On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

Luke 24:2, 3

Women?  Yes, all women!  Where are the men?  Where is Peter?  Matthew?  James?  The others who walked with Jesus for three years?  The Gospel writers were not concerned with them as they recounted the story.  They follow the women.  Perhaps it was because women usually did the anointing.  Who knows?

The fact is, several women, all of Galilee, went early to the grave site. Mary Magdalene is first mentioned.  Her debt to Jesus was huge, he cast out the spirits that had been bothering her relentlessly.  But the other women had their reasons as well to be there on that morning.  I wonder what the mother of James and John felt.  We know that John stayed near the women at the Crucifixion.  The love of women is something special, indeed.  Jesus received their love.

The women did not expect, even their wildest dreams, to discover what they did – they were amazed to see that the heavy stone was somehow rolled away, opening the way into the tomb that was now empty!  They came to anoint Jesus’s body.  It was not there, it was gone! Now, what?  They had the spices and anointing oil in their hands.  But no body!

As I recall, Jesus confided with his disciples that he would rise from the dead.  I doubt whether the women knew that.  They did not come to find a risen Jesus, they came to anoint a dead Jesus!  So, the wonders begin when the first sun rays lit the skies, events that changed everything.

We who have been blessed by the mighty grace of God find great consolation in this story.   As these women, we bow before our Lord, undone but full of glory!