1st of 3 GOOD FRIDAY Devotions for April 14, 2006

To Jerusalem with the ComPassionate Christ
Day 44 – 9:00 A.M.

 

Ministering to Our Lord

 

Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.  In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.  Mark 15: 40-41

 

On the outskirts of the crowd at Calvary some women had come to look on from afar. Love for Jesus had brought them to that forsaken spot, but modesty had prevented them from pushing to the fore. Clearly, Jesus could have seen them, when He lived, because He took the trouble to commend His mother to the Beloved Disciple. Mary Magdalene was there, one of our Lords’s most devoted disciples. She had received a great deal from Jesus (Luke 8:2), and was clearly the better for it, so she had come, as faithful women often will, to pick up the pieces left by the butchery of men. Mary, the mother of James the less was there also, identified by her son’s smallness of stature and by her other son, Joses, a fairly common name. Salome is also mentioned. She was the wife of Zebedee, the mother of James and John and may have been related to Mary, Jesus’ mother (John 19:25). That these three are named does not mean that all others were absent. Some, doubtless, such as Mary herself, did not need to be named. She too saw, and wept.

 

Just as once these faithful women had served Jesus during His earthly ministry, now they continued their ministrations to His broken body. ‘Many other women’ were also there, having followed Jesus to Jerusalem. Fools may read into this what they will; we should see only a wonderful example of faithful, gracious discipleship. Love always has something vulnerable about it, like a baby in a manger. These women had simply responded as nature led them: love answered love’s appeal.

 

 

Prayer
Dear Jesus, may I have the faith and the courage to follow You no matter what and not be like the male disciples, hiding fearfully behind locked doors.  Amen

 

 

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