Easter Sunday, the sermon centered on the resurrection account of the meeting between Mary Magdalene and Jesus outside the tomb. Mary was the first witness to the resurrection. Jesus appeared to Mary who at first did not recognize him until he spoke her name. The account is full of beauty and surprise, but it is easy to miss one of the other significant elements in the account. In the world of Jesus’ time women were often seen as unreliable witnesses, perhaps because they were viewed as more emotional than men. That the resurrected Jesus chose women as the first witnesses to his resurrection with Mary as the very first witness shows a different view. The male disciples were initially inclined to discount the women’s experience until Jesus also appears to Simon Peter.How like Jesus to upset the expectations of the world and even his disciples.It was not what they expected, but then Jesus often exceeds expectations.The recognition of these women as central disciples is wonderfully remarkable for that time and still remarkable for so many in our time.There is evidence that women play a significant role in the leadership of the early church with women serving as deacon/ministers as well as prophets in those early years.The later church backed away from the role of women in leadership so that today women in ministry seems to many as a new thing.It really is a very old thing that the church as a whole forgot and that which we have again discovered.The resurrection accounts tell us many important things.Among those things is the confidence that God has in the work and witness of women of faith.Jesus is risen and in him all of us rise.