God's Provision for the Restoration of Man

“And a great multitude of people were following Him, and of women who also were bewailing and lamenting Him.” (Luke 23:27)

When Jesus was arrested, the disciples scattered and left Jesus alone. “And leaving Him, all fled.” (Mark 14:50) Peter was the only one who furtively followed to find out what would happen to Jesus. But after he denied Jesus three times, he also left to weep. (Matthew 26: 69-75) The disciples didn’t even follow Jesus to the cross. It was only the women, Mary His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene among the mob that followed Jesus. (John 19:25) But there were other women who wept as Jesus made His way to the cross.

It was customary to hire mourners, usually women, for funerals in those days. But I don’t think these women were hired by the Sanhedrin to cry for those to be crucified. They may have been women who felt grief for the families and friends of those being crucified, which was a customary cultural thing to do. Jesus addresses them. “But turning to them, Jesus said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts which did not suckle.” (Luke 23:28-29) Jesus is addressing the daughters of Jerusalem, those who adhered to the traditional Jewish teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees. While Mary and those women who knew Jesus may have been crying, they were mourning for their Beloved Jesus. They followed at a distance. (Matthew 27:55; Mark 15:40) Luke records that all who believed in Him were also following at a distance. “And all those known to Him stood at a distance; and the women, those accompanying Him from Galilee, were seeing these things.” (Luke 23:49) The disciples were not mentioned at all. These were probably those He’d healed and others that had followed Him.

The women who followed Jesus were at a distance to see Him to the very end. They watched as Joseph and Nicodemus took His body and placed Him in the tomb. “And also women were following, who were accompanying Him out of Galilee, who watched the tomb, and how His body was placed.” (Luke 23:55) Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemos wrapped up the body of Jesus and placed it in the tomb. “And Nicodemus also came, who at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus and wound it with linens with the spices, as is the custom of the Jews to bury.” (John 19:39-40) But the Sabbath was near, so they hurriedly did this. There is no work to be done on the Sabbath.

But after the Sabbath the women who were watching return to anoint the body. There is a big discussion on exactly what this meant since Joseph and Nicodemus had wrapped up the body with aloes. Just a side note here, the aloes are not what we know as aloes, but a very odiferous wood in the Middle East. Nicodemus brought about 75 pounds of it. (John 19:39) This was used to cover up the odor of a dead body. But after the Sabbath the women went to the tomb to anoint the body. Whether this is for the same reason or not is debated. “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome, had bought sweet spices so that they might come and anoint Him.” (Mark 16:1) The original word used mean to anoint with perfume.

Two days before the Passover, Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper. He was known as Simon the leper but had been healed by Jesus. (Luke 5:13) A woman anointed Jesus there with costly perfume which Jesus said was in preparation for His burial. “And when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him, having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on His head as He reclined. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for very much and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, He said to them, Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work on Me. For you have the poor with you always, but you do not always have Me. For in putting ointment on My body, she did it for My burial. Truly I say to you, Wherever this gospel shall be proclaimed in the whole world, that which this woman has done shall be spoken of also, for a memorial of her.” (Matthew 26:6-13) Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome wanted to do the same. What the woman at Simon’s house did and the women who went to the tomb to do could not have been a religious rite since only men could perform religious rites and then only appointed priests. The woman at Simon’s house anointed Jesus because it would not be done after His crucifixion. God provided that anointing rite through her. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome probably did not know this since the gathering at Simon’s house were men.

To sum it up, we see God’s provision for what was necessary. The woman at Simon’s house anointed the body of Jesus for burial. The crying women were warned by Jesus of the coming destruction. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome were part of the group of women who followed Jesus and found out where they had taken the body. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus provided the tomb and the embalming aloes. All was set for the Resurrection. When Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome went to the tomb after the Sabbath which would be our Sunday, the heavy stone that covered the entrance to the tomb had been moved. And He was risen. Which has life changing truths for us.

Man fell into sin and caused all men to be cursed. But God has provided everything we need to restore us to the purity of Adam and Eve before the fall, to walk with God and to be free from sin which we are except for the flesh which is of this world, and which will stay on this earth for destruction. “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1John 2:15-17)