The Natural Response

“As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 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. 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."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.”

       This is the earliest record we have in Scripture of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It sounds similar to their reports that we have in Matthew's Gospel as well as in Luke, but there are some major differences as well.

     The most obvious difference between this gospel story and the others is that we do not see our encounter the risen Lord Jesus himself. All we have is the message of the angel, the young man dressed in a white robe who is sitting inside the tomb.
      In fact, if Mark's Gospel was the only account we had of the resurrection of Jesus, we would have a real problem understanding what really happened. That's one of the reasons that this particular story is not used very often on Easter Sunday. Matthew, Luke, and John tell us much fuller stories about what took place on Easter Sunday, so we naturally favor them over Mark.
     Yet it is still a good thing for us to pay attention to what Mark has to say about the resurrection of our Lord, because he is the first one to actually write it down for us. And Mark tells us a lot about what happened on that day.
     Mark tells us that on the first day of the week after the sun had risen three women went to the tomb of Jesus to anoint him with some special spices that they were bringing with them. They were not asking philosophical or theological questions like why would God allow his son to be crucified? Or how could this have possibly happened to such a good kind and generous man?
     For them the big question with a very simple, practical one: "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"
     Mark tells us that when they got to the tomb they realized that the question they were struggling with was not a question at all because the stone had already been rolled away.
     As they entered into the tomb, they discovered the answer to the question who rolled away the stone, for there was a messenger from God waiting for them to give them instructions and a message to bring back to the disciples.
     How would you have responded to this encounter with a messenger from God?
     Would you have run from the tomb, jumping and shouting for joy at the news that Jesus was raised from the dead? Would you have started singing the words of the Hallelujah Chorus? Is there any “natural” way of responding to the unlikely and unexpected news that God had raised Jesus from the dead?
     Well, there is a natural way of responding to such news. That's exactly what Mark tells us is the way the women responded to the news when they heard it. 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.
     Any other response to that strange and unexpected encounter would be absolutely unbelievable. They did exactly what any normal, sane, or intelligent person would do. They fled. Wouldn't you?
     They were afraid. Wouldn't you be afraid also? What was really going on here? What was going to happen to them in the future? What was God trying to accomplish anyway?
     Mark leaves us hanging, so to speak. We don't have any more information from Mark than what we have right here. Like those women, we are left wondering about what resurrection of Jesus is all about. But we do have something. We have the word from that messenger sent by God, "He is not here; he has been raised," and in the end, maybe that's all we really need to have.
     That's not all that the messenger from God told the women that day. He went on to give them instructions. "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."
     In other words, although this is the place where Mark ends his gospel, this is not the place where God ends the Gospel. They may have been terrified by what they experienced at the tomb of Jesus that morning, but they did go on Galilee, and they did see him.
     How do we know that? Because we have the story, just as it is written right now. If the women had absolutely  refused to say anything to anyone, we would never have ever heard about them in the first place. There would be no Easter Gospel at all.
     Somewhere along the line, the women discovered the same thing that we discover when we hear the good news about Jesus' resurrection. In time, Jesus made his presence and power known to those women in a way that changed their lives forever, and that's exactly what Jesus wants to do with you and with me.
     Yes, that day they were seized by terror and amazement and said nothing anyone, but that's perfectly okay. I wonder what difference it would make for us, if when we heard the story of Jesus resurrection we could recognize that it is indeed an extraordinary tale, unlike any other story that has ever been told. Maybe then, we would be better able to recognize the presence and power of the risen Christ in our own everyday lives just as he made himself known to them.