Terrified & Amazed, Dead & Alive – Mark 16:1-8

Mark 16:1-8

16:1 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
16:2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.
16:3 They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
16:4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.
16:5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.
16:6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.
16:7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
16:8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid.

A reflection:

Three women were coming to the tomb to complete the process of anointing Jesus’s body for burial. He had died before sunset on a Friday, just hours before Sabbath laws prevented devout Jews from doing any work. Probably even rolling the stone to seal the grave had to be left to the Roman soldiers that were placed on guard duty at the tomb, because by the time the body had been moved there from Golgotha, the sun was already setting and the Jews weren’t allowed to do labor of any kind then.

There are a lot of details after a death, right? The arrangements, the cleansing, the entombment, the attention you have to pay while you are shocked and in deep grief. The man who had shared Passover dinner on Thursday night was dead on Friday night. And it was such a brutal death, upending everyone’s hopes for a triumphant Messiah’s rule. And beneath it all, hope of continuing their friendship with the man they had come to love as Jesus of Nazareth. How low they felt, how robbed, how bereft.

So the day after Sabbath, picking up where they had left off, the women walked to the cemetery to complete the burial rites. But the grave was open – and empty! Except for a young man in white, seated on the edge of the tomb-bed. “They were alarmed.” I bet they were. One more shock on top of all the rest. But the man told them not to be alarmed. “He has been raised. He is not here – see?” And then there was a reminder message: “tell the disciples and Peter that he is going ahead to meet you in Galilee, as he had said. ” As if to say that the past three days were just a bump in the road – “I promised to meet you up north. I am on my way there now. Just go there.”

The women were both terrified and amazed. The body is gone. A messenger is there. Jesus has been raised. He’ll meet you in Galilee. I would have been dazed and in real disbelief, I think. What about you? I would have wanted to believe everything the young man said. But how could I? That would mean that Jesus, who was DEAD, for certain, we saw it, everyone saw it, is now ALIVE and headed for Galilee?

Of course some of us still aren’t sure, some 2000 years later. But that was Jesus’s mission. To break death. The Triune God triumphed on Easter. The sacrifice, the Pascal lamb, died and was raised to new life, the same new life we will have if we can believe. He promised, and God keeps promises.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for keeping your promises. Thank you for raising Jesus from the dead, and thank you for promising us new life too, so that we may live out this life without fear, willing to serve others as you served us, in the joy of knowing we have life eternal.  Amen.