"For they were afraid,” hardly seem like appropriate last words for the “Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” But according to the majority of scholarly opinion this is precisely where the original text of Mark ends. After receiving a brief explanation and simple instructions from a young man dressed in white clothes, three women intent on attending the neglected corpse of Jesus were filled with holy terror and amazement.
We have heard this kind of language before. Jesus’s best friends fell into a similar fright when the veil of his humanity had been pealed back to expose the divinity radiating just beneath. Terrified Peter blurted out that tents should be raised for the occasion. All three Gospels that record the event imply that these words may have been best left unsaid. The three women leaving the tomb had the good sense to keep silent—“for they were afraid.” On the mountain of transfiguration God’s glory poured through Jesus’s flesh and exposed light. In the empty crypt where Jesus’s dead body could not be found God revealed life. Light and life were there all along, we just didn’t have the good sense to be awestruck before.
So the angel’s words come to us as much a challenge as a command. “Do not be alarmed,” he says, as if we have a choice. The women’s main concern when they approached the tomb was how they were going to move the stone. When they left they bore the full burden of the gospel. A burden they passed on to us. “Jesus of Nazareth, who crucified has been raised.” Christ has risen. Christ has risen indeed.
They did not leave without help though. Nor do we. The man in white offered a promise as well, “…He has gone ahead.” So don’t be alarmed as you come to this table on this great day for the dark days of winter are over, and the fast of Lent has ended. No matter what the pattern and character of the past years, seasons, weeks, days, hours and moments of your life or of our life has been until now, to our amazement Jesus has gone ahead of us to meet us at this table now. And do not be alarmed at what awaits in classrooms, offices, job sites, hospitals and nursing homes for Christ has gone ahead. Light, not darkness, dawns here. Death crushing life is here for the offering and here for the taking.
For “while they were eating [Jesus] took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.”
Do not be alarmed. Christ has gone ahead and meets us here. Take and eat.
