Having pointed out the inner significance of the Magdalene’s position, we will not attempt to fathom the contending emotions which filled her heart, and that of her companions. One thing was certain: to them, whatever the present darkness with which they were enshrouded, He was all they had believed Him to be. Not a single doubt as to Him disturbed their souls; rather He was, through His dying circumstances, dearer than ever to their hearts. We might almost venture to say that their dominant feeling, while standing there, was fellowship with His sufferings. It might have been perhaps His bodily sufferings that most powerfully affected them, but we may be sure of this, that their absorbing affection for the beloved sufferer led them to sympathize, and to identify themselves, with all His state as far as they understood it. If Psalm 22 be read in this connection, we should be all the better able to comprehend what these devoted souls perceived as they reverently listened to the words which fell from those holy lips. The strong bulls of Bashan were there besetting Him round; they gaped upon Him with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion, and He? He was poured out like water, and all His bones were out of joint. His heart was like wax, it was melted in the midst of His bowels. His strength was dried up like a potsherd, and His tongue cleaved to His jaws, and then, turning to God, He said, THOU hast brought me into the dust of death. There was much more even than this, for the dogs were round about Him, and the assembly of the wicked enclosed Him: they pierced His hands and His feet—but we forbear. The reader can weigh the whole, and every sentence of the whole, in the psalm itself, and thereby he will be able to apprehend, in his measure, the character of the scene on Calvary, which was passing, at that moment, before the heart of the Magdalene.
Blessed Sufferer! All the hopes of these four, and all our hopes, hang upon what Thou art and upon what Thou didst endure upon the cross. And we bless Thee, our God and Father, that we not only know it, but that Thou hast also placed our feet upon this Rock of Ages. And it is by Thy grace that we delight to own that we have no other foundation on which to rest before Thee but Christ and His finished work. For this we praise Thee now, and shall praise Thee throughout eternity. Amen.
The second glimpse of the Magdalene in connection with, but after the death of Christ, is found in the three first gospels. It is simply a general statement (we cite from Matthew) that “many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him, among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children” (Matt. 27:55-5655And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him: 56Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children. (Matthew 27:55‑56)). It is evident therefore that Mary had now retired from the place she occupied near the cross, and that she had joined the other women who had followed Jesus from Galilee. When the Lord committed His mother to the beloved disciple, he took her from that hour, we read, to his own home. If this signifies immediately, it was probably the occasion of the breakup of that little devoted party (and it might have been at the Lord’s direction), and of the Magdalene’s retirement with Mary, the wife of Cleophas, to the place where their companions from Galilee stood. This was afar off—at a distance, and yet so situated that they could behold what was passing. Luke says that “the women that followed Him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.” What the things were may be gleaned from a comparison of the gospels. There were the revilings of the passersby, who wagged their heads, and said, “Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save Thyself. If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” There were the mockings of the chief priests, the scribes and the elders, who, unconsciously fulfilling scripture, even taunted Him with expressions from Psalm 22. The thieves who were crucified with Him joined in the general insults; the soldiers parted His garments, casting lots; there was the darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And there were, above all, the cries of the blessed Lord Himself, the first as He endured the forsaking of His God, and the second as He gave up the ghost. Then also the earth quaked and the rocks rent—and these were the things, or some of those things, which the Magdalene and her companions saw, as they stood afar off—and saw, we may be sure, with weeping eyes and rent hearts. (In Matthew this is given in connection with the saints who came out of their graves after the Lord’s resurrection, but still he explicitly says that the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake.)