5 April 2010 – Easter Monday
Psalm 93, 98; Exod. 12:14-27; 1 Cor. 15:1-11; Mark 16:1-8

The commandment contains the promise. Embedded in the instructions for how to keep the festival is the presumption that they will be in the land to keep the feast. It is implicit in the passage that they are now coming out of Egypt, that this night will change everything for the people. When Jesus re-visioned the Passover, re-interpreting the symbolism, the presumption was that everything would be different very soon. Here Moses gives the commands for keeping this Passover but not only this one but those that will follow when they have come to the Promised Land.

Though the “young man” instructed them to go and tell, they went and told no one for fear. It is hard to imagine what they would have experienced in this encounter. They had busily prepared for the anointing of Jesus as it couldn’t be done prior to placing His body into the tomb as it was the Sabbath since Jesus died about sundown on Friday. They had waited all day Saturday and now went out as soon as they could to perform the task of love. They were surely surprised and most likely either frightened or puzzled when they saw the stone rolled away from the mouth of the cave. Had someone gotten there ahead of them and was already at work anointing the body or was there foul play? The words they heard from the young man must have been incomprehensible to them as it was not possible for anyone to come back from the dead and even so, who could have rolled away the stone, not the man they had seen on the cross, beaten and bloody, unable to carry the cross? Terror and amazement almost seem like inadequate words for what they must have felt.

Paul gives us what the women did not know that morning, that all that they witnessed was for them. The implications of the crucifixion and the resurrection were greater than they could have imagined. What they saw was a game-changer for the entire world. The death of God’s only-begotten Son was the Passover for all who would believe in Him and it meant that all who believe in Him would also be resurrected from the dead to eternal life. Paul didn’t believe it until Jesus was made manifest to him on the road to Damascus but He appeared to Paul no less than to the disciples. Paul is making his claim to apostolicity in including himself in those to whom Jesus appeared and his claim is backed up by a group of people who were there to see and hear what happened that day and also those at the house in Damascus where he was and Ananais who prayed for him and prophesied over him. His reaction to the news was no less amazement than the women. We should expect that people will be amazed when they come to realize that this incredible story is true, we should constantly be amazed at it ourselves.

The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
Your throne is established from of old;
you are from everlasting.