This is an excerpt from Pastor Mark’s new book “Alive: 21 Reasons to Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ” as we count down to Easter. To get your physical copy, CLICK HERE to give a gift of any amount in the month of April to RealFaith to help us get more Bible teaching out. For a FREE digital copy, CLICK HERE. Thank you in advance for your generosity to help us tell more and more people about Jesus.
Luke 24:10 – Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles…
Reason #6: Jesus’ empty tomb was found by women.
Women in the first century under Roman rule sadly were not given many of the same rights and privileges that most women experience today. Yet, Jesus continually honored women, and some of his most fervent followers were, as a result, women. Notably, women were the first to His tomb the day after the crucifixion. If the historical record of the Bible were fiction and not fact, women would not have been fabricated as the first eyewitnesses to the empty tomb, because their testimony was not as credible in court.
But because these women honored their Lord, the Lord honored their testimony: “on the first day of the week [Sunday], at early dawn, they went on to the tomb…And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus…it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them…” (Luke 24:1-3,10).
Both men and women were dear and important to Jesus during his ministry, including several women like Mary Magdalene, whom he healed of evil spirits (Luke 8:2). Read John 4:1-45 about another one, the Samaritan woman at the well, who met Jesus and was used by Him to spread word of Him throughout all of Samaria.
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