Remember how he told you?
Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women hasten to the tomb, eager to anoint the body of their beloved teacher.
Their hearts were set on honoring Jesus in death,
but they were met with the astonishing reality of his resurrection.
The women, rising early on the first day of the week,
sought Jesus at the gate of his tomb, only to find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty.
they encountered not death but life, not despair but hope.
Messengers of God, dazzling, and terrifying
remind them of what Christ has taught them as they followed him as his disciples.
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here but has risen.
Remember how he told you…
Remember how he told you…
What has Jesus told us?
Jesus teaches us about the nature of God, the human condition, and the way of salvation.
Those who earnestly study God’s word and seek to understand Jesus' teachings
find themselves gaining deeper insight and understanding the Kingdom of God.
Remember how Jesus told us through his actions…
Jesus actively sought out those who were seeking truth and salvation.
He reached out to the marginalized, the sinners, and the outcasts,
offering them the opportunity to experience the transformative power of God's love and grace.
Remember how Jesus…
revealed himself to those who were open and receptive to his message.
He appeared to his disciples after his resurrection,
offering them peace and commissioning them to continue
his work of proclaiming the good news to all nations.
Remember how Jesus called us to this work?
Proclaiming the Good News to all nations.
Reaching out to the marginalized, the sinners, the outcasts, offering them transforming love.
Remember how Jesus taught us about the goodness of our human nature by teaching us about God’s nature?
Do you remember?
The messengers of God ask the women, Do you remember?
Remember how Jesus…
must be handed over to the hands of the Roman empire
and be crucified and on the third day rise again.
Remember?
Remember?
Then they remembered his words,
The weight of this realization gathering in their hearts.
A weight that is suddenly heavy,
Heavy like all the sorrow they had been shouldering is now in the pit of their stomachs,
Heavy like a weight that is reversing and counterbalancing.
Countering all their human notions of what has happened.
The heaviness that fell from their shoulders
into the pits of their stomachs
is dissolving. Effervescing.
I imagine the women staring,
glancing at one another and back to the tomb,
reaching out to one another,
grabbing the hand of the woman next to them
steading themselves against the burden that has been lifted from their hearts,
the inertia of this reversal lurches them forward,
forward and running back to tell their fellow disciples and brothers in Christ.
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.
The others were still burdened. They didn’t remember.
Do you remember?
Do you hear the Good News in your brothers and sisters?
Do you reach out to the marginalized, the sinners, the outcasts, offering them transforming love.
Do you remember that you were created good?
The Good News of Christ is the Good News of humanity.
God is good and because of Christ, we can now be too.
Do you remember?
Peter remembered something,
he got up and ran to the tomb;
stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves.
Peter remembered.
He remembered the words of his sister disciples.
Like a kick to the pit of his stomach… He remembered.
Peter remembered how Jesus…
Was handed over to the hands of the Roman empire and crucified
He also remembered that on the third day Jesus would rise again.
Do you remember?
Peter remembered,
I imagine him shaking his head,
trying to count the time through the haze of mourning he’s been in.
Counting
Jesus died… then sunset… one day
The longest sabbath Peter had ever endured.
A day heavy with humanity, missing appetites, fumbling through
weighed down by the missing hope Peter had placed in Jesus… Sunset… two days.
…on the third day Jesus would rise again.
Do you remember?
Peter looks at the horizon at the sunrise,
the sun tipping over the trees in the garden.
The sun is up, it is the third day.
Peter remembered. Do you?
He remembered.
In a stupor, looking at the tomb again,
Looking at the sunrise,
Counting to three on his fingers again…
He stumbles home.
He remembered.
He goes home amazed at what has happened.
Do you remember?
So now what?
Do you remember the rest of the Good News too?
What difference does it make? What difference should it make to you?
