Easter Sunday
Mark 16: 1-18
And when the
Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought
spices, so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day
of the week, they went to the tomb just as the sun was rising. And they said to
one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?”
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| Benjamin Gerritz |
And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back—and it was very
large. And they went into the tomb. There they saw a young man sitting on the
right side, clad in a white robe; and they were beside themselves with
amazement. And he said to them, “Do not be startled; you seek Jesus of Nazareth
the Crucified One. He is risen; He is not here; see, there is the place where
they laid Him [his
body]. But go, and say to his disciples and Peter “He
will lead you to Galilee. There you will see Him as He promised you.”
And
they went out and fled from the tomb in great haste, for trembling and
astonishment had come upon them; and being awestruck, they were unable to say
anything to anyone about what they had experienced.
When He had risen early on the first day of the week, He appeared first
to Mary Magdalene from whom He had driven out seven demons. And she went and
told those who had walked with Him, as they mourned and wept. But when they
heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, their hearts could not grasp
it.
After this He appeared in another form to two of them on the way as they
were walking over the fields. And they went back and told the rest, but they
could not open their hearts to their words either.
Afterwards He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were celebrating
the meal. He reproached them for their lack of openness and for their hardness
of heart, because they had not wanted to believe those who had seen Him, the
Risen One.
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the new message
from the realm of the angels to the whole of creation. Whoever unites his heart
with it [believes] and is immersed in me
[baptized] will attain the salvation. But whoever closes himself against it does not let the power of selflessness into his
heart [does not let the power of My Self into his heart] will meet his downfall. And spiritual powers [these signs] will stand by those who unite themselves with it
and will attend their path [believe]: Through the power of my being [in my name] they will drive out demons; they will speak a new
language; serpents they will make upright, and poisons they are given to drink
will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and give healing
forces to them.
Easter Sunday
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| Dore |
Mark 16:1 – 18
Human perception is a complicated thing. Sometimes we can
see a thing and not recognize it at all. Sometimes our expectations prevent us
from taking in what is actually there. And sometimes we see things that seem to
make no sense at all.
The women go sadly to the tomb, expecting to meet with the
usual results of death. Instead they are startled to meet a very much alive young
man in white. He speaks calming words to them. He knows that they have come to
anoint the corpse of Jesus, who had undergone torture and execution. Contrary
to their expectation, the young man assures them that the bodily Jesus they are
expecting to find is not there—they can see for themselves that the grave is
empty. He says that Jesus is risen. Empty grave. Risen? What could that
possibly mean? They are astonished, confused and speechless.
And so are the other disciples when they hear the story, despite
multiple reports. It is an event so radically new in human history that it was
at first imperceptible, ungraspable, unbelievable, as it continues to be today.
Perhaps there are other ways of perceiving truth, besides sensory perception
and thought. Perhaps an open heart is a better organ for perceiving some things
than the mind is.
At the first Easter, the living essence of Life itself
entered the realm of death, and remained there, itself alive. Since that time, Death
the Spectre holds in its arms a secret. In the bosom of death there shines the
young man in white, radiantly joyful. The young man now occupies the once empty
void at the center of death. The young man is the picture of death’s now living
heart. Death is no longer a stopping
place, a dead end. The young man in death’s heart points out the way further.
Go, he says, walk toward the sun-drenched regions of living
light. There you will see Him who wrestled with death and filled it with Life.
There you will behold Him, the powerful healer and giver of grace. You will
find Him at the heart’s altar. There you will behold the One who is the meaning
of the earth.
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