The Beauty of the Cross
The beauty of the cross is in so many things we see around us. Today, I saw the beauty of the cross in women in a small country church channeling Mary Magdalene when she said, “I have seen the Lord”! (John 20:18)
It’s weird to think of the cross as beautiful. It’s like people living in 3022 saying the electric chair was beautiful. However, as we reflect on significance of that horrendous method of the death penalty, and the ultimate martyr – Jesus - who was executed, yet rose again, it is beautiful.
The Liberation
Jesus’ death and resurrection gives us freedom. We don’t have freedom because we live in the United States, though I’m proud and thankful to live in this country. We have freedom because of Jesus. Jesus as a man - a human - understands our struggles and hurts, our emotional and physical pains, our human interactions (good and bad), and the oppression by rulers, authorities, and others in powerful positions. Jesus as the Christ provided the perfect sacrifice to overcome it all. He had friends that abandoned Him, couldn’t stay awake to pray for Him in the hours before He was crucified, was ridiculed because He was from Nazareth, was ridiculed because of the things He said, saw women and others who were marginalized be treated differently, experienced the pain and humiliation of being stripped, beaten, and nailed to a cross. He cried out for God to spare Him of what was about to happen, though understood that it was His mission and destiny. He understands when we cry out. He gets it.
Jesus’ death and resurrection liberated all people, but what I found so beautiful in the image of the cross this Easter morning was the liberation of women. Jesus liberated women to bear witness, to evangelize, to disciple, and to deliver the most important message ever given. Women in Jesus’ day were not allowed to bear witness, or to give testimony; they were not considered trustworthy. Jesus turned that on its head with the seemingly simple, but extraordinarily significant, act of appearing as the resurrected Christ first to women and telling Mary Magdalene to “go” and “tell”.
Go and Tell
Jesus broke gender stereotypes and oppression when He commissioned Mary Magdalene and the other women at the tomb to go tell the disciples that He had arisen. She obeyed and was the first person to preach the Gospel to others; in other words, she evangelized. I love one of Merriam-Webster’s definitions of evangelist, “an enthusiastic advocate”. Can’t you just imagine Mary Magdalene’s enthusiasm when running to tell the men about Christ’s resurrection? Jesus gave permission to this woman to tell the Good News, to break free from the man-made structures that oppressed, silenced, and marginalized her and other women. Don’t overlook a major point that Jesus made here: Jesus said, “but go to My brothers and say to them, I am ascending….” He said “go”, He sent Mary Magdalene to deliver the message of the Good News to men. Jesus didn’t tell her to go tell “the women”, He told her to go and tell His “brethren.”
Theology for Women
A theology for women meets the real and the practical. It meets the needs of women in every place and every condition. This Easter morning, as I stood with the other 30 or so people during the sunrise service at Rescue United Methodist Church in Union Grove, Alabama, I saw and heard that real and practical theology for women.
A few weeks ago, the pastor called to tell me that one of the women in his church approached him about the Easter Service. She suggested to him that the women be allowed to give testimony as to how they’ve seen the Lord, in keeping with what happened that Resurrection morning. This was brilliant, and I’m very jealous I never thought of this! Much to the pastor’s credit, he prayed about it and said yes. Easter is one of the most important mornings and messages a pastor will preach each year – it’s a BIG deal – when the most people attend church and are most willing to listen to the message of Jesus and Christ resurrected.Easter morning, sunrise service, a pastor was willing to yield the service over to the women! Ya’ll. My heart.
I Have Seen the Lord!
The pastor read John 20:11-18. Verses 17-18 are the most pertinent here, “Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’” (emphasis mine) (NIV)
The Pastor then said that Jesus chose 12 men to be His disciples at the beginning of His ministry, but now, at His resurrection, Jesus commissioned and ordained women to preach and tell of His resurrection. At this, he asked the women of the church to carry Mary Magdalene’s words, “I have seen the Lord” and explain how they’ve seen the Lord. In what and how have they seen the Lord?
The Beauty of the Cross
I cried. It was beautiful. It was beautiful to see the affirmation of the woman in her role in the resurrection story. It was beautiful to see the affirmation of the liberation of women at the foot of the cross. It was beautiful to see the liberation of the women in that small congregation to share their stories of when and how they’ve seen the Lord. Each telling was of a personal and real way that God showed up in their lives, some involved spouses, children and grandchildren, some stories were testimonies as to Jesus being a light when she was in a dark place, some stories were about seeing Jesus in the lives and faces of the other women in that congregation– but each woman bore witness in her own way as to having seen the Lord.
We Still See the Lord
On that day thousands of years ago, the women remained with Jesus and stood at the foot of the cross when He was dying. Women were the first to see the resurrected Christ. Women were the first to declare His resurrection and the first to say, “I have seen the Lord!” Easter 2022, women continue to stand at the foot of the cross and declare of the resurrected Christ, “I have seen the Lord!”
How Have You Seen the Lord?
How have you seen the Lord? Share your stories with me.
See the video, here, I made after coming home from this Easter Sunrise Service.
Some excerpts from my book, Equal Protection Under God: Gender equality and women’s roles in the church.