Sunday 09 April 2023

Background

This story is full of images I find very powerful. There is the violent earthquake and the huge stone rolled back (v. 2); the angel's appearance is like lightning with clothes as white as snow (v. 3).  The men guarding Jesus' tomb were so afraid they were like dead men (v. 4). It is not surprising that the angel says "Do not be afraid"; there is much that would alarm me.  And all this is before the telling of the great news, "He is not here; he is risen" (v. 6). 

When there are different witnesses to the same crime scene the police are careful to keep the witnesses apart in case they polish their stories into a single narrative.  Part of the convincing nature of the three accounts of Jesus' resurrection in Mark and Luke's Gospels as well as Matthew's Gospel here, is that they are not polished, offering different perspectives and memories of a complex event.  But all tell, in one way or another, the good news, "He is risen".  I can believe that they are not ‘made up’, but rather a brave attempt to describe what is beyond description. Those who want to read the passages about the Resurrection as a simple plain narrative will be disappointed. They are complicated, multilayered, overflowing with meaning and interpretation.  I wonder what they mean for you today? 

Here we have the first calling of the disciples to act; the first apostolic sending and preaching; the history of the Church built on the account of women and not the men.  All is to be made new and the Church should still be shaken, as in an earthquake, dazzled, as with lightning and asked to look beyond the Cross. "He is not here", he has gone into the everyday world in which we live.  Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed.

To Ponder:

• What does the empty tomb mean for you today?
• Who first told you of the Resurrection in a way that made sense to you?