Christ is Risen!

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in. You’ve been worried about that sample that the doctor has sent to be tested; and when it comes back, you receive the phone call with some trepidation, preparing yourself for the worst. And then everything is okay; and just for the moment that it takes to breathe a sigh of relief, you can hardly believe the news.

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in. You worked hard on that assignment or exam or subject or project, but you’ve got the feeling that you didn’t quite nail it; and now you’re not sure that you’ve even passed, or worse got the process right; and then the results come out and you can barely stand to look at them; and just for the moment that it takes for the numbers or the grade or the assessment to sink in, you can hardly believe the news.

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in. And that’s the kind of picture we’re left with at the end of Mark’s Gospel. The women who go to Jesus’ tomb to continue the burial process receive some good news; and they are not yet ready to take it in. The story ends with them going away—afraid; and saying nothing to anyone.

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in. Perhaps we’ve been going to church for many years; or at least think that we have the Jesus story down pat; but we’ve never really heard that the message is for us; that God loves us; that it was for us that God entered out world; that God became human; that God lived, and died for us—to show us just how much we mean to God.

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in. But eventually it does. Eventually, when we release that nothing bad is happening; that everything is really okay; that new life, resurrection life is possible; that it is possible for us; in God; because of God; because God become human, and live and died as one of us; and because God was not defeated in that action; but rather God defeated sin and death, not only as a demonstration of God’s power; but as a gift from God to us. And the thing that is the sign that all this is possible is this miracle of resurrection.

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in. After all, resurrection is such an improbable event; even the women who visit the tomb are unable to believe, unable to comprehend; and they go away afraid; and say nothing to anyone. And isn’t it true that on this very Easter morning many of us stand here in roughly the same state, barely daring to hope that resurrection life is possible, hardly daring to think that somehow that life is for us; and there is no doubt that it is very difficult for any of us to say anything to anyone who is not in the know, because we are afraid…

We are afraid that we will look stupid. We are afraid that we are deceived. We are afraid that we dare not believe in the new life offered to us in Christ. We are afraid; and we would prefer not to say anything to anyone.

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in. But we must. We must let it sink in. We must accept that it is for us. Because it is also not just for us, it is good news that our world needs. It is good news that our world wants, but is afraid to receive. And it we can barely believe it ourselves, how might we expect others to come anywhere near.

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in. But we know that the good news was eventually realised by the women. The good news was eventually recognised by the emerging church, so much so that they tried very hard to change the end of the Gospel of Mark so it just didn’t end where our reading ended today.

But for us, it is good that the reading ends there, because it reminds us that we are not the only ones who have taken a while to let the good news sink in. We are not the only ones who have doubts from time to time, or quite a bit of the time, or maybe quite a lot of the time. We are just like the faithful women we followed Jesus to the end and were even prepared to attend to the burial duties—we are afraid that it just might be true that Christ is risen and that, in Christ, we have new life! We are afraid that it just might be true that Christ is risen, and that, in Christ, we have resurrection life too!

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in. The Gospel reading for today dares us to believe, dares us to hope, dares us to accept the good news for ourselves, for others, for the whole of the Creation. The Gospel reading dares us to accept that God has defeated all that would separate us from God; and that God raises us to new life with Christ as ludicrous and difficult and unbelievable as it sounds.

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in. And perhaps that’s how we know that it is really good news… because we can scarcely believe it. And yet that is what we are called to do, in order that we might say something to another who also needs to hear that this good news is for them.

Sometimes it takes a while for good news to sink in, but really good news is worth taking the time to hold and examine and take the plunge into the mysterious miracle that Christ is risen, and, with Christ, we are risen indeed!