbroken presence — at the death, the burial, and the tomb — is the fidelity from which her witness to the Resurrection flows, and the Fathers read it as the courage of love.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Equal-to-the-Apostles, Myrrh-bearer)

At the Cross

All four Gospels place women at Golgotha, and all four name Mary Magdalene among them. Matthew: “There were also many women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee” (Matt. 27:55–56, RSV). Mark gives the parallel: “There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome” (Mark 15:40, RSV). Luke speaks more generally of “the women who had followed him from Galilee” standing at a distance and seeing these things (Luke 23:49).

John places Mary Magdalene not at a distance but at the very foot of the Cross: “standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene” (John 19:25, RSV). This is the scene of the Lord’s commendation of His Mother to the Beloved Disciple — “Woman, behold your son… Behold your mother” (John 19:26–27) — and Mary Magdalene is named among the few who stand there. The contrast with the men is stark and is drawn by the Evangelists themselves: of the Twelve, only “the disciple whom he loved” is named at the Cross (John 19:26); the rest had forsaken Him and fled (Matt. 26:56; Mark 14:50), and Peter had denied Him (Matt. 26:69–75). The women remained.

The Fathers make much of this reversal. Chrysostom, preaching on Matthew, marvels that “the women… were the more courageous; for though the disciples had fled, these were present” — and he reads their constancy as the fruit of an ardent love that “feared no danger” (Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, Hom. 88, on Matt. 27:55). The very sex that the ancient world counted weak proves, at the Cross, the more faithful. Their presence is not incidental; it is the necessary condition of their later witness, for those who saw Him die and saw where He was buried could testify with authority that the tomb they found empty was the right one.

At the Burial

The Gospels are careful to note that the women not only saw the death but witnessed the burial. After Joseph of Arimathea had laid the body in the new tomb and rolled the stone to its door, Matthew records: “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulchre” (Matt. 27:61, RSV). Mark agrees: “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid” (Mark 15:47, RSV). Luke says that “the women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and saw the tomb, and how his body was laid; then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments” (Luke 23:55–56, RSV).

This burial-witness is the deliberate narrative hinge between the Cross and the empty tomb. The women who “saw where he was laid” are the same women who return on the first day of the week — so that there can be no question of their mistaking the place. The point is not merely devotional but evidentiary: the earliest Christian proclamation that the tomb was found empty rests on the testimony of women who had watched the body placed in it. As Mark frames it, they “saw where he was laid” (15:47) precisely so that the reader will know that they could not have gone, two days later, to the wrong tomb.

Luke adds a further detail of fidelity: having seen the burial, the women “returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56, RSV). Their devotion is shown even in its restraint — they keep the sabbath rest before coming, in love, to complete the burial rites at the first lawful moment. The spices they prepare are the myrrh that gives them their name (see The Myrrh-bearing Women).

The Unbroken Thread

The structure of all four Passion narratives makes Mary Magdalene and the women the connecting thread that runs from the death to the Resurrection. They are the constant witnesses: present at the crucifixion (Matt. 27:55–56; Mark 15:40; Luke 23:49; John 19:25), present at the burial (Matt. 27:61; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55), and present at the empty tomb (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1–2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). No other set of witnesses spans all three moments. This continuity is theologically as well as historically load-bearing: the same eyes that saw Him die and saw Him buried are the eyes that find the tomb empty and, in John, see Him risen.

The Byzantine hymnography seizes on this fidelity and makes it a model for all Christians. The myrrh-bearers’ love, which did not flee the Cross and could not rest until it had come to the tomb, is held up in the services of Holy Week and Pascha as the very pattern of discipleship — the love that seeks Christ even in apparent defeat and is rewarded with the first sight of His victory (see The Myrrh-bearers as Model). The kontakion and the synaxarion of the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women dwell precisely here: the women who would not abandon the Crucified are the first to learn He is risen (The Pentecostarion, the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women).

“Looking On From Afar” and “Standing By the Cross”

A minor harmonization is worth a word. The Synoptics place the women “looking on from afar” (Matt. 27:55; Mark 15:40; Luke 23:49), while John places Mary Magdalene and the others “standing by the cross” (John 19:25). [Disputed: the apparent difference is most simply read as a difference of moment — the women drew near at one point and watched from a distance at another, or John reports the nearer station of the small group named, the Synoptics the wider crowd of women looking on. The traditional Eastern harmonization treats both as true of the same vigil; some modern commentators read them as independent emphases rather than a single reconcilable scene. Either way, all four Gospels agree that Mary Magdalene was present at the crucifixion.] The agreement matters more than the divergence: Mary Magdalene’s presence at Golgotha is one of the most firmly multiply-attested facts of the Passion.

See Also

References

  • The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version: Matthew 27:55–61; Mark 15:40–47; Luke 23:49–56; John 19:25–27; Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1–2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1.
  • Chrysostom, John. Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Hom. 88. Trans. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. 10.
  • The Pentecostarion. Trans. Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Boston, 1990. (The Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women.)
  • Bauckham, Richard. Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.