Five Minute Friday: Sunrise

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday, where a group of writers get together and free write about a one word prompt for 5 minutes. Today's word is "sunrise."

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could go and anoint the body of Jesus.  Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they went to the tomb. They were asking one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb?”

-Mark 16:1-3 (Berean Study Bible)

Just after sunrise. It was the third day, and the details of the resurrection were falling into place. Exactly what Jesus said was going to happen, was happening, except these women didn’t seem to know that.

Jesus was crucified on Friday. He breathed his last at three o'clock in the afternoon, and they took his body down and buried him quickly, before the Sabbath would begin. The women didn’t have time to prepare his body appropriately. The next evening when the Sabbath was over, it would have been dark and hard for them to see, so they had to wait until the next day.

Sometimes, we have to wait too. It might be because of circumstances beyond our control, but God is still working while we are waiting, just like He was here.

The next morning, on a Sunday morning, the women took the spices they had prepared to anoint Jesus’ body. Why would they take spices to anoint his body? They thought He was still dead. They didn’t hear, or believe Him when He said he would rise again. We can tell by the conversation they were having with each other,

Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb?

-Mark 16:3

Sunrise. I love that time of day. Everything is fresh and new. It reminds me of the Scripture,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

-2 Corinthians 5:17 (English Standard Version)

The old had gone. The Son had risen, but they did not know it yet. But they were about to find out.

All four Gospel writers include this event. Some give more details than others. Only Mark and Luke mention the spices. Different amounts of women are mentioned. Details about the stone are different. But you put them together, and you get a complete picture of what happened there that day. And no detail is without purpose.

God has a plan for each word.

If you read further into the story, you find that the women have conversations with angels. They get to see an empty tomb. And eventually, they are the first ones to see Jesus risen. They are the first eyewitnesses to the Resurrection.

This account just says so much to me about Jesus’ character. How much He must love women to make them a part of those events. How much compassion He must have to meet them where they were in that hour. They didn’t believe He was risen. They thought He was dead. But still He chose to make them a part of His story in those moments.

Blessings to you today as you grow in grace and the knowledge of Him,


Beth

Fragrance of Kings and Queens

Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves. “That’s criminal! A sheer waste! This perfume could have been sold for well over a year’s wages and handed out to the poor.” They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.


But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me. She did what she could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial. And you can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she just did is going to be talked about admiringly.”-Mark 14:3-9



I love Mary of Bethany. She is who I named my blog after. She has several stories in the Bible, each filled with their own unique goodness.

One of the stories has to do with the anointing of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and John all tell the story about anointing Jesus for his burial. Each Gospel writer gives different details, but they all tell the same story.

She is not the same woman as in Luke 7. That is a completely different story filled with its own treasures. But Matthew, Mark, and John tell the story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus with the perfume, which would have been spikenard.

Now, if you haven't ever smelled spikenard, it is strong. One little drop is very fragrant. The Bible says, she took an entire jar of alabaster, which equaled a pound of spikenard, broke it, and anointed him with it, starting at his head.

Every time I hear or think about this story, I think about how everyone in that room, or in that house came out of there smelling like spikenard that day. They had the fragrance upon them.

I just read that this particular perfume is used to anoint royalty. Jesus says in that passage of scripture that she is anointing him for his burial.

In the Old Testament, kings were anointed on the head with oil to prepare them to be king. What if, in anointing him for his burial, she was also anointing him to be king?

When he was crucified, Pontius Pilate had a sign placed above his head.

"And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.""-Joh 19:19

The same things that happened to Jesus, happened to us. The fragrance of the spikenard that anointed him, also covered us that day.

Now, consider these scriptures...

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.-Romans 6:8

And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.-Colossians 2:12

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.-1 Peter 2:9

And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.-Revelation 5:10

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.- 2 Corinthians 2:14

we have boldness through him, and free access as kings before the Father because of our complete confidence in Christ’s faithfulness.-Ephesians 3:12 (The Passion Translation)


Grace and peace to you.


In Him,
Beth

Women in the Life of Jesus: The Women at the Cross

All four writers of the Gospels mention the women at the Cross the day Jesus was crucified. Some give more details than others, but they all four mention that women were there.

Matthew’s Gospel says,

And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.-Matthew 27:55-56 (NKJV)

Mark says,

There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, who also followed Him and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.-Mark 15:40-41(NKJV)

Luke gives the least amount of detail. His Gospel reads,

But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.-Luke 23:49 (NKJV)

John’s Gospel has the women up close.

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple who He loved standing by, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ The He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.-John 19:25-27 (NKJV)

There were a lot of woman at the Cross the day Jesus was crucified, some of them named and some of the unnamed. One of the noticeable things about the women that day is many were named Mary. I don’t think there are any coincidences in the Bible, or with God, so this must be significant.

The Hebrew word for Mary means “obstinacy” or “rebellion.” I have also seen the definition “bitter.” So there was a lot of rebellion surrounding Jesus on the Cross that day.

In John’s Gospel, he describes a scene between Mary and John.

When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ The He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.-John 19:25-27 (NKJV)

I have always found this scenario very interesting. Why would Jesus tell John to care for His mother? He had at least 5 other siblings. Should they be responsible for the care of Mary? She was also not an old woman when this took place. Jesus was only 33 when He was crucified. She had him at a very young age. If she was 18 when Jesus was born, which scholars estimate she was much younger, she would still have only been 51 at Jesus’ death. I am 45 and do not need to be cared for. How could a woman so young, with other children, need to be cared for by John? 

I don’t think that was the point of this particular passage.

The name John means “Jehovah is gracious.” So Jesus asked a man whose name means “Jehovah is gracious” to care for a woman whose name means “bitterness, rebellion, and obstinacy.” John and Mary were a picture of what was happening in the spiritual realm.

There at the Cross that day grace came to care for rebellion. That is what happened with Jesus’ death. His grace came to care for our rebellion.


May you grow in the knowledge of His love,


Beth






To read more posts in this series, go here to Women in the Life of Jesus.