With our lips, we too easily and too joyously declare Christ risen from the dead. We and He might be better served were we a bit more like the women whose experience at the tomb was described by Mark as leaving them amazed, trembling, afraid, and silent. They expected to find a dead and decaying body.
We are so sure the tomb will be empty on Easter morn that we hardly take notice of what precedes it—Friday, which can be described as “Good” only after the fact. We so easily and so joyously declare Christ risen that we do not pause to consider what that means.
Oh, it means we too shall live! Yes, but in the meantime, it means that we are to live by dying, by giving away our lives in service to others, and by loving others—loved ones, friends, and enemies—as we have been loved.
Maybe that is why Mark presents the women as silent—non-responsive to the instruction of the young man dressed in white. Maybe they understood.
If He be risen from the dead, dare we leave Easter worship and return to life as it was before Friday?
Tremble in amazement and be afraid. He bids us die that we may live.
He is risen! He is risen, indeed!
Have we?
Michael
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