Robert Lewis Stephenson, on one of his voyages to the South Seas, told about a terrific storm that frightened all the passengers. One man finally went out on deck and watched the captain pace the bridge, calm and undisturbed. He came back to the cabin where the passengers were huddled together and said to them: “I have seen the captain’s face, and all is well.”

It was that kind of word that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary carried back to the disciples on that first Easter morning. How remarkable that, in a time when women were less than second—class citizens, the first people to whom Jesus’ resurrection was revealed were faithful and devout women.

The women went to the cemetery with no faith and no expectations yet, they were hardly there before they were met by an angel who responded …