Reflection on Luke 24:1-12

I vividly remember an Easter dinner spent with some friends of the family.  Just as we were settling ourselves around the kitchen table to chat while the meal cooked, the mother of the household came in quickly and declared to everyone that the weatherman on the radio had just said that there was going to be a huge, late snowfall.  She said that the boys needed to go out to the barn and get the snow plow back onto the tractor ASAP.  That announcement elicited a two second pause in the conversation, and then it resumed with the swift action of slowly raised coffee cups to sipping mouths.  No one did anything. 

Just minutes later, the Father came storming into the house, announced the oncoming storm, and told the boys to get out into the barn and get the tractor ready.  “I’m not going to let any of my guests get stuck here,” he stated authoritatively.  And, immediately the boys were putting on their coats and were out the door.  You can imagine the mother’s reaction.  The mother’s jaw dropped to the floor and she simply stared at the father.  The father simply replied, “What did I do?”

Is that not exactly how it goes for many women?  A woman says something and it is considered to be about as important as Groundhog’s Day, but a man says the same thing and it is like Jesus has risen from the dead!  Well, you can take a little comfort from the fact that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women (yes these, the first evangelists in the world, were so important to the early church that they get to bear for eternity the name, “the other woman”) you can take a little comfort from the fact that no one believed them even when someone did rise from the dead.

Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women were the first evangelists and the first preachers in the world for the Christian church.  They never hesitated.  As soon as the two angels in dazzling clothes told the women that Jesus was not dead, but had risen, these women were off to share the good news of Jesus Christ…that no one believed. 

Not only did the disciples not believe the women’s story, brushing the women off as insignificant, but the disciples considered the women’s story a bunch of filth.  So, just so you understand correctly, the first people to be told the good news of Jesus Christ by these women, Jesus’ very own disciples, thought the women’s story was utterly ridiculous!  “People raised from the dead, yeah right!  What a bunch of filth.”

In our society where Christianity has had such a great impression throughout the years, one would think that the idea of resurrection and new life would be more entrenched in our psyches than they are.  But, we have other competing ideas that seem to have a little more sway.  Ever heard these quotes?

            “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

            “Death is a natural part of life.”

            “We all labor against our own cure; for death is the cure of all disease.”

“Only death has the last word.”

Even in our society, the women’s words sound crazy!  They go against the very law of nature.  Death is death.  It is the end.  After death, there is no more.  Death is the one thing that we can count on.  And, if the dead don’t stay dead, what in this life can you possibly count on?

What the women are saying is simply illogical, both to a growing number of people in our society, and also in the dark, questioning thoughts lingering in the back of our own minds.  Like the disciples, we ponder, “People do not rise from the dead.  How could we possibly believe such pipe dreams if we did not have a chance to see it ourselves?  It simply cannot be true.” 

Sadly, the only logical response is unbelief.  Therefore, we are tempted to live as if death gets the last word.  Some people hear the good news of Easter and instead of embracing the good news decide to keep to what they already know to be true: death. 

Wow, did you hear what I just said?  Did it sound as bad to you as it did me?  “Some hear the good news of Easter and instead of embracing the good news decide to keep to what they already know to be true: death.” 

Wow, is there not something a little pathetic in that?  Is life about just getting by from one day to the next because we all know it will come to an end soon?  How sad is that?  Is life about just living paycheck to paycheck?  How monotonous is that?  Is life about just trying to get all that we desire?  How shallow is that?  Is life about just getting from one season of the Netflix series “Stranger Things” to the next?  How utterly dependant on video streaming is that? 

Have some of us really resigned ourselves to death?  Is it really healthy to keep Jesus in the tomb?  Is it really healthy to live there in the tomb even after he has left?  Is death really where we will find our answers?  Is death really something that we can construct our lives upon?

The angels in the tomb have a question for us, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

People’s lives are not changed by a monotonous life of living paycheck to paycheck.  People’s lives do not flourish when death has the last word.  Why is it so tempting to look for the living among the dead?  Why is it so easy to live lives that are not actively guided by the promise of Jesus’ resurrection?   Yes, death is real, but death does not get the last word.  Jesus got the first word when the world was created, and he gets the last word at the end also.  It is a word filled with resurrection that says “life and love wins.”

Yes, in Jesus life and love gets the last word.  That is what is proclaimed by those first evangelists! 

What if?  What if the women are not full of it?  What if death is not the last word?  If so, what might a way life look like that is focused on life and love instead of fear and death?  What might a life that walks and talks with Jesus look like, if the women are right?  What might a life that walks and talks with Jesus look like if life and love get the last word?  Would life have meaning?  Would it build up rather than tear down? 

Is that way of life not worth checking out?  Would that not be a great way to live through the next few weeks of the Easter season?  How about we give it a try?  How about we give it a test run…even if we have tried before?  How about we run beside Peter, the one disciple who actually listened to the women…you can tell he was married, he actually listened to the women, smart man…how about we run with him and find out what this life of love in Christ is all about for ourselves?  What could it hurt?  Certainly, it cannot be worse than death. 

Why not walk in ways of life and love with Christ?  After-all, Christ has already claimed you for life with him!  He has already grasped you and raised you from the tomb!  What is there to lose in living as if life and love win in the end?  After-all, they do.  Alleluia!