Words of Faith: We are not to keep the good news of our risen Lord to ourselves

For Christians today, Easter is the most joyful day of the year.

But for the women on that first Easter it started very differently. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, had come with Jesus from Galilee. Along with the men, they also were Jesus’ followers. He was their teacher. At dawn on the first day of the week, those women went to the tomb to provide their last act of love for their friend. They took spices, to prepare Jesus’ body for burial.

They were sad and grieving. They had lost their hope. Jesus had been their hope for the future and now he was dead.

But when they arrived at the tomb they saw the unexpected. The stone was rolled away from the entrance but Jesus’ body was not there. They were perplexed by this. But then two men appeared, messengers from God.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again” (Luke 24:5-7).

With these words hope was born. They remembered the words Jesus had spoken. They remembered his promise. They left the tomb and returned to Jesus’ disciples and told what they had seen and heard.

This basic story is heard in all four of the gospels. The women go to the tomb and find it open but no body inside. But different accounts are given for how the resurrected Jesus meets his people. In the gospel of John, Mary returns to the tomb after telling the disciples of the empty tomb. She sees a man who she thinks is the gardener, but when he speaks her name, she realizes that this man is Jesus. In Matthew, the women meet the risen Jesus on the pathway. He greets them and they fall down at his feet and worship. And later in Luke we hear the story of two of Jesus’ followers as they walked along the road to the town of Emmaus. They walk the entire journey with a man who they think is a stranger.

They talk to this man about Jesus – his life, his death, and the news of the empty tomb. The man speaks words that help them to make sense out of all this chaos. And then as they share the evening meal with this man, he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to them and then they realize that it is the risen Lord who is with them. For each of these people, when they meet the risen Jesus, their lives are changed. Hope replaces fear. Joy replaces despair. The future is born. A purpose is given. This is the resurrection life of Jesus – the life he shared with his disciples.

But at times we wonder if this resurrection life is for us also. At times, we are like the women as they walked to the tomb. Our lives are surrounded by sadness, fear and death. We experience conflict, depression and grief. We wonder if there is any hope in life. We wonder if life has any meaning or purpose. At times we may even wonder if there is any way forward.

But today we are assured that death is not the end. Christ is risen. Our God is stronger than death. Our God has defeated death and opened to us the life of God. Like the first disciples, we meet the risen Lord. We may not see him with our eyes, but we do meet him in our lives. We meet him as we gather in community to worship with fellow disciples. We meet the risen Lord when we are lonely and someone takes time to listen to us. We meet the risen Lord when we cry out in need and the Lord provides what we need.

Once we have met the risen Lord, we are called to share what we know. That is what the women did. Once they had seen the empty tomb and heard the words of the angels, they returned to the disciples and told them what they knew. We are not to keep the good news of our risen Lord to ourselves. We are to share it so that others will know the good news also. We share our faith through our words and actions. We share the good news when we tell others about our faith in Jesus and about the ways in which our lives have been blessed. We share the good news when we let Jesus’ love be revealed in our actions, when we do for one who can’t do for themselves, when we listen to someone who is depressed, when we give to someone in need.

When we let the love of Jesus be revealed in our lives, the risen Lord is present. Then, through our lives, others will meet the risen Jesus too.

This story was originally published April 13, 2017 at 8:09 PM with the headline "Words of Faith: We are not to keep the good news of our risen Lord to ourselves."