Easter Sunday

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

These are the victorious words we shout out with gusto on this greatest of all feast days.

And yet, curiously, the gospel reading we heard today from Mark does not mention these triumphant words. Instead, as three women – Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salome – approach the tomb in order to anoint Jesus, they are astonished to find the stone rolled back and a “young man … wearing a long, white robe” telling them:

“You seek Jesus the Nazarene, the one who was crucified. He has been raised. He is not here …. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him.”

The gospel then tells us that these women were “filled with fear.”

No victory laps. No hosannas. No shouts of joy.

Fear. That was their initial reaction.

Why the fear? Why no alleluia’s?

Perhaps the answer lies in the words spoken by the angelic figure in the tomb:

Jesus “is going before you …. It is there you will see him.”
In other words, Jesus is not a static figure that wants us to remain in the tomb and worship his presence. Nor is Jesus just a memory, a transient presence – however enthralling.

Instead, Jesus is alive! Not only is he alive, he has already gone ahead of us summoning us to follow. Jesus is restlessly urging us to plunge into the tasks of doing as he did: healing, caring, raising up, telling the message of a God who has fallen recklessly in love with his people.

Jesus “is going before you into Galilee” – into the place where he first called his disciples, into the place where he first healed the sick, into the place where he first forgave the sinners, calmed the seas, cured the lepers, gave sight to the blind, reassured the demoniac, fed the five thousand.

Jesus acts as though there’s no time to waste contemplating the wonders of his resurrection. There’s no time to waste singing “Alleluia’s” and exulting over this miraculous experience.

Instead, Jesus is hurriedly running ahead and calling us to continue his ministry of healing and feeding and giving hope to the downtrodden. Jesus is so free of all human restrictions now that his only interest is to reassure us that he is still alive and still dwelling among us whenever we repeat the “mighty deeds” he performed in Galilee. “It is there you will see him.”

It is there – fully involved in doing what he has done – that we will see him. It is there – fully caught up in loving what he loved – that we will find him. It is there – fully immersed in trusting in the Father – that we will experience him.    

Perhaps that’s why the women at the tomb – the women that first witnessed this never-before-heard-of experience – were afraid. Perhaps at some deep level they knew what this phenomenon ultimately would mean, what it would ultimately cost all of Jesus’ followers:

You and I being called to live as Jesus did; you and I being beckoned to shed our complacency; you and I being summoned to enter into the messy mix of people’s pain and heartache; you and I being requested to abandon our immersion into the quicksand of our own everyday worries and regrets.
Jesus’ resurrection changes everything.

No wonder it inspired fear. Perhaps even revulsion.
You and I are being asked to assume the role of Jesus. We are being summoned to a higher calling, and a much riskier one. It will cost us. But it will also transform us.

Christ is risen! Christ is “going before” us!
Alleluia!