Easter Vigil C Luke 24:1-12 April 24, 2025, Saint Mark’s Galilean Women
Mary reaches for the bag she brought from Galilee holding pilgrim water flasks filled with spices. The most precious spice is cinnamon, more valuable than gold. She brought them for healing and to embellish food,/ but they will use them in the morning for embalming. She searches for the fragrant myrrh and aloe, recently used to anoint Jesus’ feet but now deployed to mask his whole de/com/posing body in the dry, hot, late spring.1 Her tears do not stop. They form tiny round droplets on the oil as she mixes in the dry spices.
Joanna cries even more as she realizes all the spices they brought from Galilee now have a sad, unexpected, completely different purpose. Mary, the mother of James, comforts the younger Galilean women who cannot hide their grief with more silent tears. The women who usually share stories about Jesus’ ministry now work silently,/ for no words can express how they feel. They are comforted only by each other’s presence and their tears.
The day before, a young Roman Guard orders them to stand at a distance from the crucifixion area. Even so, they are among the only witnesses to the horror and ignoble nature of Jesus’ death beyond words. His body is so disfigured that sometimes, they pretend it is not really Jesus./ They very carefully watch to see where his body is placed: unwashed, naked, hair unbrushed, simply wrapped in a linen cloth. //
No one mentions that they are now working on the Sabbath. They all unconsciously know their preparation of spices for Jesus’ body is a liturgy of prayers for the dead. They are on that auto-pilot that allows them to function in acute, raw grief but leaves no room for rational thinking. No one mentions that these are the last of their spices and ointments—the last of their money. No one mentions that there is a large stone to roll away to enter Jesus’ tomb. /Instead, they sit expectantly as dawn approaches.
Mary Magdalene convinces them to leave in the early pre-dawn. “It will be safer if we leave when there is still darkness.” The spices and ointments are heavy, so the women take turns carrying them./ So far, they see no one as the pink and orange sky pro/cesses before the sun.
They reach the tomb. /
The stone has been rolled away! What is going on? The last insult. Someone has removed Jesus’ body. Mary, the mother of James, inches toward the tomb’s entrance, followed closely by the other Galilean women. They are barely inside when they see dazzling light coming from the clothes of two men. Joanna faints into Mary’s arms. All the women drop their faces to the ground and drop the spices as they race back to the entrance. Suddenly, the dazzling men shout out, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified,/ and on the third day rise again.”
The startled women all nod their heads with a loud chorus of “Yes, yes, we now remember!” The women are no longer silent. They begin telling all the stories about Jesus they had wanted to say the night before, but Grief could not bear to hear or speak. They excitedly run back to the disciples, presumably hiding out in the upper room. They fling open the door and breathlessly shout, “Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia.”/// But, alas,/ the disciples believe it is an idle tale! ///////////
So take a deep breath./ Open your weary eyes./ Do you have any idea what just happened? We, you and I, are here tonight with Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James, and the other Galilean women. At this Easter Vigil, we and these beautiful children are the first to hear that Christ has Risen from the grave. We hear the first Easter sermon from the women.
Should we run out tonight, fling open doors, and tell everyone the Good News? There is a chance they will think we are telling an idle tale. The women’s news is life-changing, life-changing. It is so startling that we may decide to tell our families tonight, sleep on it, and start telling other friends the good news tomorrow at the coffee hour or brunch, the flowering of the cross, or even the Easter egg hunt./
This/ is how the story spreads, from friend to friend, /and we who hear the story first/ are especially obligated to share the good news with those we meet/ in our everyday lives.// And when we do, we will occasionally/ still/ catch a hint in the air/ of the ar/o/mat/ic spices/ the Galilean women/ left behind// at the empty tomb.//// Alleluia, Christ is Risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!!!!!!
Joanna joannaseibert.com
1Sean Gladding, “Resurrection of the Lord, Christian Century, p. 30, April 2025.
2Herbert O’Driscoll, “Standing By,” A Greening of Imaginations (Church Publishing 2019). p. 55-58.