Thoughts for the Day

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Now I don’t want to upset anyone who hasn’t been let into the secret, but did you know that neither the tooth fairy nor Father Christmas exist! I’m sorry if you didn’t know that they are both imaginary figures!

Today’s reading is Luke’s account of the resurrection. Imagine how the women felt as they came to the tomb. They would have been deeply shocked that Jesus, whom they believed to be the Son of Man (that is, the Messiah), had been crucified. There is nothing else they can do for him now but to observe appropriate burial rites and take care of his body. All their hopes are gone. They had not believed that he would rise again on the third day. But arriving at the tomb they are confronted with, Luke says, ‘two men in dazzling clothes’ who tell them otherwise.

They immediately take the message to the disciples that Jesus has risen. But ‘these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them’. It was a fairy story; it wasn’t reality! It did stir Peter enough from his guilt at denying Jesus and his sorrow, to go and have a look at the tomb, which he finds empty. Although amazed however he returns home, he doesn’t go back and tell the other disciples. His amazement is not yet belief. Despite everything that he knows and has heard from Jesus this could still be a ‘fairy story’. It will take a meeting with the risen Christ to change that!

The question for us, is: Is the Resurrection an 'idle tale', or does it affect the way we live our life, that God’s Son lived, died, and rose again so that we could be reunited with our Heavenly Father?

Heavenly Father,
we know how difficult it is
to decide fact from fiction,
but You call us to live by faith.
We thank You that You Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ
came to call us back to You,
and that He paid the penalty
for our sin.
Help us to recognise that this
is no idle tale, but Your reality.
Amen.