The First Witnesses to the Resurrection

Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his Body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.

This excerpt from today's Gospel (Luke 24:13-35)is one of the strongest pieces of evidence we have for the truth of the Resurrection. The first witnesses were women! Women were not exactly held in high esteem back in 1st century Palestine. Some over the centuries have claimed that the Apostles made it all up. This is unlikely in itself because the Apostles were scared out of their mind and the vast majority of them fled the scene of the crucifixion and were doing everything in their power not to be associated with Jesus. But, just for the sake of argument, let's say that they did get together to make this story up. Never would they have had women be the ones they based their story on. Women were not considered credible.

Perhaps this is one more illustration of the special love Jesus had for women. He treated women with an equality and respect that were almost unheard of in his day. When he returned in his glory, he let the women know first and sent them as messengers to the men. Women were entrusted with spreading the greatest news of all.