to Begin with, who were the myrrh-bearing women. Where they carried the myrrh? The myrrh-bearing women are called women, who on the night of the resurrection of Christ hastened to His tomb to the Oriental custom of that time to anoint the broken body of the crucified Jesus with perfumed oils.
these were not random women. In the days when the Savior went around preaching in towns and villages, part of the new believers followed Christ, leaving home and sharing with their Teacher the hardships of the dangerous journey.
It was the apostles – the twelve disciples of Christ and the women then called the “myrrh-bearing women”. The gospel mentions only seven names, but likely there were more. In Luke we read that Jesus “passed through towns and villages, proclaiming and preaching the Kingdom of God: and the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Him his goods”. The evangelists mention Kleopova Mary, Salome and Martha and Mary – sisters of Lazarus, resurrected by Jesus.
most of the information gives the gospel of Mary of Magdala, Mary Magdalene. It is reported that Jesus cast seven devils out. The sisters Martha and Mary we meet in the episode of the resurrection of the “three-day Lazarus.” John was probably a wealthy woman about her husband says that he ruled the house of king Herod. About Salome says that she was the mother of the sons of Zebedee James and John, a fisherman’s wife. All of them not only followed the Savior and His disciples, helped them, as it is written in the gospel, “serving his goods”, that is, care being taken to shelter and food, preparing the food. Of course, women were familiar with Mary, the Mother of Christ. They were probably friends. Nothing else on this side of the life of the Holy myrrh-bearers we don’t know. Scanty information. Nothing out of the ordinary. An ordinary woman – someone’s daughter, wife, mother, widow. Nevertheless, their names have survived the ages. Why? Probably because the purity of heart and the ability to be compassionate – qualities very valuable in the eyes of God.
In the first Epistle of St. Peter the Apostle is the call: “let your adornment not outward braiding of hair, wearing of gold, or fine clothes, but the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.”
That is the main thing is inner beauty, is what is called spirituality, and not the wrapper, not the brilliant exterior, which our sister paid the maximum attention. Here is the most “incorruptible beauty” and immortalized these seemingly ordinary women.
“Not so amazing – I read the reflections of St. John Chrysostom about the heroism of the Holy myrrh-bearers – is that they are tied��smiling with your heart to the Lord the Savior in those days, when through the veil of His humility and humiliation showed the divine glory in His miracles, when heard, yet unheard on earth sermon. But our thought is amazing to see them not pokolbasitsja in his love for the Lord, when He was tortured, spat upon, was betrayed to death.”
we know From the gospel that at the Cross of Christ stood Mary, His Mother, His disciple John, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. Says Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh in the sermon on the week of myrrh-bearers, “they are barely mentioned in the gospel to Passionate Days, when Christ was betrayed, captured, abandoned, crucified, killed. But at this time they suddenly appear. At the cross the apostles were not. Judas hanged himself. Only John stood with the Mother of God, because he was the Apostle of love, as the mother of God, was love incarnate, an expression of love for God and all divine love to us, people. And when outwardly, apparently, it was a victory of evil over Christ when He was betrayed and crucified, when He died as if irrevocably affected, then, there were those who were loyal to Him not only in His teaching but in His days of defeat. Apparent, but the apparent defeat in which nobody could doubt, and which could only win the love and loyalty to the end.”
Yes, it is not the apostles were not afraid to come to Calvary, it is the myrrh-bearing women stood at the Cross of Christ, leaving Christ in His suffering. Moreover, together with the secret disciples – Joseph and Nicodemus – they participated in the burial of the master.
the Burial of Christ was hasty: it was now the feast of the Passover, and in violation of the established tradition, the body of the crucified Jesus was not anointed with the world. The next day, after the burial, a Sabbath of rest, early in the morning, the myrrh-bearing women go fearlessly to the tomb to give Jesus the last funeral honor: world to embalm His body.
“In that hour when the frightened disciples were hiding, the women suddenly become bold and fearless – reflects the Athonite elder Moses the Athonite. Their great love made them men in the shower, giving courage, heroism and Dreadnaught. And the love and courage filled their hearts with joy. They never found the corpse, which was to anoint the world. Their master had risen, as predicted earlier.
Strong love of these simple and weak women to make them run on the coffin of Divodasa. To their astonishment they find it empty, and therefore wonder, surprised, elated and inspired. They bought expensive incense, got up early in the morning, banished from their hearts restless fear and came to the tomb before sunrise of a amazing sun. All for them bright, clean, pure, Holy, fair, transparent, charming, luminous, beneficial and joyful. They came to anoint with incense, but instead, smeared with perfume themselves. Their life was filled with infinite light, the meaning of life, fearlessness and sweetness”.
the Fact that gave rise to volumes of theological arguments: the first of the Resurrected Christ saw women. Among the Orthodox, even walking joke: “Why did the Risen Lord first appeared to women? To the news of the Resurrection quickly spread throughout the world.”
No, of course not our talkativeness – the quality is judged by God. The fearlessness of the Holy myrrh-bearers went to their charity, and their dedication – from love, and love is sacrificial. Myrrh-bearing women personify all that is best in a woman’s heart: sincerity, capacity for compassion, loyalty, purity of heart impulses and the ability to love so much that the very that love elevates to the heights of the human spirit. Therefore, the third Sunday after Easter, the Church devotes the gospel narratives about the phenomenon of the risen Lord to the Holy myrrh-bearers. And now compare the depth of meaning of this holiday with the idea of International women’s day.
