- If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us (Matthew 27:44; Luke 23:39)

And those who passed by from the crowd cursed Him, nodding their heads and saying,

- O thou who destroyest the temple and buildeth it in three days, if thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross (Matt. 27:3940; Mark 15:2930)

And when the stupidity and savagery of the crowd surrounded the Crucified Christ with the low malice of the Jewish elders, His martyric gaze noticed with consolation the tears of pious women, among whom Mary Magdalene was "among the first" (Matt. 27:5556; Mark 15:40; Lk. 2327). In these compassionate tears, as it were, a ray of light shone for the Son of Man in the dark kingdom of sin, and this ray from grateful women consoled the Innocent Sufferer with the testimony of the not yet completely corrupt human nature.

The day of the great redemption of fallen humanity by the God-Man was clear. The time was already about noon, and according to the Hebrew name for the times of the day, it was the sixth hour (Luke 23:44; Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:43). But on this clear noon, "the sun darkens and darkness becomes dark" [18] until the ninth hour, that is, according to the modern name of the hours of the day, until the third hour of the afternoon (Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44). A terrible, majestic, imposing heavenly sign - the extinction of the sun, the darkness that embraced all earthly things, in the midst of the bright noonday light, heavily squeezed the detractors of the Innocent Christ, brought them into horror and silence. The familiar worshippers of the Crucified One, who at first stood at a distance and looked (Luke 23:49; Matthew 27:55; Mark 15:40), approached the Sufferer, surrounded His cross, and of them the Evangelist again calls Mary Magdalene the first (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40). Thus, Mary Magdalene at the feet of Christ the Savior is not only a miracle-worker, glorified and sung by infants, but also at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth, humiliated, dishonored, shamefully crucified, abandoned even by His Apostles..

And after the death of Her Healer, Mary Magdalene did not leave Him: she accompanied the transfer of His body by Joseph [19] of Arimathea and Nicodemus [20] from the cross to the tomb [21], was at His burial, watched where Christ was laid (Matt. 27:61; Mark 15:47), and when, in order to give honor to the approaching great feast of Pascha according to the law of God, she left His buried body, then the ardent grateful love of Mary Magdalene in deep sorrow revealed to her a source of consolation. Love inspired her with a desire to render the last honor possible on her part to her Saviour, who had been humiliated by the Jews. She buys myrrh and spices (Luke 23:56) in order to anoint Him, according to Jewish custom, with the anointing of the body of the buried Christ.

This enterprise, which also gave Mary Magdalene the name of myrrh-bearer, belonged to her, since two Evangelists again place her first, among some other women who followed her in it, and the third - only her (Matt. 28:1; Mk. 16:1; John 20:1) and names her in this noble deed.

And so, in the midst of the still night twilight (John 20:1), the first day of the week, after the sorrowful Sabbath, in the midst of danger from the embittered Jews, who had already attempted to lay hands on the disciples of Christ, and at the time when the Apostles of the Crucified One with broken souls locked themselves in their room, Mary Magdalene with some pious women, despising the threatening danger, fearlessly went to the tomb of the Saviour, carrying aromas and myrrh [22] (Luke 23:56; Mark 16:1). prepared for the anointing of the body of Christ, in order to render the last tribute of love and reverence to the Departed. Mary Magdalene did not know about the guard assigned by the Jews to the cave of the Holy Sepulchre, and about the sealing of the entrance to it by the high priests, since all this happened after the removal of all the worshippers of Jesus from the garden (Matthew 27:6266) of Joseph of Arimathea. But now, on the way from Jerusalem to the cave of the Holy Sepulchre, Mary Magdalene remembered that the entrance to that cave had been closed by Joseph and Nicodemus with such a large, heavy stone, which neither she nor her companion could roll away from the entrance. And so, in confusion about this obstacle, the myrrh-bearers said among themselves:

"Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?.. (Mark 16:3)

Thinking about this, Mary Magdalene, ahead of the other myrrh-bearers and coming closer to the cave of the tomb, suddenly saw that the stone that had troubled her had already been rolled away from the entrance to the cave (John 20:1; Mark 16:4).

Among the Jews of that time, the stone that blocked access to the coffin of the deceased was considered inviolable, as if consecrated. And the rolling away of the stone from the entrance to the cave of the Holy Sepulchre showed that something special had happened to the body of the Buried One there. What exactly? - It was simpler and first of all to think that the body of Jesus was taken by someone from this cave of Joseph of Arimathea and could have been placed elsewhere. And this thought, of losing the opportunity to give Him the last honor, struck Mary Magdalene so much that she immediately, without entering the cave, ran back to Jerusalem in order to inform the Apostles Peter and John about what had happened at the tomb of Christ. She was confident that, having been informed by her, the Apostles would take the most active part in the search for the body of Jesus:

"We have carried the Lord away from the tomb, and we do not know where we have laid Him," she says to the Apostles (John 20:2).

And indeed the most zealous Apostles Peter and John immediately went to the tomb [23]. They both ran together; but John fled faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; stooping, he saw the shrouds lying there, but he did not enter the cave of the tomb. Simon Peter comes after him, goes into the tomb and sees the swaddling clothes lying and the cloth that was on the head of Jesus, not lying with the swaddling clothes, but especially in another place, - and everything that was piled up in order. Then John also entered, saw, and silently believed that Christ had risen; for if anyone were to carry the body of Jesus to another place, he would do so without uncovering it, just as if someone were to steal it, he would not take care to take off the cloth, twist it, and put it in another place, but would take the body as it lay; and myrrh and aloe, used by Nicodemus at the burial of Christ, glue the swaddling clothes to the body very tightly, - explains St. John Chrysostom (John 20:39) - But the Apostles did not depart from the empty tomb of their Teacher with the same feeling: Peter, instead of faith, only with surprise "went back, marveling in himself at what had happened" (Luke 24:12)

When the Apostles left the empty Sepulcher of Christ in such a confused and weak mood, Mary Magdalene returned to him again. Reaching the cave of the Sepulchre, she began to weep and, inconsolably grieving, bent down (John 20:11) into the low entrance of the cave in order to look further into the place where her Savior was buried. And there he saw, in white robes, sitting, two angels [24], one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay. And they said to her: