April Update from Pastor Mark

I have good news for you!

“Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, the women went to the tomb, bringing the fragrant spices they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 They didn’t know what to make of this. Suddenly, two men were standing beside them in gleaming bright clothing. 5 The women were frightened and bowed their faces toward the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He isn’t here, but has been raised. Remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Human One must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ 8 Then they remembered his words. 9 When they returned from the tomb, they reported all these things to the eleven and all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. 11 Their words struck the apostles as nonsense, and they didn’t believe the women. 12 But Peter ran to the tomb. When he bent over to look inside, he saw only the linen cloth. Then he returned home, wondering what had happened.” (Luke 24:1-12 CEB)

“Nonsense,” or as “an idle tale” – that’s how the women’s message was initially received. The Greek is leros, where we get our word “delirious.” You see where this is going. What the men of the group of apostles were really saying was that the women were out of their minds, crazy, spouting rubbish or sheer fantasy. They think their report – the first Easter sermon ever, mind you! – to be nothing more than “women’s talk” – you know gossip, mere gibberish. The other disciples do not believe what the women say. I get it.

It is the angels’ question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” that leave the women stunned. They have no answer. They weren’t prepared for it. In fact, the question hardly seems fair. They had journeyed to the tomb to bury their dead. Then comes the angels’ declaration: “He is not here, but has been raised.” The disciples’ world is shattered, turned inside out! “The living, among the dead? The dead – alive again?!” Then the messengers say, “remember what he told you.” It’s a command. “Remember what he told you.” “Remember.” And the women do. They look thoughtfully at one another; then look down, then away, their eyes spinning in their heads. And in their remembering, off they go. Believing what they had heard, and believing because of what they had heard, and not even with an assurance that they will meet Jesus again somewhere else – off they go, returning from the tomb to the place where “the eleven and all the rest” had gathered and preaching the Good News of Easter to them.

This is not the day when we are to say nothing, for “faith comes from is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” And what the women heard from the angels was “He is not here, but has been raised!” We have heard it again, too! This Gospel creates faith! We now proclaim what the women first heard and then preached that, just as Jesus told us he would, “Christ the Lord is risen today.” “He is not here.” The tomb is empty. You will not find the living among the dead. Remember what he told you. Look instead for the living One among the living, wherever two or three are gathered; among those he has made alive by his death and resurrection.

The Easter message of the women calls to you and me, and this Gospel calls us from our old beliefs about death to a new belief in life. And to trust in God’s promise of new life that rises from death. The Easter Gospel calls us to see now that the way out is through, and the way up is by going down – deep, deep down into the waters of Baptism where our old self is joined with Christ, drowned and put to death, so that we might come forth as reborn children of God, dripping wet in our new Easter clothes. We are children of the resurrection – all of us, raised to new life in Jesus Christ, the firstborn of those who have died.

Hear the Good News of Easter. Death? It’s real. We know that. Our hearts ache because of it. But death is no longer the end; it is no longer the last word. In Jesus, crucified, dead and buried, whom God raised from death, resurrection life – through the gate of death – gets the last word. Sounds crazy, I know. But it’s the Gospel truth.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! (Christ is risen, indeed. Alleluia!)

Happy Easter!

+ Pastor Mark