Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. It’s always the women. Have you noticed that? In each of the four Gospel accounts, it is only the women who remain with Jesus to the end. Judas betrays, Peter...

While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been...

Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’ There is a sense in which Matthew is, if not “fixing,” at...

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. Dawn, on the first day of the week. This is when Matthew’s account of the resurrection starts. Dawn, when the sun is just cresting the horizon after a long night, spreading...

Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. Matthew is quite tactful. He writes only that, “Many women...