SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/9/2024 8:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Sympathetic
Loyalty”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 27:55-56
Message of the verses: “55 Many women were
there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee while
ministering to Him. 56 Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of
James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.”
In these two verses Matthew mentions a second group
of people, people who are especially beautiful.
This group is unlike the soldiers whom we looked at as they went from
unbelief to belief, the many women who were there were already believers. MacArthur writes about this group “Their
response to the crucifixion could be described as sympathetic loyalty.”
Let
us look at John’s gospel 19:25-27 “25 Therefore the soldiers did these things.
But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister,
Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus then saw His
mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He *said to His mother,
"Woman, behold, your son!" 27 Then He said to the disciple,
"Behold, your mother!" From that hour the disciple took her into his
own household.” MacArthur writes “From John’s account we know
that some of the women, as well as John, had earlier been at the foot of the
Cross. But perhaps because they could
not bear to observe the suffering of their Lord so closely, those women were
now looking on from a distance. They
were not afraid of the soldiers or the Jewish leaders and had no concern for
their own safety or welfare. They were
not ashamed of being identified with Jesus.
They withdrew because they were devastated at the suffering and death of
the one they had loved so dearly. Their
grief was deep and their hopes seemed shattered, but their courage was
undaunted.” I can understand why they
left the foot of the cross.
It seems that sympathetic loyalty is
one of the most beautiful and distinguishing characteristics of godly women,
even generally being more evident in them than in godly men. Perhaps it has to do with being a mother, I’m
not sure but that seems to me like it could have something to do with it. MacArthur adds “A spiritual woman has the
capacity for incredible loyalty in the face of ridicule and danger. Except for John, the rest of the disciples
had fled in fear. Even Peter, who
mustered enough courage to follow Jesus as far as the house of Caiaphas, was
not to be found at the cross.” It seems
to me that the reason Peter was not there was because of his three time betrayal
of Jesus as I would suspect that he was trying to deal with his failure at this
time period.
Here is how the wonderful Bible
expositor G. Campbell Morgan describes the women here as “hopeless, disappointed,
bereaved, heartbroken; but the love He had created in those hearts for Himself
could not be quenched, even by His dying; could not be overcome, even though
they were disappointed; could not be extinguished, even though the light of
hope had gone out, and over the sea of their sorrow there was not sighing wind
that told of the dawn” (The Gospel According to Matthew [Old Tappan, N.
J.: Revell, 1929], p. 318).
Matthew speaks of the number of
women who were there as being many, but the exact number is unknown and so this
perhaps would suggest up to a dozen, but we can’t be sure. How many there were, these women were among
those who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him. I remember a long time ago when I was sitting
under the ministry of Pastor Ralph Burns that he mentioned how the ministry of
Jesus was financed, and he stated that it had a lot to do with women, as some
of the women who took this on were fairly wealthy.
Some of the women listed here and in
John’s gospel had traveled with and served Jesus for a long while. Among those who were the earliest of them
were “Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and
Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who
were contributing to their [Jesus’ and the disciples’] support out of their
private means” (Luke 8:2-3). Well now I know
where Pastor Burns go his information about these women supporting Jesus’s ministry. MacArthur adds “Throughout His ministry, such
women ministered generously and lovingly to Jesus and the Twelve with their
financial resources, their talents, and their hospitality. It is probable that many, if not most, of the
meals they ate were prepared by those faithful women.”
Bottom line is that these women had
much to do with keeping the ministry gone, and they did it out of love for
their Savior.
9/9/2024 9:36
AM
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