Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb,
fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce the news to his disciples.
The women had been tasked with proclaiming the good news to the disciples, to be "apostles to the apostles" as they have been called. The tidings were given first by the angel, who told them that Jesus "been raised just as he said". However, these Easter tidings were not enough to all at once conquer all fear and explain all things. The women still seemed traumatized by the human fear that resulted from witnessing the brutal death of Jesus himself. And now there was a new element of fear, of different kind, a holy fear that resulted from the overawing appearance of the angel at the tomb. The angel himself told them not to be afraid, assured them that the empty tomb was the answer to all fear. But this experience and explanation was not immediately enough to equip them to be witnesses. They still seemed ready to fall back to human explanations to explain the unusual circumstances, as if the majesty of the events made it them in some way more suspect.
It was finally only in an encounter with Jesus himself that they were able to truly internalize and embrace this good news. After his resurrection Jesus was clearly different, glorified, and not always immediately recognizable. But he was clearly also at the same time the same Jesus they had known before. And it was this, his identity as their friend and brother, that allowed them to receive what might have otherwise have been too difficult to believe. They doubted because of the darkness they had witnessed on Good Friday. And perhaps the holiness and awe of Easter did not provide an easy way for them to understand and accept the news. Only when they were reunited with the very one they had known before, now returned to them, could all questions be answered. Only his presence could heal the trauma they had experienced and make sense of the aura of holy awe surrounding all the events of Easter morning. Only the Word could bring order to the chaos of their hearts, just as he had done at the creation of the world.
And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.
They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.
Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee,
and there they will see me.”
The message of the angel had at least caused them to entertain the possibility that a miracle had indeed occurred, and that Jesus had risen. But it was seeing the risen one himself, and touching him, and in hearing him speak that they were transformed into witnesses. His words cast out their fear, restored their hope, and sent them out equipped for mission.
“You are to say,
‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’
And if this gets to the ears of the governor,
we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”
There continue to be alternative hypotheses and contradictory theories put forward in order to explain the empty tomb, and the origin of the Christian religion that is based thereupon. The world in fact has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Many are treated like the soldiers about whom we read, where towing the official line is rewarded with a promise that we will be kept out of trouble. The world tends to assume that anyone even considering the idea of the resurrection must have in some sense fallen asleep on the job, and temporarily lost the use of their rational faculties. That is fine, they say, as long as we will explain it away rather than accept it. Then no trouble will come to them for this momentary lapse of reason. Then everything can proceed as before, can continue with no disruption to entrenched power dynamics, no challenge to the sway which sin holds on life outside of the Kingdom.
Some Christians are tempted to explain away the resurrection in order to allow for a pleasing conformity with the world around them. But Christians who have encountered the risen Christ cannot simply tow the line or accept the boilerplate explanation given by skeptical society. They know too deeply that the other explanations do not hold water. Their own experience has falsified all competing theories. Though the events of Easter transcend their ability to understand or rationally comprehend they nevertheless seem to complete and bring to fullness everything that they can and do understand, not contradicting reason, but completing it. Encountering Jesus transforms his followers making them so convinced of Jesus and so certain of his resurrection that they can hardly speak of anything else, no matter the pressure from the world around them. We can take comfort that, although the women and disciples did not understand everything all at once, Jesus continued to encounter them along their way until they became true witnesses. He will do the same for us.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
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