Peter, Pilate, and three Mary's

Simon Peter. - how we feel for him in having, like us, to learn the hard way.  The story of his having denied Christ three times will never disappear from his story.  Each of the Gospels recounts the sad facts.  Perhaps it is most stark in Luke’s account, for it is there separated from the interchange between Jesus and the high priest. How stupid it all seems to us that Jesus was accused of blasphemy for admitting that he was the Christ, the Son of God, or ‘the Blessed’, as Mark has it.

The Jews were so determined to find a ‘lawful’ way of putting Jesus to death that they took him to Pilate, the Roman procurator of Judea.  Here he is accused of making himself king.  It was Pilate who suggested the title for Jesus’ cross: JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.

We come to the crucifixion and are told that three Mary’s stood at the foot of the cross – Mary his mother, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.   How Mary Magdalene must have grown spiritually under Jesus’ influence!  After all, he cast out seven devils from her, seven being recognised as a perfect number.  It was she who was first at the resurrection scene.  And she was the first to speak with the risen Christ Jesus.

This ‘first’ reminds me of Mrs. Eddy’s poem, Woman’s Rights:

                        Grave on her monumental pile:

                        She won from vice, by virtue’s smile,

                        Her dazzling crown, her sceptred throne,

                        Affection’s wreath, a happy home;

                        The right to worship deep and pure,

                        To bless the orphan, feed the poor,

                        Last at the cross to mourn her Lord,

                        First at the tomb to hear his word:

                       

                        To fold an angel’s wings below;

                        And hover o’er the couch of woe;

                        To nurse the Bethlehem babe so sweet,

                        The right to sit at Jesus’ feet;

                        To form the bud for bursting bloom,

                        The hoary head with joy to crown;

                        In short, the right to work and pray,

                        “To point to heaven and lead the way.”

Joyce Voysey

PS. There is always another question to ask: Why is the last line in inverted commas?  It doesn’t seem to be a quote.