In Mark, a mysterious young man in a white robe was the very first to make the announcement: Jesus is Risen. He told the news to 3 women who came ready to offer their last respects to Jesus. They came to properly anoint and spice Jesus' dead body. There was no time on Friday afternoon to finish the work of preparing the boy. As they made their way to the tomb they worried about moving the stone away that blocked tomb's entrance.
When they arrived the stone had already been rolled away. God was on the move but they didn't recognize what had happened as God's handiwork. When they stepped inside the tomb the mysterious man arrayed in white met them saying,
"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him." Mark 16:6 NIVThis announcement was Good News then and it remains Good News today. It is our Christian story, and the core mystery of our Christian faith put as simply as it gets. Jesus was crucified. He has risen.
Our faith in Christ, our salvation and everything that matters beyond this earth rests on this Good News. The women who heard it first were speechless. They heard the young man say Jesus was risen; and they saw no body there in the grave. And hearing what they'd heard and seeing what they'd seen they had nothing to say.
A few women and men were talking about this reading here at church on Tuesday at noon. The part of the story that stood out most for us was their silence. As a group they couldn't imagine these 3 women, or any woman for that matter, being completely silent. I better tread very carefully here. The point that Mark is making isn't about the differences between women and men. The point is that something big happened and it so shook up these three that they didn't know what was coming next and they were silent and afraid.
Meeting the man in white and seeing the empty tomb was so totally unexpected that it left these 3 stunned and very much afraid. We don't know how long they were in fear. We are left to guess if it was minutes or hours or even days. We might wonder if some of Jesus' other friends met them them and asked why they were silent.
Mark says the young man in white was the first to proclaim the Good News to these 3 women. He told them the Good News, Jesus was Crucified, He has risen and it caught the women who heard it completely unprepared. They were ready for a dead body; not an empty tomb. They were ready to weep over their friend; but the young man shared news that caught them completely off guard and they were silent and affraid. They didn't stay silent and afraid for ever; but there's no doubt that fear grabbed them and held onto them for a while. We know though, looking at this story, that at some point in time joy broke in and overcame fear.
Fear is a basic involuntary emotional response. We can't prevent it or avoid it; fear happens when the unexpected and inexplicable happens to us and around us. Maybe you've experienced fear when you heard a dog's bark rapidly getting closer and closer to you as you were walking. Maybe you've winced in fear as you heard breaks and tires squealing behind you as you sat waiting for the light to change at an intersection.
The experience of fear happens as the unexpected grabs us. The 3 women who came to the tomb were caught in a moment of great surprise. The great psycho-analyst Bill Cosby said that if you want to see people as there most true selves you have to see them when they loose their cool. These 3 women who came to anoint Jesus body had an intense involuntary experience of fear. They totally lost all cool and composure. This wasn't a moment of pious awe and devotion. Pious awe and devotion wouldn't have silenced them so completely quickly.
Resurrection defies easy explanation. It's not comparable to anything else in our human experience. We like to think of the order of the seasons and say that resurrection is sort of comparable to the miracle of spring. But a resurrection is even bigger. We might say wow as we watch the first flowers pop up out of the dead leaves around our homes this weekend but we're here today because of something bigger. As wonderful as spring is it's not comparable to resurrection. Resurrection is even bigger.
Maybe your a baseball fan and you think its pretty amazing to see your team come back when they've been trailing in a game. But a resurrection is even bigger than your team chewing up a 2 run deficit with two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning. Resurrection isn't part of ordinary human experience. Its so extraordinary that when it first happened it left the 3 who heard the news and saw the empty grave speechless. Ressurrection is some much bigger than anything else in human experience.
The young man in white offered the women no explanation how or why Jesus had Risen. God was on the move; new life exploded where death reigned. The ancient prophecies were fulfilled as the new creation was beginning to take shape in the old world. The old order and the old enemies began to fall that day: sin, death, and the Devil were overcome a Jesus rose up from the grave.
I still can't get over the silence of these three women at the tomb. We know they didn't hide the Good News forever. The fear in their being must have been powerful. Christians today are still silenced by fear. We have news to share about Jesus who came back from the dead and who promises new life to us. We have news to share with a world where sin, death, and the devil often look stronger than faith, hope, and love. We have news because Jesus wouldn't stay dead and hope in him won't knuckle under to the power of fear.
Some how the joy of Jesus' rising overcame their fear. Joy didn't come immediately for the 3 women. The fear held them in silence; but we know today that they didn't sit on the story. We know that the Joy of the Good News overcame their fear. That's God's work in our world: breaking through fear and every other force that would prevent his will from being done. May the joy of hearing the Good News announced for us break the chains of fear that hold us bound. May the joy of Resurrection enliven us as witnesses to Jesus Christ.
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