At the end of Good Friday the loss and the desolation of the
disciples must have been wretched, all it seems was lost, nothing gained. The crucifixion
was a brutal end to something that they had hoped for and believed in for three
years. They did not understand what was going on, all they saw was death and
despair and therefore they surely could only have thought one thing. All was
lost.
After the Sabbath, when the women come to the tomb to find Jesus’s
dead body, in their minds the story is clearly also finished. They are focused
on the burial requirements of Jesus and nothing else, yet what they found was
not what they expected.
There was no body and instead they were faced with an angel
who asks them a very direct question; “Why do you look here for the living
among the dead?”
Our assemblies in the first week of this summer term will
seek to come to grips with this question and all that it meant for the
disciples and followers of Jesus. We will be picking up the Easter story as the body
is laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and considering the dramatic events that
unfold through the eyes of some of the main characters that feature in the
biblical texts.
In doing so we will be considering how Jesus had clearly
told the disciples that he must be crucified, and that he would rise again. That
he was continually seeking to challenge their understanding of the Messiah,
that he was not an earthly king and earthly rescuer as they hoped he would be.
But instead the Messiah was the way in which God was to set about dealing with the
brokenness that existed in our relationship with him.
In order to do this there
needed to be a cross, but also an empty tomb and an angel challenging Mary to
reconsider her understanding of what it was that Jesus has really come to achieve.
