Easter Story, Easter Women

One of the busiest times in the church calendar is the season leading up to Easter. There are services to attend, sermons to write, meals to prepare, activities to organize, and traditions to observe. Many are preparing Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets, and lilies, which decorate sanctuaries and our coffee tables.

Yet amid all these activities, we must pause to remember what Easter truly means and its impact on our lives today.

I grew up hearing the story of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. It is the pinnacle of the Christian story: Jesus came into the world, suffered, died, and was raised to bring salvation and new life. And yet it is a difficult story to grasp fully.

How do we make sense of resurrection? Do we believe it at face value? How do we believe that the crucified one could actually rise from the dead?

For many of us, faith exists in the tension between belief and doubt. But beyond the mystery and faith of the resurrection itself, there is another tension in how the story has been told. The Easter narrative I heard growing up centered almost entirely on Jesus and his twelve disciples. The stories were about how Peter denied Jesus three times, how Judas betrayed Jesus, and how Peter cut off the right ear of Malchus in the Garden of Gethsemane during the arrest of Jesus.

The actions of men are carefully recorded and told in churches during Easter, without much attention to or mention of the women in the Easter story. Women were followers and supporters who were around Jesus, but why are they not the focus during Easter?

This silence around the women is not accidental. It is part of the church’s patriarchal history. Christianity has often minimized or overlooked the role of women, even when the biblical texts themselves bear witness to their significance. Women are viewed as second-class citizens and often as secondary or nonessential “props” to the story.

Yet when we turn back to the Gospel accounts, we see something very striking. While many of the male disciples fled in fear and hid in the upper room, women were the only ones who remained with Jesus in his final moments. They witnessed his agony on the cross. They did not abandon him and hide, as Peter and the rest of the men did.

Mary Magdalene was often misrepresented throughout church history. Her image was distorted by Pope Gregory I, who falsely connected her to the “sinful woman” who anoints Jesus in Luke 7. This false connection created an inaccurate portrayal of her as a prostitute or a temptress.

This is the story I grew up with in the church, and it has been a pattern for many women in the Bible and in our society.

But it was Mary Magdalene who stayed at the cross as a devoted disciple while the men deserted Jesus. She also came to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with spices, which was an act of care, love, and devotion that the men did not display.

When she comes to the tomb, she finds it empty.

In her deep grief, she weeps. In that moment of sorrow and despair, she encounters the risen Christ. At first, she does not recognize him and thinks he is the gardener. But when Jesus calls her name, she sees, understands, and becomes the first witness to the Lord’s resurrection.

Then something remarkable happens. Jesus entrusts her with the message: “Go and tell the others.”

Mary Magdalene becomes the first apostle. She is the apostle to the apostles, proclaiming the good news that “Christ is risen.” She is central to the Easter story—entrusted and commissioned by Jesus to share the good news of the resurrection.

This is the Easter story, and we are the Easter people. Women are the last at the cross and the first at the tomb. Faithfulness is found not in power, but in presence, care, and love. Those pushed to the margins and subordinated remain faithful and are entrusted with the greatest news of all.

As we ponder the mystery of Easter, perhaps we are called not only to remember the resurrection but also to re-member the story. We must put back together what has been taken apart and recognize the fullness of the narrative, including the vital role of women in Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection.

What would it mean for the church to truly honor this part of the story? What would it mean to take seriously that the first proclamation of resurrection came from a woman?

Easter is about new life, but it is also about a new vision. It invites us to faithfully see what has always been right in front of us.

May we have the courage to see and be changed by it. May we have the humility to learn from it and be moved. And may we proclaim, alongside Mary, the good news of resurrection with excitement, boldness, and hope to the world.