Lesson 2490

(Lesson 2490)(10-12-18) Mark 15:40-47
    “There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.”

   Today’s quote relates how, after Jesus had died, a man called Joseph of Arimathaea, took possession of the body of Jesus, giving to Jesus his own tomb. Joseph also provided for Him an expensive burial cloth.
    The quote also tells us that many of the women among His followers stayed and tended to the body of Christ, after He had been taken down from the cross. Among those women was Salome, the daughter of Herodias by Herod’s brother. At her mother’s behest, Salome had danced for Herod and demanded that the severed head of John the Baptist be brought to her on a platter. Salome’s presence among those women was something I had never before noticed during the many, many times I’ve read this passage.
    It’s comforting to know that Salome converted and came to believe in Jesus.~