1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”8 Then they remembered his words.
9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
I just want to reiterate what I heard NT Wright point out last year when he was in town. The first witnesses of the resurrection are women. The first to deliver the message "Jesus is risen!" are women. And the first people to reject the good news are the majority of Jesus' male disciples.
May I forever be humbled before the gender whom God has honoured so highly
May I be blessed to learn from their theological insight and experience
May they be empowered and encouraged to speak boldly and may their words be honoured and accepted
Lest we not receive the good news God has prepared them for and entrusted them with
Egalitarianism!
