The Myrrh-bearing Women, the first Witnesses of Christ's Resurrection

Christ is risen!

The Sunday of Myrrh-bearing Women reminds us with great simplicity but also with a sense of detail the vivid and hopeful experience of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is 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 into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you" (Mark 16, 5-7).

The haste with which Christ the Savior was buried due to the celebration of the Jewish Passover left in the minds and hearts of those who witnessed His death much anxiety and a sense of failing to accomplish what is needed for a dead person. His death as a man in appearance like any other and this sense of unfulfillment contradicted the hopeful words pronounced by the Savior Jesus Christ and the miracles He had performed - healings, resurrections, etc. The desire of the disciples Jacob and John to sit on the right and on the left side or Martha's haste to serve at the tables somehow forgetting the main thing that was needed especially then, that is listening to the word of God, are only two of the moments in which we see that those who knew Christ were far from truly realizing the importance of the moment they were living and Who is really the One they have in front of them.

Even after the resurrection of Christ the Savior confusion, misunderstanding and fear were just as evident. Holy Scripture tells us about this situation of the disciples, about this experience. This is emphasized by Scripture when it speaks of the moment when the myrrh-bearing women notice the empty tomb and the angel speaking to them. It is the very question: "You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him." By this the angel tries to awaken in the mind and soul of the disciples the deep and real understanding of what is happening. The angel was reminding the myrrh-bearing women that they were contemporaries and part of a work of God that had been carefully prepared and announced for centuries in the history of the chosen people through the patriarchs, prophets, etc. There was nothing unusual about what was happening from the perspective of God-inspired history whose purpose was the salvation of man. It was unusual from a human point of view.

Resurrection from the dead in biblical history was not an ordinary thing. Resurrection from the dead was rather the exception to the rule of death that dominated the destiny of all humanity. The Old Testament speaks of only two exceptions – Enoch and the Prophet Elijah who will be elevated to heaven without passing through death. During the Savior's earthly life, the Gospels speak of three resurrections - of the daughter of Jairus, the elder of the synagogue, of the son of the widow of Nain and of Lazarus raised from the dead on the fourth day. As we see from the examples above, the resurrection was rather the exception that came to strengthen the feeling that the person who was connected to it is someone important for the history of salvation, someone significant for the work that God would accomplish for us.

The myrrh-bearing women in their preoccupation with earthly things become witnesses and heralds of the divine. Concerned about how to roll away the stone, they note the empty tomb and the resurrection of Christ. Looking for an earthly body to mourn and honor, they see the apparition of an angel announcing to them the resurrection of the One for whom they had come early in the morning to the tomb. Rushing to fulfill the necessary and unfulfilled things on the eve of the Savior's death, they realized that nothing is no longer necessary because Christ with the body was transfigured and transcended the dimensions of the material world in which they had known Him. Trying to follow the usual order of the traditional burial of the Old Testament, they become witnesses and heralds of the New Testament. Going with great zeal to serve the order of earthly rites, they become servants of the heavenly ones. Seeking to fulfill their humble mission of helpers in things referring to the human community, they receive a new mission to serve in the announcement of the heavenly ones.

The Gospel shows us in this way how the mission of the myrrh-bearing women through the power of God's grace and omniscience becomes a mission with a depth and an eternal meaning because they will be the first to announce the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the premise of our salvation.

Let us follow the example of the myrrh-bearing women in our mission as Christians and proclaim where we are living the resurrection of Christ for the joy and salvation of all.

+ Ioan Casian

The Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada

The Sunday of Myrrh-Bearing Women 2024