![]() ![]() It is hard for me to fully imagine what the women must have experienced as they came to the tomb and found it empty. ![]() As essential as it was for them to attend to Jesus’s body, these women remind us of how important the Sabbath was for Jesus and His followers. Under normal circumstances, the women would have taken care of the body soon after it was placed in the sepulchre, but they had postponed their ministrations until after the Sabbath (see Mark 16:1). ![]() Mark and Luke specifically mention that the women were there with spices to take care of Jesus’s body (see Mark 16:1 Luke 23:56). All four Gospels describe women being at the tomb early on Sunday morning. Women also play an important supporting role in the events on Easter Sunday. This travel narrative suggests that these women were a significant part of His ministry and witnessed His teachings, miracles, and the Crucifixion and Resurrection-and I believe we have much to learn from them. Luke’s Gospel is particularly poignant because earlier in his account he notes that Jesus was accompanied by a certain group of women and the Twelve when He embarked on His journey from Galilee to Jerusalem ( Luke 8:1–3). Over the years since that experience, my testimony of Christ’s Resurrection has been deepened by further studying what His female disciples experienced during this pivotal event. But I am here to witness to you, along with the angel who spoke so long ago to the women present at the empty tomb, ‘Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen’ ( Luke 24:5–6).” To the best of my memory, he testified, “Each year thousands of people come to this site to find the place where Jesus was buried. On that first visit, I felt the Spirit so strongly as our volunteer guide sat us down and declared his personal witness. Although the Garden Tomb is probably not the actual tomb of Jesus, 1 it is for me a spiritual oasis in both Jerusalem and in my mind and heart. ![]()
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