I have written on this post before. Because the women also had some courage: that tomb was guarded, and soldiers are not reuqired to be saints. They would not have had the strength to move the stone.
And when they found an angel they were afraid. The gospel begins with Mary being told not the afraid, for you have been blessed: you will be with child. But now she is told not to be afraid, he has risen.
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
It’s worth noting that Mary of Magdalene, that Mary that tradition says was a whore: who the scripture says had multiple demons taken out of her, goes with Mary the mother of Jesus to the tomb. With Salome. I’m not sure why: if it was that those two (younger?) women had the courage to do this, or if these women were by now Mary’s allies and friends.
But this overwhelmed the women. They fled.
And I’m not going to criticize them. There is a courage for men, and a courage for women. We are different: the myth that women can stand in the battle line and emerge more beautiful and glorious, unscarred and unafraid, is a myth. Loved by Joss Whedon, but a myth. No one survives the baltle line without scars.
The job the women had arrived to do was changed: they were to tel the disciples: And many would end the study here. WIthout moving to the difficult part of the text, and glossing over the rude fact that Mary, who we call blessed, and the best of women, remained obedient to her husband, and her son, and the disciples through her life.
Modern scholard discount this part of the text, for they say it is not in the earliest manuscripts. I’m not sure. I do know that it reads differently from the previous text. However, I think there is some snobbery: people don’t want to think about drinking poison and dancing with snakes. (Which you should not do: do not put the LORD your God to the test).
But here we find references to Emmaeus, and the commission.
[Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9–20.]
[[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.]]
Modern man does not like the last text. I wonder if the editors had a little of that bias. Because apart from miracles (whicch they dislike) and healing ministry (only done by the low rent tent preachers and televangelists, not by the oh so polite Bishops and Moderators who are far too comfortable with this world) we find a clear statement of division.
Those who believe in Christ will be saved, those who do not will not be. And this goes against that modern heresy: that there is a tolerance for salvation: that one can build your own mystery. Which a lie is: you do not build your own mystery, you build your own hell. Salvation is binary; you believe the gospel or you don’t.
So please do not talk to be about spirituality or your prayers to Buddha or the beauty of Islamic worship. Or the Sunni. There efforts will be of naught: If we do repent and turn to Christ we will all be damned. The final equality of humanity is that we all fail, we all are fallen, and we all will meet the grave.
Christ is the only way out of this path. Choose him.
