Mansplaining the Resurrection

Read Luke 24:1–12

But these words seemed to [the male disciples] an idle tale, and they did not believe [the women] (v. 11).

One of the most surprising and wonderful elements of the Easter story in all four gospels is that the responsibility of first reporting the resurrection of Jesus falls to women. It is surprising because in the culture of that day the testimony of women was not deemed valid. It is wonderful because God chose to make them the primary witnesses of the resurrection anyway.

It is a commonplace assumption of biblical scholarship that if something that goes against the grain or could be considered embarrassing to the early church or its leaders made it into the Scriptures, it is most likely genuine. For example, Mark and Matthew record Jesus’s anguished cry on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (e.g., Mark 15:34). It must have been tempting to leave out this detail, considering the uncomfortable questions it raises about: a) Jesus’s frame of mind at the end of his life and b) the relationship between Jesus and God. That this element of the story made it into two of the four gospels speaks volumes. It suggests that the “cry of dereliction” was a part of the oral tradition from early on and could not lightly be set aside, all its accompanying discomfort notwithstanding.

The same goes for the assignment of Mary Magdalene and the other women the role of bearing first witness to Jesus’s resurrection. This detail makes it into all four of the gospels, so it must have been so firmly rooted in the tradition that the evangelists, when it came time to write their gospels, could not leave it out, no matter how much they may have wanted to. It was part of the story that had been handed down from the earliest years of the church, problematic as it may have seemed.

And it was problematic. We see this in the male disciples’ reaction to their testimony. The two Marys, Joanna, and the others report to the eleven apostles what the angels told them (“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (v. 5)), but the apostles aren’t having any. “These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them” (v. 11). What good was the testimony of women?

They considered it an “idle tale.” Like an “old wives’ tale” or the “hysterical ravings” of excitable females, it’s a designation meant to mock women, undermine their authority, and put them in their place. But God has a different understanding of a woman’s proper place, and here gives an undeniable stamp of approval on these women’s veracity and the legitimacy of their witness. The patriarchy may have sidelined them, declaring their testimony and, by extension, their character and essential worth suspect, but God is in the business of dismantling patriarchy, not shoring it up. So God gives them the most important testimony in the history of humankind. And the male followers of Jesus, who should have known better after their long association with the incarnation of this anti-patriarchal God, dismiss their testimony as an “idle tale.”

But here’s the thing. Immediately after the verse in which Luke tells us that the male disciples do not believe the women’s story, we see Peter running to the tomb and looking in to find the empty linen wrappings. He then goes home, “amazed at what had happened” (v. 12). We have here a classic case of mansplaining. The word of the women was not good enough for Peter and his cronies. But he goes to the tomb to see for himself, and is “amazed.” The next time we hear of Peter is in verse 34, when the male disciples tell the pair who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon [Peter]!” Suddenly the testimony that Jesus has been raised is creditable, because it comes from a man. Go figure.

The church of Jesus Christ ought to be a “patriarchy-free zone,” but in too many instances men still hold the reins, and women’s authority, testimony, and power are constrained or denigrated or ignored. It’s time we men stopped mansplaining the gospel, theology, and so forth, and allow our sisters the space to exercise their gifts and their calling from God. They alone of the disciples stuck with Jesus to the bitter end, so it’s only fair that they should be the first to know that it was neither bitter nor the end, and the first to bear witness to the incomparable, world-shattering truth that Christ is alive and everything is made new.

The Lord is risen indeed, and he has appeared to Mary, Joanna, Mary, and all their faithful sisters from that day to this. Alleluia! Amen.

Grace and peace,
bob