Happy Easter season. Churches everywhere are reading the resurrection story from the gospels this past week.
One interesting bit about the gospels is they don’t include actual resurrection stories. The story does not depict are magical resurrection scene; the actual focus of the Gospel story is the narrative of folks discovering, reacting to, and bearing witness to the empty tomb. When the women arrive at the tomb, Jesus has already been resurrected. All that’s left for them to do is respond to it.
When visiting the Ector County Youth Center recently, I told the Easter story to the incarcerated teens, and together we imagined the variety of emotions and reactions the people in the story must have experienced. It would be easy to write off these imprisoned kids, but there was insight and wisdom there, the kind that comes from dealing with life circumstances I never had to cope with.
“Confused.” “Scared.” “Worried.” “Angry.” “Surprised.” “Excited,” they said.
Spot on, I thought.
When we read the resurrection account in each gospel, we see this wide gamut of emotion and response.
In Matthew, two women go to the tomb and then witness an angel descending and the stone dramatically rolling away with in an earthquake. Guards shake with fear. The women are afraid, but as the angel explains the resurrection, they are excited and run to tell the disciples.
In the rest of the gospels, the stone is already rolled away before the women arrive. In Luke the women go inside, find the tomb empty, and are confused. They exit and now two men are there outside gleaming bright, who explain the resurrection. They respond by going to report to the disciples.
In John, only one woman, Mary Magdalene, comes to the tomb and sees the stone is missing, never goes inside, but runs to tells the disciples. She then follows Peter and another disciple back to the tomb. As the men go in, Mary weeps, and suddenly two angels appear inside the tomb, bringing comfort.
Finally, in Mark, three women visit the tomb, find the stone already rolled away, go inside where a young man inside startles them. But after explaining Jesus has been raised and that they should go tell the other disciples, the women “fled and said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”
Each character in these stories has their own reactions to the empty tomb. All that is left is for each of us to find our response to it.
Rev. Dr. Joe Weaks has worked as a pastor and scholar for over thirty years. Following a Business degree from The University of Texas at Austin, where he began studies of Classical Greek, Dr. Joe completed an M.Div. at Brite Divinity School and was ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). After completing a Ph.D. in Biblical Interpretation at TCU on biblical source criticism and the interrelations of the gospels, he has taught at colleges and seminaries in Texas and Missouri while pastoring churches. He currently serves with his wife Rev. Dr. Dawn Weaks as co-pastor at Connection Christian Church here in Odessa.
