The Reverend Philip Banks writes:

Easter 2009

Love in action

The internet can be a wonderful source of inspiration and information. I recently came across the website of a Russian émigré, Tatiana Romanova-Grant (www.spiritualpaintings.com), a much sought-after icon painter who uses ancient Byzantine and Russian art forms. She creates icons, frescos and eggs using techniques developed since the 12th century.

As we approach the season of Easter, I was captivated by her depiction (pictured) of the “Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Tomb”. It tells the story in Mark 16 of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. They visit the tomb bearing spices to anoint the body of their friend and Lord.

We can be so familiar with this story that we forget how extraordinary it is. The disciples are notable by their total absence – they have run off and are in disarray. Rather it is these women, not the male disciples (whose names we have heard throughout the gospels), who seem to have a strategy and a plan. They have clearly got together and decided that, whatever happens, they will not lose sight of Jesus and will make it their business to treat him as a King, even to the end. There is a problem with their plan, however - the stone over the tomb’s entrance: “who”, they ask as they arrive, “is going to help us roll it aside”? They have a determination to succeed, however, and - male disciples or not - they will not allow the possibility of failure to put them off.

Their plan, however, is completely overshadowed by God’s far bigger and life-changing plan! They are confronted by an angel. This Godly messenger, beautifully depicted here by Tatiana Romanova-Grant, is showing the empty grave to these myrrh-bearing women. But the gospel writers describe them, not surprisingly, as terrified by the whole encounter! Nonetheless, they do as they are bidden, and they run from the tomb with the news of Jesus’ resurrection. Without the reckless determination of these women, we would have no gospel to tell: their perseverance and love is what allowed the gospel story to come alive for the whole world. Is it fanciful to suggest that their commission by the angel at the tomb perhaps makes them something akin to the first ‘women priests’ in the church which sprang up as a result of their loving and decisive action?

As we reflect on the Easter story once again, may we be filled with the same sense of love for our Lord, who died on the cross for the love of us all. May the same determination, even when things seem hopeless, fill our lives with hope and faith: “With the rolling away of the stone, a great door has swung open in human history. Easter invites us to recognise a new level of being, a new mode of existence” (Bishop of Durham, NT Wright).

Fr Philip Banks

Picture © Tatiana Romanova-Grant, www.spiritualpaintings.com, The Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Tomb