When
the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him.
Mark 16:1
Mark 15 [42.] When evening had now come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathaea, a prominent council member who also himself was looking for God’s Kingdom, came. He boldly went in to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate marveled if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead long. When he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. He bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wound him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb which had been cut out of a rock. He rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was laid.
Mark 16 [1.] When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him. Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. They were saying among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” for it was very big. Looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back.
Mark 16 [5.] Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were amazed. He said to them, “Don’t be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him! But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see him, as he said to you.’”
Meaning:
Mark opens his account of the resurrection not with the apostles but with three women carrying spices. They had stood watching from a distance while Jesus died (Mark 15:40-41), and two of them had seen where Joseph of Arimathaea laid the body (Mark 15:47). Now, as soon as the law allowed, they set out to finish the work of love that the coming Sabbath had cut short.
- “When the Sabbath was past”
Jesus died on “the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath” (Mark 15:42). The Jewish day began at sunset, so the Sabbath ran from Friday evening to Saturday evening, and no work or trade was allowed. The burial had been done in haste before sunset, without the full care families normally gave to their dead.
The women kept God’s commandment even in their grief, and waited. As soon as the Sabbath ended they bought what they needed, so that they could go to the tomb at first light (Mark 16:2).
- “Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome”
Mark names the same women he named at the cross: “Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome” (Mark 15:40). Mary Magdalene had been set free by Jesus: Luke describes her as the one “from whom seven demons had gone out” (Luke 8:2). Matthew’s list of the women at the cross includes “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” (Matthew 27:55-56), and many readers identify her with Salome.
The repeated names matter: the women who saw Jesus die and saw where he was buried are the ones who will find the tomb empty. While the men had “left him, and fled” (Mark 14:50), these women stayed close to the end and beyond it.
- “bought spices”
Jews did not embalm their dead in the Egyptian way, but they washed the body, wrapped it in linen and laid fragrant spices and ointments with it, as a mark of honour. Spices were costly, and this was a real gift.
The purchase also shows what they expected. Jesus had told the disciples plainly that the Son of Man would be killed, “and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31; see also Mark 9:31 and Mark 10:34). But no one had grasped it. Their love was real, but their hope did not yet reach beyond the grave.
- “that they might come and anoint him”
In fact Jesus’ body had already been anointed. A few days earlier at Bethany a woman poured costly nard over his head, and Jesus said, “She has anointed my body beforehand for the burying” (Mark 14:8). The spices would never be used: the body was gone, and a messenger told them, “He has risen. He is not here” (Mark 16:6).
The Significance of Mark 16:1
- Love that keeps going in grief
These women did not give up when everything seemed lost. Faithfulness often looks like this: doing the next right thing for the Lord when we cannot see how things will turn out.
- God honours small acts of devotion
Buying spices was an ordinary act, yet God used it to make these women the first witnesses of the resurrection. Scripture assures us that God “is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name” (Hebrews 6:10).
- God goes beyond our expectations
The women expected a sealed tomb and a dead body. God had something far greater in store. He is able “to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20), and even our sorrow can be the place where he meets us with joy.
Cross-References:
Mark 15:40: "There were also women watching from afar, among whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;" The same women watched the crucifixion.
Luke 8:2: "Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out;" Why Mary Magdalene loved Jesus so deeply.
Mark 14:8: "She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the burying." Jesus had already been anointed for burial.
Mark 16:6: "He has risen. He is not here." What the women found instead of a body to anoint.
Conclusion: When the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they could anoint Jesus’ body. Having watched him die and seen where he was buried, they returned in love and grief to do what the hurried burial had left undone. Their spices were never used, because the one they came to anoint had risen. Their quiet faithfulness made them the first to hear the news that changed the world, and it shows that God meets loving devotion with more than it could ever hope for.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible