by Sharon Marr
(Based on Mark 16:1-8)
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
These words will resound and be passed on in churches all around the world this very day. Bells will ring, hymns of praise will be sung, rafters will be lifted and eggs will be shared. There is a universal deep joy and gratefulness for the saving message of Good News for all people — that there is peace with God, through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. There is no greater story of God’s power and love.
The tomb is empty!
In this morning’s gospel reading we find the three woman disciples wending their way to the tomb carrying the burial spices. They want to anoint their beloved Christ’s dead body. It will be their last act of love toward the one who showed them such love. But how? As they headed to the tomb that morning, that was foremost on their minds. They kept asking each other: “Who will roll away the stone for us?” For it was a very large stone.
Apparently, which surprises me because I think they were very practical women, they weren’t thinking about whether the guards would let them approach the tomb. They weren’t worried about being arrested, as followers of Jesus. They weren’t concerned with how they would react to seeing Jesus’s dead body, their Christ, crucified and laying dead in a tomb. No. All they were really thinking about was, who would roll away the stone for them? And as it turns out what they saw as the big problem was not a problem at all! When they arrived the stone had already been rolled aside!
I can imagine them approaching the tomb very cautiously once they saw that, and when they saw the young man in a white robe sitting there they would have stopped in their tracks. “Shocked” the narrative says, but I think that would be an understatement; indeed, the angel hastens on to say, “Don’t be alarmed, you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body.”
At this stage I’m sure they were all looking at the empty tomb, dumbstruck. There it was – an empty tomb! And, the angel continues, “Go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.”
And the Gospel of Mark abruptly finishes with the women fleeing from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and, it says, they said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened! And if that were so, it could have been the end of the story. But, praise God, it isn’t. We know from the other Gospels that the frightened silence of the women on that Easter morning eventually gave way to proclamation and passed on words from the angel. Their fear from the empty tomb did not hold them. Their alarm subsided, their courage deepened, their trauma healed, and their amazement grew. They learned how to choose hope. They learned how to tell the story, to pass it on, and as they did, the story blossomed and grew. Joy came. Faith came. Peace came. Love came. And slowly the glorious truth of a conquered grave and a risen Messiah made its way from their emboldened faithful witness lips to every corner of the world. The story didn’t depend on them. But it changed them, and as they changed, the world around them changed too.
Easter was my mother’s most favourite time of the year. It was the culmination of all she believed and, as a family, because of her, it has become ours. She was our first witness. It was from her lips the Easter story was passed on to us.
Can you remember who first passed on the Good News to you?
The Good News needs to be ’embodied’ to pass it on. As Rowan Williams (recent Archbishop of Canterbury) explains: “The believer’s life is a testimony to the risen-ness of Jesus: he or she shows that Jesus is not dead by living a life in which Jesus is the never-failing source of affirmation, challenge, enrichment and growth.”
God loved us so much he sent his Son that we might have life and live it abundantly. (John 10:10) We are anchored in that love; changed by that love. It does not protect us from harm, illness, or from hard decisions, or from emotional ups and downs, or anger at the pain of the world. It simply assures us that there is, ultimately, no contest between God’s love and the forces that bring turmoil and loss of unity in the world, and in the human spirit.
That is the Good News for today: Easter, God’s great love story … it doesn’t end in defeat, sorrow or loss; or an empty tomb. It is full of hope, love and joy! The grave is empty, love is eternal and death’s defeat is sure. Christ is risen. Alleluia!
Live it …
… and pass it on.
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