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The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan
Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)
Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)
The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
A group of women from Galilee suddenly appears in Matthew 27:55. They are “beholding from a distance” (makrothen), having “followed” Jesus (eklouthesan).
This is precisely the description given of Peter in 26:58: When Jesus is arrested, he too “follows Him at a distance” (ekolouthe auto apo makrothen). The women have not only taken up the place of the disciples in general, but specifically of Peter, who had confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God.
In fact, the women are the ones who have been following Jesus throughout the gospel.
Matthew uses the disciple-word “follow” some 24 times in his gospel. Initially, the word describes the disciples’ immediate forsaking of their nets to follow Jesus (4:20, 22; cf. 9:9), but almost immediately the multitude takes the place of the twelve as those who “follow” Jesus (4:25; 8:1; 12:15; 14:13; 19:2; 20:29, 34; 21:9). Apart from Jesus’ initial call, Matthew doesn’t say that any disciples “follows” Jesus except Peter in 26:58, and he’s following from a distance. Peter says he’s forsaken everything to follow Jesus, and Jesus agrees (19:27-28), but we don’t actually see it happening.
All along, though, a crowd of “many women” have been invisibly part of the “multitude” following Jesus from Galilee. While, in Matthew’s telling. the multitude and disciples have abandoned Jesus at the cross and tomb, however, these women stick around. While Judas betrays, and Peter denies, and the crowd cries out for Jesus’ blood, the women from Galilee are near enough to watch and wait, and to become witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 4:38 am
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