Rev. Michelle's Message April 2, 2026

This week, as I have been going back and reading the resurrection stories from each of the gospel accounts in preparation for my Sunday lesson, I have been struck by something that is not always noticed and that often gets downplayed in the church. It is a plain and simple fact: there would likely be no Easter without the women.

That’s right. You might recall from last week that it was the women who were present at the cross while all the male disciples had scattered. So, too, it is the women who go to the tomb early that first Easter morning to anoint Jesus’ body with spices. It is the women who find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. And it is the women who are the first witnesses to the resurrection when the risen Jesus appears to them and instructs them to go and tell the others that he has risen from the dead.

I learned in Christian Scripture classes in seminary that when there are verses or stories in the scriptures that would have been embarrassing to the early followers (such as the women being the first to see the risen Lord) and yet the verse or story was left in, that is an indication that it is an original and reliable element of the story and more likely to be historically accurate. This is because that part of the story would have been so well known to the community that the author who eventually wrote it down could not get away with redacting it.

Even though the prominent role of women does seem to have been watered down throughout the gospels (for instance, women are hardly ever named), the authors could not get away with removing the women from the foot of the cross, from the empty tomb, and from the first appearance of the risen Christ.

It is also likely that women such as Mary Magdalene, Joanna (the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza), Salome, and Mary the mother of James the younger, had important roles in the early Christian communities that formed after Jesus’ death. They may even have been Jesus’ actual disciples.

Nevertheless, as we know, women have been systematically excluded from all aspects of church ministry and leadership for 2000 years. And some denominations still exclude women from the priesthood and ordination. However, the times they are a-changin’. Last week, Rev Dame Sarah Mullally became the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to lead the Church of England and serve as the symbolic head of the Anglican Communion.

So, as Paul Harvey used to say, now you know the rest of the story. Women have always been at the center of it all—financially supporting Jesus’ ministry, cooking for and serving the disciples (diakonia), studying with and learning from Jesus, sticking around when all others fled, and present in the most important moments of the story.

As we prepare to enter into the high holy days of the Christian calendar, let us remember and honor the women of the gospels and the important contributions women have made both to the Easter story and to the unfolding of Jesus’ ministry and the evolution of the church, both 2000 years ago and up to the present.

Easter Blessings,

Rev. Michelle

#unity #unityofmontereybay #womenofthebible #marymagdalene