Years ago I read Dr Frank Morrison’s book, Who Moved The Stone? He was an atheist out to prove the Gospel to be untrue, but the problem of who could possibly have moved the two ton stone covering the tomb was too much for him and it led to his becoming a believer.
Well, the women were shocked that Jesus was gone. Nowhere in Judaism was there any thought of a bodily resurrection from the dead of any individual returning back into this world. Nor were they influenced by the Greek concept of the immortality of the soul. Jews rejected that. Resurrections just didn’t happen and were not expected either by the Sadducees or Pharisees. The latter expected only a general resurrection on judgment day of all of Israel and into a new world, not back into this one.
Interestingly, Mark ends his Gospel where I have left off above. Almost all scholars are agree that what comes after that point are additions by later scribes and editors (much different grammar and word choices). Mark ends with trembling and bewildered women. They didn’t know what to do with this information. They had not yet seen him for themselves. They are much like we. We haven’t seen him either. We just have the news of his resurrection to rely on. It’s as if Mark is leaving us with the question, “what are they going to do now?” Indeed what do you do with news of resurrection?
This is why Christianity is, at it’s core, an announcement of what God has done at a specific point in history, in a specific place, among specific people. It’s an event, a wonderful event, and Christians for 2,000 years have announced it. It’s God’s work. It’s what God did in time and space. And we can’t change it. We can however, let the announcement sink in and allow it to do its work in us.
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