Mark 15:40 Commentary and Bible Study

What tremendous courage these women had! Matthew, Mark, and Luke indicate in various ways that when Christ suffered and died on Calvary’s Cross, these women stood at a great distance, afar off. John’s Gospel tells us they stood near. There is no contradiction between the two. With their courage these women drew closer and closer, we may assume, until they got as near as they possibly could. The disciples had forsaken him and fled. Christ had told them that they couldn’t actually suffer and die for him at that time, and most of the male disciples had fled and were now not with the women, but at a distance. As far as we know, they did not witness these proceedings with the single exception of John. But the women did, in spite of the noise, and the hatred and screaming, and the shouting at this execution. Anyone who was a follower of Christ would have trembled, but these bold women drew near and they were concerned about what was going to be done with the body – they and they alone. We have to admire their courage.These women had understood the place of human instrumentality in the Lord’s service. As they followed Christ around Galilee, they knew he was the Son of God. They were convinced he was the Messiah not only by his mighty power but by his bearing, his kindness, his unfailing holiness of life, and his words. They believed God had come. Yet they served him and they helped him and they provided for him. Are we being presumptuous in trying to provide for the Son of God? That didn’t occur to them for a moment. They believed that he welcomed human instrumentality, freely offered up: loving service for the Lord. Now, imagine you were among them and you think this is the Messiah. ‘I trust him implicitly. Yet he is taken in apparent weakness, arrested and now they see him so dreadfully treated and he has been scourged and abused, and he is hanging on a cross, disfigured. He is dying. They might have said, ‘This doesn’t fit in with what I believe about him. He is the Messiah; he is the Son of God. What is happening?’ Wouldn’t you expect their faith to be shattered, for them to be completely disillusioned? But they are there in faith right to the end. ‘I don’t understand this but I know he is the Son of God. Something is going to happen. There must be a purpose in this.’ Like the disciples, they don’t yet understand the atonement and what he is doing. They will soon do so with great gladness. They are going to be shaken and amazed at his resurrection but, you see, because they know who he is, they trust him and they have great faith in him.