Three Marys on Easter

On Good Friday three women all named Mary stood near the cross of Jesus. What happened to them on Easter Sunday?

Among the Roman soldiers carrying out the crucifixion; among the mocking chief priests and the jeering crowd hurling insults; among the Passover pilgrims hurrying past the horrifying spectacle of crucifixion, there stood near the cross of Jesus three women all named Mary.

On Palm Sunday we remember that ever since a new kind of king rode into Jerusalem, not on a warhorse, but on a donkey, bringing not hated, but healing, things have changed.

The raising of Lazarus after four days in the tomb is Jesus’ greatest miracle. But it is also the sign in the Gospel of John with the greatest theological significance: The one who called Lazarus out of death will call us of death as well.

The light has come into the world through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But we have to be willing to leave our darkness and live in the shining light of Christ. If we want to stay asleep in our coffins we can—but the gospel calls us out of our sleep, out of death, out of darkness, and into the light.

Wars, revolutions, and grand political ambitions are often cast as heroic attempts to save the world. But let’s look at saving the world in the light of Christ. Our drama plays out, not on a battlefield, not in a capital city, not in the halls of congress or parliament, but at an ancient well in tiny village.

To be born from above involves a mystery. Unfortunately, taking its cues from the scientism of the Enlightenment, western evangelicalism tried to make the gospel a kind of scientific formula—a pseudo-science of biblical facts, atonement theories, and sinners’ prayers—when it’s more like a song, a symphony, a poem, a painting, a drama, a dance, a mystery.

The third temptation was to avoid the cross. But the cross is how Jesus re-founds the world. Instead of being organized around an axis of power enforced by violence, at the cross Jesus reorganized the world around an axis of love expressed in forgiveness.

What Peter, James, and John saw in the Transfiguration of Christ was prophetically anticipated in what Moses saw in the Burning Bush.