
There are women at the tomb. They do not speak. Their behaviour is rather unusual for women friends of a deceased person, especially a friend. They don’t lament, they don’t cry (in Mark, anyway), they don’t weep, they don’t beat their breasts. They just sit, watch, and ‘come’ there. Perhaps they came with plans to anoint the body, but they are manifestly too late for that.
These women at the tomb will be told to go and not return there, they are told they have come to the wrong place. And they are told not to tell anyone! In a real sense, wherever the dead Jesus was laid was not a permanent tomb. It was only a temporary burial. There is to be no-grieving going on there or anywhere else. There is to be no cult – ever – of Jesus-as-dead.
Mary of Magdala and Mary the Mother of Joset watch at the tomb of Jesus
James Tissot
The women say not a word. In the silence, in their silence
Source: XIVth Station Australian Redemptorists: http://www.cssr.org.au/pray_with_us/dsp-default.cfm?loadref=297
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