Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! This past Sunday we exclaimed with shouts of joy that God has triumphed over sin, death, and the devil. Nothing is impossible with God, and because of Christ’s life, death, and ressurection, we have been given new and abundant life.
So now what do we do with this message?
It’s a good question, because even the women who came to the tomb on that first Easter Sunday didn’t quite know what to do with what they’d seen and heard. Understandably, they were afraid and their terror paralyzed them. But eventually, eventually, they must’ve said something to somebody. Otherwise, we would not be telling the story of Easter still today.
In the Gospel of Mark, the story of Jesus ends on a note of apprehension. Unlike other Gospels, we never hear about Jesus appearing to his disciples, and we never know for sure if the women did anything with what they heard. But I wonder if Mark intentionally wrote his Gospel that way as an invitaiton for us – for you – to join in the ongoing story of Christ’s resurrection. Yes, the ongoing story. Because Christ’s ressurrection is not just something that happened thousands of years ago. Christ’s resurrection is a mystery that, now, we are called to participate in as we become co-writers along with God (and Mark!) – writing the story of God’s resurrection in our lives, in the world, and within the church.
So as we move away from Easter Sunday, take the mystery of the resurrection with you. And, take up the story of Christ’s life into your own life as you join with Christ in co-writing the story of God’s grace in the world. It’s not that God couldn’t write the ending of the story on God’s own. But it is God’s longing for us to discover this story for ourselves, and to add our own unique flair to this ongoing story…a story that will never grow old, and a story that will never be finished until Christ comes again.