WRITTEN BY: AMBER TREMBLETT

Throughout the story of Jesus’ life, his female disciples are mentioned only a handful of times. The narrative focuses primarily on his relationship with his 12 closest disciples and friends. However, even the scant mention of these female disciples tells us that they were most likely with Jesus regularly throughout his ministry.

In the narratives of the crucifixion found in the four gospels, it is astonishing that women are mentioned in every single one. Despite being featured only a couple of times previously, their presence is now at the center of the story.

And this is a curious thing. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the authors of the gospels to write about the presence of the disciples at the cross? After all, these were the people who would undoubtedly grieve the most at the death of Jesus. Were they even there? The gospels don’t tell us all that much about what the disciples were up to during Jesus’ death.

But they do tell us about the women. We hear about at least three different Marys, including Mary Magdalene, and Jesus’ mother, Mary. We also hear about Salome, Joanna, and the women who followed Jesus from Galilee.

Unveiling the Untold Stories

Who are these women? What are their stories?

From what we know about the cultural and societal role of women during Jesus’ time, it would have been an unlikely event to see women following and learning from a Rabbi. Women were responsible for household work, raising children, and supporting their husbands.

Women did not have agency; they were given away in marriage and were highly affected by the honor-shame culture of the time. Any sort of inappropriate behavior could make women unfit for marriage and therefore a burden to their families and an outcast in their communities.

If their husbands died and they had no adult sons, women were likely to become destitute. The married women with children, those who had managed to avoid public shame, would not have been free to follow Jesus on his journeys. It would have been the widowed women, the outcast women, who could have followed him. And those women who perhaps did leave their families behind to do so would have been shamed as a result.

Following Jesus meant being able to eat regularly, being safe in a group, and being taken care of. Being in the care and teaching of Jesus meant hope. It was a second chance at life and a future filled with acceptance and love.

These women were the exact people Jesus came to serve! They were who the kingdom was and is being built for.

Being in the care and teaching of Jesus meant **hope**.
It was a second chance at life and a future filled with acceptance and **love.**

Following in the Footsteps of the Women at the Cross

So, the presence of these women at the crucifixion is a reminder that Jesus’s death was a sign of hope for the vulnerable, the outcast, the widow, the sinner. It is for women like these that Jesus died. These women were the first women, whether they knew it or not, to witness the kind of hope that can be found even in the midst of despair.

Jesus’s death and ultimate resurrection was, and still is, a promise of justice for the marginalized. When these women had nowhere else to go, when no other teacher would give them the time of day, Jesus did.

So, of course, these women remained at the cross. Of course, they mourned at Jesus’ feet. Because Jesus was the first person who offered a better way. Jesus was the only person with whom they saw a future where freedom was possible.

I can only imagine the utter despair they felt at his death. I can only imagine the depth of their love and devotion to witness something so horrific as his crucifixion and to risk their lives to attend his burial.

The Women at the Cross went first to experience a transformative encounter with Jesus. They went first to witness his sacrifice. They went first to experience such pain and grief. They went first to travel the road that we still travel every year on Good Friday. They went first to begin that faithful procession from death back to life.

These women went first to engage in the lament that our faith makes room for. We lament Jesus’s death because they did. We have hope because they did. We, as women leaders and communicators, learn from Jesus because they did. We stay with Jesus because they did.

This week, we walk in the footsteps of the Women at the Cross.

We become Women at the Cross as we remember, acknowledge, and meditate on the death of Christ.

We are witnesses.

We are disciples.

We are women transformed by Jesus.

About the Author

Amber Tremblett is a full-time Anglican priest in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Besides writing, she expresses her creativity through crocheting and figure skating. She loves to read and is an avid consumer of book-related social media content. Amber's favourite place to rest is by the ocean.

If you’d like to read more of Amber’s writing, she has been published in Clayjar Review, and she runs a personal blog, which you can find at amberiswriting.wordpress.com.