The Art of Myrrhbearing: Encountering Christ Through Serving Others

INTRODUCTION

What Is Myrrhbearing?

The Gospels tell us that when our Lord died, a quiet flurry of activity was set into motion. Joseph of Arimathea approached the authorities to request Jesus’ body, and then he and Nicodemus quietly, gently brought Him down from the Cross. They had been powerless to stop the abuse and the crucifixion, but now they claimed His Body and were able to restore some measure of respect and dignity, wrapping Him in linens and spices and laying Him in a place of honor—in the new tomb Joseph thought he himself would lie in. They couldn’t begin to understand what had happened here; they could not see the cosmic proportions of this event in salvation history that had taken place before their very eyes. They saw their Teacher, their Lord, defeated and killed, limp in their arms, and they did what they could to honor Him.

Each Gospel writer tells us, in his own way, that the women watched. Witnesses to every moment of His Crucifixion, they remained in place and saw where He was buried. They watched the Romans block the Tomb with a great stone and post guards to stand by, to prevent anyone from interfering with the end of Jesus Christ. They wanted to close this chapter and did what they could to prevent any further disruption from His small band of followers. The women observed the activity, and as the sun began to fade, signaling the Sabbath, obediently they went home to rest and waited for the hours to pass.

As the sun rose on that Sunday morning, the women were finally released from their Sabbath vigil; they waited exactly as long as God required and not a minute longer, emerging in the earliest moments of the day. They knew they weren’t welcome at the Tomb, that both a tremendous stone and armed guards stood in their way. Without a plan, without any tool or weapon to force their way in, they simply showed up with arms full of myrrh and spices. One cannot guess how they hoped to gain access, but these women were not crushed, and they were not finished. Their stubborn love compelled them, and as the sun began to rise, they arrived, ready to prepare the body of their beloved Jesus.

For how many centuries had people brought myrrh to take care of their loved ones? The tradition goes back at least as far as ancient Egypt, a culture that perfected the art of honoring and preserving the human body. The Egyptians understood that myrrh is more than a sweet-smelling resin to cover the stench of death: It is both an antibacterial and a desiccant, actively fighting decay and corruption. For thousands of years, mourners brought expensive myrrh to wage one last battle against death, to offer one last burst of protest even as they buried the lifeless body of their beloved.

And indeed, on that morning, the women were showing up in protest; they refused to bury their love for Christ, and they refused to stop following Him. The authorities could beat Him, could kill Him, but these women would not be deterred. Armed with myrrh and spices, they arrived at the Tomb to prepare His body as one would honor a king; they came to the Tomb to proclaim the glory of our Lord.

Why would these women take such a risk? What is a dead body, that we should go to such pains to honor it? Christ’s body had been respectfully and properly buried by Nicodemus and Joseph. There was no need to do more, so why would the women return to that Tomb on Sunday? What did myrrhbearing mean to them? Saint John Chrysostom offers insight:

They had brought ointments, and were waiting at the tomb, so that if the madness of the Jews should relax, they might go and embrace the body. Do you see the women’s courage? Do you see their affection? Do you see their noble spirit in money? Their noble spirit even unto death?

Let us men imitate the women; let us not forsake Jesus in temptations. For they for Him even dead spent so much and exposed their lives, but we (for again I say the same things) neither feed Him when hungry, nor clothe Him when naked, but seeing Him begging, we pass Him by. . . . For indeed even now thou hearest Him say, You do it unto me; and there is no difference whether you give to this man or to Him; you have nothing less than these women that then fed Him, but even much more.1

The women went to Christ’s Tomb to venerate His body, to serve Him even in death. They were courageous, affectionate, and noble. Saint John likens myrrhbearing, the caretaking of the dead body, with feeding the hungry and clothing the naked; he does not distinguish between serving a dead body and a living body. Indeed, myrrhbearing is nothing less than that very compassionate charitable activity to which Christ calls everyone who wishes to become His follower.

1 St. John Chrysostom, “Homily 88 on Matthew,” trans. George Prevost and ed. M. B. Riddle, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, rev. ed., ed. Kevin Knight (New Advent), https://www.newadvent.org/fathers .200188.htm.