Women had an extremely important place in Christ’s ministry. Like St. Photina, the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well, they often were the ones who first proclaimed Christ to others, and then after they had done so, cast aside by the men. This is especially true in regards Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It was women who, even in his death, took care of and looked after his body, and were willing to do what was expected to show him due honor and respect. They did not flee, like most of Christ’s disciples, seeking to hide themselves from the world. They let their connection to him be known by all. They stood their ground, and stood by him. This is why it was women, those closest to him, those who did not flee, who were given one of the greatest gifts possible, to be the first to tell others of the resurrected Christ (tradition says Mary, his mother, was the first to witness the resurrected Christ, but then, after her, came the myrrh-bearing women, meaning not only were women the first to preach about the resurrection, they were the first to experience the resurrected Christ for themselves). They were told to preach to the world what had happened, to become the apostles to the apostles:
And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; — it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.” (Mk. 16:1-7 RSV).
We are told, despite being told to preach about what they experienced, they were initially too afraid to do so . “And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid” (Mk. 16:8 RSV). They were still human, and were trying to understand they had experienced. But their courage overcame their fear, and they did preach, making them the first to proclaim to the world, “Christ is Risen!.” They did not hear the reply which is now given, “Indeed, He is Risen!” but rather, they found their testimony questioned, their witness deemed unreliable, connecting them to women throughout time, who, like them, found their experiences questioned by men. It was only after Jesus was encountered by others that they were believed. Then, it would be those others who would be trusted, whose testimony would be considered. While, to be sure, the women have not been entirely forgotten, as what they experienced is recorded in Scripture, and the Byzantine tradition remembers them, giving them their own Sunday during the Paschal Season, they still have had their witness marginalized, and over time, treated as less and less important. While Mary Magdalene is called the apostle to the apostles, and an equal to the apostles, do we truly treat her in a way that title suggests? No, her place and role in the church was diminished over time, her character questioned, and with her, so women found their roles and place in the church questioned by later generations. When women found what they were allowed to do in the church diminishing, those making that happen would not want women to remember the kinds of roles women had when the church began, because if they did, they would have a reason to question the way things were developing. Yet, now, we are able to do so, and it is clear, women formed an important, indeed, central part in Christ’s ministry, and after his resurrection from the dead, helped spread the faith and many died for it as missionaries. They were not willing to be silenced, but sadly, later generations of Christians, for a time a least, found a way to silence them, to have their legacy lost, in a way that the non-Christians who had them killed could not.
Christ is risen, and the truth of this was first witnessed by women, by the women who showed more courage, more faith, than the men (save for John, who did not flee but came to Christ on the cross). Christ is risen, and we should remember that it was to women, not to men, that Christ first revealed himself, showing us that women should not be ignored and set aside like so many think they should be. Christ is risen, and today, just like in the first century, we need to hear the witness of the women and the way they experience his resurrection; we need to listen to them, and not marginalize them.
You did command the myrrh-bearers to rejoice, O Christ! By Your Resurrection, You did stop the lamentation of Eve, O God! You did command Your apostles to preach: The Savior is Risen! (Kontakion For the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women)
The lamentations of Eve, the way women have been mistreated and abused, in part, because of the way Eve has been seen and represented, should be put to and end; no longer should Eve be used as an excuse to ignore women or undermine their place in the church or society at large. Why, then, do we act like this work of the resurrection can be ignored, and try to place all women back to the condition or role they had before it, and so find themselves once again returning to the lamentation of Eve? Christ is risen, and Eve now rejoices – and with Eve, all women are to be lifted up and honored, so that they can rejoice. This is one of many ways they are to experience the resurrection for themselves. We disrespect Christ, we disrespect the work of Christ, we disrespect his mother and all the women saints, when we try to push them back to the way they were treated outside of the light of the resurrection. Let the women rejoice; let the women be glad and preach the resurrection of Christ; let the women share to the world their experience of the glorious light of the resurrection itself.
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