John 20:1-18

The Gospel of Luke often (rightly) gets attention for its emphasis on characters who were marginalized in ancient Jewish society, including the poor, Gentiles, lepers, and women. Indeed, it has become practically axiomatic among biblical scholars and Bible-reading Christians that Luke is the Gospel that features and supports female characters the most. And this is understandable: Luke is the only Gospel that mentions the importance of Elizabeth and Anna in the nativity story (1:5-7; 41-44; 2:36-38). It also shows Jesus frequently healing women (4:38-39; 8:41-56; 13:10-17) and portrays women as good examples who are commended by Jesus both in real life and in parables (7:36-50; 10:38-42; 15:8-10; 18:1-5; 21:1-4). And while other Gospels mention women who followed Jesus, only Luke tells us that several women of means supported his ministry (8:1-3). Finally, as with all the Gospels, Luke portrays women as the most essential witnesses to the crucifixion and resurrection (24:1-12). Thus, Luke is often touted as the most woman-friendly version of the Jesus narrative.

However, as someone who has spent many years enthralled by and deep in the study of the Gospel of John, I believe this assertion is unfair. While, yes, Luke does commendably focus on women and other marginalized groups, I believe John does just as much if not more to portray the female followers of Jesus as crucial to the narrative. The culmination of this motif is found in Mary Magdalene weeping over the missing body of Jesus in John 20:11-18.

In the section just prior to this (20:1-10) Mary Magdalene has gone to the tomb early in the morning (alone, in this account) and discovered the stone rolled away. Without investigating further she runs to Peter and “the other disciple, the one Jesus loved”[1] (probably a circumlocution for John; 20:2) to tell them the news. Then the two men run to the tomb to verify her finding (vv. 3-10). The story is similar in all four Gospels in that it is always women who discover the empty tomb (although the number and identities of the women vary) and they immediately run to tell the male disciples of their finding (except for, notably, the original, shorter, ending of Mark, where they remain silent out of fear–16:8).

But only the Johannine account goes on to add the appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene in the garden outside the tomb. In fact, only one other Gospel even has the resurrected Jesus appearing to the women (Matthew 28:8-10). In the Johannine version, after Peter and John have verified her story, Mary Magdalene is seen weeping outside the tomb when she discovers the angels who inform her of the resurrection. Then Jesus appears to her, and after recognizing him, she again runs to proclaim to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” (v. 18). This is a unique dual structure that has Mary Magdalene as the bearer of the news of both Jesus’ missing body and his resurrected body, leaving the men in the story a little behind in each instance.

But why did John choose to include this story when none of the other Gospels do? What significance did he find in it? Seeing as this story is essentially the climax to the entire Gospel, its placement surely was not accidental or haphazard. To understand this, I think we must place this story within the larger narrative of the other females who encounter Jesus within the Gospel.

The first major story of the Gospel featuring a woman is found in chapter 4 when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at a well. He answers her questions on issues of theology that Jews and Samaritans disagree about and then reveals details of her personal life that no regular stranger could possibly know. This convinces the woman that Jesus must be at least a prophet (v. 19), but Jesus corrects her by identifying himself as the Messiah (v. 26). When Jesus’ disciples return, she runs back to her village and urges the people to “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did,” adding incredulously: “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” (v. 29). This prompts the villagers to invite Jesus to stay with them, and “many . . . believed in him because of the woman’s testimony” (v. 39). While Luke may be lauded for its positive portrayal of women and foreigners, it is John who describes a female Gentile of the despised and tainted Samaritans as the first witness-bearer to the true identity of Jesus.

This trend of women being the first to recognize and proclaim the truth about Jesus’ identity and nature steadily builds throughout John. In chapter 11 we meet Mary and Martha, the sisters of the deceased Lazarus. While the story is ostensibly about the resurrection of their brother, the majority of the activity and dialogues centers on these two women. Of particular note is the section in 11:17-27, where Martha meets Jesus on his way into town to express her grief over her brother’s death and her anger that her Lord didn’t arrive sooner. Jesus tells her that her brother will rise again. She agrees, thinking he refers to the final resurrection on the last day. But, just as he did with the Samaritan woman, Jesus corrects her, saying: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (vv. 25-26). Martha responds, in awe, with “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world” (v. 27).

This declaration is the first time in the Gospel that anyone, man or woman, has truly grasped and proclaimed Jesus’ real identity as the Son of God, an important concept in John. Indeed, this statement by Martha can be considered the climax of the first part of Jesus’ story in the Fourth Gospel, coming as it does at the end of the first section of the book (chs 1-11), just before Jesus begins his journey to Jerusalem and toward Calvary (chs 12-20). It is the Johannine equivalent to Peter’s declaration of Christ in the Synoptics (Matt 16:13-20; Mk 8:27-33).

However, although Martha gets the big moment in chapter 11, the narrative has a subtle, but significant, footnote involving Mary. We are told she is grief-stricken from the beginning of the passage, and is apparently even more emotional than her sister, for she stays behind in the house, being comforted by friends and family (vv. 20, 31) while Martha runs to greet Jesus. Later, Martha tells Mary that “the Teacher . . . is asking for you” (v. 28), prompting Mary to run to find him as well, where she falls at his feet. The friends comforting her see her leave and assume “that she was going to the tomb to mourn there” (v. 31). At first glance this information about the friends who have come to be with the sisters in their time of grief may seem simply like an interesting insight into ancient Jewish socio-cultural practices surrounding mourning, while also indicating the high regard the community had for both the sisters and Lazarus. However, reading more carefully we find an intriguing tidbit that is easily overlooked, right at the end of the story, after Lazarus is raised from the dead (vv. 38-44): “Therefore, many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him” (v. 45).

Like the Samaritan woman, a group of people came to understand who Jesus was and believed in him because of their association with one of his female disciples. Mary unwittingly, through her grief for her brother, introduced a whole new group of people to the power of her Lord. This dovetails nicely into the story at the beginning of the next chapter (12:1-8) when Mary, demonstrates her deep understanding of Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth by anointing his feet with expensive perfume in preparation for his burial. While the men in the room are incredulous and confused at the sight, Jesus affirms her actions, implying she is the only one who truly comprehends his identity and God’s plan. In both stories, Mary, in her own quiet way, is pivotal to bringing people to belief about Jesus.

So, by the time the narrative reaches chapter 20, the astute reader should be prepared for the fact that a woman is the one to discover the empty tomb and the first to proclaim Jesus’ resurrected state, just as Martha was the first to comprehend his true identity. John’s deliberate incorporation of women at these pivotal points in the narrative (at the beginning of his ministry, immediately before his journey to the cross, and after his resurrection) emphasize that the Gospel–the proclamation that Jesus is the Son of God and that he has conquered sin and death–is for everyone, and is to be proclaimed by everyone, from the least of these to the greatest–from the highly regarded and righteous (Mary and Martha), to the despised and disgraced outcast (the Samaritan woman). The message of Easter can and should be preached by everyone everywhere. Our confident proclamation of our belief in Jesus as the Christ as the Son of God will lead others into confident belief as well.

[1] All Scripture references are from the NIV translation of the Holy Bible. Zondervan, 2011.