And there were women also looking on from afar off, among whom were both Mary of Magdala, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;
Mark now looks away from the cross to a group of women watching from a distance. He names three of them. Their presence raises a question: where were the men who had followed Him?
The disciples had left Him. Only the women are still there, and one writer reads that contrast as grace at work.
Mark 15 gives the crucifixion of our Lord. It also shows the effect on those who followed Him, and the grace that worked in the woman. The men betrayed their utter fear in the face of death. The women were strengthened: the weak truly made strong.
One writer compares them with the disciples who had gone, and ranks the women higher.
But the women, notice it well, have a place more blessed still. They had followed Him from Galilee, and had cared for Him out of their own means. We find them near the Lord when His disciples had left Him. They had not been sent to preach. Yet their devotion to the Lord, their faithfulness and their constant love for Him when danger comes, shine out in the Lord's history.
Salome is only a name here. Comparing the lists in the Gospels gives her a family.
One of the women who witnessed the crucifixion of the Lord, and brought spices to anoint His body. Mark 15:40; Mark 16:1. Comparing Matthew 27:56 with Mark 15:40, it appears that Salome was the wife of Zebedee. If so, she was the one who came with her two sons, James and John, when they asked to sit at the right hand and the left hand of the Lord in His kingdom.
This James is named only so that we know which Mary is meant.
The name occurs in Mark 15:40. Matthew 27:56, Mark 16:1 and Luke 24:10 call the same person just James. Scripture mentions him only to point out his mother, whose name was Mary. James and Joses were common names, and they appear among the brothers of the Lord too. But James the Less may be, as some think, the same person as James the son of Alphaeus.
One writer reads this second Mary as the Lord's own mother — named here by her other children, not by her relation to Jesus.
Here we find the Virgin Mary's name is second to Mary Magdalene's first. Further she is not described as the mother of our Lord, but of James and Joses (see Mark 6:3). The Roman Catholic Church denies that the Virgin Mary had other children than our Lord, but Scripture states it plainly. The supernatural did not set aside the natural.
Her name comes first in the list. Her reputation has suffered from a story the Bible never tells.
Mary of Magdala is one whose character has been badly slandered, as if she had been an immoral woman. Scripture does not speak of her that way, and neither should we. Men may name homes for poor fallen women after her. What Scripture records is this: "out of whom He had cast seven demons."
What Jesus had done for her explains why she is standing there at all.
She had been the bond-slave of Satan. He made her do his bidding, however revolting and wicked, with her soul and body under his evil control. Now she was brought into the blessed circle where grace was supreme... Once the seven demons held her in their grasp. Now the Lord Jesus had her heart, and, making His home there, He drew her after Him from that time on in the path of devotion and love.
They could see everything and change nothing. Mark records the fact and leaves the feeling unsaid.
Scripture records that they had followed Him and cared for Him in Galilee, but says no more. We are left to imagine what thoughts of unspeakable sorrow pierced their hearts.
They stayed through the burial too. One writer turns that into a warning for the rest of us.
Then certain devoted women have honourable mention. They had followed the Lord and given to Him out of their own means while He was here on earth. In love they had followed the Lord in His life of service. They clung to Him in death on the cross. They watched as His body was laid in the grave. It is easy to dwell on their lack of understanding, while falling far behind them in their devoted love.
- Grace first. The Lord cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene and took the place they had held. Her devotion at the cross grows out of that.
- Grace names. Salome, James the younger, Joses — Mark writes down small names and family ties, while the disciples who left Him go unnamed.
- Grace strengthens. The men show their fear of death. The women, the weaker ones, are made strong.
- Grace serves without a platform. No one sent these women out to preach. They followed from Galilee, gave out of their own means, and stayed when it cost them.
- Grace outlasts confusion. Their understanding was small; their love was not. It is easy to point out what they missed and still fall far behind their love.
who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him and ministered to him; and many others who came up with him to Jerusalem.
Between the death of Jesus and His burial, Mark stops to say who the watching women were. He looks back over years of following and serving in Galilee. He names that service in the same breath as the cross.
The word behind their service is the one later used for "deacon". One writer contrasts it with what people picture today:
Certain women served as "deacons" (Mark 15:41). They served Christ out of their own money (Luke 8:3). How different from the modern idea of a "deacon" as a man appointed to handle other people's money!
There is a second side to it. The One they served owned everything, yet He let Himself need what they brought:
These women gave to the Lord out of what they owned. He is the Lord of glory and owns all creation, yet in lowly humility He made Himself dependent on the service of women. That is a blessed testimony to the grace of His heart. At the same time it gave them the chance to show how much they valued His grace, in a way that God will fully reward.
One group of people links the roads of Galilee, the cross, and the grave:
Then some devoted women are given honourable mention. They had followed the Lord and had served Him out of their own means while He was here on earth. In love they followed Him through His life of service. They clung to Him as He died on the cross. They watch as His body is laid in the grave. It is easy to dwell on how little they understood, while falling far behind them in devoted love.
The contrast with the men is hard to miss:
Mark 15 gives the crucifixion of our Lord. It shows the effect on those who followed Him, and the grace that worked in the women. The men showed their utter fear in the face of death. The women were strengthened — the weak truly made strong.
They stood at a distance, yet they stood. One writer traces how they moved closer:
At first the women who had followed Him from Galilee are seen "afar off" from that scene of horror, as we would expect. But later, it seems (John 20), they come as close as the Roman guard's spears would let them. Faith may have died out of their hearts, but fear found no place there. Love marks them out — love that is never stronger than when the one it loves is most in need — and the Spirit of God describes their devotion in just that way.
One writer sets this devotion apart from public work, and links it to real knowledge of Christ:
The activity of public service — what we usually call "work" — belongs naturally to men, though women have a very precious share in private. But there is another side of Christian life that belongs especially to women: personal and loving devotion to Christ. It was a woman who anointed the Lord while the disciples complained. It was women who were at the cross when everyone except John had left Him. It was women who came to the tomb, and who were sent to tell the apostles the news... Note too that this clinging of heart to Jesus is the place where true knowledge is received.
The burial follows at once, and the same people carry on into it:
The death of Jesus did not tear Him from the hearts of those weak ones who loved Him... those godly women who had followed Him and had often met His needs, and Joseph... These women and Joseph are alike taken up with the body of Jesus. The body in which the Son of God had lived is not left without the services that man owed to Him who had just left it.
Mark counts "many other women" here without naming them. Another writer dwells on the names Scripture does keep:
Happy, greatly privileged women! What joy to serve the Lord of glory in the days of His human need and humiliation! There stand their honoured names, written on the divine page by God the Holy Spirit, for untold millions to read, carried down the stream of time right on into eternity.
- Followed. Their presence at the cross was not a sudden impulse; it was the end of a road that started in Galilee.
- Ministered. They gave plain service out of their own means, and the Lord of all creation made Himself depend on it.
- Stayed. The men gave way to fear of death; grace made the weak truly strong, and these women stood watching.
- Clung. Their distinct service was personal devotion to Christ — and that clinging is where true knowledge is received.
- Recorded. Their names stand on the page of Scripture for ever — a warning against praising their love while falling short of it.