As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:26-31)

As it turns out: not all the crowds of Jerusalem shouted “crucify!” And not all the disciples fled.

In fact, this is perhaps the panicle of discipleship in Luke’s Gospel. Simon of Cyrene, a city in Northern Africa around modern-day Libya, does precisely what Jesus has called all disciples to do: he takes up the cross and follows Jesus to his death. Luke means for us to see the picture.

Similarly, while all of his male companions among the 12 may have fled, betrayed, or disowned him, the women who had followed Jesus all along, followed him still. All the way to the cross. They would also be the first to witness the empty tomb.

It is women who faithfully bear witness to these central moments of our faith. While Simon may have been “seized” and “made” to carry the cross, the women follow willingly. They are no strangers to suffering, and they do not turn away from Jesus’ moment of pain, humility, and loss. Instead, they bear it with him—humbling themselves to grieve with him in a strength of emotional maturity the male disciples could not muster.

Do I make too much of this point? I don’t think so. Luke and the other gospel writers point out consistently that it was the women, also a few men, but mostly the women who were present in Jesus’ greatest hour of need.

Peter had boasted: “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!” But when it got hard, Peter disowned his Lord and fled. Not so with the women.

When it came right down to it: the women were the disciples who were ready to face death. They were the ones willing to face down and witness the brutally agonizing moments of Jesus slowing dying on the cross. They were willing to accompany his body to the tomb with Joseph of Arimathea. They were willing to face his dead body again on the third day to offer it the dignity of a proper burial.

Had the women not been consistent witnesses of all these central moments of our faith, would we have known today what happened there on the cross? Would there have been sufficient witness to the event to prove that he had really died, and that his body really was buried rather than stolen away? And what about the resurrection? If the women hadn’t gone to the tomb, would anyone else have?

The women were the first witnesses and preachers of the gospel. They were also the first to live it. The first to face Jesus’s death and cross. The first to receive word of his life. Will you join them as you take up your own cross and face down your own death in the death of Jesus? Will you stay with them long enough to die to yourself through the grief and pain of repentance and so find new life in Christ on the other side?