Easter Sunday Yr B (April 8, 2012)  Mark 16:1-8a

        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. 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.”  8 So they went out and 

        fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said 

        nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.                                           Mark 16:6-8a

This year we are spending in the gospel of Mark is being illuminating to me in a way the previous Year B's were not. Which might be due to where I am personally in my life, or the experiences I have had in the past 3 or 6 years that make me in some real way a different person than I was those years ago, or the commentators have either put forth some new thoughts OR I have found commentators that I hadn't known of before ..... or some combination of those possibilities and others too numerous to list.

This unusual and abrupt ending to Mark's gospel (at least, the original manuscripts) is not even truly a 'resurrection' story, because Jesus is nowhere to be found in it! It is, according to David Lose (Working Preacher), more accurately to be called an 'empty tomb' story. 

And what happened to my heroic women? Where is Mary speaking the first sermon, the first proclamation of the gospel? The women here flee in terror. The last word of the gospel is ---- AFRAID!!! What kind of GOOD news is this? 

(ref. also The Hardest Question: Beyond the Blog and Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church, Anchorage, Alaska's Pastor Dan Bollerud's Grace Notes)

   +aren't we a lot more like Peter and the disciples than we thought? just when we think we are 'getting' the story straight about this God we know in Jesus .... the rug gets pulled out from under our feet? 

    +yet we ARE the inheritors of this good news ... and we do (at least some of the time) 'get' the story straight. is Mark expecting US to be the ones to fulfill the angel's instructions?

    +what are your most painful, wounded places right now? your 'tombs'? places of loss and grief that you have to go to for work or family or sense of obligation? could you allow the risen Christ to transform it into Galilee, to make it a place of resurrection and new life where he is already waiting?                                                                                                          

A tomb in the style of Jesus' alongside the road in modern Israel

The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

At the Garden Tomb, Jerusalem

May the blessings of the risen Christ be with you this Eastertide and always. Peace be with you. N