Bearing Witness: What the Women at the Cross Teach Pastoral Leaders

Lent invites the church to linger where we usually rush past — at the places of grief, uncertainty, and holy waiting. At the crucifixion, most of the disciples disappear. But the Gospels carefully note who remains: the women.

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, and others stand near enough to see, near enough to suffer, and near enough to remember. They do not preach sermons, solve the crisis, or prevent the tragedy. They bear witness.

Pastoral leadership often rewards action. We want to fix, organize, strategize, and reassure. Yet much of ministry — hospital rooms, funerals, congregational conflict, injustice in the community — cannot be fixed quickly. The women at the cross teach a different leadership posture: faithful presence.

They refuse denial. They refuse avoidance. They refuse the lie that hope requires pretending everything is okay.

Clergy frequently feel pressure to provide certainty for others, even when they themselves are unsure. But the Gospel shows that resurrection was entrusted first not to power or status, but to those who stayed in the suffering long enough to see what God was doing.

Witnessing is a spiritual practice. It means standing near pain without abandoning hope and holding hope without minimizing pain.

In a time when congregations face grief, division, and social anxiety, pastoral leaders are invited to embody this quiet courage: to stand with people in hard places, not as saviors, but as companions. The women at the cross remind us that transformation often begins not with answers, but with staying.

Sometimes the holiest leadership is simply refusing to leave.