Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that the women who had ministered unto Jesus stood afar off, but John tells us of some who stood “by the cross”. Let us first of all see who all these were.
Matt. 27:55,56. “And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him: among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.”
Mark 15:40. “There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome …”
Luke 23:49. “And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.”
John 19:25. “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.”
We cannot say who the many women from Galilee were, and it would appear that all the time they stood some distance away, but of those who came to the foot of the cross, evidently leaving the others, were four who are named. The mother of Jesus is only mentioned by John. The four women are :
- Mary, the mother of Jesus.
- Salome, the sister of Mary.
- Mary Magdalene.
- Mary, the wife of Alphaeus (Cleophas), the mother of James (the less).
It seems strange that Mary, the sister of Lazarus, is not mentioned, and one wonders why she was not there in view of the very close relationship which existed between Jesus and all that family at Bethany. But is not the answer a simple one? When all the evidence is collected, the strong probability emerges that Mary Magdalene is the same person as Mary the sister of Lazarus. She was the wayward one of the family and was rescued by Jesus from a life of shame, because of which the record says “she loved much”.
If this surmise is correct, then the sister of Lazarus was at the cross as we should naturally expect, and she was not satisfied to stand afar off, but came near. This also explains why Mary Magdalene was early at the sepulchre on the resurrection morn, and why Jesus gave to her the commission “Go, tell my disciples, and Peter. …”. This also tells us why in Matthew and Mark she is named first (none are identified in Luke), but in John, naturally, the mother of Jesus takes first place.
The next Mary mentioned (of the four women, three were Marys!) is Mary, the wife of Cleophas. Again collecting the evidence, it is very probable that not only is Cleophas the same as Alphaeus, but also that he was the brother of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
This would mean that Mary, the wife of Cleophas, was the sister-in-law of Mary the mother of Jesus. She had two sons, James (who is called James the less to distinguish him) and Joses. James had a son Judas. Mary was the second wife of Alphaeus, and, by his first wife, Alphaeus had a son Matthew who was, therefore, the step-son of Mary. Matthew (who was the same as Levi the tax-gatherer), James and Judas were all members of the twelve apostles, and would also be the legal cousins of Jesus. The tie, therefore, between the wife of Alphaeus and Mary the mother of Jesus would be a strong one from many angles.
Salome was the third woman, and who was she? She is mentioned by Matthew and Mark, not by Luke, and not by John under the name Salome. But here again it is a case of collecting evidence, and from this it emerges that the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus, and Salome, were the same person. What more do we know about Salome? She was the wife of Zebedee, and they had two sons, James and John, who were fishermen along with their father. They, too, were disciples of Jesus and were also his cousins, as their mothers were sisters.
Seeing Mary was “of the house and lineage of David”, so also would Salome be, having the same father and mother. When therefore Salome brought James and John to Jesus with the request that, in his kingdom, they may sit one on his right hand and one on his left, it was more than a mere selfish request. They had almost the same right to the throne of David as Jesus had, if we look at the matter from a purely genealogical angle. Salome was requesting Jesus that her two sons should occupy their “rightful” position when the kingdom is established. James was the one who was put to death by Herod, and John was the disciple whom Jesus loved and who reclined on Jesus’s bosom at the last supper. It was to John that Jesus gave the Revelation some 60-70 years later, and John was also the author of the Gospel of John and the three Epistles which bear his name.
It was, then, a family group which was assembled around the cross, and the mother of Jesus naturally was there. She had been told by the aged saint Simeon, when Jesus was being presented in the temple, “… a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also …”. Did Mary recall these words, told her 33 years before? Whether she did or not, the words would be fulfilled as she stood by the cross.
Why were not the half-brothers of Jesus there also, Mary’s other sons? Alas, up to the resurrection of Jesus they did not believe in him, as John 7:1 tells us, and this explains why Jesus, from the cross, said to his mother when he saw John standing by her, “Woman, behold thy son”, and to John he said “Behold thy mother”. John immediately accepted this commission to look after his aunt, and he took her into his own home.
John was the only other one whom we are told was at the foot of the cross. As we have said, the bond between Jesus and John was very close, and John had followed when Jesus was arrested. Evidently he was known to the servants of the high priest, for he was allowed to go into the courtyard without question. Of the majority of the twelve we are told little of their subsequent history, but of John we are told quite a lot. On the resurrection morn he ran with Peter to the tomb and readily believed that Christ was risen indeed. He was one of the seven who waited for Jesus in Galilee and who went fishing on the lake. He was the one of whom Christ told Peter,
“If he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?”.
After Pentecost we find him very busy with Peter, suffering with him the enmity of the authorities and being imprisoned with him. Peter and John were the two sent down to Samaria to supplement the work of Philip, and also to bestow the Holy Spirit on the converts. In Gal. 2:9 Paul describes John, along with James and Peter, as “pillars in the church”.
Apart from the brief reference in Acts 12 that he was the brother of James whom Herod slew, we have no further information about him in Acts, but we again meet him in his three Epistles and the book of Revelation and, of course, previously in the Gospel which he wrote. John would appear to be more spiritually minded than the other apostles (not forgetting that he and James were “Boanerges”—the sons of thunder—in their youth!). His Gospel and Epistles certainly ascend to far greater heights in spiritual thoughts than do the others.
Such were those around the cross. Where should we have been? Around the cross? With those afar off? Or with those who “all forsook him and fled”? In which group are we now? Paul knew where he stood: he was “crucified with Christ” and he told Timothy (2 Tim. 2:12), “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us”. In the days in which we live, the “suffering” is very negligible, people are too indifferent to persecute. But what of the denial? Do we always without hesitation remember whose we are and whom we serve? Are those with whom we work day by day aware of our beliefs? Are our actions always consistent with our beliefs? It is so easy to deny our Lord in many different ways. It is possible even to deny him by keeping silent when we ought to speak. It is always well to remember that if we do deny him, then we can only expect the same from him.
Again, we would remind ourselves that, as Jesus told Peter, “If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me”. We too have to be cross-bearers. Paul said, “Let us go to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”. There is a reproach associated with bearing the cross and following Jesus. To the Jews it was a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks it was utter foolishness, but unto us it is “Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23-24).
It is possible that the “foot of the cross” is not so very far off after all, so let us see that we are assembled there.
The Solution