Jesus is condemned to death and Pilate has the charge written and fastened to the cross: it read ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews’.
Women could move silently, heads covered, without fear of arrest because they were not recognized as entities before the law. They stood at the foot of the cross.
Mary Magdalene was there with Mary wife of Alphaeus, the mother of the young apostle James, and Joses and Salome. Joanna stood by with Susanna. In the Gospel of John, Mary the mother of Jesus and his mother’s sister (sister-in-law), Mary the wife of Clopas were there.
John, himself stood nearby – maybe because he was too young to be arrested, it was safer for him than for the apostles who were older men, and maybe he was braver.
Jesus died in the most extraordinary way with a loud cry. Others who died on a cross had nothing left in them by the time they expired.
Joseph of Arimathea was given permission to take Jesus’ body for burial. Some of the women followed him and noted where the tomb was so that they could return to perform the proper rituals. Then the Sabbath descended upon them and they went home.
Merry and True 