He is Risen! Mark 16

When looking at the Easter story it is worth giving a shout out to the women. They are the ones who tough it out at the crucifixion scene on Friday, watching Jesus die. They are the ones who are up early on Sunday (Easter) morning, coming to the tomb to finish the job of the proper burial of an important person. For on the Friday it was evening - already sabbath - by the time the body was put in the tomb. There was no time to properly treat the body, so that had to be left until Sunday morning.

As the women went up to the tomb they faced a practical dilemma - a heavy stone closed the tomb and will need shifting. Somehow they expected to find someone on hand to help move it! What they did not expect was to find the tomb already open ... so they go up and peer in thinking someone must already be there ahead of them. They look in and see someone - or is it a person or an angel? Not surprisingly they were spooked!

The mysterious figure says "Don't be alarmed" and tries to get them to focus on what will be the most important set of words that any of us could ever hear:

'You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen!'

That is alot for anyone to process - but right there, in this confused, alarming, emotion-running-high moment is the world history turning deal: there is no body to anoint because Jesus has risen - He is alive!

The messenger/angel figure has more: 'Go and tell the others - tell them that Jesus is going ahead of you. You will see him .... it will be just as Jesus had told you'. The women are empowered to go and tell the news - the world history chaniging moment is to be first told be women! Remember that the word 'apostle' in its basic sense means 'sent with a message': the women are thus given an apostle-like call. At first the women struggle with it - they are still processing after all - so Mark 8 in the most common fragments says that they initially kept quiet, gripped with fear. But other fragments of Mark, as well as other gospels, make it clear that the women do go on to find the others and tell them.

The basic message given to them is very clear. Jesus was crucified - He was a real person, who was really killed, and really was dead. This is no fake, nor just a story. It involved an actual real human who had a life, but that life was taken. The message goes on that although the death was 100% real it was not final - they are told 'he is not here' because he is alive! That makes Jesus unique. No one else has done the same, and no other religion has God come down, live, die, and then show that death is not the end.

So that is why we have to make our mind up: are we going to let Him in and live by that same message the women were told to proclaim?

The final thing the angel figure said was 'You will see Him ...'. The first disciples got to physically see Him in the resurrection appearances. Those stopped, but that doesn't mean that He is now completely vanished. A few now do see Him - in dreams or visions - but there are also many who see Him through other ways. It could be through what He does, in how He affects lives, through people knowing (in their various senses or an inner feeling) that He is indeed alive. Any of these enable us to live the same proclamation: He was crucified, He is risen, You will see Him.

A challenge in our lives today is that they can easily be full to the brim with 'stuff' or 'activity'. We have to actively de-clutter and make space, hence this month's question:

Soul Question: What does Margin for Jesus look like for you?

Where do we deliberately make space in our lives and wait for the risen Jesus to lead? Are you going to keep your life filled up with stuff or activity, or will you make space where you hand over to Jesus for Him to take the lead. This term we have told stories in Mark. Any of us could just carry on, leaving them as just stories. Yet the instruction for us is to allow space for Jesus to work, to realise He is going ahead of us. If we make the space and learn to follow, we will see Him continuing to bring the Kingdom of God around us: we will see Him ... just as He told you.